9. Gavin
NINE
GAVIN
“All right, munchkin. Car’s warming up. Do you need to use the bathroom before we finish getting dressed?”
I held Josie’s snow pants in one hand, her coat in the other and shook them. Heaven help me, but I could no longer count the number of times I got her bundled up and then she had to go pee.
Josie grinned. She couldn’t wait to get out in the snow. “I’m good. I think. Oh! Maybe not!”
She took off down the hall where the slam of the bathroom door silenced her footsteps. I leaned back against the front door and bumped my head on the wall. If someone would have ever told me I’d be a girl dad to the girliest of girls—except when she was stomping through the muddy horse paddocks or helping in the barn—I would have laughed in their face. Given the fact there were five Kelley men in my family, I’d once been certain I’d only ever produce boys.
But then came Josie, all curly blond hair and blue eyes that changed every week as she aged until they finally stopped once they were the color of sage green. From the moment I held her, she held my entire heart in her tiny little fist.
I loved her without reason or limits, but some days she drove me absolute bonkers.
Finally, I got her bundled in pants, coats, gloves, and boots. She rushed out to the truck I’d cleaned off and warmed up, kicking snow into the air and charging straight into it. I moved slower, not bothering to stop her even though it meant I’d be shoveling the walkway again. Earlier, while Josie had been inside eating eggs and a bowl of oatmeal with extra helpings of brown sugar, I’d come out and shoveled the driveway.
I’d glanced in the direction of Penny’s house and debated cleaning off hers as well. It would have been the neighborly thing to do. I doubted she’d thought to buy a shovel, much less a snowblower. It would have taken me moments to take care of it for her, but then Josie had come to the door, shouting she needed her hair braided, and thoughts of helping out the pretty little teacher were put to the side.
Tracks were in her driveway, telling me she’d already left, anyway. Maybe I’d be nice and do it for her later. Not that buying her dinner and offering her a fork to share dessert hadn’t also been nice, but with the way she avoided me all night, I didn’t think I’d quite made up for being a jerk to her. I’d stayed quiet through the meal because it was an equal mixture of endearing and infuriating watching Josie and Penny together. A part of me wanted to grab my daughter and whisk her away from the woman she was becoming enamored with. The other part wanted to lean in and give my daughter everything she desired. Every time my daughter declared her great , I counted down until the moment when I was tucking her into bed and Josie would ask, “Can she be my new mom?”
As if finding a mother for Josie or a wife for me was some Dr. Seuss book.
She hadn’t yet, but I was certain Penny was quickly passing Josie’s vetting process.
“Oh no!” Josie cried from the back seat. “There’s a car on the curb!”
I’d been focusing on the cars in front of me that I hadn’t noticed it, but as soon as it came into view, I tightened my grip on my steering wheel and pulled off to the side.
“Is that Miss Pesco?” Josie asked.
“It is, kiddo. Stay in the truck, okay?”
I was already opening my door and hopping out of the truck. Penny had her back passenger door open, the half of the car that was halfway up onto the grass. Her front driver’s tire was up against the curb, the rest of the front end on the sidewalk, and her back end sticking out at an angle. From a quick glance, her tires were thousands of miles past needing to be replaced.
“You okay?” I asked, loud enough she jumped up.
Her mouth formed a perfect round shape in surprise and then tugged down to a frown when she recognized me. “Hey. Yeah… just slid at the turn and well…” She waved her hand toward her car.
“Yeah, I see that. But are you okay?”
“I’m good. Thanks.” She tugged a black tote bag out of her car and hitched it up over her shoulder.
“Let us take you to school.” It wasn’t like she could drive, and the sidewalks hadn’t been cleared yet.
“I can walk.”
She had on boots that might hold up in an inch or two of snow, for a short walk, but not for the distance she had to go. Besides, we were heading in that direction. The offer wasn’t ridiculous, it was neighborly.
Irritation spiked. So I hadn’t been all that nice, but she didn’t need to be stubborn about this. “Don’t do that. Let me take you to school.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Her voice must have risen enough for Josie to hear because her voice screeched from the back of the truck. “But it’s cold out!”
Indecision warred in her features. Josie could soften the hardest and most frozen of hearts. I would know. I was the best example of her miracle powers. Penny glanced down the road, probably calculating the distance she had to travel on foot, with a mountain of bags, through the snow, and whether that was worth it over sitting next to me.
Before she could decide, I took a deep breath and tried to stop coming across like Dalton, the family a-hole.
“Miss Pesco, may we please take you to work? We’re obviously headed in the same direction, and Josie’s right. It’s not only cold, but with the snow, anything could happen.”
She glanced back at her tires, frowned, and then scrunched her nose. The move accentuated a light smattering of freckles I hadn’t noticed before, but maybe it was the pinkening on her cheeks bringing it out, or the way the snow and sunshine made everything brighter, including her blue eyes I had no business noticing.
