No Ordinary Joe

by Michelle Celmer

  He looked around to be sure no one was listening, then lowered his voice and said, “She’s my mother.”

  Lindy gasped. “Seriously?”

  “But I don’t want anyone to know. And I especially don’t want it getting back to Lily Ann. It would be too confusing.”

  “What does she want?”

  “To talk. Or so she says. She showed up at the house last week. She said she won’t leave until I hear her out. Now she’s asking Jill and Renee about me.”

  “Does Reily know about this?”

  He nodded. “Reily was with me and Lily Ann when she showed up. She seems to believe that Reily is my wife.”

  Lindy looked over toward the booth where his mother still sat. “She doesn’t look well.”

  “She said that she’s been sick but she’s better now.”

  “What are you planning to do?”

  “Ignore her until she goes away.”

  “What if she doesn’t go away? It’s been more than a week already. You know people are already talking. Eventually someone is going to figure out who she really is. Maybe you should just talk to her.”

  He set his jaw. “I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. For thirty years she couldn’t be bothered to give me the time of day. It’s too late now.”

  Her look said that he was being unreasonable, but there was no way she could understand how he was feeling. Lindy had come from a stable, loving family. She knew nothing of how it felt to be abandoned, how deeply the pain cut. “You think you can handle things without me tonight?”

  She blinked in surprise. He never left before closing, only on the rare occasion where Lily Ann was sick, but tonight he felt…claustrophobic. He needed air, time to think.

  He needed Reily.

  “Sure, I can handle it,” Lindy said.

  “Call me if you need anything.” He walked to his office and grabbed his keys, nearly plowing into Jill on his way out.

  “You’re leaving?” she said, looking as surprised as Lindy had been.

  “Lindy is in charge.”

  “But…” She looked past him, to his desk. “What if I want to take a break?”

  Meaning, how could she smoke while he was holding her cigarettes hostage? He walked back to his desk, grabbed them from the top drawer and tossed her the pack. Frankly, he was tired of having to police her.

  She looked at the pack, then back at him. “I can have them?”

  “You’re a grown woman, Jill, and you know how many breaks you’re allowed. I’m tired of making concessions for you. There’s no reason why you can’t follow the rules like everyone else. You need to get to work on time, be courteous to the customers and stop screwing up your orders. Either you get your act together or I’m going to have to let you go.”

  She stared in openmouthed disbelief as he brushed past her to leave.

  “It’s because of Reily, isn’t it?” she said, her voice dripping with indignation. “She told you to fire me.”

  Up went his hackles and his blood pressure shot into the red zone. He turned back to her. “Excuse me?”

  He must have looked as furious as he was feeling because her eyes went wide and she took a step back.

  “What is your problem with Reily?” he asked, taking a step toward her. She took one back, colliding with the edge of his desk. “What the hell has she ever done to you?”

  Jill stood tight-lipped, her face pale. She couldn’t answer; they both knew that Reily hadn’t done a damned thing to her. She had never been anything but cordial to Jill, because that was the sort of person she was.

  “Whatever your problem is, get over it,” he ground out through clenched teeth, then he forced himself to turn and walk out before he said something he regretted.

  He drove home, hands gripping the wheel so tightly that by the time he pulled into the driveway they ached. Reily’s bike was parked by the side of the garage, but when he knocked on her door she didn’t answer. Disappointed, and wondering where she could be, he crossed the driveway to the house. He expected to find Aunt Sue in front of the television watching Wheel of Fortune, but the TV was off and the room empty.

  Where the heck was everyone?

  He walked to the foot of the stairs. From the floor above he could hear the sound of splashing water and Lily Ann’s goofy laughter. He climbed the stairs, surprised to find not Aunt Sue giving his daughter a bath, but Reily. The tub was brimming with foamy suds, and Lily Ann wore a Santa-style bubble beard, her pale hair hanging in damp ringlets around her rosy cheeks. Reily sat on a towel on the bathroom floor beside the tub, the front of her tank top soggy. They were both laughing.

  “Daddy!” Lily Ann screeched when she saw him standing there. “Look, I have a beard!”

  Reily turned and flashed him a bright smile. “Hey, you’re home early.”

  They both looked so happy to see him, the stress of the evening seemed to magically evaporate into the steamy air.

  “I decided to take the night off,” he told them. “Where’s Aunt Sue?”

  “She had a bad headache when I came by to do laundry this afternoon, so I told her I would watch Lily Ann. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Of course it is.”

  “Reily took me to the park, then we ate supper at the diner, then we got ice cream!” Lily Ann gushed.

  “I caved and let her get a double scoop,” Reily said. “She ended up wearing most of it. Hence the bath.”

  “Daddy, can we go to the lake Sunday?” Lily Ann asked, kicking her legs though the sudsy water. “Me and you and Reily? I want to show her how far I can swim.”

  “We’ll see,” Joe said. Then he asked Reily, “Could I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Sure,” she said. “Are you okay by yourself?” she asked Lily Ann.

