by Marji Spicer
Joy had invited Pete over for lunch. She made him lunch in exchange for him taking her out to dinner. That way, he wouldn’t expect anything from her. Or, she hoped he wouldn’t.
Pete’s phone rang. He looked at it but didn’t answer it. Once again, he had to leave. She’d missed another chance to ask him for help with her furniture.
Chapter Fifteen
Two weeks later, Denver drove back into town. As he drove by Joy’s house, he saw Pete’s truck parked in her driveway. Denver pulled up in front of his apartment building and shut his truck off. He was dirty, exhausted, and irritated as hell. All he wanted was a shower, a beer, and his bed. Better yet, he’d skip the beer and go straight to bed. He got out of his truck and looked across the street. Joy stood close to Pete on the front porch. Too close. His mood turned darker.
Joy was about to make a huge mistake. She would give Pete the wrong impression. Her only excuse was she felt like annoying Denver. She didn’t know why he hated Pete so much. She threw caution to the wind and kissed Pete.
Denver watched her wrap her arms around Pete’s neck. Now, he was ready to explode. The little bitch wouldn’t give him the time of day. She’d known Pete for less than three weeks, and here she was kissing him.
Pete was his biggest competitor. He got a lot of jobs by underbidding him. He also cut corners, used the cheapest materials possible, and was shady as hell. The fact that he kissed Joy proved it even more.
He didn’t want to think about the pain he felt seeing her wrapped around another guy. Damn, it should be me. She sure knew how to pick them. He was tired, but it looked like he’d have to do this.
Pete saw Denver cross the street. “Oh shit,” he said.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
She hadn’t enjoyed the kiss. It was ok, but she hadn’t felt anything. Joy thought about the pain in the ass across the street. She bet his kisses would be scorching. She turned around. Oh, great, it is the pain in the ass. What in the hell does he want now?
Denver stopped in front of her porch, crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at her.
“What in the hell do you want?” she asked. “I didn’t invite you over here. Why don’t you turn around and go back home?”
Pete laughed.
“Hey, dickhead, are you going to tell her?” Denver asked.
“Tell me what?”
“Nothing,” Pete muttered. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“If you don’t tell her. I will. Although, she seems to enjoy being curled around you like a little asp.”
“What I do, or don’t do is none of your business,” she snapped.
“Is that so?”
“I happen to like Pete; you can leave now.”
“I don’t think so,” he growled. Joy stepped in front of Pete. “You need a woman to protect you?” Denver laughed.
“Joy move so I can get rid of this prick,” Pete sneered.
“We were just leaving for dinner.” Joy grabbed her purse off the porch swing. “Bye, Denver.”
Denver turned around and started to walk away. Screw it. Maybe I shouldn’t even say anything. The two deserved each other.
“What was that all about?” she asked.
“He’s always been an asshole. He’s pissed off because I get a lot of work, he wishes he could get. Bastard charges way too much. Does a piss poor job too. At least, that’s the word around town,” Pete boasted.
Denver stopped but didn’t turn around. “Hey, Pete, did you forget about someone?” he asked. “Do you plan to invite your wife along to dinner?”
Joy sucked in her breath. “Wife? You’re married?”
Denver walked away with a huge grin on his face. He whistled as he crossed the street. His mood had improved greatly.
Chapter Sixteen
Joy hung new wind chimes on her porch that she’d just bought. That made twelve pairs now. She loved the sounds they made. She’d been adding more of them ever since Denver first complained about the noise. He was such a grouchy man. Who didn’t like the sound of wind chimes?
Denver decided to leave work about an hour early. It was too windy to get anything done. When he got home, he stepped out of his truck and heard the racket — those damn wind chimes. One or two wouldn’t be bad. But there had to be dozens of them. He was irritated enough to walk over to her house when he saw her standing on her porch. “How can you stand all this damn noise?”
“What noise?”
“All of these things make so much goddamn noise.”
