No Ordinary Joe

by Michelle Celmer

  Jill’s openmouthed look of disbelief was the last thing she saw as she climbed in and buckled her seat belt. Though why Jill would care if Reily left with Joe, she didn’t have a clue.

  Without so much as a glance Reily’s way, Joe put the truck into gear and pulled out of the lot. He headed down Main Street into town, which was bustling with cars and people, and turned left at Third Street, taking them into a residential section. Most of the homes were older but well tended and charming, with postage-stamp lots and tidy lawns. Not unlike the neighborhood she’d lived in before her parents had died, before she’d moved into the shabby little one-bedroom trailer with her aunt. Reily hadn’t even had her own bedroom, just a corner in the living room to keep her things and a foldout sofa to sleep on.

  Joe drove two blocks down, then took a right at High Street. The lots were much larger and the houses sparser. Near the end of the block he turned into the driveway of a white-picket-fenced, craftsman-style home with deep green siding and a wide front porch flanked by white tapered pillars. It was as warm and charming as a Norman Rockwell painting, and not at all what she would have expected from a single guy.

  He pulled up the driveway and parked in front of a double-car, two-story garage. The first thing Reily noticed as she opened the door and climbed out was the purple little-girl’s bike leaning against the side of the garage. In the backyard, which had to be at least two hundred feet wide and twice that in length, she could see a swing set and a playhouse that looked like a scaled-down and simplified version of the main house. There was also a sandbox, a red Radio Flyer wagon and various other toys scattered across the lawn.

  Did Joe have kids?

  As if on cue, the side door flew open and a little girl shot out onto the driveway in a blur of fine, curly blond hair, pink shorts, white tank top and purple flip-flops. “Daddy!” she shrieked, vaulting herself into his outstretched arms. “It came out! It came out!”

  She opened her mouth wide, showing off a missing front tooth. Joe smiled at his daughter—a real, honest-to-goodness smile—and the effect was utterly devastating. He was handsome enough when he was all dark and gloomy, but when he showed some teeth? Good Lord, she practically had to fan her face.

  Lindy hadn’t mentioned Joe ever being married. Not that it mattered either way to Reily. It was just hard to imagine him ever having the kind of optimism it took to step up to the altar.

  “Did you give it to Aunt Sue to put under your pillow tonight?” Joe asked. She nodded enthusiastically, then she noticed Reily standing there watching them.

  Her brow dipped in a look that was 100 percent Joe, and she demanded, “Who are you?”

  Not shy, was she?

  “Lily Ann, where are your manners?” he scolded. “This is Miss Eckardt. She works at the bar and she’s going to stay in the garage apartment for a while.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Lily Ann,” Reily said. “How old are you?”

  “Five,” Lily Ann said, holding up the digits of her left hand. “Your hair is pretty. I want long hair, too, but Daddy says it gets too tangly because it’s curly.”

  “And I’ve always wanted curly hair,” Reily said with a smile. “Mine is so straight and boring.”

  Joe gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek and set her back down on the driveway, giving her bottom a firm pat. “Go on back inside. I’ll be in as soon as I show Miss Eckardt the apartment.”

  She scurried for the door and disappeared inside the house.

  “She’s adorable,” Reily said as the screen door slammed shut with a sharp bang.

  “And don’t think she doesn’t know it.” He grabbed her bags from the bed of the truck, then gestured to a set of wood stairs that hugged the side of the garage. “It’s this way.”

  She followed him up the narrow staircase, trying hard to ignore the fact that he had a really cute behind. Not only was he brooding and pessimistic, but he had an adorable daughter to boot. The situation had complicated written all over it.

  He paused on the small landing at the top, pulled his keys from his jeans pocket and unlocked the door. A wave of stale, hot air rushed out as he pulled it open. He dropped her bags inside and walked straight over to a window that overlooked the backyard. He pushed back the curtains and lifted the sash, letting sunshine and a rush of fresh air into the room. The living space was cozy and welcoming, with two mismatched, floral-print, hand-me-down chairs; a scarred wood coffee table; and a matching pair of brass floor lamps. The kitchenette was small and basic, but functional, with a two-burner stove and an economy-size refrigerator.

