Judging Joey

JUDGING JOEY

ELIZABETH JOHN

SOUL MATE PUBLISHING

New York

JUDGING JOEY

Copyright©2015

ELIZABETH JOHN

Cover Design by Leah Suttle

This book is a work of fiction.  The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher.  The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

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Published in the United States of America by

Soul Mate Publishing

P.O. Box 24

Macedon, New York, 14502

ISBN: 978-1-61935-
763-1

www.SoulMatePublishing.com

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To my wonderful husband

and children—

I couldn’t have done this without you.

Thanks for supporting my dreams!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the wonderful editors and staff at Soul Mate Publishing for the heart-felt welcome. This book has found the perfect home.

Special thanks to my critique group and friends—Roni Denholtz, Mo Boylan, Christina Lynn Whited, and Kat Mancos.  You ladies are always there for me.

Chapter 1

The sound of children laughing and the smell of funnel cake should have put Madeline at ease, but all it did was put her on edge. Her past had finally caught up with her present, and she saw no other way around it this time. This time, she’d have to face her painful reality head on.

“Well, it’s about time you arrived at the carnival,” her principal, Mr. Denby, said with a genuine smile. “Your students have been asking about you.”

A PTA mother pushed a rolling cart in Madeline’s direction. “Oh Miss White, can you help? They need these pies at the Pie-In-The-Face booth ASAP. Officer O’Neill is drawing a crowd!”

Madeline gulped and searched the swarm of people, still hoping for some way out.
This can’t be happening. Not this way.
Her first encounter with
him
in nearly ten years had to be on her terms.

She knew she should have approached Joey the minute she learned he was the school’s Safety Officer. She had thought it through and organized her overdue and well-practiced speech. Her plan was to pull him aside, tell him off, and
then
walk away, precisely in that order. Satisfaction would finally be hers. At last, she would have the opportunity to release some of the pent-up anger still simmering within her.

Mr. Denby clapped his hands together and brought her thoughts back to the present. “Good idea. You can help at that booth,” he said.

Her shoulders tensed automatically.
That
was the last place she wanted to help out. Up until now, during the first few weeks of school, she had been able to avoid seeing Joey. All her teaching responsibilities at the beginning of the school year had easily prevented a run-in. A bead of perspiration trickled down the middle of her back. She wouldn’t cause a scene. Not here. But she had to be ready to face the uncomfortable confrontation she knew she would have with him. He had already ruined the last of her high school years. She would not allow him to jeopardize her coveted job.

Now her principal was sending her straight into the proverbial lion’s den. Stomach in knots, Madeline nodded and bit her tongue. There was no way she could refuse. Even if she weren’t non-tenured, she couldn’t say no to her boss. However, she would have no problem saying a few choice words to Joey O’Neill when they finally came face to face. She had been practicing what to say for years.

Madeline gripped the cold metal handle of the cart and pushed forward. After all these years she was about to see her high school crush again—the one and only man she had allowed to break her heart. Having a cart full of cream pies within easy access to throw in his face seemed fitting. She eyed the one closest to her and then raised her chin up high.
Yes, that one will do nicely.

Police Officer Joey O’Neill watched the cream pie heading straight for his face. He ducked. The creamy confectionary weapon whizzed past him, soaring through the air.

“You missed!” he said to the sixth grader he recognized from his safety program and laughed so hard his chair nearly toppled off the platform.

“Next!” yelled the PTA lady in charge of his booth at the Fall Carnival.

Joey shifted in his seat. The line was growing.
How did I get talked into this?
Oh yeah, his sister had suggested it, and his chief had highly recommended he participate. So far there had been a few close calls, but no direct hit. No pie to the face, he thought, chuckling. Although the idea of getting pummeled with pies hadn’t appealed to him, he had to admit he
was
enjoying himself. Even if he wasn’t, part of his job was to engage with members of his community. And he lived for his job.