“Well aren’t you a little ray of sunshine tonight. Wind chimes make me happy. Sorry, they piss you off.”
“I bet you’re sorry you little witch. Can’t you take down at least a quarter of them? They’re annoying as hell,” he grumbled as he walked away.
She loved to piss off her so-called charming, carefree neighbor. He might have everyone else fooled, but not her. She knew the real man—the grouchy one.
A week later, she opened her windows before going to bed. It was so hot inside the house. One thing she did miss was air conditioning.
The wind chimes started to annoy her. It was even worse now that she slept downstairs right next to the front porch. She left them up because she knew Denver hated them. She’d never get any sleep with it as windy as it was.
Denver opened his windows to cool off. It was too hot to sleep. Normally, he slept with the air on, but it wasn’t working. Those damn wind chimes drove him nuts. There wasn’t a break from the noise. Joy was the most irritating woman he had ever met. No woman had ever pissed him off as much as she did. And, she loved doing it. He swore she put up more of them every day just to spite him. He didn’t know how she could stand all the noise.
Joy couldn’t take it anymore; she needed sleep. They had to come down. She took her little ladder out of the closet. She decided not to change out of her nightgown. No one would see her. It was past midnight, so everyone was probably asleep already. Or, trying to sleep. No one else had complained about the noise. Only Denver had.
Denver covered his head with his pillow. It didn’t help. He whipped the pillow across the room. He was exhausted and growing more irritated. To hell with it. He was going to take them down himself. She being was a public nuisance. He put on a pair of sweats and jogged down the stairs. When he got to her house, she was on the porch.
Joy stood on a ladder. Her short nightgown rose above her thighs as she reached up to take down a set of wind chimes.
Denver leaned against the porch, crossed his arms, and listened to her mumble.
“He’s such an ass. He’s the biggest jerk I’ve ever met. And, the most annoying.”
“You talking about me, darling?”
Joy almost fell off the ladder. “What are you trying to do? Give me a freaking heart attack. Why in the hell are you over here anyway? Go away.”
“You’re putting on quite the show, sweetheart. Why don’t you turn the porch lights on so that everyone can see?”
“I’m not your sweetheart. And this ain’t a free show. Now go away.”
“What’s the matter? Went a little too far with the noise? It got to you, didn’t it?” he smirked.
“Shut up. I’m taking them down. Now leave.”
“Go back to bed. I’ll do this.”
“No, I’ll do it. Be a good little boy and run along.”
Damn, she knew how to piss him off. Denver clenched his jaw and yanked her off the ladder. She began to struggle.
“You’re quite the handful, babe.”
“Are you calling me fat?” she hissed.
Denver squeezed her butt. “Only in the right places.”
“Put me down and get away from me,” she shrieked.
Denver did the only thing he could think of to shut her up. He covered her mouth with his. Joy briefly struggled before she gave in and kissed him back.
Of all the nerve. Gladys sat in her car and watched the preverts. Denver had that woman in his arms, and he was kissing her. Right there on t
he front porch for all to see. She wore one of those whore’s negligees. They carried on the way Pearl used to with Carl.
Watching them brought back a flood of memories. As far as Gladys saw things, Pearl had stolen Carl from her. She’d never forgiven her for it. Fifty years later, it still burned her. Of course, Carl had chosen Pearl. She doubted he even knew she existed with Pearl around. Gladys acted like a good Baptist woman, a woman with strong morals. Pearl had dressed like a whore and acted like a loose woman, so of course, all the men wanted her. Pearl and Eunice had belonged to a popular group of girls. All whores!
Pearl had married Carl. Gladys had been in love with him, and she never forgave her for it. It didn’t matter that he was Catholic, and her Baptist mother wouldn’t have allowed them to marry. Pearl became her sworn enemy that day. Gladys still hated Pearl for stealing Carl.
