Redeem

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  He looked beautiful and she looked... Beth’s gaze dropped to her brightly colored bumble bee print leggings and non-matching shiny red boots paired perfectly with the make-up free face and unkempt hair resulting from a day of house-keeping, rowdy child wrangling, and battling flat-tires.

  “Shit.” Really? It had to be him? After spending the week praying for just enough snow to make a certain man feel obligated to come her way and being disappointed, he showed up now?

  A little part of her wished it was robbers. Then she could have hit them in the head with her shovel and run away. “Hi.” She cleared her throat. “I was just taking out some trash.”

  Don cocked a thick almost black eyebrow at her making him look even more handsome than normal. “Cookies are considered trash in your house?”

  She looked at the bag of sadly overdone disks. “They’re a little burnt.”

  “They don’t look burnt from here.” Don walked down the driveway, closing the distance between them in a few long strides. He gently took the bag from her hand and inspected the evidence of her cooking crimes. “I think they look perfectly fine.”

  She reached for the bag, not wanting him to get any closer of a look. “They aren’t. I promise.”

  He pulled the bag back, his height making it easy to keep it out of her reach. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I take them off your hands?” He separated the flaps on the zipper lock and took a closer look. “If they’re half as good as the last cookies you made then they’ll still be the second best cookies I’ve ever had.”

  Beth’s eyes bounced from him to the bag he held carefully in his hands. He reached in and pulled one out and it looked like he intended to eat it. Right here, right now. She couldn’t let that happen.

  “Nancy helped me with those.” She took the cookie from his hand and held up the extra-crispy circle. “This is what happens when I cook unsupervised.” She chucked the cookie into the pile of snow still covering her front yard.

  Wait. That was a terrible idea. Now she’d admitted to being a terrible cook instead of making him figure it out on his own.

  And he still had a full bag of the damn things in his hands to grab from. Which he promptly did, but this time he didn’t give her time to grab it away. By the time she could begin to react he was already taking a big bite.

  Well, now he knew not only was she a broke widow with two kids, but to top it all off, she couldn’t cook for shit. Not that it mattered one single bit. Or it shouldn’t anyway. Beth wasn’t the kind of woman a man like Don would want, nor should he. After all he’s been through, the kind, thoughtful man attempting to choke down a burnt cookie deserved someone who will make the rest of his life easy, and she and her girls don’t fit the bill.

  It was one of the few things Rich said to her that was true. Men don’t want a woman with baggage. He’d thrown it in her face on one of the many occasions she’d decided to leave him.

  Don chewed thoughtfully, his eyes staring just beside her head. Probably trying to come up with an inoffensive way to spit it out.

  “Why is the spare on your car?” He leaned to the side where he’d been staring and started walking to her car, taking another bite of the cookie in his hand as he went. “Did you get a flat?”

  She turned to follow him, not really sure what else to do. “Yeah. I think I ran over a nail or something.”

  He squatted down to look at the smaller, thinner tire bolted onto the rear passenger wheel. “Who put this on for you?”

  Beth snorted. She might not be the best housekeeper, she might not know how to cook, and she might be known to eat raw cookie dough in her pajamas, but—

  She sure as hell knew how to change a tire. “I did.” She smiled at the back of his head feeling a little proud.

  Don finally looked up at her. She was expecting him to be impressed that she not only changed her own tire, but did it in the middle of winter.

  He didn’t look impressed.

  He looked something entirely different.

  He looked aggravated.

  Don stood up and stepped close to her, his clear blue eyes staring down into hers. “Why didn’t you call someone to come help you?"

  She shrugged her shoulders and tried not to get sidetracked by the nearness of his body. Bad things happened when she focused on things like that. “Thomas has to take care of most things since Mina’s been so sick with this pregnancy and by the time Paul would have gotten to me I could have had the tire changed myself.” She waved off the disapproving look in his eyes. “It was fine. The girls were good and I just switched it out real quick and finished coming home.”

