No Ordinary Joe

by Michelle Celmer

  Lily Ann opened her bedside table drawer, pulled out a framed photo and handed it to Reily. It was a shot of Beth on her wedding day. She was very pretty in a fresh, wholesome way, much like Lily Ann, though she lacked her daughter’s impish quality. She looked almost angelic in her white gown, with her naturally curly, pale blond hair pulled back and draped beneath a filmy white veil. And though she was smiling, there was something in her eyes, a sadness that seemed to suck the joy from what, for most women, was one of the happiest days of their lives.

  “She’s very pretty,” Reily said.

  “Aunt Sue says I look just like her.”

  “You do.”

  “It’s time to eat,” Joe said gruffly from the doorway.

  Chapter Eight

  Reily jolted with surprise, dropping the photo on the bed as though she’d been caught misbehaving. She hadn’t even heard him come up the stairs.

  “Go wash your hands,” he told Lily Ann.

  “Okaaay,” she said with a long-suffering sigh, then she hopped off the bed and darted from the room. Reily heard her run down the stairs to the main floor.

  “With soap this time!” Joe called after her, then turned to Reily, his gaze shifting to the photo.

  “Lily Ann wanted to show me her mommy,” she told him, picking the photo up and placing it back in the drawer. “She was very pretty.”

  “Yes, she was.”

  Reily rose from the bed, wondering if, now that they were alone, he was winding up for another lecture about the virtues of avoiding each other. Instead he nearly knocked her off her booted feet by looking her straight in the eye and saying, “I owe you an apology.”

  She was so stunned that for a second she didn’t know what to say. Finally she managed, “You do?”

  “I was rude when you came to the door. I was just surprised to see you.”

  “I probably should have mentioned that Sue invited me over.”

  “No, Aunt Sue should have mentioned it. But she probably knew that if she had I would have been angry.”

  Reily blinked, feeling insulted. Some apology that had been.

  Her look must have said it all, because he frowned, shook his head and said, “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  At this point she couldn’t feel any less welcome, and the idea of sitting at a table with him and trying to eat made her throat close. He clearly didn’t want her there, and though Sue had invited her, it was still Joe’s house. She never should have come in the first place.

  Feeling a ridiculous urge to burst into tears, she said, “I think I should just go.”

  “Reily—”

  She tried to walk past him but Joe stepped in her way, trapping her in the bedroom. After what happened earlier today, she didn’t like being this close to him, especially when he smelled so nice. Clean, like some sort of masculine body wash. And his face looked so smooth she had to resist the urge to cup it in her hand. Looking at him made her heart beat faster and her face feel warm, so she looked at the floor instead.

  “Excuse me,” she said, but her voice sounded wobbly.

  “You don’t have to leave.”

  “I want to.” She tried to push past him and he wrapped his hand around her upper arm. The reaction was instantaneous. Her breath caught and her heart skipped and what felt like an electrical current zapped straight through her to her fingers and her toes and every place in between. Heat climbed from the neckline of her blouse up into her cheeks.

  He gazed down at her, his dark eyes serious, and his grip somehow managed to be firm and gentle at the same time. “Stay.”

  “You clearly don’t want me here,” she said, hoping he would let her go before she did something really stupid like slide her arms around his neck and kiss him. And this time it had nothing to do with adrenaline. This was one hundred percent pure lust.

  “I do want you here,” he said. “That’s the problem.”

  Their eyes locked and time ground to a screeching halt. She wanted him so much, wanted him to kiss her again so badly, that her heart began to race.

  “Time to eat, you two!” Sue called from the foot of the stairs.

  “Be right there,” Joe called back, his eyes never leaving Reily’s, his grip on her arm tightening the tiniest bit, as if he was afraid she might try to get away. Seconds dragged on like hours as she waited for him to do or say something. Anything. She wasn’t sure what frightened her more, the idea that he might actually kiss her again, or that he wouldn’t.

