Page 65 of The Auction
Like ever. So having this bag with a pretty dress and shoes, wrapped in tissue paper, seemed entirely unnatural and absolutely amazing. I could not wait to go home and try them both on together.
Creed was going to lose his shit.
“Thanks for this,” I said, as I stopped at my truck. “It was fun.”
April smiled and handed me the compact she’d taken from her clutch. “It was. Take this.”
“No, I can’t. You said it cost too much.”
“It did, but I hate it so I never wear it. And it looks good on you. Consider this my thank you for Will, the asshole.”
I took the compact. Technically, my first makeup ever. Which was sad and pathetic, but I didn’t tell April that.
“See you around,” April said with a wave. “We should do this again.”
“Yep,” I waved back. Not sure if I believed it or not, but I hadn’t lied about today.
It had been fun.
“I want to see it,”Creed said, reaching for my bag. Practically assaulting me as I walked through the back door with my shopping bag and a bag of groceries.
“No,” I snapped. “It won’t look like anything off.”
“Then put it on. I liked what I saw in thepicture.”
“No,” I repeated. “It’s for a special occasion.”
I set the bag of groceries on the kitchen table, and didn’t have to ask before Creed was out the door to grab the rest of the bags. While he was getting them, I ran my brown bag with the tissue paper upstairs to my bedroom, put it in my closet where it wouldn’t get squished by my other farm clothes, and ran back downstairs before he came back inside.
Pulling stuff out of the first grocery bag, I was shaking my head when he came back into the kitchen.
“Boy, I’ll tell you what. The price of eggs today is crazy.”
“The fuck do we need to buy eggs for? We have more than we can eat with the chickens we have.”
“I just meant groceries in general. Like super crazy expensive.”
He grunted. “We should do something with all those extra eggs we have.”
“What do you mean? Like egg salad? Trust me, there is only so much egg salad you can eat. I know.”
“No, I mean sell them or something. Will the grocery store take them?”
“No, Mr. Nash already has contracts with folks around here who have larger chicken operations. Herb had me put up a stand by the highway one summer, but the problem is most folks around here have their own chickens, and people passing through don’t want to haul eggs on long trips.”
“There are people going hungry in this world, Jules. I know. I’ve seen them. Don’t like that we have an excess.”
“I suppose I could…bake stuff. Use the eggs that way. Flour and sugar are cheap.”
He nodded. “We could make shit together. See if there are shelters around here that need food.”
“You want to bake?” I asked him, somewhat incredulous.
“Baking is just following a plan. I can do that.”
I watched him for a second more, unpacking groceries, putting them in their place. Making sure the vegetables and fruit went in the appropriate drawers in the refrigerator.
“So, I was hanging with April Talley today. It was kind of fun,” I said, having this weird need to share.
