Page 60 of Afternoon Delight
She snorted and used her foot to slide a paint can into place as a doorstop, then came out to survey all the furniture I’d staged for loading.
It was the first of March and sunny, but it was always cool here in the receiving bay. She folded her arms, keeping me from seeing her nipples stand up against her top.
“You did not make a sale, Zak.” She pretended astonishment. “You assured me that never happens.”
“I didn’t. Dad did. It’s easy when you tell a nice couple from Leavenworth that we deliver.” The town was a ninety-minute ferry ride, a border crossing, and four and a half hours of driving from here. “I called them back and said if they want us to do that without charge, they have to take the sideboard and the china cabinet.”
“You sold the china cabinet!” She was suitably awestruck.
“Hell, no. But they’ve taken over an old rooming house and are updating it with new furniture before listing it on Air B&B.”
“New furniture.”
“Yep.” I shrugged. People were strange. “They agreed to take the sideboard, then offered a room for the night if I threw in the mahogany bedframe and a night table.”
“You drive a hard bargain.”
“All the way to Leavenworth,” Kyle chimed in with a smirk.
They high-fived in appreciation of their puns. It was friendly enough. Kyle wasn’t crossing any lines. I still didn’t like it.
He might have read that in my expression. He gave me a silent, What?
“I’ve never been to Leavenworth.” Meg was perusing the furniture like she was considering buying it herself. “Joel’s family used to go there from their summer home in Penticton.”
The town was a couple of hours east of Seattle. It had been tricked out with a Bavarian theme back in the 1960s, purely to draw tourists. It worked, usually for Oktoberfest and Christmas light displays.
“Hopefully, your room is conveniently located near the morning Alpenhorn performance,” Kyle said.
“Do they still do that?” I tied off a rope that secured the bedframe to the wall of the van. “Mom and Dad took us there the year after they took us to Disneyland. You can imagine how that went over. We asked mom if we could go to Euro Disney, and she said Leavenworth was like going to Europe. Spoiler alert: It was not like going to Europe. I’m still mad.”
“At her? Or Leavenworth?” Meg was grinning at my disgust.
“Both.”
“That’s why Zara is so obsessed with Paris,” Kyle dropped his hands onto his hips.
“Maybe take her for a weekend in Leavenworth,” Meg suggested.
“Update your will first.” I shook out a blanket and draped it over a cabinet. “I offered to let her do this trip, and she told me to shove it up my ass. Sideways. Dad’s excited to see the nutcracker museum again, though.”
“You’re taking your dad?” Meg lifted her brows.
“Sure. What could go wrong?” I deadpanned.
A distant jangle from inside her shop had her looking in that direction. “I have to go. Safe travels. Try not to get arrested.”
“That depends on whether Thelma behaves herself, doesn’t it?”
She closed her door on her way through it.
Kyle gave me a long look.
“What?”
“You and her...?” He cocked his head toward her door.
“We’re friends.”
