Ready-Made Family (15 page)

Had Reece not been in the room, he would have kissed her lips instead. And thoroughly.

She’d never in her life had a guy look at her like—like—well, frankly, like she was steak and he was starving.

She felt cherished and irresistible. Attractive, even.

He slipped the tools and hardware she’d forgotten she was holding from her numb hands. Then helped her finish suspending the shelf. Her brain buzzed.

He’d kissed her, he’d kissed her, he’d kissed her.

Her mind couldn’t stop shouting it out. Even if it had only been on her eye.

He stepped off the ladder leaving her to hyperventilate.

“Hey, if you go on a date, who will watch me?” Reece asked.

He knelt. “I hoped you would hang out with us this evening too. We could watch
Charlotte’s Web.
Figured I’d order burgers and curly fries to go from the B and B while your mom cleans up.”

Amelia laughed. “Do I smell that bad?”

He stood, reaching to help her off the ladder. When her feet found solid surface, he didn’t exactly let her go right away. He leaned close again. “You smell like hard work. Grit and determination. You smell a lot like courage and a little like motor oil and I love every drop.”

She started to tilt her face away but his gentle hand stopped her. “Don’t hide. Just for the record, when I see you, I don’t see imperfection. I see beauty.”

She wanted to snort. “In this case, I think blindness rather than beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“You’re wrong. And I’m on a mission to prove it to you.”

“M
ommy, this is so good!” Reece said weeks later as she scooped enchilada pie onto her spoon and slid it into her mouth.

“Isn’t it?”

Celia Munez, the wife of one of Ben’s teammate, Manny, had brought food by this evening, welcoming Amelia to Refuge. Last week, Joel’s wife, Amber, had brought Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings and a welcome basket. Amelia had begun to feel at home here, yet she still yearned for her family, dysfunctional as they were.

“I wish Mr. Ben was here to eat with us.”

“Me, too.”

“Why isn’t he?”

Like Amelia, Reece had grown used to Ben’s near constant presence. Amelia pondered how to answer. She and Ben were past the point of friendship, yet there were still aspects of his life he wouldn’t divulge. Like where he went every nonworking Saturday after spending Friday evenings with her and Reece.

He said he wanted to date her. She didn’t want to date other people. But what about Ben? Was that where he went? On dates with other girls?

How could she measure up to other girls in Ben’s eyes?
Any guy who looked like Ben had to have hordes of girls after him wherever he went.

The thought made her queasy. She needed to think about something else. She pivoted to face the kitchen.

The crystal vase Ben had bought her in the hospital sat boldly on the counter. The burgundy blooms remained in full force, because Ben replaced them weekly.

The sight of them helped to combat the lies. She’d choose to believe in Ben’s sincerity. And fidelity.

“Reece, you want to go for a walk after dinner?”

“Yeah. I miss our walks, Mommy. I wish Grandma was here to go with us.”

Amelia swallowed past the lump. Reece, Amelia and Amelia’s mom would take strolls around the North Carolina neighborhood and along the beach every weekday evening after dinner. Amelia brushed Reece’s hair out of her eyes. “I wish she was, too.”

Reece slid off the chair. Clops sounded as her shoes hit the floor. “Let me get Bearby.”

“Okay. You do that and wash your hands and face while I put this food away.”

She could freeze it. There was enough for another meal. Miss Evie had left another bag of fruit also, as she had the day Amelia had moved in, to welcome Amelia as a tenant. She covered the pan with foil she found in a drawer and put it in the fridge.

Miss Evie must have stocked everything the day they arrived because the dates on all the canned goods were for years away and everything in the cabinets was unopened.

“They’re right. Refuge lives up to its name.”

The only trouble spot was that none of the gazillion applications she’d turned in had produced results yet.

The ones that had asked her for interviews were leery of hiring her without dependable transportation. Soon as Gus
fixed one thing, something else broke. He’d suggested she sell her car for parts, but what she really wanted was to stick dynamite in the tailpipe and be done with it. The transmission was toast and the engine shot. In short, the car was totaled. She’d be better off to put the money into a newer one.

Problem was, to buy even a used car, she had to have income. To have a car, she’d need a loan. She couldn’t get a loan without credit. And she couldn’t get credit without a job. And she couldn’t get a job without a car. And she couldn’t get a car without money.

