Lib Novel Page 10
“Hey, it’s a job. I like it. It’s just Fred and Martha—she’s his wife. They’ve taught me a lot about flowers and plants.”
Someone pumped quarters into the juke. The room heated up with music. Coop leaned over the table so that she could hear him. For a moment he lost the thread somewhere in her big brown eyes.
“Have I met you somewhere before?” he asked her.
“In the apartment.”
“No, I mean…” He shook his head, let it go. “Uh, why here?”
“Why here what?”
“Why do you work here?”
She blinked, those long lashes fluttering down, then up. “For a paycheck.”
“It doesn’t seem like you should be working in a bar.”
“Excuse me?” Zoe wasn’t sure if she should be amused or insulted. She chose the former simply because it was her nature. “Do you have a problem with cocktail waitresses?”
“No, no. It’s just that, you’re a mother.”
“Yes, I am. I have a son to prove it.” She laughed and leaned her chin on her fist. “Are you thinking it would be more appropriate for me to be home baking cookies or knitting a scarf?”
“No.” Though it embarrassed him that he did. “It’s that outfit,” he blurted out. “And the way all these men look at you.”
“If a woman’s going to wear something like this, men are going to look. Looking’s all they do,” she added. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t dress like this for PTA meetings.”
He was feeling more ridiculous every second. “Look, it’s none of my business. I just have a habit of asking questions. Seems to me you could do better than this. I mean, you’ve got the flower job, and the rent—”
“And I have a mortgage, a son who seems to outgrow his clothes and shoes every other week, a car payment, grocery bills, doctor bills.”
“Doctor? Is the kid sick?”
Zoe rolled her eyes. Just when she was starting to get irritated, he deflated her. “No. Kids Keenan’s age are always bringing some germ or other home from school. He needs regular checkups with his pediatrician, with the dentist. Those things aren’t free.”
“No, but there are programs. Assistance.” He stopped, because those big brown eyes had turned fierce.
“I’m perfectly capable of earning a living, and of taking care of my child.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Maybe I don’t have a college degree or any fancy skills, but I can pay my own way, and my son doesn’t lack for anything.” She jammed her feet into the back-breaking heels and stood. “We’ve been doing just fine on our own, and I don’t need some nosy jock reporter coming in here and telling me how to be a mother. Coffee’s on the house, you jerk.”
He winced as she stormed away from the table, then let out a long breath. Handled that onerealwell, Coop.
He wondered if there would be an eviction notice on his door in the morning.
Chapter 4
She didn’t kick him out. She had thought of it, but had decided the satisfaction she’d gain didn’t quite equal the rental income. Besides, she’d heard it all before.
One of the reasons she’d moved from New York was that she’d grown impossibly weary of friends and family telling her how to run her life. How to raise her son.
Baltimore had been a clean slate.
She’d had enough money put aside to afford a nice two-bedroom apartment and invest the rest. And because she was willing to work at any job, and work hard, she’d rarely been unemployed. It had been difficult for her to put Keenan in day care. But he’d thrived. He had his mother’s knack for making friends.
Now, two years after the move, she had a house, and a yard, in the kind of neighborhood she wanted for her son. And she’d paid for every bit of it on her own.