Page 110 of Horn in My Side
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Love,
Mal
Her heart nearly dislodged from her chest.Mal had bought this.He’d remembered his promise, that he would buy her champagne once the loan went through.
But I hadn’t even submitted the paperwork until yesterday.
When did he buy this?
Ding ding dong!
“We have customers,” she told Clawdia.Now that Jasmine had to run the shop by herself, she locked the door whenever she went to check on Clawdia.Her gaze landed back on the bottle and the note attached to it, her mind still reeling about the meaning of it.
Ding ding dong!
“Argh!”Shoving the bottle back in the drawer, Jasmine shut the fridge and turned to Clawdia.“All right, back in the pen for now.”
The obnoxious doorbell rang out twice more before Jasmine reached the door.“Good morning!Welcome to Fantastic Tails and Magical Scales,” she greeted.“How can I help you today?”
The man on the other side nodded a greeting at her.“Are you Jasmine Gonzalez?The manager?”
“Yes.”She eyed him curiously.A little over six feet tall, the burly older man had a thick head of silver hair, a bushy mustache and matching eyebrows.The skin on his arms was a criss-cross of healed burn scars and his dark green eyes reminded Jasmine of a hawk that never blinked.“And who are you?”
“Harry Housen,” he said.“I’m the owner of Housen Hatchery.”
Her heart pounded a rhythm that rushed to her ears.
This man had come here to take Clawdia away.
Well, he would have to pry her from my cold, dead hands.
“My—our l-lawyer says I d-don’t have to talk to you.”She reached for the door with shaking hands.“Whatever you need to say, you can do it in writing.Now please leave.”
Housen jammed his hand against the door.“Please don’t, Ms.Gonzalez.I’ve been trying to call you for days.Can you give me five minutes?”
“I know what you want to say.No, you can’t have Claw—the egg back.”She tried to be vague, in case there was a misunderstanding.
“What?You think I’m trying to take the dragon hatchling?”
Okay, so he definitely knew that she had received a dragon egg.
“Isn’t that why you’ve been calling me?”She crossed her arms.“Because you want to take Clawdia?Or sue me for the cost of the eggs?”
“Yes.I mean no.”Bushy eyebrows twitched and drew together.“Not quite.It depends.”His shoulders relaxed.“Ms.Gonzalez, please give me a moment to explain.There’s no need to involve lawyers.”
The smart thing to do would be to shut the door in his face.If he insisted on staying, she could always call the police.But then again, she really was curious what he meant when he said “it depends.”“All right.Tell me why you’re here.”
“Yes, it’s about the dragon egg we sent to you.My shipping manager discovered the discrepancy when we did our inventory.We looked everywhere, thinking the egg might have been misplaced or had hatched and run off.Perils of the business, I’m afraid,” he said with a little chuckle.
“How did I end up with the egg?”
“After checking the warehouse cameras, we realized what had happened—a simple mix-up.One of the new employees put the dragon egg in your package by mistake.Also, your regular customer-service rep, James, went on vacation after he sold you that discounted carcinos egg, so he never followed up.Never even occurred to him that you might have gotten the wrong product, since you never called to complain.”
“So, itwasyour company’s fault.”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