Her life was a maddening catch-22.

Amelia hoped she’d get the kitchen dishwashing job at Refuge Bed and Breakfast. That would be her salvation. Then she could save enough to get another car. And she still wanted to pay Gus for his work, even though it hadn’t resulted in her car being fixed. She knew it wasn’t because he hadn’t tried. He was more than competent.

She didn’t want to mention the potential job at the B and B to anyone because she didn’t want to jinx it. Every other potential job she’d mentioned to Ben or Glorietta had fizzled.

There was a day-care center right down the road, and school buses ran by the B and B. She’d need to enroll Reece in school somewhere soon. So she had to find a job in Refuge before she decided whether they were going to be able to live here.

Amelia hated to hope for the job only to be disappointed, but she really, really, really hoped the job could be hers.

“I might have found a job for Hutton,” Ben said between heavily loaded barbell lifts, as Joel spotted him at the gym Joel built on his property.

“Yeah?” Joel suspended his palms under the weight bar.

“Yeah, he’s one of thirty applicants who got picked for a preliminary interview at the B and B.”

“He did okay washing dishes for your mom at the bakery, right?”

“He did great at it. He also dusted powdered sugar on every surface in the kitchen besides the donuts, including himself. But he always cleaned everything up. Excluding himself. Most people who saw him leave the bakery thought he was an albino.”

Joel laughed.

“But other than that, he handled the duties well.”

“Sounds like the job would be perfect for him.”

“That’s what I thought, too. And since he’ll be living here with me, he can walk around the front of the building to work. So transportation won’t be a problem.” Ben pushed the bar up again for his next set of reps.

“How’s your dad? What’d the doctor say?” Joel helped Ben replace the bar on the last lift of the set.

A heavy sigh. “He never went.”

“You’re kidding. He still that extraterrestrial shade of gray you mentioned?”

“No, last Saturday when I went to visit, his skin was pinker. I pressed his arm and his capillary refill was about three seconds.” Ben started another set of reps.

“So just a little delayed.”

“Yeah, not bad. Except I noticed at times his bottom lips looked streaked blue. Like veins.”

“But no true cyanosis?”

“Not that I could tell.” Ben blew breaths out between the words. “Maybe Dad’s right and it’s just the arthritis in his neck from gawking at Mom all these years.”

Joel laughed then grew serious. “Hopefully.”

Ben stood and swiped sweat off the weight bench. They switched places on the machine. Ben positioned himself behind Joel’s head to spot him.

Joel tried to lift the weight and strained. He sat up and eyed the barbells. “You moved up in weight I see.”

Ben grinned. “I have good incentive.”

Lying back, Joel laughed. “The girl.”

Ben nodded, spreading his legs to better spot Joel as he lifted his first set.

Joel replaced the bar in the metal slots. “How’s that going?”

“Stuff with the girl?”

“Yeah.” Huffs puffed from Joel as he lifted his next set.

“The four of us have a date tonight.”

“Four?”

“Yeah. Me, Amelia, her daughter Reece, and Bearby.”

“Bearby?”

“Little stuffed animal that her seven-year-old is attached to at the heart.”

Joel laughed. “Bradley has one of those. Little paratrooper toy Amber and I gave him when we first met and he was sick. So, how serious is this?”

“Serious enough for me to notice jewelry stores around town that I never knew existed before. And I stay up half the night thinking about her and the days spent with her.”

“Whoa.”

“Yeah, and I know the first question you’re going to ask. And yes, she is a Christian. Sort of.”

“Sort of? That doesn’t make me feel good, Dillinger. So anyway, what’s the big dig on this girl you’re losing sleep over?”

“It’s not just her. I’m juggling stuff with Hutton, too. And you saw for yourself how that’s going.”

“Yeah, yeah. Back to the kind-of-Christian girl. Spill.” Joel squirted water in his mouth then swiped his chin.

“I look up to you, Joel. Not only as our leader and phenomenal airman. I admire you as a friend and trust you as a spiritual leader. Any of us would follow you into a lake of fire and back. Plus, you’ve been married longest.”

“I take it you want advice?”

