Page 64 of Take My Heart
‘Add this,’ I say, handing the charging cord to Mr. Finkle.
He rings it up. ‘That’ll be $136.85.’
Shit, that’s expensive. How much are those sweatshirts?
‘I only have 50. Could you put the rest on my account?’
He shakes his head. ‘You already got 200 on that account.’
I do? I didn’t remember it being that much.
‘Can you just add this to what I owe you? I’ll pay you back this week.’
He eyes me. ‘What’s going on with you, Brody? You having money problems?’
‘No. I just don’t have the cash on me.’
‘You’ve had an outstanding bill here for a month now. And you keep adding to it.’
‘I just forgot about it. But I swear, I’ll get it paid this week.’
‘You better,’ he says, taking a pen from his pocket and writing down what I owe him on a pad of paper. ‘You’re a good kid, but I can’t be giving stuff away for free. I got a business to run. I gotta pay the bills.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ I give him the 50 in cash. ‘I’ll get you the rest this week. I promise.’
He puts everything in a bag and hands it to me. ‘You be careful out there.’
‘I will. And thanks again for opening the store.’
Back at the house, I walk in and see Kate sitting on the couch wearing my black hoodie. She had a blanket over her legs, but she took it off and got up when I came in. My gaze drops to her bare legs. She’s wearing the black hoodie and nothing else. I get that my pants don’t fit her, but this shirt-only look is driving me fucking crazy, especially when I know there’s a good chance she’s wearing nothing underneath it.
‘I got everything you need,’ I tell her. ‘Or as much as I could.’
‘Thanks for doing that,’ she says, sounding relieved. ‘It’ll be nice to finally have clothes that fit.’
‘Oh, and I found a cord for your phone.’
‘Really?’ Her whole face lights up.
‘Yeah. They only had one left so I got it.’
‘Thank you!’ She comes up to me and hugs me, wrapping her arms around my neck.
I reach down to hug her back and feel her ass. Her naked freaking ass. I quickly let go of her. ‘Shit. Sorry.’ I back away.
‘Oh. Yeah,’ she says, looking as awkward as I feel. ‘I was gonna ask you to get some, um, underwear, but then I thought it might be weird.’
‘I don’t think they sell that stuff there.’
‘Yeah, that makes sense.’ She clears her throat. ‘Do you have the receipt? I’ll send you the money when my phone’s working again.’
‘It’s in one of the sacks.’
She picks them up. ‘Can I look through everything?’
‘Yeah, go ahead.’
She brings the sacks to the couch and takes out one of the sweatshirts. ‘Kanfield Orchard.’ She smiles. ‘I like it.’
