Page 30 of Ava
“Thank you,” Ava said, and waved her hand at him. As soon as she stepped outside, she paused long enough to pull her sunglasses from her purse. “Should have had these on earlier,” she said as she put them on her nose, and sighed in relief. They went to the truck, and Justin helped her inside, then he hurried around and climbed in behind the wheel. They waited until he programmed the name of the store into the GPS, then they grinned at each other.
“Do you have out of state plates on this truck?”
“No, I went in about six weeks ago and registered it for this state. Tom Erwin had a talk with us about it.” He grinned as he used air quotes around the word talk, then he put the truck in gear, and they followed the tin can sounding voice to their destination. When they pulled into this store, they both looked at each other, and sighed in relief. It was a large store, and the front windows that displayed the furniture was clean, the parking lot didn’t have any trash, or pot holes. The entire area looked better than the last one.
“Want to give this one a try?”
“Yes, before we go in,” she said as she laid her hand on his forearm to stop him. When she felt the tingle in the center of her palm, instead of pulling her hand away, she tightened it. After shaking her head clear, she looked at him again. “When would be the best time to have the stuff delivered? If they deliver?”
“Today’s Tuesday, and Chuck said any time after Thursday would be great. This way the paint should be dry, and he can see if anything needs to be touched up. It’ll give us time to get everything in place, and the Code Enforcement Officer, to give us the final walk through will be out on Monday.”
“Does that mean I can move in on Tuesday?”
“It does. Now, before we go any further, I have one question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Will you be putting a TV in the living room?”
“It’s on the list, but I don’t know what to look for. I’ve never really been a fan of TV, I’ll watch it if it’s on, but I’ve never hooked one up before.”
“I’ll help with that.” He grinned, then opened his door. She again stayed put until he came over to help her out. Somehow she realized he wouldn’t be pleased if she got out herself. Besides, this was the first time that she’d ever been with a man that was acting like a gentleman. She kind of enjoyed it.
They made their way to the store, and she really enjoyed the feel of his hand on the small of her back, like he cared. Shaking off her thoughts, she waited for him to open the door. She entered, stepped off to the side, and slowly removed her sunglasses, pushing them to the top of her head. As her eyes adjusted, she looked out at the vast store before her. She tugged on his arm, and when he bent down, she whispered, “Is that a fifty percent off sign?”
“Where?”
“Where the sofas are?” She pointed with her chin, and watched as he looked, then glanced back at her with a grin.
“That’s what I see. What do you want to look at first?”
“The bedrooms. That’s the biggest items, let’s get them out of the way first.”
“Deal,” he said, and grinned as he grabbed her hand not holding the folder, and headed toward the overhead sign that said, bedding. As they walked that section, they both counted thirty-five “bedroom” displays. Each display had a bed, with the required head and footboards, a dresser or two, and two night stands, with lamps on them. At one point she looked at him with a raised brow.
“What?”
“Will this display fit in the bedrooms?”
“Yes, with plenty of room to walk around. You probably didn’t notice, but the bedrooms had hardwood floors, you might want to add throw rugs to your list.” He pointed to the floor, and she saw that there was a coordinated color rug to match the furniture. Not the bedding, but the furniture. She liked that. As she slowly walked around, she began to pick out what interested her. It was probably selfish of her, but she wanted to pick out her bed first. When she spotted the one that was white, with spindles in the headboard, she immediately fell in love with it. She had always wanted a bed like that.
“That one,” she turned and said to Justin, and frowned when he spotted it and his nostrils flared, and his pupils dilated. “What? You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s not that, but as soon as you said that, I pictured something.”
“What?”
“It’s not appropriate.”
“Tell me.”
“Okay, but you asked. I pictured you gripping the spindles of the bed as I was pounding into you.”
“Oh,” she said as she felt her cheeks heat, then sighed when he walked away. She saw that he was trying to adjust his jeans, and had to grin. Before she could respond, a woman hurried up to her.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t greet you when you came in. Welcome to Mann’s, can I help you?”
“Yes, please. I see you have a fifty percent off sign on the dresser, is that for just the dresser?”