Ben nodded and pressed the weights harder. “She’s a good girl. Got pregnant in high school by a violent jock who used her then deserted her. She made me understand under no uncertain terms if I even hint at trying to seduce her, she’d walk and never look back.”

“What’s her relationship with God like?”

“Arbitrary. She’s not obstinate toward Him. Raised in church. Her earthly father won’t forgive her mistake and her mother won’t take up for her.”

“Poor kid.”

“You have no idea. Which reminds me, her dad’s also prejudiced against Asians and warned her all her life if she ever entered an interracial relationship he’d disown her.”

“That’s gonna be tough on you guys as a couple.”

“Yeah, and Mom says the closer we get to a permanent future together, the tougher the strain. Being in a mixed marriage herself, she’d know. But she wouldn’t trade being married to Dad for anything.”

“Marriage. That where this is heading?”

“I want it to. She has trust issues, for obvious reasons.”

“Probably doesn’t help that her father is how he is.”

“But it’s not like she and him are on talking terms now.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, I suspect she thinks she’s used up her ration of grace and there is no more mercy or forgiveness available, since she knew God then turned her back for that short time.”

“You said she was raised in church. What kind?”

“I get the feeling it’s legalistic. Small congregation but they shunned her when she got pregnant.”

“She resistant to church now?”

“Not sure. I confess I haven’t asked her because she’s trying hard to prove to herself she’s a capable mother. People
in authority over her haven’t exactly spoken encouraging words to her throughout her life.”

“Tough break.”

“Yeah, so anyway, I thought if I invited her to church too soon, she might take that as me thinking she’s tainted or not good enough or something. So, I’m trying to be tactical about inviting her.”

Joel swigged from his water bottle. “If anyone can move the treacherous mountain of a prejudiced heart, God can. Entrust the outcome of this to Him, Dillinger. Hard as it may be, pray for this girl’s dad.”

“Thanks. I have been. Guess I just needed reassurance I’m on the right track.”

“I feel you are.” Joel wiped sweat from his forehead.

Doing the same, Ben stood. “I should go. She might need a ride to town and I need a shower. I’m bringing her to Manny’s birthday party. So warn the guys that if they tease or drill her for information, I’m sabotaging chutes.”

Joel laughed. “I hope you’re kidding, Dillinger. But I’ll warn them. However, you know how they can be. Whether they listen off the field is out of my control.”

“You can threaten to make them pay through other means.”

“Such as?”

“Subjecting anyone who disobeys your no-teasing-the-shy-girl orders to a rucksack run in their skivvies around Refuge. And I get to choose what goes in the rucksacks.”

Joel laughed and clapped a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re kidding, but the very idea you’ve plotted your revenge in this sort of detail concerns me about your sanity.”

“Sir, I
am
crazy. Crazy about her. She’s just really shy and self-conscious because of her lazy eye. I don’t want the guys scaring her off. You know how they can be.”

“Yeah, and until you met this girl, you used to join them.
In fact, if memory serves, you’re the one who gave Evie the idea to name a street after Amber and her Mustang mishap.”

Ben straddled the arm curl bench. “Who told?”

A smirk covered Joel’s grin. “I know all, hear all and see all. And I can see that you’ve got it bad for this girl.”

“Concerned?”

Joel studied Ben a few seconds then shook his head. “Nah. Glad. I trust your judgment, Dillinger. Can’t wait to meet her.”

“I’d appreciate feedback once you do. Privately, of course.”

Towel flipped around his neck, Joel laughed. “I’ll fill out a full spec report. In the meantime, keep me posted. I’m praying for stuff between you and Hutton, too. See you at the party. Hutton be there?”

“Uh, no sir. That’s the other thing. I haven’t exactly told Amelia about Hutton.”

Joel nailed him with a harsh look. “You’re gonna need to man up and deal with that one, you know.”

“I know. I’m trying.”

Maybe if he bended a little on extending trust, she would, too. But that meant they both had to stretch in the vulnerability department. Ben didn’t know if he was willing or able to be quite that limber yet.

“Likely someone will bring up Hutton at dinner Friday. Amelia would start figuring some of it out on her own.” Just, hopefully, not the part about how utterly inept Ben was in dealing with Hutton.

“With her being exposed to your sometimes disorderly, outspoken teammates, and you facing the Hutton revelation, Manny’s party will be an important test for each of you.”