Page 11 of Clean Sweep
“Your father cleaned the house by himself?” I asked, just to make sure I’d heard correctly.
“Yeah.”
“Did he say anything about it?”
Her brow wrinkled. “No. Why would he?”
Relief flooded me. I didn’t want him commenting to other people about the state of my house. Also, what did she mean he did it himself?
Huh.
I . . . supposed I was okay with him cleaning my house, but . . . I mentally fidgeted. Something didn’t sit right with the idea of Celeste’s father scrubbing my toilets, I just couldn’t put a finger on what.
Celeste wrapped her thin arms around me in a quick hug, then disappeared out the door with a wave to Dahlia. I watched her go. Tanner remained a vague face in the driver’s side of the car. He seemed to look up and right into my eyes, but I couldn’t be sure with the falling shadows.
Just in case, I turned away.
“Tanner Beck is suuuuper hunky,” Dahlia sang from behind the counter. “A veritable silver fox, if you will.”
I scowled. Trust Dahlia to read my mind. Her use of his last name caught my attention. Beck. Why did Beck sound familiar? Celeste had been coming in here almost daily ever since this school year started, but I couldn’t remember a time when she’d told me her last name.
“Silver fox,” Katelyn agreed.
Katelyn, a thin girl with a quiet mein, light hair, and a different pair of designer glasses everyday always backed Dahlia up. Without Dahlia, Katelyn had been quiet as a mouse. With Dahlia, she found her courage.
“What are you talking about?” I asked them. “What’s a silver fox?”
Tanner’s headlights pulled out of the parking lot and into the main flow of traffic. They disappeared seconds later and I finally relaxed. Dahlia straightened, her glossy black hair shining around her shoulders.
“You know,” she said, laughing. “A silver fox is a guy that’s really attractive and middle-aged. Grayish hair. Handsome in that wise-to-the-world kind of way.” She made a clucking sound. “That’s Tanner. Hasn’t reading romance novels with Lizbeth taught you anything?”
I glared at her.
She held up two hands in surrender.
“I wasn’t thinking about romance,” I said.
Yet, I had been thinking abouthim.
Though, there was no reason for her to know that. Even with concerted effort, I couldn’t pull a mental image of Tanner into my mind. At best, I had a niggling instinct that he wasvery attractiveand toavoid him because of said attractiveness.
Also, I’d been burying my head in the sand regarding men for years now.
“Look boss lady, I’m just saying that Tanner Beck is a really attractive, post-divorce, middle-aged man with a really sweet teenager that adores you and . . . he doesn’t have a girlfriend or other female attachment right now.” Dahlia’s eyes widened. “I’m just sayin’.”
I lowered back into my booth and desperately tried not to take the bait.
Too late.
Bait was gone.
My mind already spun out questions over what she’d just said. Mostlyshould I be totally embarrassed that he cleaned my disaster of a house? andwhat kind of woman would let that kind of man go?
“Fine.” I threw my hands in the air. “I give up. I’ll bite. How do you know so much?”
Dahlia squealed, rushed around the corner of the counter, and threw herself into the seat across from me, long locks flying. Katelyn remained behind the counter with a subdued, amused smile.
Dahlia’s eyes widened. “Let me tell youaaaallthe deets,” she murmured, a wicked glint in her eye. She put Serafina to shame when it came to gossip about Pineville.
