Page 74 of A Dead End Wedding

She'soffended?

"Look, all I want to know is where my furniture is, and when I can expect it to arrive. As much fun as I'm having sleeping on the floor, it doesn't really work for me."

"Um, that's a slight problem."

"Another problem? What is it this time?"

"Your driver is the owner's brother-in-law. So he does what he wants. The last time he pulled this, we didn't hear from him for three weeks."

"Three weeks! Are you kidding?" Now I was full-out yelling. Max and Ellison both stared at me with identicalgreat, our-boss-is-a-nut jobexpressions.

These furniture people didn't know who they were dealing with. "You people don't know who, er,with whomyou are dealing. I am a trial lawyer. We have acontract. As a lawyer, I understand contracts. I understandbreachof contract, whichis what you are now in danger of entering. I will pursue my full remedies under the law if you don't find my furniture immediately and call me back by the end of business today with an ETA."

She laughed.

Shelaughed?

"Honey, the last person your driver pulled this on was an IRS auditor. If he didn't scare me, you got nothin'. I'll try to track him down, but the damn fool is good at hiding. I'll call you when I hear something."

"You'd better?—"

Click.

I was so tired of people hanging up on me.

Iunpacked two-hundred dollars' worth of basics on my kitchen counters, still fuming about bully lawyers and incompetent moving companies. As I pulled various cleaning supplies out of the bags, I figured it was lucky I at least had an island in the center of the kitchen for extra counter space, since it's not like anybody knew where my kitchen table was. Or my chairs. Or my couches.

Or my TV. How was a girl supposed to survive without her daily Reality TV fix?

I sighed for about the fortieth time since I'd gotten home and held up one of my new buys. "Hey, at least I've got a toilet brush. Happiness is a clean toilet, right?"

"That's what I always say."

I whirled around toward the screened back door I hoped I'd locked. You never know what kind of crazies may be roaming the neighborhood. "Um, hi?"

The woman who stood there had a cake. No crazy person would bring cake. Plus, it was chocolate. I wassoletting her in.

She smiled. "Hi! I'm Emily Kingsley, your neighbor. I wanted to say welcome to the block in a warm and fudgy kind of way."

I opened the door and motioned her inside. "December Vaughn. If the cake under that frosting is chocolate, too, you may have saved a life today."

Emily laughed and put the cake down on the counter, then held out her hand to shake. "I'd settle for making a new friend, but rescue hero would be fine, too."

We shook hands, then I dug through my bags for the paper plates and plastic utensils I'd just bought, while trying not to drool too obviously. The whole missing furniture thing had ruined my appetite at lunchtime, so now I was starved. "Oh, sorry about the lack of proper plates and stuff, but my furniture is currently on vacation without me. With a drunken truck driver who profits from nepotism." I scowled, but it was half-hearted. The delicious aroma of fudge was curing my bad temper pretty quickly.

Emily slid a plastic knife out of its box and started cutting the cake. "Wanna run that by me one more time? Family business, alcohol issues, and your household goods are MIA; that about sum it up?"

I sighed. Again.

I had to quit doing that.

"Right. It's a long story, but the company reassured me that the longest he's been AWOL is three weeks. So I may have real plates by the end of June."

Emily handed me a plate loaded down with an enormous piece of cake. I raised my eyebrows.

She grinned. "Hey, if you're going to eat cake, eat cake, I always say."

I forked a huge bite in my mouth and, after briefly closing my eyes and offering a prayer of thanks for whoever created chocolate, I studied Emily. She was maybe my age or a few years younger. Slender, dressed in khaki shorts and sleeveless yellow top, no makeup. She had her shiny dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, and she probably looked about eighteen from a distance.

---