Gladys Russel was not a happy woman, and it showed on her face. She wore her gray hair drawn back into a severe bun. Her lips were tightly pinched, and she always looked like she smelled something rotten. Gladys looked down on everyone with a puritanical gleam in her eye. She joyfully lived in a state of misery. Gladys never got what she wanted out of life, and God forbid anyone else should. She felt cheated. It wasn’t fair that she never got her happily ever after. She hated to see young people who were happy and crazy in love. Everyone deserved the same misery she had been forced to endure. She had to watch Pearl flaunt her life with Carl. They went on trips and caroused around town. Her husband, Harold, never took her anywhere. Not one trip. All he did was work and then hide in his office when he was home. Gladys had hated her husband with a passion. She was married to him for forty-five loveless years. Each day had built upon the previous one, which in turn became a life of hell. He was partly to blame for everything that had gone wrong in her life. The rest of the blame she placed on Pearl. Even though Harold had been dead for the last twenty years, Gladys still held onto her hatred. Her story was one of a woman done wrong. She gleefully nursed her grudge. None of it was her fault. She was a victim. Things could have been different, but Harold and Pearl had ruined her life. It was all a kick in the teeth.
Gladys had found Harold’s secret porn stash hidden in his office closet after he passed away. There were boxes of filthy magazines and dirty movies. She had looked at every page and watched every movie. It had filled her with disgust. How could she have been so blind to what had been going on? She had heard weird grunts occasionally, but she had assumed he was lifting weights.
Gladys’s mother warned her that men were filthy creatures you had to endure. But her mother had loved Harold; she said he was the only decent man in town. All those years, he had locked himself in a room and indulged in his preverted fantasies, which she bet included Pearl.
Occasionally, Gladys would look through his collection to remind herself of how disgusting preverts were. She made it her mission to rid Bliss of filth. It was a thankless job. No one seemed to appreciate the hard work she was doing. But she would not give up.
Pearl and Eunice were in on spreading the sin throughout Bliss. They had not changed one bit since their youth. They were full of sin then, and they still were. Gladys knew Pearl wanted young people to stay in town, but she was ecstatic when they moved out of Bliss. Young people were nothing but preverts, and they got worse every year. Good riddance to them all. She decided right then to redouble her efforts to rid Bliss of preversion.
This woman was no better than Pearl. She was flaunting herself in the arms of the biggest man-whore in Bliss. Not even in town for two months, and she was in his arms in her underwear. Denver usually kept his whoring out of town, but it looked like this one was too tempting for him. She bet that Pearl had something to do with this.
Gladys heard through the grapevine that a new cop was hired to work at the police station. She hoped that whoever they hired would put an end to all the preversion going on. She couldn’t watch the fornicating any longer and drove on.
If Denver thought kissing Joy would shut her up, he was wrong.
“Put me down,” she said as she broke off the kiss.
“I don’t think so, babe. I kind of like how you feel in my arms. Somehow it feels kinda right.” Denver forgot all about the noisy wind chimes. He carried her to the front door, opened it, and kicked it shut behind him. “Where’s your bed?”
“Are you crazy?” she hissed.
He put her back down on her feet and winked at her. “Come on, babe; you know you want to show me.”
Joy stood with her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You’ll never see my bed,” she promised.
“Darling, why’d you have to go and say that? Now I’m going to have to take you up on that challenge.” He walked to the door, opened it, and closed it quietly behind him.
Joy put her hand to her heart. Damn that man. She wanted to show him exactly where her bed was.
Denver yanked down every one of the wind chimes. He grinned as he crossed the street. He wouldn’t sleep now, but for different reasons. Joy felt just right in his arms, and damn did she know how to kiss a man.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Denver walked into the diner and took a seat at the counter next to Joy. He ordered a coffee.
Pearl filled up his cup after she placed a big chocolate doughnut in front of Joy. “How are you doing this morning, Denver?” she asked.
“Fine,” he said.