  “Wait.” Don’s voice went higher. “The girls were with you while you changed a tire in the freezing cold on the side of a country road?”

  “Well, yeah. They’re always with me.” She was starting to get a little irritated. What did he honestly expect her to do? Start making phone calls to people who already had full plates of their own to come save her? Like some shrinking violet?

  “Listen, I know you want to be independent and from the looks of it you can probably change a tire better than most men. But…” He paused and stepped closer.

  She held her breath as his hands moved up to rest on each side of her face, the warmth from his palms sinking into her wind chilled skin. His eyes fixed on hers.

  “You are all your girls have. Next time something like that happens I want you to call me.”

  All she could do was blink up at him, mesmerized by the softness of his voice and the heat of his skin against hers. “Kay.”

  He smiled and her eyes immediately went to his perfectly full lips. He inched forward, those beautiful lips coming closer to hers.

  Then he stopped dead in his tracks. Don slowly took his hands from her face and stepped back. He quickly turned to her van, patting the back door. “Is the tire in here?”

  She nodded, feeling a little disappointed and a lot silly for thinking Don was about to kiss her.

  “Do you have your keys? I can take it with me and have it plugged and replace it tomorrow.”

  Beth reached into her coat pocket and hit the button on her keys. The car lights flashed and the locks all clicked. Don pulled out the flat tire before gently shutting the trunk. He reached down and picked up the bag of cookies he’d left on the ground beside her spare tire.

  He stepped in close and leaned down, dropping a kiss so soft she could barely feel it against her cheek. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” He nodded toward the house as he turned to leave. “I’ll wait till you’re back inside before I leave.”

  Beth spun on her heel and hurried back to the house, propping the shovel on the porch before going in and shutting the door. She snuck to the window and peeked out the curtains as Don’s car backed onto the road and slowly coasted away, leaving with a bag of burnt cookies and her flat tire.

  Huh.

  ****

  Don stared at the candy selection displayed under the checkout counter at the shop as he waited for the guys to finish plugging the hole in Beth’s tire. She was right, somewhere along the way she’d driven over a screw. Luckily it was an easy fix, one he could hang out and wait for them to finish.

  “All done man.” His sister Jill’s tall, lanky friend Chris rolled Beth’s finished tire in from the back shop. He propped it against the counter and went back to peck on the register.

  “I really appreciate you being able to do this for me today.” He reached down and grabbed two chocolate bars and slid them across the counter before pulling out his wallet.

  “Anytime man.” He gave Don a wink. “I owe you.”

  “We’ll call it even then.” The night of Chris’ twenty-first birthday came dangerously close to being his last. Don found him, passed out in the middle of the road after trying to walk home from the bar. He wrestled the six-four kid into his car and took him home.

  “That’s not from your car is it?” Chris glanced down at the candy and tapped more buttons.

  “No. A friend of mine.” Do
n handed Chris the money for the tire repair and the candy, hoping the kid didn’t want to know any more about his ‘friend’. Not that he would tell him, he just hated being rude. But if it meant protecting Beth from his bad reputation, he’d be the biggest ass in the world.

  Chris dropped the change in Don’s open palm. “That’s super nice of you man. Have fun.”

  Don nodded and took his change, Beth’s tire, and the candy bars and left the shop. He called first thing when the shop opened and luckily Chris got him right in. If everything went well getting it back on, Beth would be back in order by lunch time.

  As the farmhouse came into view so did two little girls, bouncing around the back yard, bundled up from head to toe. Don watched as Kate ran across the yard as fast as her well insulated legs could move and dove into a pile of snow. He grinned as he pulled down the driveway.

  Those girls definitely had to keep Beth on her toes. His smile faded as he realized that was one more thing to add to the list of things keeping Beth on her toes. A house, kids, a full-time job, she had to be overwhelmed.

  He stepped out of the car and pulled her tire from his trunk. At least he could help her with this. Take one thing off that long list she had.

