He couldn’t figure out the point of working night and day to afford all this grandeur
but not being able to enjoy it because you were always working. It was obvious Mrs.
Clark and her husband had something to prove to
someone,
what with the posh-looking couch and designer dishes. Their kid was cute, though.
Looking around, he’d figured out quickly that they must not eat dinner at the table.
It was covered with newspapers and bills from weeks past, including a final notice
for something.
That is one crazy way to live
, he’d thought,
when you have money for lush carpets and nice curtains but don’t have time to pay
your bills
.
He’d managed to clean up the kitchen and whip up some of his famous chicken, broccoli
and cheese bake. He’d put their dinner in the fancy oven and figured out how to program
it so that it would turn on at six o’clock. Then he had cleaned off the table and
finished up just in time to go get the kid. He’d had a little of his mama in him after
all.
Upon pulling up to a town house equally as nice as the two-story home he’d just left,
he noticed a group of about eight girls in the front yard running around and doing
flips. A short girl with long dark brown hair and freckles yelled something at her
friend and then ran and grabbed a bag off one of the porch chairs and headed his way.
She approached his truck cautiously, staring him down the whole way. She was sizing
him up, and he had to respect her for it.
Opening the passenger-side door of his truck, she looked him in the eye and said,
“Ronnie?”
“Yeah,” he said.
The ride back to her house had been relatively relaxed. When they pulled up he told
her about the casserole and how to keep it warm, which resulted in a stunned look
appearing on her face.
After getting out of the truck, she looked at him before closing the door. “We have
cheer practice in the gym at school tomorrow until 4:30. Can you pick me up?”
He nodded and she blessed him with a pretty smile, then slammed the truck door and
headed up the walk. He watched her until she was safely inside and then he left to
go see Buck. Ronnie had dropped off some food and a chew toy for Buck this morning
and visited with him for a little while, but he still felt bad about having to dump
the dog on Rusty. Friend or not, that was asking a lot.
Rusty didn’t seem to mind, but Ronnie had been raised not to impose on people’s generosity.
He needed to start looking for an apartment that would allow pets, specifically big
dogs. After parking the truck in the driveway, he knocked on the door only to have
Rusty open it with an angry look on his face.
“Your damn dog has been whining all day, and I’m pretty sure there aren’t any IEDs
or the like anywhere in my house. I think he has PTSD. Find him a doggy shrink or
something. Damn!” Rusty said, holding the door open for Ronnie to enter. “Did you
get the kid home okay?”
“Yeah, and I did one better. Cleaned the kitchen and part of the dining room and put
some dinner in the oven. The kid needs me to pick her up from practice tomorrow, but
I could probably take Buck along for the ride. Maybe getting him out for a while will
help with the anxiety. God knows it’s a little rough for
me
to acclimate to civilian life. Still keep looking over my shoulder for…” He shook
his head at his own absurdity.
The blank look that so often crossed Rusty’s face when any of them mentioned that
day showed up for a brief moment.
Ronnie let the subject drop and entered the small living room of Rusty’s house. Buck
got up from the large pillow where he’d been lying and made his way over to Ronnie.
When Ronnie sat down on the couch, Buck laid his head on Ronnie’s lap and looked up
at him with large, sad eyes. The dog was even more lost than the men were now that
they were no longer enlisted.
Just like in the service, though, they had each other’s backs. They would get through
this adjustment period as a team—and that team included Buck.
Ronnie, Buck and Rusty watched television for a bit until Seth and Ian showed up.
Then they all sat around the dining room table playing cards and talking about civilian
life and their cleaning jobs. Buck seemed more relaxed with them all around. Maybe
he was just lonely without all of them.
No matter what this cleaning job with the Clarks entailed, he could always count on
these guys. Around them, he was just Ronnie…not chauffeur to a teenage cheerleader
and meal planner for the Clarks. Once he got his feet underneath him in this job,
he could start looking for a permanent place for himself and Buck.
