We walk side by side to the back of the delivery truck, but as soon as the door opens, my stomach drops. Those cannot all be for here, right?
“Mrs. Banks?” the delivery, a guy I’ve never seen before, tall and broad-shouldered, says.
“Miss, but yes, that’s me. Which ones are mine?” I point at the towers of boxes taking over half of this truck.
The delivery guy glances over his shoulder into the truck, then back at me with the kind of sympathy I’ve gotten my entire life after my parents’ deaths.
Fuck.
“All of them.”
I laugh.
Actually laugh.
Because there is no way. “No, seriously,” I say, waiting for him to grin back.
He doesn’t; instead, he pulls a clipboard against his chest and checks the invoice. “Fifty boxes. Assorted paints, clay, canvases, paper rolls, easels, brushes, and other materials. Signature required.”
I stare into the truck again.
Fifty.
“Why,” I whisper, mostly to myself, “does it look like I accidentally ordered an entire art school?”
Dom leans beside me, one hand braced on the truck as he looks inside. Even he goes quiet for a second, which feels like confirmation that this is not normal, right? Maybe they’re packed with lots of fillers.
The driver clears his throat and offers me the clipboard. “Where do you want them?”
I sign with a shaky hand. “At this point? Straight into the river, please.”
Dom laughs under his breath and takes the clipboard from me before handing it back. “We’ll handle it.”
The driver nods once and then immediately starts unloading the first box onto the lift gate.
I grab the nearest one.
And nearly throw out my back.
“Oh my God,” I gasp. “What is in this, cement?”
Dom takes it from my hands like it weighs nothing. “Clay, probably.”
“I was joking!”
He sets it down in the shed, and I’m so glad it’s as organized and clean as it is now, so at least I have space to put all of these. He reaches for another while I stand there, blinking at the growing mountain now forming inside the shed.
There’s just no way.
I look at the clipboard again, and my heart leaps out of my chest.
No.
No.
No.
I didn’t order five of each; I ordered fifty of each.
