She smiled anyway and said, “Thank you, Officer.”
When he was gone, Joe Miller leaned against the edge of the bar and regarded her with a long, slow, assessing look, his dark eyes lacking even the slightest trace of warmth or friendliness. When he spoke, his voice was so low and deep she had to strain to hear him over the blare of the jukebox. “P.J. tells me you’ve hit hard times and you’re looking for temporary work here in town.”
Hard times was an understatement. “I’m pretty desperate, Mr. Miller. If you have any position at all I would be eternally grateful.”
“What kind of experience do you have?” he asked.
She had to lean in so close to hear him, she caught the scent of his aftershave. Old Spice, just like her father used to wear. It made him seem slightly less intimidating. “I’ve waitressed and tended bar for the past six years.”
“You’ve got references?”
“Of course. I had a résumé but it was stolen with my car.”
He grabbed a pen and an order tablet from behind the bar and handed it to her. “Write down the name and number of your most recent employer.”
She hesitated. The bar she’d worked at since she was eighteen was owned by her best friend’s father, Abe. Abe was the town gossip. If Joe called him, it would take five minutes flat before the entire city learned that she hadn’t made it to Nashville.
But she didn’t really have a choice, did she?
She wrote down the name and number and handed it back to him.
“How long were you planning to stay in town?” he asked.
Everything had happened so abruptly, she hadn’t had the chance to give it much thought. “I’m not exactly sure.”
“I need someone for at least six weeks. If you plan on hanging around for a week or two, then taking off, don’t even waste my time.”
Yeesh! The guy didn’t mince words, did he? “I need enough money for a bus ticket, plus first and last month’s rent in a new place once I get to Nashville. So I’m thinking six weeks at least, depending on how many hours you’re willing to work me.”
His tight-lipped nod said he was satisfied with her answer. He waved over the bartender.
“Lindy, this is Reily. She’s going to give you a hand while I make a phone call. Consider this your audition,” he told Reily, his expression suggesting that he fully expected her to blow it. Then he slipped through the door to the back. Not the warmest guy in the world, but she was in no position to complain if he was willing to even consider giving her a job. From what she’d seen of the diner, even if they were hiring, the tips would be nothing compared to this place.
Lindy handed Reily an apron. “You don’t look familiar. Are you from town?”
Reily secured the apron around her waist. “Just passing through, hoping for temporary work to get me to Tennessee.”
“And you chose this hole-in-the-wall town? Why not Denver?”
“I actually hadn’t planned to stop at all, but my car was stolen from the gas station off the highway a few miles back. Everything I owned in the world was in it. Including my money.”
Lindy gasped and slapped a hand to her chest. “Oh, you poor thing! You lost everything?”
“Luckily I had my purse with me so I have my ID and my cell phone, but everything else is gone.”
“What about clothes?”
She looked down at the tank top, jeans and cowboy boots she was wearing. “You’re lookin’ at ’em.”
“If you do end up staying in town awhile, I’m sure we can find someone your size who would be willing to donate some clothes.”
“That would be really awesome, because until I can make some money, staying is my only choice.”
“Well, I hope it works out here. Since our other bartender, Mark, busted his wrist Monday, it’s pretty much been just me and Rick, but he only works a few evenings a week. This weekend is going to be a nightmare, even with Joe behind the bar with me. It’s about time he hired me some help.”
It sounded as if Joe needed her as badly as she needed him. She mentally crossed her fingers that he would take pity on her.
Lindy pointed out the location of the things she would need, then they got to work taking orders and making drinks, tasks that were second nature to Reily. She chatted up the customers, using a bit of mild flirting when the circumstance necessitated it, finding everyone friendly and curious as to who she was. In the twenty-five or so minutes it took Joe to call on her references, she’d been welcomed to town by at least a dozen people. Paradise sure was a friendly place, and so far it was living up to its name.
Joe reappeared from the back and stepped behind the bar, his expression unreadable. Reily’s heart did a quick flip-flop. She hoped he liked what he had heard from Abe.
“So, how did she do?” he asked Lindy.
“She’s a natural. And it sounds like she could really use the job.” She flashed Reily a grin. “And I’m so desperate for help, she could be the devil incarnate and I would still want you to hire her.”
“Well, your references checked out,” Joe told Reily. He added with barely veiled exasperation, “Your old boss is quite the talker, isn’t he?”
Knowing Abe, he had probably relayed Reily’s entire life story. “Sorry about that. I hope he didn’t talk your ear off.”
“Close, but he had nothing but praise for your skills, so I guess you’re hired.”
The stress of the day seemed to drain away and a well of pure relief gushed up inside of her. “Thank you so much, Mr. Miller. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”
“It’s Joe,” he said, but if he felt even a hint of satisfaction for more or less saving her life, it didn’t show. “You can start tomorrow. We open for lunch at eleven, but you’ll have some paperwork to fill out so be here no later than ten.”
“I will.”