He got distracted when Joy bit into the doughnut. He watched her eat it with avid interest. Damn, she had the sexiest mouth. He loved a woman who ate. Usually, women just picked at their food. Watching her eat was turning him on.
Joy looked up from her plate. There was chocolate on her bottom lip. He wanted to lick it off. Then he would bite her lip and gently suck it into his mouth. Two things stopped him. They were in the middle of the diner, and she would kill him. Her tongue flicked out of her mouth. She ran it along her plump lower lip and licked the chocolate off.
Denver’s eyes widened as he watched her mouth. So not fair. He almost groaned.
Joy swallowed hard. The doughnut felt like it had lodged in her throat. He thinks I’m fat and shouldn’t be eating this. Her appetite was gone now. She was embarrassed that he caught her eating like that. She practically inhaled half the doughnut as he watched. Nothing like making a total pig of myself. But she hadn’t eaten anything the night before. She was glad she had paid first. She felt humiliated; she got up from her seat and walked out of the diner.
Denver looked at Pearl.
“Oh, honey,” she said. “It’s not nice to watch a woman eat. She thought you were judging her.” She picked up the plate with the half-eaten doughnut and walked back into the kitchen.
“Judging her for what?”
“Nice going asshole,” Mark said as he walked towards the door.
Denver was confused. What in the hell just happened?
Chapter Eighteen
Joy stood outside Denver’s door. She chewed on her lip. If she weren’t desperate, she wouldn’t be there. Was she going to do this? This is a bad idea. She couldn’t think of anyone else to ask for help. Pete, the jerk, was out. She wouldn’t ask him for anything. Married! If Denver hadn’t come over, she might still be seeing him. Not as a couple, but as a friend. She didn’t need friends like that liar. She didn’t know Mark enough to ask for his help. Besides, it might seem weird to Krista. How did you ask to borrow someone’s fiancé? She didn’t want to alienate a new friend. It was Denver or no one.
Joy took a deep breath, hesitated, and knocked on his door. She waited. He wasn’t going to answer. Maybe he wasn’t there. But his truck was parked in the parking lot. She looked at her watch. Damn, it was almost 10:30. She hadn’t realized it was so late. He was probably asleep. She turned to walk away.
Denver opened the door. She turned back around. Crap, it looked like he had been sleeping. His hair was all messed up like he just got out of bed. Damn, he was sexy! Denver leaned against the doorframe. “Well, if it isn’t my fr
iendly little neighbor. Did you come to borrow some sugar?” he teased.
“No, I came to ask you a really big favor.”
“Ok, ask away.”
“I wondered if you might help me with something?”
“Sure, what do you need?”
“I kind of need help with my bed.”
“Darling, I’d love to help you out with your bed. What exactly are you asking for?”
“Well, I need it carried upstairs and put together. I can’t even get the mattress upstairs.”
“Where are you sleeping?”
“At first, I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag. I was going to ask, well, you know who to help me. But then I found out about him being married.”
“Let me get this straight; you were going to ask Pete for help? But plans fell through. Now that you’re desperate, you’re asking me?”
“You know what? I knew this was a bad idea. Just forget, I asked.” She turned around to leave.
“No, stop damn it. I’ll help you. I’ll be right over.”
“Thanks. You know I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate.”
“Yeah, honey, I know this must be killing you. Give me a minute, and I’ll be right there.”
Well, that wasn’t so bad. Once Denver was done helping her, she had to get him out of her room as fast as possible.
Ten minutes later, he knocked on her door.
Joy watched his muscles flex as he lifted the pieces of her bed and carried them up the stairs. He didn’t even break a sweat. She wondered what would make him break out into a sweat. Would sex make him sweat?
Denver turned and caught her staring at him. She blushed. “What’s wrong, babe? You look a little flushed.”
As if he didn’t know how he affected her.
Her bed was finally together. She flopped down onto the mattress. “Oh my God, this feels so good.” Denver walked around her bed. “What are you doing?”
