ClarenceBN Read Online Free PDF Page A

to Mr. Clarence?”
    “Pease Tank You,” Mikey said without looking up.
    Clarence laughed. “Yeah, he’s got the basics down.” Then he pitched his voice down to a whisper. “I got some more cars and stuff at home, if that’ll help keep him happy while we discuss . . . coffee.”
    A fire-red blush raced over Tammy’s cheeks as she studied her mug. Damn , Clarence thought. Too much. He’d scared her off.
    “You’re going to spoil him,” she said in a too-quiet voice.  
    “Oh. Okay. No problem.” How had he screwed this up? He couldn’t even tell which part he’d screwed up. Did she not like the implication that they wouldn’t discuss coffee at all or him getting toys for the kid? Or, worse—both?
    They sat there for a moment in tense silence, watching the boy play. Mikey was definitely waking up. Each ‘Vroom’ was getting louder and the path of the car getting wilder. Clarence could see how it wouldn’t be much longer before he was knocking shelves over again.
    Outside, a car door shut. “I better go.” If it was a parent with a kid, Tammy would need to focus. And if it was Tara, Clarence needed to get the hell away from Tammy. “You want me to leave you this second cup?”
    That got her to look up. “Do you mind?”
    “Nope. I got it for you. I’m just glad you like it.”
    She dropped her gaze again, but he saw this time she was smiling in that small way of hers.  
    Clarence decided to beat a retreat before he did something else stupid. He got back into the Clinic side just as Tara was walking through the door. “What’s up?” she asked, eying him suspiciously.  
    “Nothing,” Clarence defended, probably too quickly.
    “Really,” Tara said, clearly not buying it. “Did you make more of that God-awful coffee?”
    “I’m cleaning out the pot,” he said, heading back to do just that.
    “What the hell, Clarence? Why are you destroying the coffee maker? You can’t like that crap.”
    “I’ll fix it,” he called back. Eventually. He really didn’t want to drive back to Rapid City tonight, too. He wanted to do his time and then go to sleep for as long as possible.
    Tara muttered something that sounded like a curse behind him, but he ignored her. After almost five years of working together, he was good at it.  
    He knew a lot about Tara. She had a girl named Nelly with Rebel’s brother Jesse, although they didn’t live together now. Tara had finished some secretarial classes and knew how to file. She ran the business side of the clinic well, so Clarence couldn’t complain too much. Before Tara had taken over, he’d been trying to do the paperwork and the nursing, and he wasn’t any good at paperwork.
    But what did he know about Tammy? She was younger than Tara by a couple of years. She lived with her mom. She had Mikey, who was three or four. Mikey’s father was a dickbag and basically out of the picture.
    But beyond that, he actually didn’t know much about her. She got along okay with Tara. At the very least, Tara didn’t spend much time complaining about Tammy. She saved that for Jesse.  
    How old was Tammy? Had she gone to college? She couldn’t be more than twenty-five. Could she really be interested in an old man like Clarence? He was pushing forty and most days, forty felt a hell of a lot like it was pushing back.  
    The coffee pot was done running the water. Clarence dumped it and made coffee with the regular stuff. He hoped it didn’t taste too funny. He really needed the caffeine at this point.
    Once it was going again, he turned back to his work. And about jumped out of his scrubs when he found himself face to face with Tara. “What?” he demanded defensively.
    “What’s going on?” she demanded.
    “What do you mean, what’s going on? I’m making coffee.”
    “And you’re doing a damn lousy job of it.” Tara looked him up and down, as if she could see evidence of the kiss on his scrubs. “Is there something going on between you and Tammy?”
    Clarence