* * *
While he was surfing the internet the following morning trying to figure out what
classes he should sign up for at the local community college, his cell phone rang.
He didn’t recognize the number but he answered anyway.
“Hello, this is Megan with the Emory Group. Kayla Clark asked me to call you. There
is an envelope here at my desk for you. Would you be able to stop by and pick it up
today?” she asked.
“Sure. Maybe around lunchtime. Will Kayla be available around that time? I’d like
to meet with her for just a few minutes.”
“I’m sorry, Kayla normally works through lunch,” Megan replied.
“She has to eat, right? It would only take a minute. I just want to make sure I’m
clear about what she expects from me,” he said.
“Kayla is usually on the run from the time she walks in the door until long after
I leave for the day. I’m sorry, sir,” Megan replied.
“Fine.” He sighed. “I’ll come by around noon and pick up the envelope.”
He’d met the kid and talked to the mom briefly. Where was the husband in all this?
What kind of man let his wife work her fingers to the bone and didn’t make sure she
at least
ate
on a regular basis? The man obviously didn’t help around the house, but maybe he
worked even more than Kayla did.
Rusty had always said Ronnie should do whatever needed to be done. Feeding his new
employer sounded like a good place to start.
After his morning workout and a shower, he got dressed and then picked up a sandwich
from one of the more trendy restaurants. He doubted the mom was a fast-food kind of
woman. He parked his older model truck in a parking lot full of expensive-looking
sedans and made his way inside to the receptionist’s desk.
“Hi, I’m Ronnie Brown. I’m here to see Kayla Clark,” he told the woman behind the
desk.
“Oh, yes. I’m Megan. Here is the envelope she left for you.” She handed him a plain
white envelope that obviously contained a key to her house, judging by the bulk in
the middle.
“I brought some lunch at her request,” he lied, holding up the bag containing the
sandwich and taking the envelope at the same time.
Megan stared at him. “Oh… I… She didn’t say anything about lunch.”
“It’s getting cold, so I’ll just drop it off in her office if you’ll point me in the
right direction,” he said with a smile.
Megan blushed, and victory was his. Mostly, he tried not to use his looks to get what
he wanted from women, but occasionally his handsomeness had a bright side.
“Her office is the third one on the right, down the hallway. She’s on the phone, so
knock first if her door is closed.” Megan smiled at him.
Heading down the hallway, he noticed a placard with Kayla’s name and knocked on that
door. When she told him to enter, he opened the door, unprepared for the looker who
sat behind the messy desk.
Addie got her cuteness from her mama.
Long brown hair was loosely swept up into a messy knot at the back of her head. Long
eyelashes framed round brown eyes that peered at him in question. A spattering of
freckles covered each cheek and the bridge of her nose. His eyes were drawn to Kayla’s
plump bottom lip, which she was chewing on. It was an innocent gesture, obviously
done in confusion at his presence in her office, but it sent shivers of sexual awareness
down his back.
She didn’t look like any mom he’d ever seen and she was especially young to have a
teenager. She should have been the poster woman for
MILF
magazine. Her husband was one lucky son of a bitch.
She paused midsentence and told the person on the phone that she would need to call
back, then she hung up and stared at him. Her full lips must have tasted as good as
they looked because she continued to chew on the bottom one.
Realizing he was lurking in the doorway staring at a married woman in lust, he entered
the office and approached her desk.
“Ronnie Brown. I brought you some lunch. You should eat it while it’s still hot,”
he said, placing the bag of food on the only available spot on her desk.
Her lovely eyes swept him from head to toe with appreciation, and an image of him
kissing and sucking those sweet lips of hers came to mind.
Married!
His brain yelled while his body continued to appreciate her. She wore a white business
shirt that gapped a little from being stretched tightly across full breasts. Whoever
said skinny women were hot needed a mental evaluation, because even while she was
sitting down he could appreciate her curves.
“I’m sorry… I’m Kayla. I was just expecting…” she started, and then stopped.
“Expecting what?” he asked when she continued to look him over.