  Lily Ann rolled her eyes dramatically. “I’m not a baby, silly! I take baths by myself all the time.”

  “Well, if you need me, just call.” Reily pushed herself up off the floor and followed Joe down the hall to his bedroom. He left the door open a crack so he could hear his daughter, then turned to Reily, who was wearing a look that was equal parts puzzlement and concern. “Are you okay?”

  Though it had been just over three weeks since she’d walked into his life, she knew him well enough to recognize when something was wrong. Rather than try to explain, he pulled her to him instead. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face against the side of her neck, breathing her in. “I’m good now,” he said. Better than good.

  She rubbed her hands up and down his back. “Did something happen at work?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said.

  She pulled back to look up at him. “Talk to me, Joe.”

  He sighed. She obviously wasn’t going to let this go. “My mother came in for dinner tonight. She was asking the staff questions about me.”

  She didn’t look surprised. “I saw her drive past the house earlier today, too, and by the park when I was there with Lily Ann. I guess she’s getting tired of waiting for you to come around.”

  He probably should have seen this coming when she didn’t leave after the first few days. “I honestly figured she would have given up by now.”

  “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but maybe you should just listen to her. Let her say what she came to say and then you’ll never have to see her again…if that’s what you decide you want.”

  “Of course that’s what I want. She’s nothing to me. And there isn’t anything she can say that will change that. Talking to her would be a waste of time.”

  “Promise me that you’ll at least think about it.” She stroked the side of his face with one soft palm. “I know you’re angry, and hurt, but despite what she did to you, she’s still your mother. If you pass up this opportunity to talk to her, you could regret it
for the rest of your life.”

  He wasn’t going to change his mind, but he told her, “I’ll think about it.”

  Later. Right now, all he wanted to focus on was Reily. He drew her closer, nuzzling the side of her neck, and Reily gave a soft sigh of pleasure. They hadn’t gone much further than kissing, with an occasional stroke or fondle—but always with their clothes on. She wanted to take things slow and he’d been trying to honor that, but it was getting increasingly more difficult to keep his hands to himself.

  “What if Lily Ann comes in here?” she asked, her voice thick with desire. He had the feeling it was getting just as hard for her to say no.

  “She won’t. She’s like a fish. She would stay in the tub all night if I let her.” He backed her against the wall beside the door, kissed his way upward to her chin, nibbled her lips, coaxing her to open up for him. When she did, the taste of her mouth, the slide of her tongue against his, had his pulse jumping. He slipped one hand beneath the hem of her top and when his palm touched the warm, silken skin of her stomach a whimper slipped past her lips, which only made him hotter. Maybe, just maybe, she would let him get past second base this time.

  He slid his hand upward until he reached the band of her bra, but the instant his thumb grazed the satiny cup, her fingers closed around his wrist and she tugged his hand from beneath her shirt.

  Damn.

  She laid her hands on his chest and gently eased him away. “We can’t. Not while she’s awake.”

  He blew out a frustrated sigh.

  She gazed up at him with sympathy. “I’m sorry. I know it’s hard.”

  “Well, when you kiss me that way, that’s bound to happen,” he said.

  She looked confused for a second, and when she realized what he meant she laughed and gave him a playful shove. “Difficult. I meant that it’s difficult.”

  He grinned. “That too.”

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun later, after she goes to bed.”

  He really hoped she meant that.

  “Why don’t you take a minute to cool down,” she said, nodding down to the conspicuous bulge behind his fly. “I’m going to go check on Lily Ann.”

  She slipped out of the room and Joe leaned against the wall, giving his pulse a chance to resume its normal pace. He may have been suffering a severe case of sexual frustration but, he thought with a smile, at least he felt like a man again. Since Beth took off he had barely given a thought to sex, and recently he had begun to wonder if he was even capable of those kinds of feelings any longer. But since he started hanging around Reily, his sex drive had returned with a vengeance.

  He went into his bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, then he changed out of his work clothes and into a muscle shirt and nylon shorts. By the time he was finished, Reily had Lily Ann out of the tub and into her pajamas, and they were setting up the Candy Land game on her bedroom floor.

  “What color do you want to be, Daddy?” Lily Ann asked him.

  He regarded Reily with a raised brow.

  She shrugged. “I promised her we would play.”

  “What color, Daddy?” Lily Ann asked impatiently.

  “Pink,” he said, making her giggle.

  “There is no pink.”

  “Purple?”

  Exasperated, she held up the pieces. “There’s red, yellow, blue and green.”

  He sat cross-legged on the floor next to Reily. “I can’t decide. You choose for me.”

  She plunked the blue one down in front of him. Reily chose yellow, and Lily Ann took her usual green.

  “I go first!” Lily Ann announced, pulling the first card. A double purple. She shrieked with delight, carefully counting out the eight spaces. Joe went next and pulled a red, moving ahead one space. Reily got a yellow, which moved her two spaces.

  Lily Ann pulled a double purple next, while Joe and Reily got singles again, putting her considerably farther ahead. Her next turn she picked the gumdrop card, which propelled her halfway across the board.