  “Mister Don!” Liza came bounding around the corner of the house. “I saw you get here.” She came to a quick stop beside the tire at his feet. “Is this the broken one? Did you fix it?” She leaned down and peered at the treads then up at him. “Are you going to put it on now? Can I help you?”

  Don laughed. At least he could answer all her questions at once. “Yes.”

  Liza squealed and ran back to the side of the house where she appeared just seconds ago. Her voice carried around the corner. “He said I can.”

  She was back before he finished unloading his tools and now Kate was beside her. “Can Kate help too?”

  “Of course.” He pulled out his jack and lug wrench.

  “Girls.” Beth stood beside her car, arms crossed, looking very different than last night. Skin tight jeans clung to every curve he could see below the hem of her fitted red quilted coat, and tucked into a pair of ankle-high brown suede boots. Her shoulder length hair was loose and a little wavy around her face.

  “Hey.” He gave her a nod because that was all he could offer with his hands full. “You look really nice.”

  A pinkness filled in under the shimmery tan on her cheeks and her long black lashes lowered just a tiny bit. One hand went to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear as she smiled, gifting him a glimpse of the dimple he longed to run his fingers across. “Thank you.”

  Don tore his eyes away and tried to focus on the job he came to do. She must have somewhere to go and he might be holding her up. “This shouldn’t take too long.”

  She shook her head. “No rush.” She turned her attention to her daughters where they stood by the wheel well, waiting to help. “Are you guys bothering Mister Don?”

  They both shook their heads. Liza looked at him, then back at her mom. “He said we could help.”

  Beth looked unconvinced as she raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

  “Yeah. My sisters were this age when I started teaching them how to change a tire.” He set the jack on the ground and gave her a little grin. “As you know, it’s a good thing to know how to do.”

  “Okay then.” Beth stood awkwardly, her eyes roaming the ground between them. Suddenly she looked up. “Are you thirsty? I can get you something to drink.”

  Don shook his head and went down on one knee beside the car. “I’m good. Had my coffee on the way in.”

  “Okay.” Beth scratched her nose then recrossed her arms. “Do you need any tools or anything?”

  Liza went down on one knee just beside him, matching his stance. “Mommy you can go inside. We will help him.”

  “She’s right.” Don nodded to the house as he and Liza moved the jack into position. “You go inside and enjoy the peace and quiet for a minute.”

  Beth chewed her lip. “You’re sure you don’t need my help?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I’ve got all the help I can handle.” You go relax.

  Finally, Beth slowly turned and quietly went inside. Don snuck a glance as she disappeared behind the door, smiling to himself as it shut quietly. Good. Now Beth didn’t have to worry about the tire and had a few minutes of quiet to herself.

  With the extensive amount of assistance around him, it took Don about twice as long as anticipated to switch the tires. But the girls got an introduction into mechanics and self-sufficiency.

  And they entertained the hell out of him so it was a win, win.

  By the time they finished tucking the spare back in place and putting his tools away, it was almost noon. He walked the girls to the door. “Can you go tell your mommy I need to tell her something?”

  “You should come inside and see my toys. I have a boy Barbie with prickles on his face just like yours.” She frowned at his stubble covered chin. “Cept his are just colored on.” Liza gripped his hand firmly, trying with all her might to drag him through the open door.

  “Liza honey, let Mister Don go please.” Beth hurried from the kitchen, her boots and coat gone. She smiled at him. “Could you stay for lunch?”

  All three girls looked at him expectantly.

  “I don’t want to take up your day.” He tried to step back, but Liza, ignoring her mother’s request, held fast to his hand.

  “We don’t have any plans.” Beth crossed the large living room, stopping when she was uncomfortably close. So close he could count the number of thick, dark lashes framing her perfectly green eyes. So close he could smell the soft floral scent clinging to her skin.

