Page 81 of Fairy Godmothers Aren't Cheap

“If you’re nice, I’ll tell you how I’d do it.”

I grinned at him, loving the fact that he had it all figured out.

If he ever proposed that as a first date, I’d marry him on the spot—my lacking wifey persona be damned.

James flicked a few switches, his eyes tracking across images with a practiced efficiency.

The camera feed from the front lobby zoomed out, showing more of the room as James worked buttons. It had been zoomed in where I’d been standing just minutes ago, waiting for him. A patter of tiny bootied feet of happiness stormed through my stomach.

My voice lifted as I asked, “Were you spying on me?”

His cheeks pinked ever so slightly and his mouth made a firm line. “No. I was waiting for you.”

“Hm.”

“And so you know, I’m trained to watch for unusual behaviour.”

“Unusual?”

“Yup. Unusual.” He smirked, then moved my abandoned milkshake where it was dribbling condensation over the black plastic console. “Watch your screens. Especially that lady touching everything. Shoplifters do that.”

“What lady?” I leaned forward, studying the screens in front of me before spotting her. “Oh.” I leaned back, no longer concerned. “Those are just repros.”

“In the gift shop? No. Those are all real.”

“I don’t know who’s been telling you that, but they’re reproductions.”

“All of them?” He looked at me as though I’d been the one who’d purposefully scammed him.

“No, not quite. Just the best ones.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah, I hope a collector doesn’t find out you’re ripping people off. They’ll be miffed.”

James nodded, brow furrowed. I could tell it bothered him that pieces were being sold as the real deal when they weren’t.

“But that one I showed you?” He turned from his monitors for a moment. “You said that wasn’t a fake?”

“It was a genuine artifact. It’s gone now though. I didn’t see it in the case.”

He nodded, seemingly relieved.

“You know, there’s a lot of Grecian pottery floating around online right now. I’ve bought a few pieces, and they’re much cheaper than in the gift shop. They’ve been real, too. Some of the descriptions said they were reproductions, but they weren’t. Someone out there is doing a bad job of assessing pieces. Which is weird since it’s not that difficult to figure out what’s real and what isn’t.”

“It’s not?”

“I won’t bore you with the details of it, but yeah. Once you know what to look for and spend some time looking at pieces…” I shrugged, being careful not to bore him.

“Know what’s more fun than talking about pottery?” he asked, flicking through the screens, one by one. They were all empty now. Even Richard was leaving.

“Letting me touch the stuff in the display cases?”

“Even better.” James scooted his chair in my direction. Then, with a tug, he hauled my chair to his. He leaned over and kissed me, sending my heart rate into overdrive and had me forgetting all about pottery.

CHAPTER27

~ Char ~

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