  “This is nice,” she said.

  “There’s a window air conditioner in the bedroom to keep you cool at night,” he said. “And there’re fresh linens and towels in the dresser drawer.”

  She crossed the room and peeked into the bedroom. It was barely large enough to hold a full-size bed and small chest of drawers. The bathroom was nothing more than a sink, toilet and cramped shower stall, but it was clean. It beat the hell out of staying at the Sunrise for six weeks.

  “The key is on a hook in the kitchen cupboard,” Joe said, and she turned to him. He stood by the door, arms folded, expression dark. “If you want, I can give Aunt Sue my master key to hold on to.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” He may have been a little cranky, but she didn’t think he was dangerous. Especially now that she knew he had a daughter, although she wasn’t sure why that would make a difference.

  “So, it’s just you and your daughter?” she asked him.

  “Yep.”

  “Lily Ann’s mommy—”

  “Isn’t around,” he said. And he clearly did not want to talk about it. Not with her anyway. “I’ll be heading back to the bar in half an hour if you want a ride.”

  “I think I’ll walk.” Now that she had a little extra money, she could splurge and maybe find a cheap blow-dryer and curling iron at the thrift store.

  Joe shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  “Thanks for offering. And just so you know, I don’t expect rides to and from work to be part of the deal.”

  “Good, because they’re not.” He turned toward the door and started out, then hesitated, turned back to Reily and said, “She left us two years ago.”

  It took a second to realize that he was talking about Lily Ann’s mommy. He may as well have been talking about the weather for all the emotion he showed, but that probably only meant he didn’t want her to know how deeply he’d been hurt. It sure explained why he would be emotionally unavailable.

  She wasn’t sure how to respond, but it didn’t matter because he never gave her the chance. He turned and walked out, shutting the door firmly behind him. She listened to the thump of his footsteps as he descended the stairs, wondering what had happened between him and Lily Ann’s mother that would make her leave. What would possess a woman to leave her own child?

  Why did she even care? She had her own problems to figure out. She barely knew the guy. Considering this weird little fascination she seemed to have with him, it would be in her best interest to keep it that way.

  * * *

  Joe headed to the side door, wondering why he’d felt compelled to tell Reily about his ex-wife. His life was none of her business. But she was bound to hear about it from someone eventually, so why not him? That was the problem with small towns. Everybody was always in everyone else’s business. When Beth left, the dust had barely settled from her tires before everyone knew.

  He pulled open the side door and stepped into the kitchen. Aunt Sue stood at the stove, stirring the contents of a soup pot. She looked over at him and smiled. “I guess Lily Ann told you about her tooth.”

  “The second I pulled up,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  “I put it in an envelope on her dresser so she wouldn’t lose it.”

  He leaned
in to peek at whatever she was cooking.

  “White chicken chili,” she said.

  One of his all-time favorites. “Smells delicious.”

  “Lily Ann said something about you showing the apartment. I didn’t realize that you’d decided to rent it out again.”

  He grabbed a wedge of corn bread from a plate on the kitchen table and took a bite, crumbs falling on the front of his T-shirt. “I didn’t.”

  She turned to him, wiping her hands on the apron tied around her ample waist. “Would this have something to do with the young woman you hired?”

  He shook his head. “Word sure does get around fast, doesn’t it?”

  “Phyllis and Buster had lunch at the bar today, and of course she had to call me and find out who she is. I take it she’s not from around here.”

  “Her name is Reily Eckardt. She’s passing through on her way to Tennessee.” He relayed the story P.J. had told him when he’d brought Reily in the night before.

  “Oh, good Lord!” Aunt Sue slapped a hand over her bosom. “That poor girl. It was sweet of you to help her out.”

