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A truck drove by the store as we carried the fabric outside. It caught my attention because the window was cracked, and a dog’s snout was sticking out. The truck slowed down, then did a U-turn on the busy road. It pulled into our strip mall and parked next to Brandi’s car.
“Speaking of men you want to sleep with,” Brandi said.
“Oh my God,” I hissed at her. “What is he doing here?”
Jack got out of the truck. With the sun behind him, his sandy-blond hair looked gold. He wore snug-fitting jeans and a gray T-shirt with a faded logo on the front. He hurried over to us, grabbing the entire bolt of cloth in the middle. With biceps bulging, he lifted it out of our arms and carried it over to the open trunk.
Brandi gave me a knowing smile. I rolled my eyes at her.
“You really ought to hire someone to help lift all of this,” Jack said.
“We’re perfectly capable on our own,” I replied. “What are you doing here?”
He put his hands on his hips, exuding easy strength and masculine energy. I felt drawn to him, and then immediately became annoyed at myself for feeling that way.
“I was taking Smoke on an errand,” he said, pointing at the truck. “Saw you two struggling to carry that load and figured I’d help before you pulled something.”
“Like I said, we’re perfectly capable,” I said curtly.
Jack peered inside the trunk. “Where are you taking all of this?”
I was going to tell him to mind his own business, but Brandi answered before I could. “We’re selling all our fabric to other upholstery stores in the area. This one’s going to a store in Tampa.”
“All your fabric?” he leaned toward me to glance inside the store. “There must be thousands of pounds of the stuff in there.”
“We have our work cut out for us,” I said. “Now if you’ll leave us to it…”
“And you’re trying to transport it in this car?” he asked.
“We’ve only sold fifteen bolts, for now,” Brandi answered.
“We’ve got it covered,” I said. “Thanks.”
Jack looked at her car, then inside the store, then turned back to me. I could see his mind working behind those intense blue eyes. Thinking.
“Where in Tampa is it going?”
“North-east side,” Brandi replied. “Del Rio area.”
“It’ll take you three trips to move fifteen bolts.”
“Thanks for offering commentary on what we already know,” I muttered.
“We can take my truck,” Jack insisted. “Fifteen bolts will fit in the bed. One trip, nice and quick.”
“I don’t want you to have to drive out of your way…” I said.
“Smoke and I are headed to the dog park in Sulphur Springs. It’s practically on the way. Give me the address and I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay!” Brandi said eagerly.
I shot her a look.
“That will save us a lot of time,” Brandi told Jack, but I could tell it was for my benefit. “I can start calling other stores farther away about buying our inventory. And Alyssa can work on the unpaid invoices we’re trying to collect.”
Jack spread his hands. “There you go.”
“I need to go with you,” I said. “I want to talk to the store owner and see if we can convince them to buy more of our fabric than they’ve already committed to. Once they see the quality, I think they’ll come around.”
