No Ordinary Joe

“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 house-warming 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?”