Sunshine and Shadows Read Free

last job. At the Faith Mission, run by the good Sisters of the Order of Perpetual Faith, every day promised to be different.
    She dodged a pothole and waved out the window at Pedro, the boy she recognized from the school. First he needed protein and fresh vegetables, but Pedro would get his ice cream. Not today, but soon.
    * * *
    The next day Lisa was in the dining room arranging tables for the best use of the small space when a man walked in carrying a box of salt and pepper shakers.
    "Sister Maria said to bring these," he told her, setting the box down on the floor with a thump.
    "Thanks," Lisa said distractedly, pushing at one of the folded-up tables with all of her might and wishing that she were six foot two and lifted weights for a hobby. She had never dreamed that she'd need muscles for this job.
    "Want some help?" he asked, and at the sound of his voice, she turned. She'd thought at first that he was the janitor, but she'd been mistaken. The school custodian was small and squat, with whiskers blue beneath the skin of his face. This man's frame was spare and supple, and although he wore paint-spattered jeans, his posture and bearing showed her that he was no janitor.
    He stood with his hands perched jauntily on his hipbones, his head cocked and every inch of him charged with energy. In that split second, Lisa decided that he was quite simply one of the most beautiful men she'd ever met. Beautiful, but definitely all male.
    He wasn't one of those men who were blow-dried, perfumed and exercised to the artificial max. His hair was brown and straight, his brown eyes glimmered with amber depths, and he had a nose so perfectly straight that it might have been filched from a department-store mannequin. He smiled in her direction.
    Lisa smiled back. "Now that you mention it, you could help me with the tables," she said, wishing she had worn something besides baggy overalls and a dirt-streaked T-shirt. She was pierced by a sudden desire for him to see something special in her, but at the same time she was acutely aware that there was nothing special to see.
    "Why isn't the lady in charge of this place doing this? They shouldn't let kids do this hard work," he said, and she realized that he had mistaken her for a child, which was not so unusual. She was used to it.
    At that point she could have pulled herself up to her full height, but on past occasions when she had done so, she'd always felt like a kid playing grown-up.
    "I am 'the lady in charge,'" she said cheerfully. "Lisa Sherrill, Dietitian." She held out her hand, realizing with a sinking heart how dirty it was.
    "I'm Jay Quillian," he said. "Sorry about my mistake. I was expecting someone—well, like Sister Maria. The way she talked about you, I thought you'd be just like her."
    "That's a compliment," she said, recovering her equilibrium. "You're the art instructor, right?"
    "Part-time art instructor, gardener, and today it looks like I'm the deliveryman."
    "Do you move furniture?"
    He grinned back. "It's one of my many talents," he said with a twinkle.
    "Would you mind grabbing that end of the table and helping me swing it around?" she said.
    "Why don't you relax and let me take care of this? These tables are too heavy for you," he said.
    "I managed to set up all the others," she pointed out. She lifted her end, leaving him no other choice but to pick up the end nearest him. She guided him to the place where the table would fit best, and they set it top down on the floor.
    "Now we pull out the legs—that's right," she said, "and fix the supports so they won't collapse. There! Let's turn it over," she told him.
    "How about the chairs?" he asked once they were finished. Metal folding chairs lay in a heap on the floor in one corner.
    "Eight chairs to a table," she said, going to get two of them. He followed her. When she drew herself up to her full height of five feet one inch, Lisa's eyes were at the level of the top of Jay's shoulder.
    "If I'm keeping you from