  Joe’s head dipped a fraction of an inch and Reily held her breath, then he mumbled a curse and dropped her arm, stepping away from her. “We can’t, Reily.”

  Reily sucked in a deep breath, feeling so dizzy from a lack of oxygen she had to grip the door frame to keep from falling over. “I know.”

  “Aunt Sue is waiting for us.”

  She nodded and followed him down the hall, praying that her wobbly knees wouldn’t give out on the stairs. Maybe Joe had been right and seeing each other socially was a bad idea. She couldn’t take this stress. The next time Sue asked her over for dinner, if there was a next time, she would regretfully decline. As for work, she would avoid Joe as much as humanly possible.

  * * *

  Reily strolled slowly down Main Street, feeling contentedly full after splurging on a roast beef dinner at the diner with Lindy and Zoey. Though her first paycheck last Wednesday had been pretty pathetic once Joe had taken out all the money she owed him, and she wouldn’t get paid for another two weeks, she’d worked darned hard since she got here and felt she deserved a night out with friends. And it had been fun, even though it seemed that all Zoey wanted to talk about was Joe. But there honestly wasn’t much to say since, after that kiss in his car, and almost-kiss in Lily Ann’s bedroom, then that disastrously awkward Sunday supper that followed, he’d been doing an impressive job of avoiding Reily. Which was the main reason why, when Sue had invited her for Sunday supper again last night, she’d said she had other plans.

  But Lindy, the traitor, had taken advantage of every possible opportunity to get them in close proximity. If they needed something from the storeroom she sent Reily, knowing she would have to pass by his office. If they needed an item ordered, she made Reily tell Joe. Not that it achieved her desired effect. Even when they were forced to interact, Joe was about as personable and warm as a robot. She never thought she’d feel this way, but she honestly preferred the cranky, brooding Joe to this new Mr. No Personality. And what made the situation about a million times worse was that the more he ignored her, the more she longed for him to talk to her. The less she saw him, the more she wanted to spend time with him. When he was nearby her heart beat like crazy, and though she was a pretty confident person she’d started behaving like a lovesick adolescent, flubbing her words or tripping over her own feet. She had a full-blown crush on a man who would barely give her the time of day.

  She was truly pathetic.

  Which was why she was out walking up and down Main Street by herself on a Monday evening, so she didn’t have to sit home alone knowing Joe was just a few yards away when it might as well have been a million miles. She walked all the way down to the bar and was heading back up when someone called to her from across the street. “Hey, Reily!”

  Reily turned to see Nate in his street clothes—which tonight consisted of jeans, cowboy boots and a Tim McGraw concert T-shirt—walking toward her.

  “Hey, Nate,” she said, greeting him with a smile. One that he returned twofold.

  He sidled up beside her, hands wedged casually in the pockets of his pants. “Where ya headed?”

  She shrugged. “Nowhere, really. I just had supper at the diner with Lindy and Zoey, and I thought I would take a walk before going home.”

  “I’m actually on my way to the diner to meet my dad. Do you mind if I walk wit
h you?”

  “I’d like that.” With his blond hair and ocean-blue eyes, not to mention the dimples that dented each cheek when he smiled, Nate was above average on the looks scale. A little clean-cut for her taste, but she was guessing by the way he always struck up a conversation at the bar when he stopped in for a beer after work, and the way he watched her serve the other customers, always smiling when she looked his way, that he was interested in her. And it wouldn’t hurt to have a little distraction while she was stuck in Paradise. Right? Anything to keep her mind off Joe. And why not Nate? As long as he understood that she wouldn’t be sticking around.

  “You don’t have Cody tonight?” she asked him, recalling that he’d mentioned having his son on the weekends. Of course he’d shown off photos of the cute, towheaded seven-year-old to her.

  “I normally would, but he’s in Denver with his mom this weekend visiting relatives.”

