“She misses her boyfriend back home,” Angie said as she moved to the front closet and hung up her coat. “They had a fight and broke up before she came here, and she didn’t tell him where she was going. She didn’t say goodbye.”
Joe went to the fridge for another bottle of beer. Angie wished he would just have a soda, because he had such a hard time waking up in the mornings when he’d been drinking, and it was up to her to get him out the door.
“I wouldn’t be too pleased if you left town without saying goodbye,” he said with a note of disbelief that a woman could do something like that.
Angie returned to the kitchen and filled the sink to wash the dishes.
“What’s she going to do about it?” Joe asked, puffing on the cigarette.
Angie faced him. She didn’t think he knew about Valerie’s pregnancy, but she couldn’t be sure. And since his father was old friends with Valerie’s father, Angie had to be careful about what she revealed. She didn’t want to betray her new friend. “Nothing,” she replied with a shrug. “She’s just sad and needed a shoulder to cry on.”
She turned away from Joe and loaded some plates into the soapy water. Joe stood behind her, smoking. After a while, he extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray and slid his hands around her waist. He kissed the back of her neck.
“You smell good.” His voice was husky and low. “Coming to bed soon?”
Joe was certainly a charmer when he wanted to be, even after a few beers. His lips were soft and warm, and he knew exactly how to use his hands, even standing at the kitchen sink. With a light touch, he pushed her hair away from her neck and kissed behind her ear, whichmade her flesh tingle with desire. She turned, rose on her tiptoes, and wrapped her arms around his neck. They kissed passionately, and her body responded to his skillful advances.
“I’ll be there soon,” she said playfully, pushing him back. “Just give me a few minutes to finish up here.”
One side of his mouth curled up in an eager grin, and he kissed her on the cheek before he sauntered out of the kitchen.
Angie watched him go and felt almost dizzy with yearning. She was one lucky woman.
The phone rang and jolted Angie awake. She sat up with a gasp, then immediately flopped back down because she was accustomed to this. Her husband was an officer of the law, and sometimes the phone rang in the middle of the night. It was nothing out of the ordinary and nothing to cause panic. Usually, it was a complaint about some local teens causing trouble down at the docks or someone who’d had a little too much to drink and driven their car into a ditch.
Joe was out of bed in an instant, padding naked across the floor to the phone in the kitchen. “Joe Brown speaking.”
Angie lay on her back, blinking up at the ceiling, listening.
“Not again,” he said with annoyance. “At least we know where he is. Did he break the lock?” There was a pause. “No problem. I’ll check it out when I get there. Don’t do anything else. Just sit tight. I’m heading out now.” Joe hung up the phone and returned to the bedroom.
“What’s going on?” Angie asked. She sat up and tugged at the covers to keep warm in the midnight chill.
Joe switched on the overhead light and opened the closet. He reached for his trousers and pulled them on. “Jeremy’s sleeping in the Jacobsons’ shed.”
Angie glanced at the window. It was pouring rain outside. “His parents probably locked him out of the house again. You’re not going to arrest him, are you?”
Joe shrugged into his shirt. “I might, because breaking and entering is a crime. You know that.”
Secretly offended by his condescending tone, she said, “But if he’s got nowhere else to go and he’s not hurting anyone ...”
“Sure,” Joe said mockingly. “It’s totally fine. Until he makes off with Mr.Jacobson’s lawn mower and sells it in Seward on Friday.”
“But he hasn’t taken anything, has he?” she countered. “He’s just sleeping in there.”
“He won’t be sleeping when I burst through the door.” Joe buckled the belt on his trousers. “And if that lock is busted, you can bet your last dollar I’ll be marching him straight into the station and charging him.”
Angie forced herself not to say anything more, because no good could come from getting into an argument with Joe about the law, especially when it concerned Jeremy. Joe had once accused her of being biased, and there was some truth to that. But was it so wrong to take pity on someone who had been dealt a bad hand in life? Maybe all Jeremy needed was a leg up. If someone would only help him and give him a job that he could do, something he enjoyed, he might be fine. He only acted out when he felt desperate or threatened or backed into a corner.
She continued to sit up in bed while Joe shut the closet door and approached the bed.
“Go back to sleep,” he said, “and don’t take Jeremy’s side in this. He gets away with too much around here, and it’s people like you that encourage him.”
“How do I encourage him?” she asked, indignant.
“When you help him get away with stuff,” Joe replied. “You and half the people in this town are responsible for him never learning right from wrong. And when you make me out to be the bad guy ...” Joewas about to walk out when he stopped, changed his mind, and bent to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m just trying to do my job.”
“I know,” she replied. “And I don’t think you’re the bad guy.”