Joey tugged at the protective cape he wore to free his arm, then lifted his cell phone clipped to his waist. Through the cloudiness of the goggles, he read 4:00. A few more minutes and his turn would be over.
Shouldn’t be too bad.
He could still play basketball with the guys at the park. The game wouldn’t start until five o’clock. Afterward, they had planned on getting a bite to eat at their usual hangout.

Slam!
A pie smacked into the left side of his face. Whipped cream dripped down his forehead and filled his ear. He let out a low whistle. That hurt! He gazed up to see who had nailed him and couldn’t believe that a mob had started to form around the pie-throwing area. Joey spotted a pimply teenager cackling to his buddies. The lanky boy hurled another pie, this time hitting Joey square in the face. The crowd roared with laughter.

The PTA mother shouted, “Time out!” She wiped his goggles and lowered her voice to say, “I’ve called for some of the teachers to help me with crowd control on your line. You’re our biggest draw.” She fanned herself with her hand. “Feels more like summer today. Must be close to eighty. Go figure. Anyway, this is the most money we’ve made yet. Thanks for volunteering.”

“Don’t mention it,” he coughed out, cream spitting from his mouth. “Hey, not bad,” he said, licking his lips. Luckily, the filling had missed his phone, and he fastened the clip back onto his pants before turning to the crowd. “Come on, is that all you’ve got? It’s for the kids,” Joey teased the onlookers.

He felt safe in goading them because next in line stood his sister, Caitlin, pushing his one-year-old niece in a baby stroller. Her husband, Kevin, handed a pie to Joey’s nephew, Christopher, and some of his animated first grade friends.

“Piece of cake,” Joey whispered under his breath. His own pun caused his grin to widen.

“I’m gonna get you, Uncle Joey!” Christopher giggled as he held up the pie.

The next thing Joey saw was the group of young boys charging toward him past the boundary line. They pelted him. He felt the first one assail his nose. Then two more bombarded his right ear. Cool, sticky cream dripped down his chin, then his neck, finding a path past the cape, going underneath his T-shirt, and trickling down his chest and back.

He started to snarl and sucked in a heap of cream, causing him to gag.
Wait until he got a hold of his sister.
Caitlin owed him big time for this.

As they strode closer to the festivities, Madeline’s palms started to sweat. She could hear children squealing with laughter. The sounds of bells and whistles from the games shot through the air. The scent of roasting hot dogs surrounded her, and Madeline suddenly realized she had skipped lunch. Her stomach growled. Buttered popcorn dancing in a bright red and yellow machine caught her eye.

She wanted to head in that direction, but the PTA mother prodded her toward a very long line that trailed around the hot dogs and popcorn. Madeline grasped the cart’s handle and trudged on, her stomach churning with hunger and trepidation. The path led around a long table of children painting pumpkins. Another PTA mother that Madeline recognized waved both arms at them.

“Thank goodness you came to help. I’m short-handed.” The woman put a hand to her chest and forced herself to stop and take a deep breath. After breathing in again through her nose and exhaling out her mouth, she was no longer winded, and planted an over-the-top smile on her face. “Who would have expected Officer O’Neill to draw such a crowd? Looks like our school has its own celebrity!”

Madeline wrung her clammy hands together and tried to swallow the enormous lump that’d formed in her throat. From the reaction of the flushed woman in front of her, Joey hadn’t lost a lick of his intoxicating charm. He still could make ladies pant. Madeline summed up her courage and braced herself for an uncomfortable and painful reunion.

Madeline heard Joey mutter as she climbed up onto the platform and handed him a fresh towel. “Great! I’m going to need to be hosed down just to get into my car to drive home to take a shower. Guess I’m going to be late for the game, after all,” he said.

“It’s not that bad, Officer. Nothing a bit of soap and water can’t cure,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. She pressed a towel into his hand and his fingers enveloped hers. She sucked in a breath and held it. Ten years ago she dreamed of being this close to him. The electricity she imagined she would have felt back then soared through her palm today.

Joey opened his mouth, but he must have realized that she was not the same PTA mother as before. Looking through the goggles, greasy and smeared with pie cream, he eyed her up and down. Using the towel she had handed him, he patted down his face and gave it back to her.

