Far from Perfect (Perfect, Indiana: Book One)

by Longley, Barbara

  “Yes, sir. I got that.” You and everyone else in Perfect. He’d endured all the once-overs and you’d better not hurt our girl looks he could stomach for one day. “If you don’t mind, I’ll make a U-turn here and take them home.”

  “U-turns are illegal. I’d be forced to issue a citation.” He jutted his chin toward the highway. “There’s a dirt road up ahead. I suggest you turn around there.” The sheriff touched the brim of his hat and nodded to Ceejay before walking back to his car. He drove off in a burst of acceleration and a cloud of dust meant to remind Noah who wore the badge in Warrick County.

  Noah pulled his truck back onto the two-lane highway and tried to get a handle on the woman sitting tight-lipped beside him. She hadn’t made any effort to track her parents down and probably never tried to find Matt. Did she fear what she might find, or she was happier not knowing? Either way, it made no sense to him. Ceejay was a complex puzzle he couldn’t resist trying to solve. Complex and adorable. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her lips moving while she stared at the farm fields. “What are you doing?”

  “Counting corn rows.”

  “Why?”

  Ceejay lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “Habit.”

  No use commenting further. He’d already upset her enough for one day, and this probably wasn’t the best time to open the can of worms labeled Lucinda’s daddy.

  Medevac helicopters hovered in the air above him, the sound of their engines bringing him back to pain-filled consciousness. Noah tried to will himself back into oblivion, but the desert grit blasting into his open wounds like tiny shards of glass kept him front and center. Medics worked over him. One of them pushed a needle into his right arm and held a bag of clear liquid above his head.

  His entire left side burned, and excruciating pain throbbed through his left leg like he was still trapped under his Humvee. Glancing around at the chaos, he watched body bags being zipped closed over soldiers he’d known—soldiers he’d lived and served with for the past thirteen months.

  How had the medics managhat goes on between me and Ceejay is none of your business.s . His ed to match body parts to soldier? Maybe they hadn’t. Maybe it didn’t matter to them. His men deserved to have their own arms and legs. It was up to him to see that they got them. Noah struggled to rise.

  “Easy, Lieutenant.” The medic at his head pushed him back down by the shoulders. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Noah fought to throw him off. “My men. I need to get to my men.”

  “We’re taking care of them. Easy now. You’re going home.”

  Noah thrashed and twisted, tangling in something that wouldn’t let him go. He shouted and woke covered in a cold sweat. It took a few seconds for him to register where he was, and what was making the noise outside his apartment. A damned lawn mower? He reached for his watch on the nightstand and squinted at the dial. “Who the hell mows their lawn at 0600 hours on a Sunday morning?”

  Disentangling himself from the sheets, he swung his good leg over the edge of the bed and sat up to rub his face. His mind still reverberated with the images of his nightmare, a terror triggered by the sound of the lawn mower. His landlady was about to get a piece of his mind. Noah scanned the tiny bedroom for clothes. He fastened the prosthesis to his stump, pulled on yesterday’s jeans and T-shirt, and headed for the door, grabbing his cane on the way out.

  Early morning dew covered the lawn where the sun hadn’t yet hit the grass, dampening the bottoms of his jeans and chilling his bare foot. Noah followed the sound of the lawn mower to the front of the house and nearly got mowed over.

  “Watch it!” Noah glared as the stranger sitting on the riding mower came to a stop millimeters from his prosthesis.

  The kid cut the engine and stared back, his surprised expression shifting to suspicion. “Who are you?”

  “I’m the angry tenant you woke up, that’s who. It’s a little early to be cutting the grass, don’t you think?” His hands balled into fists. “Who are you?”

  “Noah.” Jenny leaned over the porch railing. “I’m sorry Teddy woke you. We should have warned you he might show up at any time. Come on up to the veranda for coffee. Go on now, Ted. Finish up, and then come join us.”

  The fight-or-flight adrenaline rush still pumped through Noah’s veins. He needed to take a few breaths before he’d be ready to join anyone for anything. Why hadn’t Jenny and Ceejay asked him to cut the grass? He would’ve been glad to help out. Shifting his balance, he glanced up at Jenny. “I can mow the lawn for you.”