“A veteran,” she finally blurted out. “Veterans are supposed to be—
you
are supposed to be—
older
…like a grandfather,” she finished in a whisper.
“I
am
a veteran, but I’m nobody’s grandpa,” he said, pointing at the bag of food. “Eat
up and don’t worry. I will pick up Addie from practice at 4:30. We worked it out yesterday.”
“Thank you. You didn’t have to bring me lunch,” she said.
“You hired me to take care of your family. You are part of the family, so…” He cleared
his throat. “What time will you or your husband get home this evening? I can stay
with Addie until one of you arrives and work on some of the items on this list.”
“I’m not married. It’s just me and Addie. I visit my mother every evening after work,
but I should be home by seven. Addie is used to staying by herself in the evenings,
though, so you don’t have to stay with her,” Kayla said, pulling the bag of food closer
to her.
Kayla’s single status explained a lot. He felt a little guilty about his assumptions
about the condition of her house and how she lived her life, but now he could stop
feeling ashamed for checking her out.
He still couldn’t help but wonder why Kayla had to do all the running around for Addie.
Why wasn’t Addie’s dad picking her up from practice some of the time? None of that
was Ronnie’s business, though, so he forced his mind back to the matter at hand.
“Anything special you need me to do at the house?” he asked.
“To be honest, I’ve been working so much lately I’m not sure where to tell you to
start.” She sighed.
“I noticed a couch in your garage yesterday. Did you want that moved into the house
somewhere?”
“No, I was going to donate it, but I keep forgetting to call someone to pick it up,”
she said, pulling the sandwich out of the bag.
“I have a buddy that could use it if you’re trying to get rid of it,” he said.
“Oh, sure, yeah,” she replied.
“I’m going to go, get out of your hair now, but I did want to ask if you were aware
that there is a disconnect notice in the pile of papers I cleaned off the table yesterday
and laid on the china hutch?”
“Crap! I forgot to enter bills last month, too!” She sighed again. “Could I ask a
favor? If I give you some money could you stop by the house and grab that water bill
and take it up to the city offices and pay it? If not, you may not have water to clean
with.”
“Sure, I’ll take care of it on my way to pick up Addie,” he offered.
Laying her sandwich down, she stood and walked over to a chair beneath the window
in her office and bent over to rummage through her purse. Try as he might he could
not keep his eyes from drinking her in. The dress pants she wore hid what he could
only guess were curvy and luscious legs, but they did show off a nicely rounded ass.
After pulling some money from her wallet, she turned and walked to where he stood.
“Thanks for doing this, and for the sandwich,” she said, handing him the money.
She was about a head shorter than him and, up close, simply breathtaking. He couldn’t
remember the last time a woman had turned his head to
this
degree.
He noticed her scent; it was like a full-frontal assault to his senses. Unlike the
floral scents his mother and sisters tended to wear, this one had a musky smell that
effectively kicked his libido into overdrive.
He took the money with a nod and hightailed it out of there.
* * *
Kayla stayed on his mind for the remainder of the afternoon. He made it back to her
house, loaded up the old couch in the back of his truck and reorganized some things
so she could fit her car in the garage. After cleaning up the living room, he headed
to his apartment, where Ian helped him unload the sofa and position it in front of
their TV. Ian and Seth both congratulated him on obtaining better furniture for their
apartment. He hadn’t lied to Kayla. Ian and Seth did need a couch. He would just benefit
from it, as well.
After dropping off the sofa, he went by Rusty’s house and picked up Buck. Then he
stopped at the city offices to pay Kayla’s water bill, and after that headed to the
school. He was a little early, so when Buck indicated he needed to do his business,
Ronnie grabbed the dog’s leash and led him around to the grassy area in front of the
building. Once Buck finished, Ronnie decided to take the dog inside the school to
see if they could locate Addie. The closer they got to the double doors the more excited
Buck became.
A couple of teenage boys came out through the doors and Buck barked and then took
up whining. After correcting Buck’s behavior, Ronnie assured the boys that Buck was
friendly.