“We’re open Monday through Thursday from eleven to ten, and Friday and Saturday till 2:00 a.m. We’re closed Sunday.”
“I’m available whenever you need me. The more hours the better.”
He nodded sharply, then turned and disappeared back through the door.
“I know what you’re probably thinking,” Lindy said, and Reily turned to her. “But he’s really a great guy once you get to know him.”
He could be the biggest jerk on the face of the planet and she wouldn’t care, as long as he was a fair and decent employer. Besides, it was temporary.
“Are you and he…together?”
Lindy laughed. “Definitely not. We’re just good friends. I’ve known Joe my whole life. And even if I was interested, he’s emotionally unavailable, if you know what I mean.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” She’d dated a few guys just like him. They weren’t worth the heartache they inevitably caused.
She untied her apron and handed it back to Lindy. “Thanks for putting in a good word for me.”
“Here,” Lindy said, snatching two ten-dollar bills from the tip jar and pressing them into Reily’s hand.
“You don’t have to do that.” Reily tried to give them back, but Lindy shook her head.
“You earned it.”
Shelving her pride, she stuffed the bills into her back pocket. “Thank you.”
“Tomorrow we’ll see about getting you some clothes. I’m guessing you wear a medium in tops and a size five in pants.”
“How did you know?”
“I worked in the women’s department at the JC Penney in Denver when I was going to college. I know women’s fashion. If I ask around, or maybe pull a few strings at the thrift store, I can get you some clothes to hold you over.”
“I’m not the type to take a handout, but under the circumstances, I’ll take all the help I can get.” If the rest of Paradise was even half as nice as Lindy, this temporary
detour might not be half-bad. Although she did have reservations about her new boss. She had never worked with anyone so…grumpy. Or maybe she just needed time to get to know him, and vice versa. He was cute enough, not that she was looking to hook up while she was in town. Her only goal was to make the money she needed to get to Nashville. If that meant hanging around this tiny town for six weeks, it was a sacrifice she was more than willing to make.
Chapter Two
Joe sat in a booth across from the bar with a cup of coffee and his laptop, watching his new employee. She sat on a bar stool with her back to him, head bent as she filled out an application and a tax form. Though he wouldn’t normally hire a total stranger, especially one just passing through, P.J. seemed to have taken quite a shine to her, and Joe trusted his judgment.
She was dressed in the same clothes as the night before, which he took to mean that she didn’t have anything else, and her long, pale blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail that hung halfway down her back and swished when she walked. She was a spunky, high-spirited young woman who had spent most of her life clinging to the short end of a very rickety stick—according to her former employer, that is. He claimed that Reily, who was orphaned as a youngster and raised by an aunt, had been best friends with his daughter since preschool and like a surrogate daughter to him and his wife.
Information Joe really didn’t need to know. He didn’t care where she came from or how she was raised, as long as she was a hard worker. He wasn’t normally in the business of saving people. Not anymore. He’d learned the hard way how futile a venture that could be. It just so happened that she needed a job and he needed a bartender. Simple as that. If she hadn’t come along last night, he would have posted a help-wanted sign in the window this morning. It was nothing more than a case of her being in the right place at the right time.
“So who’s the girl at the bar?”
He looked up to find Jill, one of his waitresses, standing beside the table. Considering she was usually at least ten minutes late for her shift, he was surprised to see that she’d showed up early.
“Her name is Reily. I hired her last night. She’ll be taking over Mark’s shift until he’s back to work.”
Without invitation she slid into the booth. “She doesn’t look familiar.”
“She’s not from around here,” he said, and he left it at that. If Reily wanted the other employees to know her life story, she could tell them herself.
“If you were looking for someone, you should have called Ed. He’s been out of work since he lost his job at the Dairy Bar.”
If her latest loser boyfriend couldn’t handle a job scooping chocolate chip mint, he’d never make it in the fast-paced world of bartending. Besides, from what Joe had heard, Ed had lost his job because he was dipping into the register as well as the ice cream. And since it was his bar, and he could hire whoever he pleased, he didn’t feel he owed Jill or anyone else an explanation. So he didn’t give her one. Instead he turned his attention to the spreadsheet on his screen.
“So, I was thinking of taking Hunter to the lake Sunday, and I thought you and Lily Ann might like to come with us. The kids never get to play together.”
That’s because Lily Ann was afraid of Jill’s six-year-old son. After the one and only playdate she did have with him, she’d come home covered in scrapes and bruises from his overly rough play.
“I have things to do around the house,” he told her.
She reached across the table and put her hand over his, giving it a firm squeeze, which quite frankly creeped him out a little. She had a reputation for latching on to any single man willing to tolerate her child. She wasn’t unattractive, but she wasn’t exactly pretty either, and she had an air of desperation, a neediness that clung to her much like the odor of the cigarettes that she chain-smoked during her break. And though she was a decent waitress, their relationship had never progressed past the bar doors. And never would. Not that she hadn’t tried. He didn’t doubt that if he asked her out, she would dump loser Ed in seconds flat.
