Page 30 of Two Hearts' Ploy

Tears came to her eyes as she continued to listen.

There was a long silence after the music stopped.

“I’ll call my manager,” Wren finally said softly, wiping away the tears. “I’m going to talk him into releasing this independently as a single to see how it goes over. Meanwhile,Jeff can work with me on the rest of the songs I intend to release. We can do two versions of each. That way, we’ll be prepared if it doesn’t go over well.”

Eve snorted. “I don’t think that’s even a remote possibility.”

Wren suddenly grinned. “I can’t get over how good he really is at this. Jeff should be doing this for a living. But don’t tell him I said that. It might go to his head.”

Eve laughed.

Chapter Fifteen

Another hour later, Jeff was walking into the antique store at the mall in town.

“Hey, Becky,” Jeff said loudly to the person standing across the room at the desk. “I’ll try to make this easy since it’s getting late, and you probably want to close things up pretty soon. Have you got any bedroom sets in stock?”

“Hi, Jeff,” Becky called out. “We haven’t seen you around for a while. I guess you’ve been hard at work on the house. As a matter of fact, we’ve got a couple of very nice sets available in back. We haven’t even had a chance to add them at our online store.”

“Great. I’ve got my fingers crossed that one of them might be what I’m looking for. Is it okay if I head into the storeroom and take a look? I see that you’re here alone.”

“Of course. The new items are way at the back on the left exactly where they were unloaded if you want to check them out.”

After he entered the storeroom and headed toward the rear, Jeff was shocked to realize that one of the bedroom sets was exactly what he’d been looking for since purchasing the house – a mahogany four-poster king size bed along with a matching highboy and dresser.

The design was kind of ornate with all its wood carvings, but he had a feeling that it would complement the simplicity of the patterned rug and vintage quilts that he’d planned on using somewhere in the master bedroom.

Jeff grimaced when he checked out the price. But then again, the set was probably worth it. He’d see if he could get Becky to call Kiley Davidson, the shop owner, to see if she’d be willing to take a little off the top. In fact, he was going to look for a few more items that he could take along with him tonight, so maybe they’d give him a discount if he paid for everything up front.

Jeff noticed a few other items that he’d probably be interested in as he walked back to the showroom. But not right now, he decided. He still had lumber and windows to purchase for the sunroom, so he didn’t want to get too far off his budget since he was already spending much more than he’d planned.

“Becky? Have you got a minute?” he asked, peeking out from the storeroom.

“I do.” She grinned. “I recognize that look. The mall’s emptying out for the evening. I’ll be locking up in another half hour. I’ll bet I know which set you have in mind.”

As she walked with him toward the back of the storeroom, she nodded when he pointed at the mahogany four-poster bed. “I knew it. Did you see the entire set? There’s a beautiful framed mirror that belongs with the bureau, along with a vanity table and bench.” She pursed her lips. “Where are they, I wonder? Those items must have been mistakenly unpacked with the other set we unloaded.”

She strolled over to the other side of the aisle. “Here they are. The mirror is here too. I’m sure they moved them over here to protect them after polishing in case another load of furniture came in.”

There was a garage door situated here at the back of the storeroom which opened directly to the loading dock.

Jeff walked to the other side of the aisle to study the vanity and mirror. “Everything in the set is in really great shape, isn’t it?”

“Circa nineteen twenty,” she admitted. “No woodworm, mold or mildew. We’ve already polished everything up of course, because we were planning on adding the set to the showroom this weekend.”

“Talk about coincidence. Everything’s about the same age as my house,” he admitted. “I already added up the cost of the other pieces. But I hate to break up the set, even though I probably won’t use the vanity. I’d planned on writing a check.”

“I think I have the entire set tagged on one of the pieces which includes an additional discount.” She checked the tags on all the items, finally coming across the one she was looking for.

“What do you think?” she asked, showing him the price. “By the way, Kiley gave me permission to give you an additional five percent off any of your purchases, even after the discount. I went ahead and gave her a call.”

He blinked. “That comes out to about what I was going to spend before you showed me the extra pieces. Okay, you’ve got a deal,” he agreed. “I’ll give Jake Loughlin a call about mattresses.”

“Good. The bedframe seems to be in really great shape,” she said. “I’m willing to bet that these pieces have sat in the same home ever since they were purchased.”

“It’s hard to believe that this set was just sitting here waiting for me to find. I’ve been looking for something similar ever sinceI bought the house, but I never expected to find a complete set, let alone pieces that were all in nearly perfect condition. Now, I need to arrange for delivery. I have some company coming to stay which is why I’m in such a hurry.”

“You’re in luck. We don’t have any deliveries going out until the end of the week. How about tomorrow?”

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