Page 34 of Baby Blue
“Yeah. See you in a bit.” He ended the call and sat there for a few seconds, wondering if he’d ever have the money to just go to the store and get what he needed.
When he got home the next morning, Polly was sleeping on the sofa again, and he sent her off to her own bed. After checking on Indigo, he stepped into the kitchen and opened therefrigerator to get out what was left of a bottle of soda. And he almost fainted.
There was a case of beer in his refrigerator, along with two twelve-packs of soda. Beside the drinks was a container of deli-made chicken salad, a bag of salad mix, and a bottle of ranch dressing, plus a jar of salsa. He glanced around and, sure enough, there was a bag of chips on the counter. Then he thought to open the freezer door.
Five frozen dinners were stacked inside, along with two pints of ice cream. Trying to overcome his shock, he stepped into the laundry room to his little pantry, and there he found two large packages of cookies.
Right there in the laundry room, Blue fell to his knees. He was overwhelmed. Why was she being so nice to him? He’d been nothing but nasty to her. Had she really forgotten all the hateful things he’d said to her? And how could she do that? He didn’t know, but he was more than thankful.
Then something flitted across his mind. Was he getting too close to her? Would she misunderstand how he felt about her? Because they were only going to be friends. That couldn’t change. She wasn’t his type. She was…
Better than him. So much better than him. That put his mind at ease immediately. She was a smart woman, far too smart to ever think about getting hooked up with the likes of him. That was one thing he was sure he didn’t have to worry about. But he had to wonder: Why hadn’t she found someone over the years? She wasn’t his type, but he was sure there was someone out there for whom she would be perfect. That’s when another thought crossed his mind.
What exactlywashis type? Memories of Bettina drifted along, the smell of her skin after a shower, the way the light made her hair glitter. She’d been his one true love, and he’d fucked that up royally. He was six feet and two inches, andshe’d been about five and eight. Plus about four and a half feet of that had been legs. Anne, on the other hand, was kind of short, probably not more than five feet and three inches. She wasn’t exactly heavy, but she wasn’t skin and bones either, and he wondered what she looked like in something other than the shapeless scrubs she always wore.
Stop thinking about her that way, Wallace, he told himself. That was never going to happen. His track record with women was anything but stellar. Matter of fact, it was so far from stellar that “women” and “stellar” couldn’t be used in the same sentence. But he was glad to have her as a friend. She was most definitely the best friend he’d ever had, and he’d only known her a week. Blue struggled to his feet there in the tiny laundry room and stood for a few minutes, trying to collect his thoughts. One thing was sure, though.
AnneBlack was not his kind of woman. She was the good kind, and that was something he’d never have.
When he wokeon Sunday morning, Blue looked out the window. The sun was bright and the sky was clear. He was happy about that because he’d decided there was something he wanted to do.
He was going to mow his grass.
A chuckle escaped his lips when he thought about how surprised his neighbors would be! The old mower was still out back, and he figured he could get it going pretty easily. As soon as he’d fed Indigo and gotten her settled down for a nap, he grabbed a stale toaster pastry, scarfed it down, and headed out.
He was ever so wrong about the mower. He tried for almost an hour, but no luck. Finally, he headed over to Anne’s to askabout using hers and decided he’d just mow both lawns. No one was home, but the shed door was unlocked, so he went in, got the mower out, poured gas in it from the can sitting beside it, and cranked it up. He’d been mowing along happily for about twenty minutes when he felt someone touch his back and he jumped a foot. Cutting the engine, he turned to see Anne standing there, laughing. “You scared the shit out of me!”
“Sorry! What are you doing?” she asked, staring around.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m mowing,” he said, trying hard not to grin.
“Where’s the baby?”
“She’s in her bed, sound asleep,” he said, pointing at the house.
“Think I’ll send Polly over here to stay in the house until you get finished,” she said, and he could see the look of disapproval on her face.
“What? It’s not like she’s going to run off,” he said, wondering what the big deal was.
“If something happened to her and you were out here doing this without someone watching her, do you know what kind of trouble you could get into?”
“If something happened to her? Like what?”
“What if the house caught on fire, Brent? What then?”
Hell, he hadn’t even considered that. “Oh.”
“Oh is right. I’m sure she’s fine, but you should really think about that kind of stuff,” she said. “And by the way, thanks for mowing my grass too,” she added, grinning.
“I figured if I was going to use your mower, it’s the least I could do.”
Anne stopped and smiled. “You know you’re welcome to it any time, even if you don’t want to mow my yard.”
“Thanks, but I might as well. And thanks for, well, you know,” he said, blushing a little. “I’m still new at this daddy thing.”
“You’re fine. I’ll send her over.” With that, Anne disappeared into the house. In a couple of minutes, he saw Polly run across the lawn and she waved at him as she passed.
Thirty minutes later, he was finished. The lawns weren’t big, so it wasn’t hard to do it pretty quickly. He put the mower away, then stepped inside and took his shoes off by the door. “Hey!” he said to Polly when he walked in.
