My Heart Can't Tell You No (9 page)

June 1984

Joe stayed in the kitchen while waiting for the pizza. He took it from the oven to cool while he leaned against the counter, staring out the window at the moonlit lawn behind the house. In years past he would have blamed his marriage on Maddie. Over the last few years, though, he’d learned to accept the responsibility for his mistakes. It was just the naivete of youth that made him think he could get that fourteen-year-old girl out of his head.

“Smells good,” Maddie whispered quietly as she stood in her stocking feet behind him. “You’re not going to believe this.”

“Robby fell asleep.” He smiled gently at her.

“I’m afraid so. I tried to tell you not to make it. He’s very impulsive. Now you have a whole pizza to eat by yourself.”

“You won’t eat any?”

“Me? No.” She turned to go back to the room. “Maybe if you keep some here and take some up for Tom and Dad, that would solve your problem.”

Joe put most of the pizza on a plate and went into the room with her. Maddie had put her shoes on and was picking up her sleeping child.

“Here, I’ll trade ya.”

“What?” She looked at the plate he offered in confusion, bringing a forced smile to her lips. “Sorry, but my boy is worth more than two-thirds of a pepperoni pizza.”

“Ha, ha.” Joe put the plate on the coffee table and pulled Robby out of her arms, letting the boy snuggle against him until he quickly went back to sleep. “Those heels may be fine at the store you work at, but out here, you’ll break an ankle carrying him.”

“I can manage myself.” Her words were terse. “I’ve done quite well for the past three and a half years.”

“Have you? Good. Do you think you can manage carrying that pizza up to Mom’s? I’d appreciate it.” He was already on his way out the door.

They crossed the road and started up John’s driveway, its rocky surface giving Maddie difficult footing as she slowly made her way beside Joe. They were almost to the top of the lane when he saw her take an awkward step and he reached instinctively to grab her arm. He smiled down at her when he saw she had broken a heel from her shoe.

“Don’t you say one word, Irish! Not one word!” she scolded him as she removed both shoes then moved on with tender feet across the rocky driveway. “My new pair of stockings are shot as well—damn!”

“Are you informing me? Or just talking to yourself?” Joe tried to conceal his amusement as he watched her try to keep pace with him.

“Just shut up. Or are you waiting to say ‘I told you so’?” She moved to the grass that ran along the driveway. “There, that’s better.”

“No, I’m not saying a word.”

“Good. Just don’t,” she mumbled. “
Ouch
! Jesus!”

She was hopping on one foot, gripping Joe’s arm to steady herself. Joe grabbed the pizza before she dropped it as she pulled her injured foot up to look at it.

“Now what did you do?”

“Pine needle. Damn, I can’t win.”

“Why don’t you just go in John’s house and borrow something for your feet until you get home?”

“Because nobody’s home. They went away about an hour ago.” She pulled the needle from her foot then took the pizza back again. She moved back to the rocky driveway, preferring the larger sharpness to the pin-like sharpness.

“So where do you work?” Joe continued up the driveway watching the way her awkward steps carried her; he found the contrast between her movements and her business clothes entertaining.

“In town.”

“I know that. And don’t say in a store. I know that too.”

“How about a store on Market Street? It’s called RJ’s.”

“RJ’s. I take this
RJ’s
is named after someone?” Joe asked snidely.

“Yes, as a matter of a fact it is. There is definitely an RJ in the picture.”

“Well, still, I never heard of it.”

“You will—
soon
. It’s going to expand by next spring.”

“How do you know? They may go bankrupt like most of the small businesses in this area.”

“Let’s just say I’m very close to the owner, and I know for a fact that business is doing quite well.”

Joe slowed his pace. So she didn’t wait long at all, did she? They walked the remaining distance to Jack and Sarah’s house in silence where she took the plate of pizza for her father and brother, then returned with Jackie. She was about to take Robby from Joe but he offered to carry him the rest of the way to her home. Since she was minus a pair of shoes, she accepted.

Although Jackie was half asleep, he walked ahead of Joe and his mother in an attempt to get to his home, and eventually his bed, as quickly as possible. But as Maddie walked next to Joe he heard her sudden intake of breath as she stopped suddenly.

“What’s wrong now?” he asked.

“Nothing. Take the boys inside. Here’s the key. They should go right to sleep. Tell Jackie I’ll be in soon—that I forgot something at Mom’s and I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Joe repeated his question, suspiciously.

“Just make sure the boys are in bed, okay? I’ll be right there.”

Joe stepped to the side, letting the moonlight fall on her and showing him traces of blood from the bottom of her foot. He looked behind her to where she had just stepped and saw the broken jar she had stepped on.

“Jesus, Maddie.” He started to kneel next to her, but she stopped him.

“The sooner I can get the boys in bed, the sooner I can get in the house and take care of this. They’re almost asleep now. I don’t need them waking up fresh and ready to go just because of this,” she pleaded.

