“I can take you if your mom is busy. I’m going back to May Ranch after I have lunch with Andy and stop in at Book Bliss. Lacy wants me to get a couple books Reagan ordered for her.”
“Lucky her.” Ava makes a face. “I always have to get secondhand books.”
“Secondhand books arethe best,” Skye says, pushing through the backroom curtains, lugging an antique, dark mahogany rocking chair. “They’re preloved.”
Ava rolls her eyes.
“Like me,” Skye says. “And this gal here. Look atthispreloved beauty.” She sets the rocking chair down. “Esther Grady asked me to come to the house, so she could get rid of a few things. She was going to just give me everything, but I made her sign a commission contract, so she could make money from the sales. She needs the money, and some of these are going to bring in a pretty penny.”
“Where do you want that thing?” I nudge a chin toward the rocking chair.
“Next to Annie and Mannie.” She points to the mannequins in the front window. “Do you need anything for the cabin for your new guys? There are a few other pieces in the backroom. A mid-century coffee table, a sturdy bookshelf if you’ve got any book lovers, and a desk. Your guys are taking community college classes in their spare time, right?”
I nod. “Lacy said she was looking for a desk. And a couple more chairs for the front porch.” I glance at the price tag on the rocking chair, lift an eyebrow, and whistle.
“AndI priced it down. But I bet it’ll be gone by the end of the week.” She walks to the counter and holds up a book. “I almost forgot. I got this in. Did you feel my cosmic message to come and pick it up? Father Wakowsky was getting rid of some of his books. A ton of European history, if you want to go look.” She waves toward the bookshelves. “You were going on and on about the Austro-Prussian War the other day, so I nabbed this one.”
“I don’t get cosmic messages.”
“Everybody does. They just don’t pay attention.”
“Was your cosmic message in the form of hot coffee?”
“Huh?” She squinches her nose.
“That woman who’s staying at Heaven accidentally spilled coffee on me. That’s why I stopped in. I needed some dry, non-stained pants.”
“Do you mean the woman who bikes from Heaven?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you talk to her? Was she nice?”
“A little snippy, but she didn’t cuss or punch me.” I shrug. “That’s all the intel I have on her.” I don’t mention the intel I have on her legs and how sexy they are.
“Rylee says she’s mean,” Ava says from the counter. “She never smiles or talks when she’s at Book Bliss.”
“We shouldn’t assume. Maybe she’s shy,” Skye says. “If she comes into Seventh Heaven, I’ll suss her out.”
Ava groans. “Pleasedon’t say suss, Mom.”
Skye laughs and steers me toward a rack of shirts. She pulls out a sage green polo and holds it up next to my face. “Yep. I was right. It looks gorgeous with your baby blues. Go put it on. Consider it a buy one, get one free special offer.” She eyes my pants, then shakes her head sadly. “Let me give you your money back. Those pants were in the dad bod, already married and not looking for a woman section. It’s a perfectly respectable section, but it is not yours.”
I turn to Ava. “Are these so bad?”
She shrugs. “You always look the same.”
“Exactly,” I tell her. I turn back to Skye. “What’s wrong with a man knowing their own personal style and sticking with it?”
Skye steers me to the dressing room, grabbing a pair of jeans on the way and handing them to me. “These won’t be baggy like those pants. I swear, you’re purposely trying to hide all your good features.”
“And all along, I thought my good features were pretty damn obvious.”
She opens the door to the dressing room and waves a hand for me to enter.
“I have a limit to how many times I can go in a dressing room in one day, and I’ve already reached it,” I say.
“Those jeans and that shirt will be perfect for your date.”
