inspiring face, and was charming, as well. He could charm their socks right off, and steal their shoes for good measure.
“Joe tells me Natalia needs a place to stay, he vouches for her, and I say sure. Any friend of Joe’s…” The woman flashed her a smile that made her feel about six inches tall. Apparently, Joe hadn’t yet told their landlord that Liz was no friend of his. She’d lied, and he’d let her. Because he’d thought she needed a place to stay? Because he’d thought Josh had let her down and she needed someone to take care of her, like Natalia and the puppies?
She would prefer that Joe think of her differently than Natalia. She’d really prefer that he not consider her a stray like the puppy who now shared her name. She was strong. She had a good job. She’d spent two years taking care of herself and his worthless brother.
“Does he ever have visitors from out of town?”
“Not that I’ve noticed, though he does borrow my car on occasion to go somewhere.”
“Where?” To Savannah to visit his parents? Mika had mentioned that he called them regularly, but she hadn’t said anything about him showing up in person.
“Just day trips that he can’t make on his bike. He always returns it to me washed and with a full tank of gas. And when I ask if he enjoyed himself, he always says he had a very good time. Maybe he’s got a girlfriend we don’t know about.” Mrs. Wyndham’s shrewd gaze turned on Liz. “Was he visiting you before you came here?”
“No.” It was likely his parents. They’d always been close. It was reasonable that he’d want to see them as often as he could.
“That would certainly explain why he’s never shown any interest in the women around here,” Mrs. Wyndham mused. “Because his sweetheart in Atlanta or Augusta or wherever already has claims on him.”
It was possible, Liz grudgingly admitted as she mumbled something about the time, grabbed her shoes and headed for the cottage. Joe was a grown man who’d led an active life in Chicago, professionally and personally. There was no way that getting shot would make him swear off women. According to reports, a stream of them had visited him during his recovery in the hospital, all sympathetic, all wanting to take care of him. He probably did have a girlfriend somewhere, and it didn’t matter to her.
As soon as she stepped inside the house, she flung one shoe across the room so hard that it clattered and skidded until the kitchen cabinets stopped it.
It didn’t matter to her in the least.
The clock on the coffee shop wall was just shy of nine by the time Joe began shutting off lights. He’d been about to walk out the door nearly three hours earlier when Raven had pleaded for the evening off so she could go to a concert in Augusta with the “awesome guy” who’d transformed her into a normal-looking teenage girl. Figuring she could do normal only for a week, maybe two max, then the boy would probably move on, he let her go. Fifteen hours on the job wasn’t so bad. He’d done it for months when he first opened the place.
He slid the bank deposit into his backpack, then wheeled the bike into the alley, stopping long enough to secure the door. The bank was only two blocks south. It wouldn’t add more than a couple minutes to his ride home.
He crossed onto Oglethorpe, coasting, listening to the sounds of customers leaving Ellie’s Deli at the other end of the block. The night was cool, the humidity low, barely noticeable. Whatever he missed about Chicago, he loved the Georgia nights.
He was passing the square when a familiar noise came from the shadows of the park: half bark, half demanding yip. He heard it each night when he forced Bad Do-Elizabeth-back inside after her last trip out, when he moved her from his spot on the couch or his side of the bed and again when he disturbed her sleep when he got up in the morning. Maybe, if he was lucky, she’d escaped Natalia and found a new owner who couldn’t bear to return her.
“ Elizabeth,” a voice admonished from the dark. “Play nice, or I won’t take you for a walk again.”
He wasn’t that lucky.
Small feet scrabbled across the walkway, then the dog appeared through a break in the bushes. Dragging Liz behind, she darted toward him, forcing him to steer sharply away to avoid her, nearly losing his balance. She didn’t look the least bit repentant when he righted himself and the bike, but jumped up, front paws muddying his jeans, and started licking him.
“Oh, look, Elizabeth, it’s Daddy,” Liz said sweetly as she reeled in the extra-long leash.
He scowled as he pushed the dog away. “What are you two doing out here?”
“We’re working off a little excess energy.”
“Where’s Natalia?”
“She was with us, but Bear doesn’t have Elizabeth ’s stamina. She had to take him back.”
“Was she carrying him again?”
“Not when we split, but I think she was just waiting for us to get out of sight before she picked him up.”
“God, she’s a sucker.”
“She’s just got a soft place in her heart for Bear.” Liz reined in the puppy a little more, then smiled. “I think I’m developing a soft spot for this one. We have so much in common.”
Yeah, he could think of a few things. He kept them to himself, though. “I don’t think you’ve burned up enough energy. She’s still pretty wired.”
“I imagine she stays wired even in her sleep. Where are you headed?”
