Page 11 of Sycamore Circle

She chuckled softly again. “To be honest, I don’t. Not really. Tony takes Chloe once a week and every other weekend. Having an evening just for myself always sounds good, but half the time I’m usually wondering what to do with myself.”

“You don’t usually go out on the town?”

Hearing the teasing in his voice, she smiled. “Nope. Most of the time, I just hang out at home. I heated up some cardboard pizza and now I’m working on a painting. And... now you know exactly how boring my life really is.”

“It doesn’t sound boring at all.”

He sounded like he meant it. Feeling a little better about herself, Joy said, “What about you? Did everything go okay at your meeting or whatever it was?”

“Yeah. It turns out that this guy had already been pushing the boundaries, so we sent him on his way.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that some guys get out of Madisonville but don’t act like they want to stay out. If a person doesn’t want to change, then they won’t. And when that happens, I’m usually the person who has to remind them that the real world isn’t exactly full of folks who want to give ex-cons second and third chances.”

“I guess you have to be tough with them.”

“Yeah.”

“Ah.” Joy wasn’t sure what to say to that. She wanted to sound supportive but not pretend she had any experience with what he was talking about.

After a second passed, Bo made a noise that sounded like something between a groan and a sigh. “Hey, you know, maybe this was a mistake.”

“What is?”

“Calling you.” He paused, then added, “No, trying to talk to you like we had something to say to each other. You’re a high-class girl. A sweet thing. You’ve spent your day helping people learn to read and worrying about little girls’ ballet classes. Here I am, talking about dealing with felons.”

He wasn’t wrong. Everything he’d been describing was outside anything she’d ever imagined or thought about. She wasn’t scared or sorry it happened. “You know what? I don’t regret giving you my phone number.” She was telling the truth.

“You sound real sure about that.”

“Yes. All night I’ve been wondering why I gave it to you in the first place. You might not chat with women in coffee shops, and I don’t give my phone number to men I hardly know.”

“Good.”

She smiled. “Good?”

“Girl, if you went around writing your phone number on men’s palms around town, I wouldn’t be happy. That’s not safe.”

She rolled her eyes. “Did any of your friends notice?”

“That I had a phone number written on my palm? Mason, the guy I was with, did. And likely some of the other guys too.”

“Oh no.”

“Don’t worry about it. No one is going to call you but me... and I couldn’t care less what they say to me about it.”

She wasn’t going to lie to herself. Everything he was saying felt sweet. She kicked her feet out and smiled. “I have a feeling that talking to you is never going to be boring.”

“I hope not, but I don’t know.”

Curious as to what he meant, she chuckled, but then she heard a car in her drive. Peeking out the window, she saw Tony was there. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. Tony’s here with Chloe.”

“If I call you again later this week, will you pick up?”

She couldn’t resist smiling. “I will.”

“Then put my name by this number, yeah? It hurts a man’s pride to get the nerve to call up a pretty girl, just to hear her say another man’s name.”

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