  “Do you get the feeling she stacked the deck?” he whispered to Reily. She grinned and nudged him playfully.

  “Daddy, it’s your turn.”

  Lily Ann creamed them in ten minutes flat. Despite the fact that it was already past her bedtime, he agreed to one more game, in which Lily Ann beat them horribly again.

  After they put everything away and Lily Ann crawled into bed, she asked Joe, “Could Reily sing to me?”

  “One song,” Joe said sternly, otherwise she’d have Reily in there half the night. He leaned against the wall beside the door, listening to her sing a song about a silvery moon hiding behind a tree and chasing a possum.

  His cell phone started to ring and he checked the display. It was the number for the bar. He stepped into the hallway and answered. It was Lindy.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Maybe.”

  He headed down the stairs, hoping this didn’t mean he would have to go back into work. “What’s up?”

  “Mark called. He said his hand is healing faster than he thought and he’ll be ready to come back to work by next week.”

  Joe cringed. He couldn’t not give Mark his job back, yet how could he let Reily go when he’d promised her six weeks? “That is a problem.”

  “That’s why I thought I should tell you right away. I’m sure you can work something out.” She paused, then said, “Hey, I have an idea. You could fire Jill and give her job to Reily. You know Annie and Renee would be thrilled.”

  “You have no idea how tempting that is.” And if she screwed up again he just might consider it. But for now, especially after his ultimatum tonight, he couldn’t justify it.

  After they hung up he sat on the couch waiting for Reily, considering his options. He could just give Reily the money she needed to get a start in Nashville. It would barely make a dent in his savings. But then there would be nothing to stop her from leaving right now, and call him selfish, but he wanted as much time with her as he could get. Three more weeks—twenty-one short days—wasn’t nearly enough. The way he was feeling now, he wouldn’t be happy with anything less than the rest of his life.

  Besides, he couldn’t see Reily taking a penny from him that she hadn’t earned.

  He had until next week to figure something out.

  He heard the stairs creak and turned to see Reily coming down. “That had to be more than one song.”

  “She passed out cold in the middle of the third.” She shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “What can I say, I’m a total pushover.”

  “Come sit by me,” he said.

  “I should put Lily Ann’s clothes in the wash so they don’t stain.”

  “I’ll do it later,” he said, gesturing her over. “Come, sit.”

  Reily sat next to him, under his outstretched arm, drawing her knees up and snuggling against his side. “I had a great time today. I don’t remember babysitting being so much fun. Of course the kids I used to sit for were little monsters.”

  “Well, Lily Ann has her moments, too.”

  “She’s an amazing little girl, Joe. She’s smart and funny and sassy. And sweet. And yes, she can be a little bullheaded at times, but I think that’s a good thing. I don’t think you ever have to worry about someone walking all over her. She’s a tough kid. She’s going to know how to take care of herself. You should be proud of yourself. You’re doing an amazing job raising her.”

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you told me, about why Lily Ann thinks Beth left. I’ve decided that I’m going to talk to her about it. Make sure she knows that it’s not her fault. It’s something I should have done a long time ago.”

  She gazed up at him. “What are you going to tell her?”

  “I’m not sure yet. Something that’s as close to the truth
as she can understand. I’ve been so afraid that she might hate me for it, but I would rather her hate me than go on blaming herself.”

  “She won’t hate you, Joe. You’re her entire life.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Trust me.” She dropped her head on his shoulder, sighing contentedly.

  “So, you said she’s sound asleep?”

  She nodded. “Completely dead to the world. I guess creaming us at Candy Land wore her out. It was fun though. I haven’t played in ages.”

  “You like games?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well then,” he said, grinning down at her. “I know an adult game we could play.”

  She smiled up at him. “I like the sound of that.”

  “And in this game, everybody wins.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Joe had been so patient, and considering that he hadn’t been with a woman since his wife—which he’d admitted without even an ounce of shame or self-consciousness—the waiting had to have been torture for him. Reily knew, because it hadn’t been even close to that long for her and it was getting harder and harder to tell him no. Which was probably why she let him talk her into going up to his bedroom this time instead of fooling around on the couch like they usually did. And the fact that he was nibbling her earlobe when he made the suggestion, and her ears just so happened to be one of the most sensitive spots on her body—and he damn well knew it—probably had a lot to do with her caving so easily.

  “We can lock the door. That way if Lily Ann does wake up there won’t be any risk that she’ll catch us,” he reasoned, pulling her up off the couch and leading her toward the stairs. “And I swear I won’t pressure you. We won’t do anything more than what you’re ready for.”

  In theory it did seem the most reasonable and safest option. The only problem was, now that they were lying on his bed with the door locked, and there was no chance whatsoever of being caught, and they were kissing and touching, and he was telling her she was beautiful, she didn’t want to stop. She wanted to put her hands all over him. Knowing how much Beth had hurt him, how insecure her leaving must have left him, she wanted him to know, without any doubt, how attractive and sexy he was. How much she wanted him.