“Fine,” she finally huffed. “What do I do about my car?”
“Leave it. After I get you and Josie to school, I’ll make sure it gets to the local shop. It’s out by the gas station when you enter town.”
“Are you sure? That’s a lot, and?—”
And I hadn’t been all that helpful or nice to her. Or polite or respectful. I didn’t need her to finish the train of thought. “I don’t mind. Snow will slow us down on the site today, anyway.”
“Okay then.” A quick flash of a smile appeared and vanished. “Thank you.”
“Yay!” Josie kicked the back of the passenger seat. “This is great! We should take Miss Pesco to school every day since she lives so close!”
I was keeping one eye on Penny, the other on Josie. “I don’t think that’s possible, kiddo. How would she get home afterward?”
“Oh. Good point, I guess.”
Penny opened the passenger door and tossed in a large black bag, a smaller lunch bag, and a sweater she’d draped over her arm. She looked packed for a weekend getaway not a day at the office and my lips twitched with the urge to tease her.
“Don’t start,” she said, like she could read every playful thought on my face. “I’m new and I still never know what I need.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face said plenty.”
The door closed behind her and she turned to grin at Josie in the back seat. There was a playful twinkle in her own eyes. “Are you so happy it snowed?”
“Yes! This is the best kind because it’s wet and sticky, so I’ll be able to make a snowman after school!”
“That’ll be fun,” Penny replied. “I’ve never made a snowman before.”
“You haven’t?” Josie and I both asked at the same time.
Except where Josie was more surprised, my question came out with an angry tone.
She frowned at me, brows tugging down. “No. I never really had the chance.”
Who in the hell didn’t have a chance to build a snowman? It wasn’t like she grew up in Florida.
I pulled out into the street and headed toward the school. Penny’s car wasn’t the only one that would end up at Ryken’s Motor Garage. There were two others that had slipped off the road and there was probably more. It always amazed me how someone could spend most of their life driving in snow and yet every year, it took at least three storms before everyone remembered how to drive in it.
“You can make one with me,” Josie said. “I bet we can do it at recess! My friends and I always make one… and make snow angels if we all remember to wear our snow pants and stuff. Sometimes Avery forgets, though, and we don’t like to leave her out, so then we just play on the cement like we’re supposed to.”
“That’s really nice of you, Josie.”
“That’s because my dad always told me if I want to have good friends, I have to be a good friend.”
“Your dad is very wise.” The heat of Penny’s gaze seared my cheeks, making them burn.
“I know. He’s the best dad ever!”
Penny chuckled, turning back into her seat as we pulled into the school parking lot. And if I wasn’t mistaken, there was a dark pink color staining her cheeks as well.
I should have known not to put her in my truck. I’d most likely never get that image out of my brain.
With his navy-blue overalls buttoned up to his throat, Ryken shoved his grease-stained fingers to his hips and blew out a breath. His dark hair curled at his ears and went every which way as a gust of wind hit.
“This is worse than you described.”
“It is.”
Her car needed work. A lot of it. I hadn’t noticed how bad it was when I met Burt, one of Ryken’s garage employees, at the car for him to tow it in. Penny shouldn’t have even been driving on tires that bald, and the bumper and front paneling had taken a beating in the accident as well.
“How long will this take for you to fix up?” I asked.
He gave me a curious look. “She’s the new teacher, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Wanna clue me in on why you’re invested?”
I absolutely did not, but I’d known Ryken for a long time. He was closer to Dalton’s age than mine, but in a town this small, the saying everyone knows everyone was fact. “She’s Josie’s teacher and a neighbor. That’s all.”
“Hmm.” He refocused on her car. “Word in town is that she’s really pretty.”
A burst of heat punched me straight in the chest and I found myself biting back a growl. Was he thinking about her? The fact it was none of my business and still I was getting pissed at the thought was something I refused to consider.
“How long to fix the car, Ryken?”
“Couple days, more if I need to order new tires, but I’ll have to check my stock to know for sure.” He smirked and slid a hand into the pocket of his overalls. “Make sure you give her my card so she can come pick it up. I’ll be happy to give her a lift out here when it’s done. Or maybe drop it by her place. Said she’s your neighbor?”
I tore the card out of his hand and crumpled it in my fist as I shoved it into my pocket.
“How about you call me and give me the bill for the damage?”
“I think I’ll do this one on the house.”
Oh, he was goading me with that smirk. “I’ll cover it.”
He laughed and shook his head. He didn’t need to tell me I was acting crazy. I already knew that. “If you insist. Take care, Gav.”
He turned, tossed his hand in the air as a wave goodbye, and everything inside of me wanted to chase after him, pummel him into the ground.
Not good. Not good at all.
I glared at Penny’s car like it had personally victimized me before I stomped off back to my truck.
I should have let Ryken take care of her. See if I cared.