  “I’m sure you can.” The lines around Jenny’s eyes creased with warmth and humor. “Come on up. Coffee’s waiting.”

  She disappeared from the railing, and Noah was left feeling ridiculous. Why had he said that? It wasn’t his grass to cut, and this wasn’t his territory to protect. Teddy might be a stranger to him, but he certainly wasn’t to the Lovejoys. He shook his head. Out of habit, he kept the young man in his field of vision as he made his way up the veranda stairs.

  Jenny sat at a wrought-iron patio table painted white and surrounded by wicker chairs with flowery cushions. “It’s fresh.” She gestured toward some kind of thermal container placed among a few mismatched mugs, a container tousled Lucinda’s hair.anNoah of cream, and another of sugar.

  Noah pulled one of the frilly chairs out and sank down. He reached for a mug and filled it with steaming coffee. “Thanks.” Noah inhaled the rich aroma, relaxing in increments as he leaned back and sipped the strong brew.

  “I’m sorry my nephew woke you so early. He comes by when he can, and we never know when to expect him. He farms with his father, so it all depends on his priorities for the day.”

  “I can do the mowing if you’d like,” he repeated his offer. “I don’t handle surprises well.”

  “We don’t expect our tenants to do chores for us.”

  “I know you don’t, but you’ve been feeding me, and you’ve made me feel welcome. I’d like to return the favor.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but Ted is working off a debt. I’m sure we can find another way you can help out if you want.” She smiled. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, if you want to store your camper in the bay area of the carriage house, feel free. Maybe while Ted is here he can help you move it.”

  “Thanks, I’ll do that.” Noah leaned back in the chair and drank his coffee. Birdsong filled the early morning air, and the sound of the lawn mower had an altogether different ring to it now. It had transformed into the nonthreatening, ordinary sound of everyday life. He breathed in the scent of freshly mowed grass, and the last of his tension slipped away.

  Watching Ted mow the lawn while he sat on his ass drinking coffee made him aware of how soft he’d grown. Idleness had never been easy for him. Now it worked on his nerves. Doing chores around the place would help, and the Lovejoy women could certainly use a hand. Maybe if he started taking care of things around here, Ceejay’s drive to see him employed would be satisfied. “Ceejay’s been pushing me to get a job.”

  “Has she?”

  Noah nodded, remembering how she’d brought it up again on their way back from his tour of Perfect.

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “You saw how it was at the diner. Put me in an enclosed space with strangers, and I start to sweat and get the shakes.”

  “Give it time. You won’t always feel that way.” Jenny twisted in her seat to face him. “If you want, why don’t you make a habit of stopping by the diner? Get used to people where you know you’re safe. I’m always there, and I’ll introduce you to everyone. Before you know it, they won’t be strangers anymore.”

  “Is Sheriff Maurer there often?”

  “Almost every day.”

  Noah shook his head. “He’s going to run a background check on me.” Jenny’s laughter brought a smile to his face.

  “I suspect he already has. Harlen and I grew up together. Both of us were born and raised here.” She straightened the cream and
sugar containers in the middle of the table. “We even dated some in high school.”

  “Is he married?”

  “No, he never did marry.”

  “You probably broke his heart in high school and ruined him for any other woman,” he teased. “You remind me of my stepmother.”

  “Do I?” Jenny peered at him over the rim of her coffee mug. “Are the two of you close?”

  He nodded. “My mother died a few days after I was born, and my stepmother raised me.”

  “Growing up without your mother is something you have in common with my niece.”

  “I guess.” Noah reached over to refill his mug. “Ceejay mentioned she doesn’t know what happened to her mom, only that she dropped her off here when she was three, and that’s the last either of you saw of her.”

  “How long have you been here now, three weeks?” Jenny’s eyes widened. “She told you all that?”

  “It’ll be a month on Tuesday.” Noah nodded.

  “Well, well.” Jenny expression grew pensive, and she gazed out toward the orchard.

  “Do you know what became of her?”

