Page 30 of Sleigh Bells and Snowstorms
He nodded.
“Was there a little old lady with cat-eye glasses?”
“Yes.”
“That’s Dottie McNess. No wonder the gossip line is going wild. She probably made ten phone calls before you left the parking lot.”
“Lovely,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm. “She was very enthusiastic about her store’s collection of important local artifacts.”
“Like Bernard?”
“The mummy.” His tone shifted from sarcasm to distaste. “Yes, we’re acquainted.”
“I used to love that thing. I’d go to the Treasure Chest just to stare at him. I found him fascinating.”
Oddly, he didn’t look at me like I was strange. He gazed at me with a hint of bewilderment but with no indication he was judging me.
I shrugged. “But nothing really grosses me out. That’s probably part of why I became a nurse. Anyway, I don’t think Dottie would know any wealthy collectors. She’s not exactly dealing in high-end antiques. Unless it’s by accident.”
He smiled, and my heart skipped. That thing was a deadly weapon. And I had a feeling he knew it. I needed to be careful with him. He was dangerous.
But looking at him made me think. “Do you have anything else to wear?”
He looked down at his clothes. “Why?”
“You look very… expensive.”
“This was expensive.”
I laughed. “Exactly. It’s part of why you stick out. Not the expense, necessarily. No one would notice if you were dressed in thousands of dollars of winter gear. But this makes you noticeable. And those shoes can’t be good in the snow.”
“All my clothes look like this. What do you suggest?”
“Let’s stop by Friendly Farm and Feed.”
His brow furrowed in confusion. “Farm and Feed? I thought we were talking about clothing.”
“You’ve clearly never been to a small-town farm store. They have everything.”
“Apparently, I need your help more than I realized.”
“Trust me,” I said. “You’re going to look great.”
“Of course I will. I always look great.”
With a slight shake of my head, I rolled my eyes. “And you know it, too.”
He just grinned at me.
This guy was going to be a handful.
We pulled into the parking lot at Friendly Farm and Feed, and Jensen found a spot. An old tractor parked out front was draped with multicolored Christmas lights, and a scarecrow with a Santa hat sat in the driver’s seat. Half a dozen holiday inflatables lined the front of the building, including a snow globe, a smiling Santa Claus, and a twelve-foot reindeer.
Jensen gave me a skeptical glance. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yeah, they’ll have everything you need. At a good price, too.”
We got out, and our feet crunched on the crusted-over snow. I paused as a vintage fire engine with a snowplow on the front drove by. Speakers mounted on top blared a lively rendition of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
