AllFreeNovel
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She shifts to the side and turns the monitor to face me. I scroll through a list of sales from the last few days and compare it to our inventory. We are running low on a couple of things, but they’re on one of the regular trucks on Tuesday mornings.
“Here, let me show you the schedule.” I briefly explain things while she takes notes. By the looks of it, the little notepad she’s adopted is already a quarter full.
“What days do the trucks usually come in?”
“One on Tuesday and one on Wednesday every week. The monthly is usually the second Monday of the month, but if we’re light, we can push it back a week.”
She nods and writes more notes. “Okay. Ready to go?”
“Yep.”
“You want to close up while I grab my stuff?” she asks, twisting sideways to loosen up her back.
“Sure.” I watch her walk away. I see she’s already printed off the information we need, so I shut down the computer and count out the drawer. At a glance, we’ve had a busy week, and I make a mental note to double-check inventory right away on Monday.
I sense her standing behind me before she says anything.
“I’m all set. Are you good?” She checks before looking at the printouts.
She’s got her small lunch bag and purse with her cell phone jammed into the little pocket.
“Yep.” I straighten up.
“Annie said Norman’s been behaving.” She walks ahead of me to the door while talking.
“I bet he could shred her curtains, and she’d still think he was cute.”
“He’d never do that!” She turns and smacks me playfully. “He’s a good boy.”
I shut and lock the door after flipping the sign to closed.
“He is, but we also might be a little biased.”
“True.” She twists her face up and wrinkles her nose.
The traffic to Annie and Al’s is terrible and takes twice as long as it should. Lenore responds to messages the whole ride, and I listen to the local radio station on low.
“Your mom ever get back to you?” I keep an eye on the slow-moving traffic.
“About what?” She finishes typing and looks up from her phone.
“From your location memos the day I picked you up.” One glance, and I can see how red her cheeks have grown.
“How’d you know?”
“It was the smart thing to do. I saw ‘Mom’ pop when you sent the fourth or fifth one.”
She snorts. “Yeah. I wasn’t sure if you were going to kidnap me.”
“Like I said, it was the smart thing to do, and like I told you before, you’re smart.”
The blush fades slowly from her cheeks. “Actually, she called on Thursday. ”
She doesn’t elaborate further, so I change the subject. “You tell her about Norman?”
“No. Not yet.” She fiddles with the seat belt strap before continuing. “She’ll probably tell me I need to rehome him.”
“Why?” Lenore so clearly loves that cat, and I feel like she needs more things in her life to love. I can’t imagine why her mom would tell her not to keep it.