  So close he couldn’t help but remember the feel of her lips when she pressed them against his. He tried to pull his hand free of Liza’s grip, but the little girl dug in, the tiny tips of her fingers pressing almost painfully into his skin.

  “Stay.” Beth pointed over her shoulder toward the kitchen. “It’s already made.”

  Liza gave him an unexpected tug and he stumbled across the threshold. Beth shut the door behind him, smiling as she passed back by. “Come on and eat girls.”

  Don walked through the house behind Liza, still being easily drug along by someone a quarter his size. Probably because he was going along more willingly than he wanted to admit.

  Liza didn’t let him go until they were standing beside a circular wood table, set with small cream colored plates with a feminine looking cornflower print bordering the edge, and matching bowls. Liza pulled out a chair. “You can sit here. It’s beside me.”

  Beth brushed against him as he started to sit down. She leaned over the table with a heavy steaming pot and gently rested it on a cork mat in the middle of the same kitchen table where Nancy Richards fed him all those years ago. Don rested his hand against the well-worn but beautifully maintained hardwood top. “Is this the same table that’s always been here?”

  Kate climbed up to squat in her seat so she could see inside the dish her mother just set on the table. “This was Nana’s table. She gave it to us ‘cause we didn’t have one anymore.”

  “Oh.” Don kept his eyes low, avoiding Beth, feeling guilty about what his innocent question brought up. The financial mess Rich left her in was as much a secret around town as his own lapses in judgment.

  Beth must have also decided to ignore it. “I hope you like chili.” She set a plate of warm cornbread on the table beside him and sat down in the chair next to his.

  “Did you make spaghetti too?” Liza looked disapprovingly into the pot full of the delicious smelling thick soup.

  Beth gave a barely audible sigh beside him. “I did not.” She held up the plate of bread. “But there’s cornbread to go with it.”

  Liza took a piece off the plate. “Nana always makes us noodles for under the chili.”

  Don stood up and leaned across the table, bowl in hand, and ladled in a large serving. “Well, I like my chili best all by itself.
” He sat back down and peeked at Liza from the corner of his eye. “Or maybe with cheese on top.”

  “We have cheese.” She jumped up and ran to the fridge, returning seconds later with a bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese clutched in her small hand. “I like cheese too.”

  Don pointed to the chili pot. “You want me to get you some?”

  “I wanna eat my chili like you do.” She held up her bowl for him and he dropped in a half scoop. He looked across the pot at Kate.

  “You want a scoop with cheese too?”

  “Yes uh-huh.” She smiled as he gave her a scoop that matched her sister’s.

  As the girls decorated their chili with piles of cheese, Don felt a gentle pinch on his side. He jumped and Beth stifled a giggle beside him.

  Thank you.

  She mouthed the words and gave him a little smile.

  He nodded and took his first bite of the best chili he’d ever had. “Holy cow this is good.”

  Beth beamed at him as she took a small bite off her spoon but her face fell a half a second later when Liza leaned across the table.

  “Nana is the best cooker.”

  TEN

  “Thank you for lunch.” Don set his empty bowl on the counter beside the sink where Beth stood over a basin of soapy water, scrubbing at the cheese glued to the side of the girl’s bowls.

  “Thank you for fixing my tire.” She unplugged the sink and the dishwater ran down the drain, his heart sinking as fast as the suds. This was all just a returned favor.

  Her eyes slowly lifted to his. She started to speak, but hesitated a second before finally saying, “I’m glad you stayed.” Her voice was cautious, her eyes uncertain as she continued. “Why did you come here last night?”

  His stomach dropped. He’d been hoping that would just sort of go unnoticed. Don cleared his throat. “I…” He scratched at his jaw. “It was just..”

  Beth stepped close to him, her nose even with his chest as she picked a stray shred of cheddar off his shirt, her gaze fixed on the fabric. “You know you don’t have to wait for it to snow to come here.” He heard her swallow as her head slowly tipped up.