Joe got up quickly and moved toward the house where Jackie was sitting on the front steps, eying him with a sleepy distrust. He unlocked the door and took a step inside.

“Jackie, you’ll have to show me where your bedroom is. I’ve never been in here before.”

“Where’s Mom?” Jackie’s voice was slurred from want of sleep.

“She forgot something up at your Gramma’s. Come turn on the light before I trip.”

Jackie slowly got to his feet, walking past Joe and absently switching on the living room light as he crossed the room then made a left and headed for his bedroom. Joe followed him, seeing the boy had stripped down to his underwear and was making a fast dive for his bed. Joe removed Robby’s shorts and sneakers and covered him with a sheet before turning off their light and closing the door.

“Mom leaves the door open,” Jackie said sleepily as he turned away from him.

He left the door partially ajar, then quickly went through the hall and living room to find Maddie sitting on the front steps, holding a tissue to her injured foot. He opened the door but when she made an effort to step inside, he picked her up and carried her across the room.

“Put me down!” she hissed at him.

“You wouldn’t want to stain that nice white carpet of yours, would you? Which way?” She pointed to the left, then, before they reached the boys’ door, to the right. “I’m sure RJ probably helped finance it.”

“No, I wouldn’t want to stain it. And yes, as a matter of fact, RJ did finance it,” she told him, then noticed where he was taking her. “In the bathroom, not my bedroom.”

“The bedroom will do.” He placed her on the edge of the bed then went for some bandages and peroxide.

When he came back from the bathroom, he saw she was rolling her stockings down over her thighs. Every muscle in his body seemed to instantly tighten at the sight. She always was quick to arouse him. She turned and noticed him watching her then lowered her skirt as she sat back on the bed.

“Well, I can’t exactly bandage it over the stockings.”

He looked at the magazine she stood on while she unhooked her stockings. Its front page was smeared with blood, saving the carpet beneath.

“You could have waited for me to help. You would have saved yourself that magazine.” He moved to the bed and knelt before her.

“I’ve already read it.”

His hands went to the stockings that were rolled to her knees, beginning to roll them over her calf and feeling the irregular texture of the nylon. Then it came to him that they weren’t made of nylon at all. They were silk. He quickly pulled it off. The Maddie he knew could never afford silk stockings!

“Another gift from RJ?” he growled as he pulled her foot up to inspect the wound.

“You could say that.” She winced at his treatment of her foot.

He wiped the wound with some gauze, seeing it was no more than an inch in length, but the steady flow of blood made it wet again.

“You’re gonna have to hold it together while I put some Steri-Strips on it. If that doesn’t stop the bleeding, then you’ll have to go in for some stitches.”

He opened the small pack of adhesive strips as she pushed her fingers together on either side of the sole of her foot. Then wiping it clean again, he began putting the strips on until four of them secured the wound. He finished by covering it with a larger bandage.

“Thank you. I can manage by myself now.” She moved to stand up, but he pushed her back down.

“Don’t stand on it! You’ll break it open again. How could you have managed being a mother for almost eight years and not know that?” he scolded her.

“Don’t you ever accuse me of being an incompetent mother, or you’ll be in for a fight like you’ve never seen!” she said in a low, threatening voice.

He picked up the magazine and the paper from the bandages and dropped them in a wastebasket, then picked up the unused peroxide and extra bandages and returned them to the bathroom. “Stay off the foot,” he ordered as he looked at her from the doorway.

“And just how do you expect me to get around?”

“I think you can manage for the night. Tomorrow you’ll just have to stay home from work. That is, if you can bear to be away from your generous RJ for a day or two.”

“That’s the trouble, Joe, I can’t,” she smiled smugly at him.

He walked back to her, looking at the furnishings around him; the dresser and bed were of the same era as the furnishings in the living room and bathroom. They could have all come out of a home during the Great Depression, but they were still in immaculate condition. That bathroom dated even farther back than that, with its claw-foot tub and matching toilet and sink. It was all quite nostalgic and expensive, something no working girl could buy on wages from a store, even if she were the manager.

“You got yourself a nice place here, Maddie. RJ pay for it?”

“Most of the furnishings and two cars as well.” She looked at him defiantly. “Now, do you see why I have to go in to work?”

He stared at her for only a moment before his irritation moved his arms around her and pulled her to him. His mouth found hers; his lips possessing hers. She fought him only a second or two before giving in and opening her lips to him, meeting his kiss with a desire as hungry as his own. His hands went to her hair, pulling pins from it and allowing the dark waves to fall down her back, pulling her closer as their tongues moved together and he tasted her sweetness.

Joe pulled away, his breathing heavy as he looked down at her. “I always could get to you quickly. Just like . . . .”

As he said it, her hand met his face before he could tell her—just like she could always get to him. He looked at her with anger seething through him.