  “Of course I do, but I won’t bore you with that old tale.” Jenny swatted at a fly that had settled on the table. “Whenever any of us brought her mother up, Ceejay would get so upset it broke our hearts. So we stopped bringing her up. I guess it never occurred to me that she didn’t know.”

  Know what? Maybe if he pushed a little, Jenny would tell him. Noah leaned forward in his chair. Or maybe she could shed some light on why Ceejay never looked for Matt. “What about...”

  The front door opened and Ceejay came out looking like a disgruntled angel wrapped in a blue cotton bathrobe. Even though the robe had seen better days, she still looked sexy as hell. Morning sun caught in her tangled curls, turning them into a halo of spun copper and gold. Noah’s breath caught in his throat. Embarrassed by the way his body was reacting to her, he forced himself to focus on Ted mowing the lawn, on the coffee in his mug now strategically held in his lap, on anything that would help him get a grip.

  “I’m gonna kill Teddy.” She plopped down in a chair, grabbed one of the mugs, and filled it with coffee and cream.

  “Good morning to you too.” Jenny patted her arm. “Is Lucinda still sleeping?”

  “You know Luce.” She stirred sugar into the mix in her mug. “She could sleep through Armageddon.”

  Just like Matt. Noah smiled as he remembered some of the things Matt had slept through. Once he’d found him standing next to a dresser with his elbow propped on the top, sound asleep.

  “You find being rudely awakened this early in the morning amusing, Noah?” Ceejay asked.

  “Uh...no.” How was it Ceejay could look so fresh and lovely first thing in the morning, while he always woke up a sweaty mess? Lord, he hoped he didn’t reek. What about morning breath? “Thanks for the coffee, Jenny.” He rose to leave.

  “Aren’t you going to stick around and talk to my nephew about moving your camper?”

  “Another time.” Heat crept up his neck, and he beat a hasty retreat to the privacy of the carriage house. Damn. Being around Ceejay tied him into knots and brought home with excruciating clarity all the ways he didn’t measure up.

  Three days latZ

  Sweet Pea lumbered down the steps, followed by Lucinda. Noah watched his little niece make her way toward the sandbox. He couldn’t fathom trading in a daughter for an asphalt racetrack. Matt had been a fool. Noah grabbed his cane and headed for the door.

  Lucinda had settled herself next to the sandbox with a shovel and a variety of plastic cups and pails. She smiled up at him.

  “Hey, what are you doing there, Luce?”

  “Making stuff, see?” She pointed to several little hills.

  “Can I help?”

  Her eyes lit up. He looked around for something to sit on and dragged one of the lawn chairs over. “How about we make a castle?”

  “I don’t want a castle. I want a pony.”

  He lowered himself into the chair. Lucinda needed a swing set and a playhouse back here. Maybe he’d look into one of those put-together kits for her. Sweet Pea ambled over to investigate and nudged Noah’s hand with his wet nose. He scratched the big mutt behind the ears and studied the sandbox. His last experience with sand had been the day he’d lost his leg—one of the worst days of his life, trumped only by his stepbrother’s death. “A pony, huh?”

  Lucinda nodded and looked up at him with wide-eyed trust in his ability to produce a pony out of dry sand. Noah searched for a spigot at the back of the house. “Do you know where your mommy hooks up the hose to water the garden?”

  “There.” Lucinda pointed to the side of the house where a vegetable garden flourished in tidy rows.

  “Great. Let’s see if there’s a hose or a bucket nearby.” Leaving his cane on the ground, Noah hoisted himself from the chair and limped awkwardly toward the gate. He hated the unyielding stiffness of his prosthetic and hoped his dad had shipped the new one he’d custom-ordered before leaving Pennsylvania. The flexible carbon-fiber blade type was used by athletes, and he looked forward to getting around without the damned old-man cane.

  Noah found an aluminum bucket next to the spigot, filled it, and limped back. “I’m going to pour, and I want you to use your shovel to stir. Can you do that?”

  Lucinda nodded and picked up her plastic shovel.

  He let the water trickle out of the bucket while she stirred. He saved some for the finishing touches and settled himself back into the chair. The two of them bent over the project and began to work. He concentrated on forming a pony’s long head using one of the smaller buckets, while Lucinda made a pile that would become the body.

