No Ordinary Joe

by Michelle Celmer

  “P.J. mentioned that Joe Senior used to own Joe’s Place.”

  “He started that bar twenty-odd years ago. I loved my brother to death, don’t get me wrong. He was a good father, a good person, but a businessman he wasn’t. That’s why my nephew, Joey, went and got himself a degree in business. With his dad’s heart problems, I think he knew that someday he would be taking over the bar. His dad would be so proud of everything he’s done. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough for Beth.”

  “Beth?”

  Sue lowered her voice. “Joe’s wife. They were high school sweethearts. But after a few years of marriage she decided she needed to find herself, or some such nonsense. So she just up and left.” She shook her head, clucking disappointedly. “She broke that poor man’s heart. Lily Ann doesn’t seem to remember her much, which I think is probably a blessing. But she does realize that she’s the only one of her friends without a mommy. A few don’t have daddies, but that’s different. A little girl needs her mother. I try to help out all I can. I retired from teaching so I could watch her for Joe, but it’s just not the same.”

  “I was raised by my aunt,” Reily told her. Sue was right. Her aunt Macie took care of her as best as she could under the circumstances, but it wasn’t like having a mom and a dad. “My parents died when I was little.”

  “So you know what I mean.”

  “Aunt Sue, could I play outside?”

  She turned to see Lily Ann standing in the kitchen doorway. Reily wondered how much she had heard of their conversation, if anything.

  “If you stay in the yard,” Sue said. “And turn off the television first.”

  Lily Ann darted back into the living room and the television went silent. She skipped past them, flip-flops slapping against the tile floor, letting the back door slam shut behind her as she hopped outside.

  Sue sighed and shook her head. “Joe was always the cautious sort. He knew from the time he was a youngster what he wanted to do with his life. Beth was something of a wild child. Restless, you know?” She shook her head sadly. “Joe thought he could settle her, thought that once they got married and had a baby she would be content staying in our tiny little town. But that wasn’t the case. And when she made her mind up to leave, there was no stopping her. Turns out she was just like my brother’s wife.”

  “Joe’s mom?”

  She nodded. “She left them when Joey was a baby. I don’t know what it is about the Miller men and their fascination with restless women.”

  “I can understand being unhappy in a marriage,” Reily said. “But how does a woman leave her child?”

  “I’ve asked myself that question about a million times. I could barely stand it when my twin sons left for college out of state. I guess sometimes people do things that don’t make much sense.”

  “I guess.” Reily checked the display on her phone and realized that it was getting late. “I better get going. I don’t want to leave Lindy in a lurch on my very first day.”

  “How are you getting back?”

  “I’m walking.”

  “There’s a bike in the garage you could use. It’s just sitting there getting dusty. Lord knows I could probably use the exercise,” she said, chuckling and patting her middle. “But I do better with both my feet on the ground.”

  “If it’s not an imposition, that would be great.”

  “I guess you were a little hungrier than you thought,” Sue said, nodding to Reily’s bowl. She’d stopped just short of licking it clean.

  Reily smiled. “It was delicious. I can see why it’s Joe’s favorite.”

  They both stood and Reily grabbed her purse. “Thanks for lunch. It was really nice talking to you.”

  “Well, I probably told you more than you ever wanted to know about our family, but I do tend to ramble on sometimes. It used to drive poor Walter batty.”

  “I don’t mind at all. I like hearing about other people’s families. It makes mine seem not so unusual, if that makes sense.”

  “I think I know just what you mean. And I’m sure it’s no fun being trapped in a place where there isn’t a familiar face. I figured you could use a friend.”

  She would be honored to consider Sue her friend.

  “In fact, what are you doing Sunday for supper?” Sue asked.

  “Honestly, I haven’t thought past five minutes from now.”

  “Then you’ll have dinner with us. With Joe’s schedule, and my Monday night poker, it’s the only day we get to eat together as a family.”

  “I take it he works a lot.”

  “The bar is closed Sunday and he takes Monday off, but the rest of the week he’s pretty much there open to close.”

  If he spent so little time with his family, Joe might not be too keen on her infiltrating their Sunday supper. “I don’t want to intrude,” she told Sue.

  “Well,” she said, planting her hands on her hips. “Since I’m doing the cooking, I get to choose the guests.”

  She probably should have said no. She liked the idea of spending time with Sue and Lily Ann, and maybe even Joe, but what if she got attached? She wouldn’t be hanging around very long. Yet at the same time, the thought of spending the evening alone was a little depressing. She was naturally a social person. She liked to be around people. “If you’re sure it’s okay,” she told Sue.

  “Of course I’m sure.”

  “In that case, if there’s anything I can bring, let me know. I make a mean gelatin salad.”

  Sue grinned. “Then definitely bring that. Gelatin is Lily Ann’s all-time favorite food. Although, due to an unfortunate incident with gelatin shooters in high school, Joe won’t touch the stuff. One of these days I’ll tell you the story.”

  Reily smiled. “I’d like to hear it.”

  They both got up and Sue stepped out the back door with her into the blazing heat. “Lily Ann!” she called.

  After several seconds Lily Ann emerged from the backyard. “Do I gotta come in already?”