  Her words grated at him. “I didn’t do it to be nice. I needed a bartender, and it was Lindy’s idea to let her stay in the apartment.”

  She pinned him with her trademark stern look. “Would it kill you to admit that you’re a compassionate and caring person?”

  “I’m not.” Not anymore.

  “Well, there’s a little girl in there with her butt parked in front of the television who sure thinks you are.”

  And he couldn’t imagine what his life would be like without her. He walked over to the kitchen doorway to peer into the front room. His little girl sat cross-legged in front of the television, mesmerized by cartoons. The love he felt for her was so intense and all-encompassing it almost hurt to breathe. Having Lily Ann had given him the will to keep going when Beth left. Everything he did was for his daughter, to ensure that she grew up healthy and happy and always knowing that she was loved. Despite her mother. Because when it came to being abandoned, he knew just how it felt. His own mother hadn’t stuck around to see his first birthday.

  “So how long is this Reily planning to stay?” Aunt Sue asked.

  “Six weeks, until Mark is back to work.” Too long as far as he was concerned. After that sexually charged moment in the booth this morning, he’d spent the following few hours in his office getting next to nothing done thanks to the random, impure thoughts he couldn’t seem to shake. He’d begun to seriously regret offering her the apartment in the first place, and had held out some hope that she would turn him down. No such luck, of course. That’s what he got for trying to be a nice guy. It always had a way of blowing up in his face.

  “In that case, I should probably put together a housewarming basket. It sounds as if she could use a few things.”

  He turned back to his aunt and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  “Phyllis mentioned that Reily is quite a looker,” she said with that mischievous glint in her eye that he knew all too well. “Cute as a button, I think were her exact words.”

  “I hadn’t noticed,” he said, feigning disinterest. She wasn’t buying it.

  “It’s been two years, Joey. Don’t you think it’s about time you got on with your life?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m doing. I have a daughter to care for and a bar to run.”

  She propped her hands on her hips. “You know what I mean.”

  He did, but his love life, or lack of one, was nobody else’s business. “I don’t have time for a relationship. Especially with a virtual stranger.”

  “If you got to know her she wouldn’t be a stranger, now would she? Besides, it doesn’t have to be her. There are plenty of other eligible women in town. You’ve been out of the pool for so long, would it hurt to get your feet a little wet?”

  Past experience had taught him that he wasn’t much of a swimmer. Knowing his luck, he would slip on the edge, fall into the deep end and get sucked under.

  Chapter Four

  Lindy’s friend Zoey had awesome taste in clothes. Reily dumped both bags out onto the bed to sort them. Other than undergarments, she wouldn’t have to buy a single stitch of clothing. There were jeans and shorts and shirts, blouses, T-shirts and tank tops. There were even two bikini bathing suits and a couple of luxuriously soft satin nightshirts. Everything looked brand-new, or close to it, and had been freshly laundered.

  As she neatly folded and tucked everything into the dresser drawers, singing to herself to keep her vocal cords conditioned, she heard the engine of Joe’s truck roar to life. She glanced out the side window just in time to see him slowly backing out of the driveway. He wasn’t gone two minutes when she heard a noise behind her and whipped around to find Lily Ann standing in the bedroom doorway. “Well, hi there.”

  “That song was pretty.”

  Reily smiled. “Oh, thank you. My mommy used to sing that to me.”

  Lily Ann nodded at the bed and said matter-of-factly, “Mr. Pete keeps his clothes in a black garbage bag too. And he sleeps in the park, because Aunt Sue says he gots a couple of screws loose. But I like him ’cause he makes funny faces and talks to himself.”

  The little girl had just compared her to a mentally challenged homeless person. Swell. But she didn’t bother trying to explain why her clothes had been in garbage bags.

  “Honey, are you supposed to be here?” Reily asked. She was willing to bet Joe wouldn’t appreciate his daughter hanging around with a total stranger.