  As he sidestepped to let an elderly woman in one of those scooters zip past, his bare forearm brushed hers. She waited for the reaction, the sizzle of sexual attraction. Even a spark or two.

  Nothing. Not even a twinge.

  Well, damn. So much for that idea.

  “So,” Nate said, and she could tell by his expression what he planned to say even before he said it. “What would you think if I were to ask you out to dinner sometime?”

  She sighed to herself. She wanted to like him, she really did. He just didn’t…do it for her. “Nate, you’re a really nice guy.…”

  He cringed and said, “Oh no, not the ‘I like you as a friend’ speech.”

  She shrugged helplessly. “Sorry.”

  He looked disappointed, but not devastated. “It’s because of Joe, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He raised his brow at her.

  “Okay, I know what you mean. But what happened last Sunday, that was just…” She blew out an exasperated breath. “Hell, I don’t know what that was. But we agreed that it can’t happen again.”

  “But you like him.”

  What was the point in denying it? Nate had seen them kiss. And he hadn’t ratted them out, so he was probably the only person in town she could trust to keep her secret. “Yeah. I do. In fact, I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. And I don’t even know why. He’s cranky and moody most of the time, and I don’t even like cranky, moody men, but then he’ll smile and my heart will melt. And when he touches me it’s just so…” She sighed wistfully, feeling like a total dope for confessing something so personal to a guy who was almost a stranger. “I am so pathetic.”

  “Does he like you?”

  “Yeah.” That was the really tough part.

  A kid on a bike shot past them and Nate had to move out of his way or get plowed down. “So what’s the problem?”

  “I’m leaving in less than five weeks.”

  “So you could enjoy each other’s company until you go. What’s wrong with that?”

  “He’s afraid Lily Ann is going to get attached, and get hurt. And frankly, so am I. She’s been through so much already with Beth leaving.”

  “She doesn’t have to know that you’re anything but friends. I’ve dated a lot of women that Cody never even met. Yes, it’s tricky to pull off living in a small town, but you can do it.”

  He had a point. There was no reason why Lily Ann would have to know they were seeing each other. “Maybe Joe is afraid of getting hurt, too.”

  “You know, just now when I asked you out, I pretty much knew you were going to say no, but that didn’t stop me from trying. What’s the point in life if you don’t take chances?”

  “I guess that’s a chance he’s not willing to take.”

  “So change his mind.”

  She looked over at him. “How am I supposed to do that? And why do you even care? Five minutes ago you were asking me out on a date, now you’re trying to set me up with someone else?”

  Nate shrugged. “Maybe I think that you two just might need each other.”

  “But you hardly even know me.”

  “I guess it’s just a feeling I have. And my instincts have always been right on the mark. Just like I always thought that Joe made a mistake marrying Beth, and I was right about that.”

  They passed the ice cream shop, which in the blazing heat was overflowing with people, several of whom she recognized from the bar and said hello to. It was strange, but after only nine days in town, she almost felt as if she belonged. As if, in a weird way, she was one of them. It was…nice.

  “You knew Beth?” she asked Nate.

  “Not real well, but I went to school with a couple of her brothers. That whole family was bad news. Emily, the oldest, is the only one who really ever made anything of herself.”

  “She’s the town vet, right?”

  He nodded. “Her parents were so messed up on drugs and alcohol that she practically had to raise her six brothers and sisters. Her mom passed away a couple of years back from cirrhosis and her dad is doing a dime in state prison for possession with intent to distribute. Two of her brothers skipped the state with warrants against them and one died of an overdose several years ago. There’s another sister but she took off when she was sixteen, and far as I know, no one has heard from her. There were reports of marital and child abuse.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. They put the fun in dysfunction.”

  “Was Beth into drugs?”

  “Not that I know of, but you can’t grow up in that sort of environment without deep emotional scars. I guess Joe thought he could save her, but I honestly wasn’t surprised when she took off.”

  “Lily Ann mentioned that people in her mommy’s family were bad. Now I guess I know what she meant.”