  “Do me a favor and show Reily here where that extra bike is in the garage. She’s going to use it while she’s in town.”

  “Okay, Aunt Sue.”

  “If you need anything,” Sue said, “just knock on the door.”

  “Thanks, Sue.”

  Lily Ann darted for the garage and Reily followed her. Sue must have hit a remote inside the house because as they approached, the door rolled open.

  “It’s in here,” Lily Ann said.

  The interior was about a million degrees and smelled like fertilizer. On one side were all the normal things you would find in a garage. Bikes, lawn equipment and tools, all neatly arranged. A car sat on the opposite side, but it was covered so she couldn’t tell the make or model. Considering the size and contour she would guess something older with muscle.

  She wandered over, thinking that she would take a quick peek underneath the vinyl cover. She was reaching toward it when behind her Lily Ann screeched, “Don’t touch that!”

  Reily jerked her hand back and turned to Lily Ann. “I was just going to peek.”

  “No one is allowed to touch Daddy’s car,” Lily Ann scolded, her expression so earnest, so serious.

  “I just wanted to see what kind it was.”

  She propped her hand on her skinny hip. “You have to ask first, then only Daddy is allowed to touch it. Cars are very expensive.”

  Reily had to bite her lip to keep from grinning. She was clearly repeating verbatim what had been told to her. “I’m sorry.”

  She narrowed her eyes at Reily as if she wasn’t sure she could trust her, looking like a miniature of her father. “Just don’t let it happen again.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  “The bike is over here.”

  Parked against the opposite wall were two bikes, a
man’s and a woman’s. The woman’s bike was covered in a film of dust, as though it hadn’t been used in some time. It also looked as if the tires were low, but thankfully there was a bike pump hanging on the wall. The guy was just too organized.

  Lily Ann watched as Reily walked the bike out onto the driveway and pumped air into the tires, then used an old towel hanging on a peg in the garage to wipe off the seat. The chain could use a greasing, but that would have to wait until later. And maybe she could take a hose to the frame to clean it up. Other than the dust, the bike didn’t seem to have a mark on it. If Sue had ridden it at all, it couldn’t have been more than a few times.

  “I don’t have a mommy either,” Lily Ann said from behind her.

  Taken aback by the out-of-the-blue statement, Reily turned to her. So she had been listening to Reily and Sue’s conversation. For some reason that didn’t surprise Reily. She was willing to bet that Lily Ann heard a lot of things she probably wasn’t supposed to. “Your daddy told me that. It’s really tough not having a mommy.”

  “My mommy didn’t die. She left when I was three. Daddy said she isn’t coming back. I asked him why, but he won’t tell me.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t know.”

  “I think it’s because I took a long time to potty train, and she got tired of changing my poopy diapers.”

  The problem with not giving kids an answer to a question like that was that they had a way of fabricating one of their own. She wondered if Joe knew she felt that way, that she blamed herself.

  “You know,” she told Lily Ann, “I’ve changed poopy diapers lots of times, and it’s really not that bad. Sometimes adults do things…well, that don’t make much sense.”

  Lily Ann thought about that for several seconds, then she shook her head and said, “No, it was the diapers.”

  As much as she wanted to talk more about it with Lily Ann, to convince her that her mommy’s leaving wasn’t her fault, she felt it was neither her business nor her place to counsel a child she barely knew. Even if they did have the shared experience of losing a mother.

  “Well, I better get to work or your daddy might fire me,” she told Lily Ann with a grin. “But I’ll see you Sunday for dinner. And I’m bringing gelatin salad.”

  Lily Ann’s eyes lit and she hopped excitedly. “Yeah!”

  “What’s your favorite flavor?”

  “Purple!”

  Grape-flavored gelatin salad. That would be interesting. “Purple it is, then,” she told Lily Ann.

  She climbed onto the bike, surprised that the seat needed no adjusting, considering Sue was at least a head shorter. She waved goodbye to Lily Ann, who waved back enthusiastically, then she hiked her purse over her shoulder and pedaled out into the street. She hadn’t ridden a bike since she was sixteen, and she felt a little unsteady for the first couple of blocks. By the time she reached Main Street it was like second nature. It would save her a ton of time walking everywhere, and maybe Sue wouldn’t mind if she attached some sort of basket to carry her belongings. Or, she thought, as her purse slid down her arm for the millionth time, maybe she should invest in a cheap backpack instead.

  As she steered the bike through the bar lot and behind the building, Joe was walking from his truck to the back door holding a jumbo-size pack of toilet paper.

  With his guard down, in a more relaxed state, there was no getting around it: Joe was a hottie. And though she wasn’t normally into the dark and brooding type, she could make an exception for him. If she wasn’t leaving in six weeks, that is. But she wasn’t any more ready to settle down than his wife had been, and she definitely wasn’t ready to be someone’s surrogate mommy.

  As he reached the door, Joe glanced her way, then did a double take when he realized it was her riding toward him. His expression went dark and his brow furrowed into a deep frown.

  Uh-oh, was she late or something?

