CHAPTER TWO DISTRACTIONS
CHAPTER
TWO
Distractions
Lee tested his latest batch of corn whiskey, keeping one ear out for the sound of Cora’s car rumbling up his drive.
In the few months she’d been with him she had become indispensable.
She’d organized his files, come up with a better way to track payments and accounts, and had taken to using the telephone like a fish to water, unlike Lee who didn’t like talking to people he couldn’t see.
Despite her efforts, the overall productivity at Green’s Whiskey hadn’t improved much.
Having her there was exactly as much of a distraction as he’d known it would be, and although they gained in efficiency through her efforts, they lost whiskey-making time through his diverted attention.
He’d catch himself watching her bite her lip as she figured through the accounts, or listening to the lilt of her voice as she spoke on the telephone.
When he passed her, he’d linger in her scent, and where before he’d hurriedly eat scraps from last night’s leftovers for his lunch break, now he lingered with her over cheese sandwiches and watermelon slices.
But if Lee’s productivity had dipped, his mood had soared. He woke in the morning with a smile on his face at the thought of seeing Cora and walked around with a cheery bounce he hadn’t known he was capable of.
‘Good morning,’ he said when she came through the door. It took him twenty minutes to get back to work.
Most days Cora was all business, powering through her tasks with the targeted focus of a conquering army, but today something was distracting her.
He saw her get up from her desk only to forget what she’d meant to do.
He heard her telephone the same customer twice and have to make up an excuse for calling again.
And at one point Lee caught her staring at the wall with her pencil still poised over her paper.
‘Is something on your mind?’ he finally asked during their lunch break, sitting at their makeshift table of old crates.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, I’ve just noticed you seem a little absentminded today.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Please don’t fire me. I’ll make up the time working late, or I’ll come in on the weekend, or I could—’
‘Cora, I’m not going to fire you.’ He shook his head, wondering how she could be so clever and so clueless at the same time.
This place had become unimaginable without her, and the fact that she couldn’t see how utterly essential she was took his breath away.
‘I’m not ever going to fire you,’ he said, giving her an earnest stare meant to reassure her, but which soon softened and stretched into something weighted with heat.
The stillness between them crackled with energy. Lee cleared his throat and leaned back. ‘So, what’s going on?’
Her shoulders sagged. ‘Remember when I went to see Benny?’
Lee tensed, fearing a repeat of the argument they’d had when she found out he’d known about her brother and hadn’t told her.
How could you keep that from me? she’d accused.
In the end, she made him promise never to keep anything from her ever again.
It was a crazy, impossible promise, but he liked the ring of permanence it had, the assumption that she’d always be there to hear his secrets.
‘I remember,’ he said, trying to sound neutral.
‘Well, when he told me about his house, I decided to try for a GI mortgage too.’
Lee’s head nodded but his body clenched.
She could only get at GI money through Roscoe, which meant she wanted to buy a house with Roscoe.
That shouldn’t be a surprise: he was her husband.
But Lee had still thought, or at least he’d hoped, that after spending so much time together, Cora might start thinking of him in the way she used to.
Which was wrong. She was married. But still, right or wrong, he had hoped.
‘GI or not, we’re not going to get the house,’ she said.
He was upset for her sake but relieved for his, which made him ashamed and kept him quiet, so she talked on about the bank and the real-estate agent and how Roscoe was fuming mad with her for dragging him out to be humiliated.
That loosened his tongue. ‘Roscoe has no business being angry with you about all this. You’re not the one keeping him down.’ Since coming home, Roscoe had let his frustration and disappointment fester into an ugly bile that had changed his personality for the worse.
‘He’s not like you, Lee. He came home from overseas and just, I don’t know, gave up.’
‘Not like me? What am I like?’ He was fishing, aching to hear a good word from her.
‘You’re … alive. You have vision and drive and passion. And you’re not waiting on anybody’s permission to make your mark. You’re a man who rolls up his sleeves and – and does things.’
Lee couldn’t help his smile. ‘Okay. I’ll take that.’ Lightness spread through him, and he buzzed with pleasure. ‘Well,’ he shifted in his chair, inching closer to her, ‘let’s see if we can’t get something done for you.’
She raised her eyebrows at him and the sparkling tension between them was back.
‘Uncle Drew is as good a lawyer as they come,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you meet with him and see if there’s any way to get what you’re entitled to?’
She slumped, crestfallen. ‘I don’t have money for a lawyer.’
‘Uncle Drew will hear you out for free if I ask him to. Then we can decide what to do next.’
‘Really?’ She brightened and rose a good two inches in her chair.
‘Sure,’ he said, enjoying the transformation.
‘Oh, Lee, thank you.’ Reaching for him with both hands, she slid her palms over his cheeks, cupping his face.
Lee froze. How many times had she cupped his face like that to demand his kisses, pulling him to her until they sank into an oblivion of sighs and moans and screams? He wanted to lean in. He knew he should pull away. Long seconds dragged as his blood rushed faster.
With a start she let him go, hands hovering beside his head before lowering them to his shoulders and pulling him toward her for a hug, patting his back in a gesture of casual friendship.
But while her right hand tapped with a carefree calm, her left fingers dug into his shoulder telling him all he needed to know.