Page 1 of Smooth Moves
Chapter 1
Late June in Seattle sometimes delivered the heat. Cash Griffith looked up. Just his luck—thick, dark gray clouds converged overhead, heavy with the promise of rain.
He rubbed the back of his neck, his nerves stretched thin on this particular moving job.
From hell.
He forced himself back inside the large Miller house, now marked with a FOR SALE sign out front. The place would no doubt sell for big money, a posh spread like this in Madison Park just a few blocks from Lake Washington. Cash could maybe afford torenta house a quarter of this size, and certainly not in this area. It gave him the jitters being around money and class. Both of which he had in little abundance.
And he was just fine with that.
Getting back to work, he did his best to avoid the problem areas in the home—namely, anyone connected to the name Miller.
“Yo, you ready?” he asked Hector, who stood at the other end of a heavy-ass curio cabinet that had to have cost a fortune. They carefully walked it out of the dining room and through the kitchen to the mudroom and then maneuvered it down the ramp they’d placed over the steps leading into the attached garage. They’d have to find a spot in there to regroup, where they could wrap the curio in blankets. Then they’d only have to take a few steps outside, leading up the ramp into the moving truck, which they’d backed in the Millers’ long, wide driveway. At least this way they didn’t have far to go when loading. The only plus Cash had seen thus far on the job.
Screams and laughter came from somewhere behind him, making him think of the telltale theme fromJawsas it grew nearer, signaling the return of a monster.
“Hurry up,” Hector warned as they paused inside the garage. “I think the kids are coming back.”
“Put it here.” Heidi waved them over before walking back outside to catalog the boxes and other items already on the lawn.
They moved the curio to where Heidi had indicated and set it down gently.
Hector bent over, panting. “Jesus, is this thing made of iron or wood?” Considering Hector had considerable strength, on par with Cash’s even, the mass of the cabinet was truly astounding.
Cash grunted and flexed his hands. “More like gold, considering what Judy Miller said it would cost to replace.” And she hadn’t been the least bit subtle about how important her dead mother’s things were to her.
Cash wished he could relate, but the only things his recently deceased mother had left him were nightmares and a house that caused tension between him and his brother.
A shrieking demon raced into the garage, circled around Hector twice, then ran away after shooting Cash between the eyes with a squirt gun.Damn it.
Hector laughed as Cash wiped his face. “Aw, ain’t that cute? Demon Spawn number 1 likes you.”
They’d taken to calling the kid that after hearing his own mother yell the same thing when said spawn destroyed an expensive vase on a tear through the house, trying to track down his bratty twin.
Something inside crashed, and he heard Jordan yell at the boy to slow down before he hurt himself. More power to her. If anyone could get that kid to slow down, it was the sexy ex-Army MP.
He frowned at himself, mentally removed the wordsexy, and tried to focus on the job and not his recollection of the way Jordan filled out a pair of shorts.
He and Hector wrapped the curio and a few large dressers and chairs in blankets then brought a few more of the Millers’ more expensive pieces into the garage before Heidi rejoined them. Once satisfied the items had been properly protected, she started directing them into the moving truck.
Vets on the Go! employed military veterans and provided the citizens of Seattle exceptional service for their local moving needs. Business was booming, and in order to keep it thriving, Cash had been ordered to keep his big mouth shut and let his muscles do his talking for him. Difficult, but he’d been adapting.
Though Cash was the oldest, his younger brother, Reid, had taken their company from small and barely managing to a real success. So Cash did his best to keep his opinions to himself and packed, lifted, and moved.
He took a step back and nearly fell on his ass when a skateboard slid out from underneath him. From the direction of the house he heard snickering.Those freakin’ kids.Cash swore, wishing Mrs. Miller had listened the first three times Hector, Heidi, and Jordan had politely asked her to keep her twins safely out of the way and pen up the damn dog. He’d have said something too, but it wouldn’t have been polite or pleasant, so he’d let the others say it for him.
Something licked his leg.
Cash grimaced and glanced down at an adorable yellow lab that didn’t understand the wordno. “Crap. Not you again.” Helpless to stop himself, he leaned down to give the canine a pat behind the ears. The dog huffed and flopped to his back, exposing a fuzzy belly.
“Sucker.” Hector tried not to smile.
“Please. I’ve seen you wrestling with this little guy twice today.”
“Well, he’s loveable. And I have a heart.”
Cash straightened and managed to avoid an unpleasant canine nip. He looked down at Hector, and a petty part of him liked looming over the guy. By a few inches, but still. “You’re saying Idon’thave a heart?”
