ClarenceBN Read Online Free PDF Page B

kiss.
    The kiss. The one that had probably been far too long and had definitely also been way, way too short.  
    Clarence had kissed her. Yesterday he’d touched her lip and then licked his thumb and today he’d skipped the middle part and just licked her lips. God, just thinking about it sent a rush of heat straight through her.  
    Rationally, she knew it’d been a stupid thing to do. Kissing a man—even if it was Clarence—in the middle of the Clinic while pointedly not doing her job—watching her own son—in the Center? Yeah, that’s how people got fired.  
    But rationale had very little to do with things right now. It was always good to thank someone when they did something nice for you—and hadn’t that been what the kiss was about?  
    She smiled at that little lie. Because it wasn’t, not really. That kiss had been about possibly everything in the world except coffee.  
    It’d been about want and need and lust and maybe—just maybe—something more.  
    For the first time in years, Tammy had felt wanted and needed. And it’d felt good . Most days, it felt like she had everything going against her—she wasn’t rich, tall, thin or pretty and who could forget the single-mother part?
    But today? Yesterday?
    She hadn’t felt like any of those things. She’d felt like someone who could still feel love. Who could still be loved.
    Now what? It was all very well and good for a cup of coffee and a kiss to happen in the Clinic—but the kiss was pushing it. Even though she knew the Mitchell sisters needed her and Clarence to keep each side of the place running, Tammy couldn’t imagine that the two women would turn a blind eye to their employees getting it on in a supply closet.  
    Tammy sighed. She wanted to see where this thing with Clarence was going but . . . She lived with her mother and her sister—privacy was at a minimum. Her mom had a job pulling the night shift at a convenience store and Tara took her daughter Nelly over to see her father Jesse in the evenings. And of course, paying for a sitter wasn’t an option, not on her budget.
    “I drew Mr. Carence a picture of my truck!” Mikey announced, which snapped Tammy out of her thoughts.  
    She needed to get dinner going. “That’s great, baby. Can you write your name on it?”
    That challenge took Mikey a good ten minutes to figure out—the ‘m’ was always tricky. As she made the Hamburger Helper, Tammy thought and thought. What was she going to do about Clarence?
    Tara got home with Nelly and they all sat down for dinner. Usually, Tara talked about the crazy day at the Clinic—they were all crazy days there—but not tonight. Tara just sat there, staring at Tammy with a questioning look.
    Which made Tammy more than nervous. She was sweating by the time Nelly carried in the dishes and started to wash them, which was her job around the house.
    “Mikey,” Tara said in her sweetest voice and Tammy knew she was screwed. “Why don’t you go play?”
    Tammy panicked. “I’ll go help Nelly,” she said as she stood.
    “I need to talk to you,” Tara replied easily, as if she’d expected this response. Then she added, “Please,” for good measure, which was a bad sign. Tara was not the most naturally polite person in the world.
    Feeling trapped, Tammy sat. “Yeah?”
    Tara waited until Mikey was out of the room. “What’s going on with you and Clarence?”
    As much as she didn’t want to show a sign of weakness, Tammy felt her cheeks grow warm and then hot. “Nothing. He’s a nice guy.”
    Tara wasn’t buying it. “Why is he making you terrible coffee if there’s nothing going on?”
    She felt like she was that girl she used to be, the one who was foolish enough to believe what Ezra said to her and then stupid enough to be heartbroken when he bailed, sitting in this exact same seat and trying not to cry while Tara read her the riot act for being dumb enough to get pregnant and then dumped.
    She was tired of feeling foolish and