  She got her answer when a female voice called firmly from outside, “Lily Ann Miller, are you up there?”

  Her lower lip lodged guiltily between her teeth, Lily Ann spun around and scurried for the door. Reily heard the slap of her rubber flip-flops as she charged down the stairs.

  Reily walked to the door and looked out to the ground below. At the base of the stairs stood a portly woman of about sixty. Her salt-and-pepper hair was twisted into a loose bun at the back of her head, and she wore a sundress and rubber flip-flops. She was as short as she was wide, with a warm, friendly smile.

  “You must be Reily,” she called, shading the sun from her eyes with one pudgy hand. “I’m Sue. Sorry if Lily Ann was bothering you.”

  “She wasn’t,” Reily assured her.

  “It must be hot as blazes up there. Why don’t you come down for a cold glass of lemonade?”

  It was hot, and though Reily had hoped to stop at the thrift store on her way back to work, a cold glass of lemonade did sound refreshing. And of course she wanted to get to know her new neighbor, and maybe learn a little more about her boss/landlord. The shopping could wait until her break tomorrow.

  “I’d love one,” she told Sue. “Give me a second to grab my purse and lock up.”

  She located the key Joe had mentioned in the cabinet above the stove, slung her purse over her shoulder and, leaving the windows open for circulation, locked the door behind her as she headed down the stairs. She crossed the driveway and knocked on the side door of the house.

  “Come on in!” Sue called.

  The screen door squeaked on its hinges as Reily pulled it open. A rush of cool air enveloped her as she stepped into the spacious, updated kitchen. With its granite countertops, cherry cupboards and stainless steel appliances, it looked like something out of an issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Sue stood at the stove stirring the contents of a large silver pot. Whatever she was making smelled delicious.

  “Come on in and have a seat,” she said.

  Reily sat at the kitchen table. From the other room she could hear cartoons playing on the television.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked. “I’ve got a pot of chili simmering.”

  She was starving, actually, but she didn’t want to take advantage. “I have to get back to the bar soo
n.”

  “It’s white chicken chili,” Sue said, clearly trying to tempt her. “It’s my specialty.”

  Well, if it was her specialty Reily didn’t want to offend her or hurt her feelings. “Maybe just a bite.”

  Sue spooned a generous helping into a bowl, plunked a spoon in and set it in front of her. It looked like more of a soup than an actual chili, with a white base, big chunks of chicken and several varieties of beans. Reily took a bite and her taste buds when berserk. “Oh, my gosh! This is amazing.”

  “It’s Joe’s favorite,” Sue said, pulling a pitcher of lemonade from the fridge. She took two glasses down from the cupboard and filled them. She set one in front of Reily, then lowered herself into the chair opposite her. “Joe tells me that you’ve hit a spell of bad luck.”

  That was putting it mildly. “I’m trying to look at it as a temporary diversion. An adventure,” she said. What she was trying hard not to think about was all the hard-earned money she had lost, and all of her worldly possessions gone forever. It would take hard work, but she would rebuild and start over. She was tough. And she was used to getting by on very little. “I figure Nashville will still be there when I pull my life back together.”

  “Well, you couldn’t have landed in a better place. You won’t find a friendlier town than Paradise.”

  “If it hadn’t been for Officer Jeffries and Joe and Lindy, I don’t know what I would have done. I doubt anyone in Denver would have been so willing to help a stranger.”

  “P.J. is a good man. Though he was quite the hellion when he was a youngster. I used to babysit him when I was in junior high school. He always gave me a run for my money.”

  “You’ve lived here your whole life?”

  Sue sipped her lemonade. “My great-great-grandfather was one of the founders of the town. My father built this house for my brother, Joe Senior, and the house next door for me and my husband, Walter.”

  “So you and your husband live next door?”

  “It’s just me now. Walter passed four years ago last month, and we lost my brother Joey almost a year to the day later.”