“Bank.” He nodded toward the red-white-and-blue sign for Fidelity Mutual. When she and Elizabeth turned that way, he swung his leg over the bike frame, removed his helmet and hung it from the handlebars, then began pushing it one-handed alongside the curb.
“Long day, huh?”
“Yeah.” Funny, though, he didn’t feel as tired as he had ten minutes ago. What was that about?
“Mine was leisurely. After brightening your morning, I went home and talked with Mrs. Wyndham while she planted a ton of flowers.”
She was smiling broadly, the teasing smile of a woman who’d heard interesting things. But not about him. The last time he’d done anything interesting was when he’d gotten shot. In Copper Lake, he’d lived like a monk.
But because she was waiting for a response, and he didn’t see any reason to disappoint her, he said, “You know Natalia isn’t the only one who calls Mrs. Wyndham the old windbag.”
“That’s not nice. I found everything she had to say terribly interesting.”
“Like what?”
“She thinks you collect strays. Natalia, the puppies, me.” She shrugged as if being considered his stray didn’t bother her at all. While the thought of her being his
He wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, but the laugh that escaped him settled it. “For the record, I’m not. And I’m not offended by her wondering.”
“For the record, I didn’t think you were. And I don’t know if I expected you to be offended. A lot of men would be.” She paused as the dog trotted off to thoroughly sniff an azalea. The nearest streetlamp cast yellow-tinged light over Liz’s curls and gave her white T-shirt a faint matching hue. The shirt clung to her curves and ended at her waist, an inch above her khaki shorts. Heavy green tennis shoes should have looked clunky, but instead they emphasized the lean muscles of her calves.
Keep your mind on the conversation-Mrs. Wyndham, you, gay. “My college roommate was gay. We stayed in touch until I came here. He’s smart, successful, has great clothes, has been in the same relationship for ten years and started a family a few years ago by adopting a little girl. What’s offensive about being compared to him?”
“Living with him didn’t make you uncomfortable?”
He snorted. “I’d lived with Josh for eighteen years. That was a hell of a lot more uncomfortable. God only knew what he might do.”
“Like cause you to lose touch with your roommate and the rest of your friends.”
Finally the dog began moving again, and within a minute or two of silence, they reached the bank. He dropped the locked bag into the night slot, then gazed around. Home was to the northeast. Nearer, only a block to the west, was the SnoCap Drive-In, a fifties-era joint with greasy burgers, crispy fries and home-brewed root beer. “Have you had dinner?”
“I have, but I’d like something cold to drink.”
He gestured, and they headed toward the corner. Halfway there, he responded to her last real comment. “When I got out of the hospital, I followed Josh’s lead. I ran away. I left Chicago as soon as I was able, I didn’t tell anyone but Mom and Dad where I was going, and I haven’t had any contact with anyone from there since. People here know where I came from, but they don’t know why. In the beginning it was easier not to tell them, and now…” Now it was easier to just go with the status quo.
“You don’t want them to know that you were the victim of a violent crime? Because it’s not that uncommon.”
“I know. It happens even here.”
“So the victim of violence part doesn’t bother you. Is it because your brother was involved? Or because…” Liz shortened the leash to pull Elizabeth back from the street, and her voice turned thoughtful. “You said you ran away. You think leaving Chicago was cowardly? That you should have stayed as if nothing had happened?”
They turned onto Carolina Avenue. The lights were brighter there, with the only traffic Joe had seen since leaving the shop. It was mostly kids in this part of town at night, cruising between the SnoCap, Charlie’s Custom Rods next door and Taquito Taco on the west side of the river. A group of boys gathered around the raised hoods of cars older than they were in Charlie’s parking lot, comparing one rumbling engine to the other, while newer cars filled most of the spaces at the SnoCap.
“I never got the car thing,” Joe said as they cut through Charlie’s lot and headed for the lone outside table at the drive-in. “Even when I was their age, a car was just transportation. As long as it got me where I was going, I didn’t care about the rest.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think that car you had in Chicago was more a status symbol than just transportation. You were successful and everything-the car, the clothes, the condo-showed it.”
Joe grinned. “I do miss the suits sometimes. I looked damn good in Armani.”
She tied Elizabeth ’s leash to a post a few feet away. “You look pretty damn good in jeans and T-shirts.”
He stared at her. Her tone had been casual, but there was nothing casual about the heat that burned through him. She thought he looked good in his clothes, huh? Was she interested in seeing how he looked without them? Scars aside, that was good, too, and he was real damn interested in seeing her without her clothes.
Or he would be, if she hadn’t been Josh’s first.
If he knew for absolute certain that she wasn’t still Josh’s.
