Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
I wasn’t planning to put tables there. I’d already bought them. I nodded.
“Now, we do offer sunshades that are pretty economical. A lot of the restaurants around here use ’em.”
I shook my head. “No, I need something that’s not see-through.”
“That narrows it down. Let me get back to the office and I’ll send over some options. When’s your opening date?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Who knows. Few more weeks at least. But I really need to get something up by next Wednesday.”
It was his turn to laugh, except I didn’t find any humor when he said, “A few weeks I can do. Next Wednesday? Not a chance.”
“Damn,” I whispered.
He was right. I could feel the rays of the sun penetrating through the windows. If it was already this warm during spring, I could only imagine how sweltering it would be at the peak of summer.
With one last hopeful smile, I asked, “And just to make sure I heard you correctly, you don’t have a dumpster out back that is unattended after dark and filled with blinds that could even remotely fit my windows?”
Mr. Budget Blinds shook his head as the corner of his mouth tipped up. “Doll face, if we did, I wouldn’t even make you wait until nightfall to go get ’em.” He tucked the clipboard under an arm and extended his hand toward me. “I’ll get this quote over to you as soon as possible.”
With an inward groan, I shook his hand before leading him to the door. “Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.”
“You too, sweets.”
I rolled my eyes at the term of endearment and turned to go back inside, but something down the street caught my attention.
“What the…” I muttered to myself, squinting against the sun.
Lumbering down the sidewalk, arms full of who knew what, a pack mule resembling Truett West made his way toward me.
Holy shit.
While I was frozen in place with the door half open, the cool air breezed past me. My instincts had me panicked. He didn’t leave his house except for on Wednesdays. At least that was what he’d told me. But his long legs took purposeful strides, far too slow for something to be wrong.
I waited until he was within earshot before shouting, “Have I been transported to an alternate universe?” I checked my watch to verify that it was in fact not only noon, but Thursday as well. “Truett, you do know yesterday was Wednesday, right?”
His stormy brown eyes narrowed from above what appeared to be a stack of dusty newspapers balanced on his forearms while two plastic grocery sacks hung from his hands. He grunted a reply I couldn’t begin to understand.
“Okay, so an alternate universe where you don’t speak English, apparently.”
Louder this time and enunciating each word, he repeated what I assumed he’d said the first time. “If this was an alternate universe, I’d have bought a wheelbarrow. Can I get a little help?”
I hurried toward him, meeting him in the middle of the street. “What’s all this?”
“Newspaper to cover the windows.” He waited for me to open the door and then unceremoniously dumped the stack of papers on a corner of the floor that had yet to be tiled. He stretched his back from side to side and then took the bags from my hands and made his way toward his booth. “Before you say anything, this cost me next to nothing.”
Sidling up next to him, I eyed him suspiciously as he began unloading the contents of the bags. The smell of garlic and ginger wafted up.
“Is that Chinese food?”
He turned and proudly presented me a wax paper bag. “That it is. These spring rolls were exactly three dollars. So your gift of the key cancels them out.” He dropped the bag onto the table and pulled out a round black plastic bowl crammed with food. “I got garlic vegetables with white rice for you. Sesame chicken and ham fried rice for me. All for the low, low price of buy-one-get-one-free.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I had a coupon. I’ll let you guess which item was free.”
I recognized the logo on the bag. “You went all the way to China Wok to get that?”
“Nah, I had it delivered. But I was stingy with the tip, so you can’t have that on your conscience, either.” He finished pulling the rest of the food from the bag and then flipped it upside down, dumping out the packets of sauce and chopsticks before sliding into his side of the booth. “Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
My stomach growled, ratting me out before I had the chance to lie and tell him that I wasn’t hungry. Not counting the untouched club sandwich, it had been forever since we’d shared a meal together, much less from our favorite Chinese hole-in-the-wall. I’d avoided it like the plague since our divorce, unwilling to open Pandora’s box of positive memories. But damn, he knew me well. They had the best spring rolls, and my mouth watered just thinking about taking a bite.