Something About Joe by Kandy Shepherd Read Free Book Online

the driver.
    The park was
right at the edge of the harbor. But Allison didn’t notice the
breath-taking views of the bridge and the Opera House or the
ferries plying their way across the dancing blue water. All she saw
was Joe Martin sitting on a park bench reading a book.
    She ran toward him. “Where is Mitchell?” she
cried, as she reached him, gasping for breath. Joe met her gaze
calmly and she wanted to grab his book and hit him with it. “Where
is he?”
    He got up.
“Over there.” He pointed to the children’s playground area. “With
his grandparents—”
    Intent on reaching her baby, she was away
toward the playground before he finished the sentence.
    Mitchell was on the other side of the
playground with a man and a woman. The woman was pushing the child
on a swing. As she got nearer, Allison could hear Mitchell’s
laughter. He was okay. He wouldn’t laugh like that if someone were
hurting him.
    The man had his back to her but he turned
around as she drew near. It was her ex-husband Peter’s father.
She’d only met him once, at her wedding, but she recognized him
immediately. “Bill!” she gasped, scarcely able to push out the
word.
    He looked
awkward. Even shamefaced. He glanced imploringly towards the woman
whom Allison now recognized as Peter’s mother.
    “Nancy?” Allison looked in bewilderment from
Nancy to Bill and back again.
    “Momma!” cried Mitchell joyously. Allison
snatched him off the swing and pulled him to her. He began to wail
at the shock of it.
    Allison
found her knees were trembling but then Joe Martin was there, his
strong arm supporting her and Mitchell. Gratefully, she leaned
against his warmth and strength. Mitchell stopped
crying.
    But she was too stressed out by what had
happened to relax. She twisted away from Joe, embarrassed at such
closeness.
    He spoke first. “I called you back on your
cell to let you know I’d come to the park with Bill and Nancy.”
    Her heart was still pounding. “A call came
but—”
    “I couldn’t get through. Did you think I’d
let Mitchell go alone with anyone without your authority? Even his
grandparents?”
    Allison clutched onto Mitchell, she was
still so breathless from her panicked run across the park it was
difficult to speak. “I was terrified. His grandparents have never
met him.”
    “He was never in danger,” said Joe. “Not for
a second.”
    Tears of relief threatened to engulf her and
she blinked hard against them. She started to shake. Then Joe’s
strength and warmth was there again as he pulled her and Mitchell
to him in a comforting hug.
    Allison’s heartbeat accelerated again—but
this time it wasn’t from panic. She was intensely aware of how
close she was to Joe, of her body pressed to his. She breathed in
his scent—a heady mix of leather, spicy after-shave and something
uniquely Joe.
    They stood without words. She forgot all
about Bill and Nancy, standing awkwardly by. Forgot about Peter.
Never gave a thought to the big deal she’d just run out on. There
was just her and Joe and Mitchell bonded in comfort and reassurance
and—for her—a stirring new excitement.
    “ Group hug,”
said Joe with a laugh. Allison laughed, too, as they drew away from
each other, she with regret.
    Joe glanced toward Peter’s parents, and
nodded to include them. “Bill and Nancy told me a little of their
story,” he said. “I knew Nancy must be Mitchell’s grandmother. He’s
the spitting image of her, except for the eyes.”
    Allison
sniffed back the last of her tears. “I...I guess so. This is the
first time I’ve seen them together.”
    “ Let me take
Mitchell, while you sort things out.” He swung Mitchell up into his
arms. “Come on, Tiger, let’s have some fun on that
slide.”
    Allison
stepped closer to Bill and Nancy, uncertain of what to say to them.
The older woman did look like Mitchell, but her face was grim. “I
won’t say I’m sorry, Allison, we had to see him. He’s our only
grandchild. You’ve kept