AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was intense, and just a little ridiculous at how it fired up my long dormant butterflies. Plain crazy, if you’d asked me. Guys like him never stuck around with me. I had too much baggage for them to handle.
After catching him staring at me, I pushed down the flurry of flutters and flipped to a sample contract I kept in the far back of the brag book, behind another tab. “Just for full disclosure, I will do a quick, free consultation, however, once I start drawing up plans, I require a 50% non-refundable deposit.”
“Sounds fair.”
“Good.” I smiled, my heart hammering like a teenager.
Some customers had balked at paying a deposit, but there were no guarantees they’d pay for the work once completed. At least this way, I got something out of it and with any luck, I could sell the project at a later date if they changed their mind, which had yet to happen. Thankfully.
“I’m doing some much-needed renovations, and I think a centerpiece like this would be great. Plus, it has all that buy-local appeal.” He paused and gazed upon me thoughtfully. “You are local, correct?”
“Yes. I live in Cheshire Bay.”
“Perfect. I’m just across the inlet.” There was a warmth in his perfect grin, along with his non-threatening stance, that suddenly put me at ease. “I’d like to schedule a consultation with you, if that’s okay?”
“I’d like that.”
He reached into his back pocket, and retrieved a brown leather wallet, the same colour as the wood I’d just stained yesterday; a dark walnut. From it, he pulled out a business card. “My number’s on the bottom.”
Thumbing my personal stack of plain Jane business cards, which held nothing more thanErin’s Eclectic Woodshop, and my number, he picked one up and gave it a quick tap against his finger. “Just in case you lose my card, I have a way to reach you.” He glanced at the card. “Erin, I assume?”
“Yes, and thank you.” Preferring not to look at the moment, I tucked his card into my apron. “I’ll call you on Monday to set something up.”
“I look forward to it.” With a charming wink that heated me more than I ever thought possible, he waved quickly and disappeared into the bustling crowd.
“Well, well, well.” Libby clucked beside me. “You looked like you were ready to mount that guy right here and now.”
“What?” My eyes bugged out. “I so was not.”
I hadn’t had the faintest heat cross my cheeks, and I hadn’t battled my eyes like some ridiculous teenager. My butterflies had been invisible, so I wasn’t sure what Libby saw.
“You were.” She handed her customer a bag of freshly baked goodies. “But it’s all good. Another custom piece would be a gold mine for you.”
“It really would. It would help pay off the mounting medical bills. That shit isn’t cheap.”
My daughter’s bills were starting to creep higher and higher, not all specialists were covered under health care, and the devices she needed were exponentially higher with each upgrade. And those upgrades were happening faster than originally predicted.
The regular wood pieces I created were my bread and gravy, and I was able to use those to pay the bills, but it would be nice to have the custom work provide a bit of cushion; a luxury I’d never had.
People mingled in front of my table, and a customer purchased a whale tail, after sharing her tale about a whale-watching expedition she’d recently been on. These were my biggest sellers, mostly because it was prime whale watching season, and at the other end of the market, there was a guy with a tour company pitching his services. I really ought to have collaborated with him – put his business cards at my table, in exchange for having one of my whale tails at his booth. It could still be done. There were a couple months left to the market – assuming the favourable weather we’d been having held out into Thanksgiving.
As ideas and images sprang to my head over what kind of piece I could create for the noteworthy guy I’d be calling on Monday, I realized I never got his name. Pulling out his card, I stared bug-eyed at the logo, with his nameDavid Deanwritten above the wordowner.
So that’s what the son-of-a-bitch looks like.
Never met the devil in person, but I knew that name, and far worse, I knew that place. And there was no way in hell I was doing business with him. Not after what he had done.
Chapter Two
Crumpling the card in my palm, I shoved it into the bottom of my apron’s pocket and sat down on my stool, ignoring the customers perusing the art pieces. With my gouging tool in hand, I urged it through a thick piece of wood.
Libby danced over and came to a full stop beside me. “Erin, you’re as white as a ghost.”
I blinked away the darkness, shaking my head as I stared at the crooked line I’d just carved, wondering how I was going to salvage this. “Damn. Sorry. I just… A thought, a memory…”
It had all come rushing back with the sight of the business name, and like the undertow in the ocean, threatened to pull me under just as quickly.
“How are your sales?” I needed the distraction her upbeat voice provided.
