Page 70 of Dream a Little Dream

She propped her head up on her hand. “I had no idea you were so politically driven.”

“With the proper motivation, I’m finding I could be a lot of things.”

“Come here,” she said, pulling me on top. It was her favorite. I nestled in, staggering our thighs. “What are we doing tomorrow?”

“Whatever we want.” With Kyle in my life, and being part of an us that was the perfect fit for me, the world seemed boundless. “Let’s go shopping.”

“Okay. For what?”

“Let’s not decide.”

“Unspecified goods perusal.” She pulled her face back and nodded thoughtfully. “You have good ideas. Aimless shopping it is.”

I rested my head on her chest and sighed happily. My limbs felt heavy and my spirit light. The house that just a couple of hours agohad been full of chaos and conversation now hummed with quiet contentment. It had been a wonderful day and a perfect night, and I couldn’t help but bask as my eyes slowly closed. This was getting good, really, really good.

Chapter Twenty-one

An Unlikely Pair

“But why not delete a few?” I asked Jake over lunch at the Serious Sandwich. The shop had been open just over a year, and because of its proximity to the store, I could pop over easily enough for lunch.

“I just don’t see the point. What if I need one?” He shrugged and set down his Turkey O’Toole. It was their specialty.

When I’d discovered he never deleted his email and had over 17,000 just hanging out in his inbox, I went into a type A panic. I turned his phone around and showed him an email from eight years earlier about a sale at a shoe store. “But, see, I don’t think they’re going to take this coupon anymore. That one could go.”

He laughed and gave his head a shake. “I just hit the trash can cartoon there?”

“That’s all you gotta do.”

He hit the icon, sending the email to the trash, and I broke into a smile. “See? Wasn’t so hard. Only 16,999 to go.”

“Are we going to argue over each one?” he asked with a laugh.

“Let’s play it by ear.”

It had been twelve days since he’d come to my place for Thanksgiving. We’d gotten together handful of times, all of them on the fly. The great thing? He’d taken the lead, showing authentic interest in my life and all I had going on. It was, dare I say, nice? There wasn’t any kind of pressure to leap into an instant relationship. We hung out casually in short spurts, which made the whole thing feel less threatening.

“So, how’s the new branding going? Your whole store is green now.”

“You should see my office. They came in and redecorated thewhole thing. There’s a fancy L-shaped desk and a gorgeous couch. They had a crew come in and paint, and a woman brought in these beautiful paintings of locations around town. My jaw hit the floor.”

“Sounds like an upgrade to me.”

“It is.” I finished chewing. “The best part is that they’re green-lighting so many of my ideas. Even the ones I considered long shots. We’re having Santa Claus come in and take pet photos every Tuesday in December right in between the dog and cat aisles. Faber would have died before allowing that to happen.”

“Yeah, well, Don has his own troubles now.”

“What have you heard?” This was fun.

“That woman he runs after all the time?”

“Harlowe?” I waved him off. “She’s a lot. I speak from experience.”

“She’s in jail.”

I had to set down my sandwich entirely. “What? How have I not heard about this?”

“Give it a couple of hours. My buddies booked her this morning on fraud, conspiracy, and embezzlement charges.” Sometimes I forgot he was a retired cop. Of course he’d have all the good intel before everyone else.

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