  They walked along in silence for a minute or two, then Nate said, “So, if Joe really does like you, it stands to reason that it would probably irk the hell out of him to see you with another guy, right?”

  She shrugged. At this point, she wouldn’t begin to guess what went on in that head of his. “I have no idea.”

  “Well, we’re about to find out.”

  No sooner had the words left his mouth when she heard a child shriek her name and looked up to see Lily Ann charging down the sidewalk toward her. Joe was several yards behind, walking at a leisurely pace, dressed in cargo shorts, a white T-shirt and sandals, wearing his usual somber expression.

  Lily Ann launched herself at Reily and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I haven’t seen you forever! I missed you.”

  It had actually only been two days, but maybe to a five-year-old that felt like forever.

  “Hey, kiddo! I missed you, too. I’ve just been very busy with work.” Reily tousled her hair, jolting with surprise when she felt Nate’s arm snake around her waist. She darted him a look, but he just grinned.

  Lily Ann didn’t even seem to notice. “Me and Daddy are going to the ice cream shop! I’m gonna get two scoops of chocolate in a waffle cone.”

  “You’re getting a sugar cone with a baby scoop,” Joe said, joining them, and in response to Lily Ann’s pout added, “And you probably won’t even be able to finish that.”

  Lily Ann stuck her lip out. “Can too.”

  “Hey, Joe,” Nate said, not removing his arm from Reily’s waist. And it just felt wrong. Not creepy, sexual harassment wrong. Just…unusual. Uncomfortable.

  “Nate, Reily,” Joe said, nodding cordially, but his jaw looked tense and he avoided her gaze. Maybe that had more to do with her and Joe being stuck together in a “social setting” than with Nate’s arm around her.

  “You wanna come, too?” Lily Ann asked her, and turned to her dad, tugging on the hem of his shirt. “Can she come with us? Please, Daddy, can she?”

  “I think Reily has other plans,” Joe said, his gaze catching hers for
an instant, then looking away.

  Was that a hint of jealousy she saw in his eyes? A note of sarcasm in his tone?

  “Actually, she doesn’t,” Nate said, grinning down at Lily Ann. “I’m on my way down to the diner to meet my dad, so she’s all yours. And I know for a fact that she loves ice cream.”

  “Yeah!” Lily Ann screeched, hopping up and down, her pink flip-flops slapping the cement.

  The look on Joe’s face would have been priceless if Reily hadn’t been fighting the overwhelming urge to knock Nate in the head. Maybe she didn’t want to have ice cream with Joe. Did he ever consider that? What was it with everyone in town trying to set her and Joe up?

  Nate turned to her, and the dimpled grin said that he was clearly enjoying himself. “I’d better go.”

  “Yes, you’d better,” she said, hoping that her eyes conveyed the silent message that the next time she saw him he was dead meat. She wondered what the sentence was for assaulting an officer, and if it would just be garden-variety assault if he was off duty at the time of the attack.

  His grin widened and he said, “See you later, babe.” Then he lowered his head and kissed her!

  It wasn’t a passionate kiss. Just a quick peck on the lips. She may as well have been kissing her brother, for the supreme lack of attraction she felt. But that wasn’t the point. She hadn’t asked for his help, and she didn’t want his help. What she wanted was for him and Lindy and Zoey and Sue to stop playing matchmaker. And she wanted Joe to…to…wrap his arms around her and remind her how a real kiss should feel.

  Ugh, she was so pathetic.

  Nate strolled off down the street, and Lily Ann grabbed Reily’s hand, tugging impatiently. “Come on, Reily, let’s go!”

  “It looks pretty busy,” Joe told her. “Why don’t you run ahead and grab us a place in line.”

  “Okay, Daddy!” She took off down the street, bursting with pride to be entrusted with such an important task.

  Reily and Joe fell into step beside each other. After several seconds he said, “So, Nate Jeffries?”