It took three days for their plan to work. In the meantime, Derek took care of business for his clients in the mornings while Joe watched the office. At noon, they hung the sign on the door that Derek had used before he’d hired Joe—‘I’ll be gone until tomorrow morning. Please call and leave a message’. “Which happened once in a blue moon,” Derek said dryly. “If you haven’t noticed, I don’t get many drop-ins.”
Then, they’d get take-out for lunch, eating in the car while they sat in the church parking lot.
Tuesday and Wednesday Mrs. Sullivan did what Joe had said. She ran errands.
“I’m getting to see parts of the city I didn’t know existed,” Joe groused at one point, earning him a pat on the leg in return.
Derek had decided, after some thought, that he would make it a point touch Joe whe
