Page 30 of Broken Chains

“Kenneth. You’re not wasting your money on anything for me,” he said adamantly.

“Keep saying that and you’re going to end up sleeping in the white wicker room,” I warned.

Oliver cringed. He then moved to the cheap section of pressboard furniture. “Fine, something like this will do then,” he said. The entire set was under two hundred dollars.

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” he said.

“I’m not wasting money on that stuff. It never holds up for long. I prefer solid and reliable,” I told him, not just talking about the furniture. Since he was being stubborn, I just bought the set I had been eyeballing for the guest room. He could deal with it for now.

Ruby had laughed at me when we last discussed how things were going with Oliver. On the one hand, he was always there. I suspected he couldn’t stay away and that secretly made me feel like everything was working out exactly as planned. She had chastised me for not stepping up and going after what I wanted, but in my own way I was.

They were all moving in. That was step one in my plan. When he surprised me with the new kitchen, I’d hugged him without thinking about it first. It had felt so natural. I was going to make a point to do that more often. Small playful touches would probably be okay, too. Baby steps. Afterall, we’d already become really good friends through this whole craziness, and I cherished that.

After finishing up at the furniture store with confirmation that everything would be delivered the next day, we headed back home. On the way it dawned on me that we hadn’t bought mattresses yet, or bedding, or a million other things, but mattresses were my first concern. Oliver humored me and stopped at the store in town.

When I walked in, I quickly assessed the salesmen, choosing just the one I wanted. Not the one who barely gave us the time of day and snarled at my mate, or the overly eager one ready to pitch us his next big deal, but the quiet one who nodded politely and told us to let him know if there was anything we needed, but to feel free to look around. I smiled at that guy and thanked him. His name was Rob.

We looked around, and again Oliver wanted to go to the back to look at the cheapest mattresses.

“I’m not buying cheap mattresses. The boys are too big for those and you can feel the springs in your back,” I complained.

“They’ve literally never known anything else exists, they’ll be fine.”

“Fine isn’t good enough.” I checked them over, found the display I wanted, and lay down. “Try this one,” I told him.

“Peyton, get up,” Oliver said, looking around like we were going to get into trouble. “You can’t actually lay down on them.”

I laughed. “How else are you supposed to know what feels good? Now get over here,” I insisted. I scooted over and patted the bed next to me. I laid back. The mattress felt great, but the pillow sucked. I sat up and yelled across the store. “Rob!”

The eager salesman was already en route and shot Rob a scowl.

“Yes ma’am. How can I help you?”

“First, can you tell him it’s okay to lay down and test the mattress?”

He turned to Oliver and smiled. “Ollie, it’s fine. The ribbon at the bottom is to help protect from your shoes. It really is expected. We want you to know you’re getting something that feels right.”

Oliver shot me a look. I had no idea the two men knew each other.

“Ollie and I went to high school together,” Rob said, probably due to the confused look on my face.

“Oh yeah, what was he like back then?” I asked with a smile.

Oliver snorted. “I’ll try the bed if you promise to shut up right now.”

I laughed and winked at Rob. “We’ll talk another time.”

Rob laughed. “What was your other question, ma’am?”

“It’s Peyton,” I said. “And these pillows suck. What’s the best you have in the store?”

“Peyton,” Oliver growled in warning.

“Ignore him. We’ll start at the top and work our way down.”

Oliver laid back on the bed with his head on the pillow. “There’s nothing wrong with this pillow.”

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