of himself that he didn’t intend to give her, and he’d be damned if he’d ever do it again.
Luke and Shannon went into the office to find Freddie Jo sitting behind her desk, her fingers going wild over her keyboard. She looked like Dolly Parton’s younger cousin—a little less flashy, a little more fleshy, but her mascara-laden eyes were Dolly’s through and through. He’d liked her from the moment he’d met her. She’d clearly been instrumental in Shannon deciding to give him this job, and that only made him like her more.
She stopped short and looked at Luke expectantly. “You’re still here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So…?”
“Put him on the payroll,” Shannon said.
“Well, hot damn!” Freddie Jo said with a big smile. She pointed to the chair beside her desk. “Sit yourself down and we’ll get the paperwork taken care of.”
Shannon went to her desk and retrieved her purse. “Goliath? Come on, baby.”
For the first time, Luke noticed the gigantic dog that had been with Shannon at Rosie’s lying in the corner behind her desk. He rose to follow Shannon, ducking his head like a scared puppy as he took a wide berth around Luke. They left the office, and through the window Luke saw Shannon hop into her truck with the dog beside her and take off toward the highway.
Freddie Jo had Luke fill out the obligatory payroll forms, then rose from her desk to show him the caretaker’s apartment. He followed her into the back hallway off the kitchen, then into a room with a bed, a desk, a small table and two chairs, along with a microwave, two-burner stove, and refrigerator. He’d never been inside George’s apartment, and it surprised him just how small and plain it was.
“Bathroom’s in there,” Freddie Jo said, pointing to a doorway. “I’d take you in there and show you around, but it’s so small that the two of us shouldn’t be in there together unless you put a ring on my finger.”
Luke glanced down to see she already had one of those. “I’m thinking your husband might have something to say about that.”
“Honey, I could have an affair with the entire Dallas Cowboys defensive line, and until Carl looked in his dresser drawer and saw he was out of clean underwear he wouldn’t even know I was gone.”
She reached into a closet and pulled down linens to make the bed. Luke told her it wasn’t necessary, but she had it finished in no time. After a few hard smacks that passed as fluffing the pillow, she tossed it at the head of the bed.
“There,” she said. “That should do it. Let’s see…got a computer with you? Phone?”
“Phone, yeah.”
“Then let me give you the Wi-Fi password. You’ve got no TV, so at least you’ll have some kind of connection to the outside world.”
She gave him the code in addition to a set of keys for the various buildings on the premises.
“If I’d known you were going to be here,” she said, “I’d have brought a few things for your fridge.”
“That’s okay. I’ll run up the highway to the Pic ’N Go later and grab some stuff to tide me over. I need to get gas, anyway.”
They went back into the kitchen at the same time a teenage girl popped through the back door. She had short, dark hair and wore a T-shirt with the shelter logo. A tattoo of vines swirling around a rose climbed up her thigh.
“I finished up in the cat cottage,” she said. “But they’re already pooping again. It never ends.”
“Luke,” Freddie Jo said, “this is Angela Cordero.”
Angela Cordero? Now Luke officially felt old. She’d been about six years old when he’d lived there before. He remembered her as a skinny kid with dark, straight hair and a bright, sunshiny smile in spite of the fact that she’d been just as motherless as he was. More than once he’d seen her father bring her to Rosie’s, sit her on a stool at the counter, and together they’d have apple pie and milk shakes. Luke had sat in a booth at the back of the restaurant, drinking black coffee and imagining what it must be like to have a father who gave a damn.
“I remember,” he said. “Marc Cordero’s daughter.”
“Luke used to live here,” Freddie Jo said. “I think you might have been in the first grade back when he left. He’s going to be our new caretaker.”
“Great!” Angela said. “We can sure use the help around here.”
“So how are things at the vineyard?”