Page 30 of Refuge for Flora

“Okay.” As she pushed the cart, he followed about two feet behind, but something flew through his mind. “Hey, do you like to swim?”

She stopped in the aisle and turned to stare at him. “What?”

“I said, do you like to swim?”

“Uh, yeah, but where the hell am I gonna swim?”

“I have a buddy who works for the fire department. Zyan. He and his wife put a nice pool in, and I go over there sometimes. Would you like to go over and swim sometime?”

He watched as her cheeks pinked. “They don’t know me, and I don’t think?”

“They’d be fine if you came with me. He’s a super nice guy, and you’d love his wife. They have a little girl, and she’s adorable, and he hasn’t really said, but I think they’re trying to have one of their own. He adopted her. Landee’s little girl. Annalise.”

“Oh. Um, I don’t have a swimsuit.”

“This is the place to get one. Let’s go back over there and see what we can find.”

“Okay.” He could see she wasn’t sold on the idea, but he wasn’t going to let her back out. Zyan and LandeeMartin were wonderful people, and Flora needed some friends, people she could count on. They didn’t come any finer than Zyan, and he and his fellow firefighters could sure help watch out for her if she ever had any trouble with asshole Darryl.

As they stepped up to the racks, he asked, “So what size do you wear?

“Probably a medium.”

“Okay. You look through that one,” he said, pointing, “and I’ll look through this one. One piece or two?”

“I’d prefer one.”

“Got it.” He poked through the rack and was dumbfounded. Shit, the damn things were skimpy! Not that he wouldn’t like that, but for someone who was going to a family home where there were children, those things… No. Absolutely not appropriate. “Find anything?”

“Not yet.”

“Yeah, me either. Most of these over here are three triangles with a bunch of strings.”

“Noooo. Not interested.”

“Yeah. I didn’t think so.” He scooted two more hangers down and then smiled. “Hey, what about this one?” he asked as he held it up.

“Oh, yeah. That’s perfect.” It was a one-piece with a halter top and a square neckline. The back dipped down, but not too far, and the legs weren’t cut up extremely high. It was a really pretty shade of coral with little white stars printed on it. Flora joined him and took it from his hands, looking it over and over. “I like it. Looks like it would fit nicely.”

“Yeah. Looks like something a young mom would wear to the beach with her kids. Something that would make her husband smile but not make every guy there stare at her and drool over her.”

“Exactly.”

“And you need some flip-flops to wear to the pool. Saw a bin full for a buck right over there,” he said and pointed.

“Works for me. I’ll get three pairs. Oh, and I should get some kind of sleep shirt, I suppose.”

“Might need to.”

By the time they were done, the cart was full. “God, I hope I’ve got enough money.”

“If you don’t, I’ll spot you,” Barrett assured her. He waited while she went to the in-house bank and cashed the check Mrs.Murphy had given her, then rejoined him. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Ten minutes later, they were packing bags into the back seat of the truck. “Boy, this is a lot of stuff,” Barrett said, eying all the bags. “How much did all this cost?”

“Would you believe a little over four hundred? I got some good buys,” Flora said as she shoved another bag in.

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