“I know you’ve had it rough, Joe, but you have to stop sheltering Lily Ann. And you need to get on with your life. That witch you married just isn’t worth it.”
Teeth gritted, Joe pulled his hand from Jill’s clammy grip. That “witch” just happened to be the love of his life. His personal life—and how he chose to raise his daughter—was none of Jill’s damned business.
His eyes must have said it all because Jill blinked and jerked her hand back across the table.
“Well, I better get ready,” she said with forced cheer, sliding out of the booth. “Let me know if you change your mind about Sunday.”
He wouldn’t.
At ten-fifteen on the nose, Lindy walked in from the back. She stepped behind the bar, poured herself a cup of coffee and spoke briefly to Reily. He couldn’t hear what was said over the low croon of Randy Travis on the jukebox, but whatever it was evoked a bright smile from Reily. Lindy crossed the bar and slid into the seat across from him.
“Morning, boss. I see your new employee showed up on time.”
Her observation surprised him, since she was a die-hard optimist. “Did you think she wouldn’t?”
“No, but I think that you thought she wouldn’t.”
He couldn’t deny that until she’d walked through the door he hadn’t been 100 percent sure Reily would show. In a way he almost wished she hadn’t. His life was already complicated enough without adding a needy stranger to the mix.
Lindy grabbed a packet of sugar from the dispenser on the table, tore it open and dumped it in her coffee. “It was a nice thing you did for her.”
He winced. “I didn’t do it to be nice. You’re the one who’s been nagging me to hire someone.”
“I saw the new schedule in back. You gave her forty hours.”
He shrugged. “She’s covering Mark’s shift.”
“Joe, you never start a new employee out at forty hours.”
“Her references were good.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Why can’t you just admit that you did it to be nice?”
“Because I’m not that nice.”
“Then you’re really not going to like my next suggestion.”
“If I’m not going to like it, why bother telling me?”
She shot him an exasperated look. “She stayed at the Sunrise last night.”
He shrugged. “Makes sense. It’s close by and it’s cheap.”
“Well, she can’t stay there indefinitely. Not for six weeks.”
“Why not?”
“For one thing, it’s a supreme waste of money, and second, those rooms don’t even have a microwave. What she doesn’t spend on the room, she’ll waste buying meals here or at the diner.”
“Why do you care how she spends her money?”
“Because she seems like a nice person and she’s in a tough spot.”
To hear her old boss tell it, her life had been nothing but one long string of bad luck. Her current situation was no major departure from the norm. “I gave her a job. Isn’t that enough?”
“I was thinking, you have that apartment above your garage—”
“Absolutely not.” Giving her a job was one thing, but offering her a place to live was out of the question.
“Why not? It’s been sitting there empty since—” Lindy caught herself before she actually said the words. She may have been one of his best friends, but there were certain topics of conversation that were off-limits even for her, and that was one of them. “Well, it’s been a long time, and Reily could really use a decent place to stay.”
“If you’re so worried about her, ask her to stay with you.”
“In my tiny one-bedroom? Besides, it’s not as if I’m asking you to welcome her into your house. And if you take a minute to consider it
, I think you’ll agree that it’s the charitable thing to do.”
That didn’t mean it was smart.
“You haven’t known her long enough to dislike her, so I can only assume that her looks are the issue here.”
“Her looks?”
“You may live like a monk, but you aren’t one. I’m sure you’ve noticed that Reily is very pretty.”
Of course he had. He may have been celibate for the last two years, but he wasn’t dead. Although sometimes it felt that way. But he’d noticed Reily the minute he saw her standing by the bar last night, looking shell-shocked and desperate. Something deep inside of him had stirred. An itchy, restless sort of feeling that he hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Until then he’d nearly forgotten what it felt like to be attracted to another human being. He thought that part of him had died, but apparently it had only been sleeping.
All the more reason to stay the hell away from her.
“She’s not my type,” he told Lindy.
She smiled. “Then letting her stay in the apartment shouldn’t be a problem.”
The really sad thing was that two years ago he wouldn’t have hesitated to offer her the space. He would have wanted to help her, because that was the sort of person he’d been. It was a stark reminder of how much things had changed since then. There were times when he would do anything to be that man again, but it was a risk he just couldn’t take. For Lily Ann’s sake he had to keep his head on straight. They had both been hurt enough.
But by helping Reily, wouldn’t he be setting a good example for his daughter? Besides, he could see that Lindy wasn’t going to let up. She would nag him until he caved.
He mumbled a curse and shook his head. “I suppose you expect me to let her stay there for free.”
“Not at all. Besides, I think she’s the type of person who would insist on paying some sort of reasonable rent.”
She was probably right. Desperate as Reily was, she didn’t strike Joe as someone who would accept a handout. Not if what her old boss had said was true. He had told Joe that she was one of the hardest working, most responsible young women he knew.
No Ordinary Joe Page 2