Misplaced Innocence Read Online Free Page A

for calling.”
    She snapped the phone back into its cradle practically before she heard Jared say goodbye. “Well,” she said, turning to Scruffy. “The audacity of some men.,” Charisma huffed. She brushed uselessly at the dirty smudge on her jeans, mumbling under her breath. Men, after all, weren’t that different in Arizona than they were in New Jersey.

    ~*~

    Charisma carted the supplies she would need for the project underneath her arm. The cardboard box was brimming with different size brushes and tubes of paint. Scruffy followed dutifully at her feet, her long tongue exposed as she trotted along, stopping to sniff at patches of weeds that had managed to poke up through the cracks in the sidewalk.
    “Hey, Bill,” Charisma called as she deposited the box by the door. “I should have everything I need. You want to help me get this sign down?” She dropped her head back so she could stare up at the sign. From her spot beneath the sign she could hardly see anything. “I hope you have a ladder in their somewhere, because –   ”
    Bill’s appearance at the door interrupted her. “I have something better, even.” Charisma’s eyes narrowed. She’d come to recognize that twinkle in Bill’s eyes, the one he got when he thought he was being sly and had planned something that she really wasn’t going to like, but thought would be in her best interest.
    “What’s that, then?”
    Another shape appeared from the gloom of the store. “Well, that would be me, ma’am.”
    The exaggerated way he drawled out the word ma’am irritated her. In fact, everything about this man irritated her. She fought the urge to throw her hands up in the air and yell obscenities. Instead she pasted on a smile she was sure looked less than real. “Well, that might help … a little.”
    Jared grunted as he stepped out onto the sidewalk, Bill moving out after him. “If we can just get the sign down, I’ll paint it here on the sidewalk. Or inside. Wherever there’s room.”  
    Scruffy had finished her perusal of the sidewalk and padded up to Charisma, sitting beside her to stare at the two men.  
    “Nice dog you have there,” Bill said, “Jared was telling me the other day how you came across it.”
    “Yes, she’s very nice.” Charisma patted the top of the dog’s head absentmindedly. She secretly hoped that Scruffy would attack Jared, or at the very least growl at him, because he hadn’t stopped staring at her with that look on his face that said he thought she didn’t have two brain cells to rub together.
    Charisma supervised as Jared and Bill pulled down the sign and hefted it to the back room of the store, where a large table had been placed in the middle of the room and covered with drop cloth. Charisma dropped the supplies by the door and flipped on the lights. There were only so many good things to say about fluorescent light bulbs, but at least she wouldn’t be painting in the dark.
    “That’s great. Thanks guys.” Charisma gave the men a silent dismissal as she lost herself in studying the sign. They moved out of the room without her noticing.  
    She hadn’t quite decided what to do with the sign, but figured anything was better than the garish apple. She popped off the custom-fit plastic protective cover, the kind   Charisma hadn’t see in use in years, pulled out one of the large brushes and began to prime the board. Her mouth twisted wryly as she wondered how many coats of primer it would take to cover that apple. “Who painted this anyway,” she muttered aloud.
    It wasn’t long before Charisma had lost herself in the work of painting. While she waited for the primer to dry she sketched out different ideas on a pad of paper she had brought with her. The pencil was familiar and comfortable in her hand and moved nearly of its own accord, knowing innately where the next stroke should go, what would be most pleasing to the eye. She never noticed Jared at the door, watching her hunch over the pad, her