  “It gots to be a mommy pony,” Lucinda informed him.

  “All right.” He molded the wet sand for the head.

  “No, Noah. Use this one.” Lucinda handed him a disposable cup like the ones used at keggers.

  “You’re a bossy little thing, aren’t you?” and crossed her arms in front of her. aA4

  “That’s what Mommy says.” Her face puckered. “What’s bossy mean?”

  “It means you know what you want, and you know how to get it.” He touched the end of her nose, leaving a few particles of wet sand clinging to her skin. “It’s a good thing, sweetheart, and you do it well.”

  “Oh.” She accepted her due and went back to work.

  Noah lost all track of time and found himself smiling as the image of a pony lying on its side emerged. He shoved his chair out of the way and sat on the damp lawn with his prosthetic stretched out straight to the side. “Take your shovel and start smoothing out the sides there, Luce, and I’ll work on the tail.”

  “Are you gonna stay wif us for a long time?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know yet. Would you mind if I stayed?”

  “No.” Lucinda stopped working to gaze earnestly at him. “I like playing wif you.”

  Noah had to swallow a few times before he could trust his voice. “I like playing with you too, kiddo.”

  “Hey, what’re you two up to out here?”

  Noah startled, and a surge of adrenaline hit his bloodstream. He struggled to stand. What would Ceejay think of a grown man playing in a sandbox?

  “We made a pony, see?” Lucinda pointed to their sculpture, and Ceejay stepped closer to look.

  “Wow, you did make a pony.” She smiled at Noah. “That’s really something. I’ve been watching you two work out here for a while. Now I see what kept you both so occupied.”

  Her smile held only warm appreciation, and he relaxed. It was natural for Ceejay to keep an eye on her daughter, but he couldn’t help wondering whether she still occasionally peeked out her windows to look at him. God, he hoped so. “It’s been a long time since I’ve played like this. Lucinda is a great little teacher.” He winked at his niece. She beamed back.

  “Lucinda and I are heading into town. Do you need anything?”

  “Groceries.” Noah wiped his han
ds on his pants. “Why don’t we make a day of it and do something fun?”

  “Like what?”

  “Is there a zoo or an amusement park somewhere near?”

  Lucinda jumped up and down. “The zoo! I want to go to the zoo.”

  “There’s Mesker’s Park Zoo in Evansville,” Ceejay said, her expression open and friendly. “It’s about an hour’s drive from here.”

  “What time does your shift start today?”

  “This is my day off, and I’d love to go to the zoo.”

  “Great. We can stop at IGA and run errands on the way home.”

  “All right.” She smirked. “But you might want to change your pants first.”

  Noah looked down at himself. His khakis were grass stained and covered with wet sand and dirt. “Right. Give me a few minutes. We’ll take my truck.” He had to force himself not to rush back to his apartment, and hoped she hadn’t noticed the stupid grin he couldn’t seem to keep off his face. death certificates . His

  “Can we go in there, Mommy?” Lucinda pointed to the zoo’s gift shop set conveniently close to the exit doors.

  “I don’t think so, Luce.”

  Noah held his niece’s hand, and had for most of the day. He’d savored every moment her tiny hand held his with so much trust. That Ceejay had allowed it and had been so relaxed and open all day hadn’t escaped his notice either. “Come on, Ceejay. I’d like to buy her a souvenir.”

  “You don’t have to do that.” Her brow creased. “You’ve already done so much. You drove, paid our admission, bought us lunch, and you don’t even have a—”

  “I told you. I have money.”

  Concern filled her eyes. “Yeah, I know, but—”

  “I want to get her a gift.” Lucinda had already tugged him through the entrance. “How about something small, like a plastic animal.”

  “Oh, all right. As long as it’s something small,” she capitulated. “A plastic animal, Lucinda Mae. That’s it.”

  “OK, Mommy.”

  Noah let his niece pull him through the aisles. He’d been aware of Ceejay’s eyes on him the entire day, and it was no different now. She stood back and watched as he and Lucinda located the wire bins filled with the toy models of the animals they’d seen together.