He missed a giant glob on his cheek, and she wiped it away, wishing they could go back in time.

“Thanks,” was all he mustered up before another pie sailed into the air. “Watch out!” he warned her.

Madeline jumped out of the line of fire.

“Sorry, Miss White,” a girl squeaked out. “I was trying to hit the man.”

“No harm done,” Madeline responded with a smile. “You’ve got a great arm, Carly. Keep practicing.”

“So you’re the famous Miss White. My nephew, Christopher, talks about you all the time. I think he has a crush. The shrimp has good taste. Must take after his uncle,” he teased.

Madeline clenched her jaw.
Is this man for real? Is he pretending not to recognize me?

Joey tore his gaze from her and took a moment to scan the line. Some more teenagers geared up to get their money’s worth. Behind them, Madeline caught sight of . . . wait, it couldn’t be.

“Mom, Dad? Aunt Nora?” Joey called out in disbelief.

“Hi, sweetheart. Now don’t look so surprised. We’re here to support Christopher’s school. You look great, by the way.” His mother smiled, handing a pie over to his dad, whom Madeline vaguely remembered meeting at a high school football game.

His Aunt Nora, his mother’s, identical twin, whom Madeline also recognized from those games, gave him a mischievous grin before shelling out a few bucks to the teacher collecting money at the stand labeled,
Pie-In-The-Face
.

Madeline had no time to ponder what it meant that Joey’s own family members lined up to throw pies in his face when the group of teenagers threw one after another at him.

His partner, Officer Alexandria Skillman, who was off to the side watching with a gleam in her eye and obviously enjoying his misery, chimed in, “Hey, take it easy, boys. You wouldn’t want me to haul you down to the station for assaulting an officer, now would you?” Her voice cautioned them, sounding stern and tight as she stomped over to Joey.

“We’re just messin’ around, Officer,” said one of the teenagers.

Joey turned to Alex as she joined them on the platform. “Thanks for getting my back, but we’re not on duty. It’s okay. All for a good cause.”

Alex bent down and lowered her voice. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I joined the line? Your Aunt Nora’s just bought two pies for me.”

“You, too? Are you all trying to tell me something?”

“You know everybody loves you. Although sometimes . . . Hey, isn’t that Tina, your old girlfriend? You know the blond with the hair extensions you dated last year?” She paused and squinted as she studied the line. “It
is
her. I’d recognize those fake locks anywhere. And, wait, is that Julie with her? The skinny blonde you dated during the holidays. The one who wouldn’t even try your mom’s carrot cake?”

Joey sat forward. “Tina and Julie? What are they doing here?” He frowned. “They don’t even know each other, so why are they together?”

Alex tapped him on the shoulder. “I think you’ve got trouble, partner. Amber just joined them.”

“Amber, cute petite blonde, the one I met on the ski trip?” His voice grew tight, and under different circumstances Madeline might have felt sorry for him, empathizing that, like her, this was the last place he wanted to be at the moment.

“The very one. Uh-oh, they’re talking to each other.”

As Joey strained to see through the muck on the goggles, Madeline stood there watching Joey’s ‘extracurricular’ life unravel and shook her head. She had hoped he had grown up a bit, but from the exchange she witnessed, he was still acting like he did in high school. He hadn’t changed at all. Well,
she
was not that insecure girl any more, and no one, especially Joey O’Neill, was going to treat her badly again and get away with it.

What happened in the past, was past, but now, in the present, he was supposed to be a role model for the students of her school. From what was transpiring, she surmised he still kept of string of girlfriends. What kind of example was he showing the students here today? He should have been more discreet.

Alex placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “This is not your lucky day. They each just bought a pie. Nice knowing you.” Alex snickered as she waltzed to join the end of the line.

“Thanks for your support!” Joey yelled.

To the crowd, he probably sounded sincere, but Madeline knew he meant it an entirely different way. Instead of watching his back, Alex had left him to his own devices. Served him right. Being irresistible would only get him so far.

Madeline crossed her arms against her chest and wondered how he was going to wiggle his charming butt out of this one.