  She came to a stop just before the door and hopped off the bike. She opened her mouth to apologize for taking so long, but before she could get a word out Joe growled at her, “Where did you get that bike?”

  Chapter Five

  Jarred by his unprovoked outburst, Reily actually took a step back, away from Joe, and he felt an instant and acute jab of guilt. What the hell was wrong with him? He really hadn’t meant to sound so cross. The instant the words left his mouth, logic determined that Aunt Sue had probably given her the bike to use. Though he didn’t know her well, Reily didn’t strike him as the type who would wander uninvited into someone’s garage and help herself to its contents.

  “I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she said, looking equal parts insulted and wounded. “Sue had me over for lemonade and she said I could use it to get to work while I’m in town. If that’s a problem—”

  “No. No problem. Just…forget I said anything.”

  She was quiet for several seconds, then she looked up at him and said, “This is your wife’s bike, isn’t it?”

  Damn. Was he really that transparent?

  “It’s not a big deal,” he said, but he could see that she wasn’t buying it.

  She cursed under her breath. “I’m sorry, Joe. I just assumed from the way Sue talked that it was hers. If I had realized—”

  “Forget about it,” he said, feeling stupid for getting all worked up in the first place. It was a bike, for Christ’s sake. And though he’d bought it for Beth, thinking that it would be fun for the three of them to take family rides together—to do anything as a family for a change—she hadn’t used it more than a time or two. As was usually the case, there was always somewhere other than with her husband and daughter that she’d wanted to be.

  “I’ll take it back right now if you want.”

  “I said forget about it,” he snapped, kicking himself when his tone made her cringe. She hadn’t done a thing to him, yet here she was stuck on the receiving end of all this pent-up animosity.

  Taking care to keep his tone in the pleasant conversation range, he said, “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t use it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “It’s fine, really.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “I’m sorry, Joe.”

  “You have no reason to be.”

  “Well, I am anyway.”

  Which made him feel like an ogre. He could see this for what it really was…Aunt Sue’s way of meddling in his business, trying to make him let go of the past and get on with his life. She had done it before. Obviously that was easier said than done.

  “I wanted to tell you, I had a chance to talk with Lily Ann today,” Reily said. “She’s a smart little girl. I’ll bet she’s a handful.”

  He couldn’t help it, a smile tipped up the corner of his mouth. That always happened when someone mentioned his baby. “She sure can be.”

  Reily hesitated, her plump lower lip clamped between her teeth, then she said, “Lily Ann said something to me that—”

  Before she could finish her sentence the door swung open and Joe had to jump back to keep from getting clobbered. It was Jill, out for a smoke break before the dinner rush.

  “Oh, there you are,” she said when she saw Reily. “I don’t know how they do things in Minnesota, or wherever it is you’re from, but here in Paradise we show up on time for our shifts.”

  Boy, Reily was getting it from all sides today. His surprise at Jill’s snarky tone was mirrored in Reily’s face.

  “Is there a problem, Jill?” he asked. Jill, who obviously had no idea he was standing there, whipped around to face him.

  “Joe! You scared the crap out of me,” she said, laughing nervously, her face blushing deep red. “I didn’t know you were back.”

  “Just got here.” A fact that was clearly making her uncomfortable. Probably because she was in no position to preach t
he virtues of being on time, since she rarely ever was. And on top of her perpetual tardiness she always took more frequent and longer breaks than she was supposed to, oftentimes lingering out back chain-smoking until someone had to come and fetch her. On top of that, she wasn’t even a very good waitress. She was slow and inattentive and managed to screw up at least one or two food orders every shift. He probably would have fired her ages ago if it weren’t for the fact that she was raising her son all by herself, with no financial support from the boy’s deadbeat dad.

  He was all set to put Jill in her place, but Reily didn’t give him a chance. She met Jill’s gaze directly and said in a tone that was much more pleasant than warranted given the situation, “Lindy told me to be back by four-thirty. And it’s now—” she pulled her phone from her jeans pocket and checked the display “—three fifty-three. So actually I’m early.”

  Joe smothered a smile. Clearly Reily didn’t feel she had to take any crap, but she wasn’t going to lower herself to using the same snotty tone as Jill. Of course, Jill probably never would have talked to Reily that way if she knew Joe had been standing right there.

  “Why don’t you take this inside for me,” Joe said, handing Jill the package of toilet paper. “Make sure all the stalls have fresh rolls.”

  She hesitated, looking longingly at the pack of cigarettes in her left hand. For a second he thought she might actually argue with him. The pile of cigarette butts on the ground next to the door said she’d smoked at least half a pack already. Finally she nodded and said, “Yeah, sure, Joe.”

  She yanked the door open and went back inside.

  Reily shook her head. “I don’t know what I’ve said or done to offend her, but she sure doesn’t seem to like me too much.”

  Joe couldn’t know for sure, but he had a pretty good guess. Jill had been trying for a while to get her hooks into him. Maybe she saw Reily as a threat, which was ridiculous of course. Anyone who knew him knew he would never get involved with a woman like Reily. Or Jill, for that matter. So if it was jealousy, it was wasted on him.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” he told Reily. He pulled the door open. When she just stood there, he asked, “You coming in?”