Page 76 of The Woman in the Hollow
And I was walking around in his shirt.
I tamped down the surge of insecurity and crept my way up the steps.
“Hazel, this is Smush. Smush, Hazel.”
Something flew through the air so fast it was nothing but a whir of white before it thwacked Dante in the chest.
His hand was just as fast, catching the bottle of conditioner before it hit the floor.
“You’re lucky that didn’t splatter all over me.”
“What were you going to do?” Smush, a gorgeous woman in an all-black outfit, asked. “We both know I’m faster than you.”
“I was thinking of telling Aunt Adrian that you’re seeing one of your clients.”
Smush’s mouth fell open, snapped shut, then tensed. “My name is Sofia. My asshole cousins and brothers call me Smush because it was my nickname when I was a fat baby.”
“That’s not very nice.”
“Thank you,” she said, throwing out a hand. “And after I ran all over town for this asshole. You were right about her size, though,” she said, looking me over.
“My size? You had Smu—Sofia buy my clothes?”
“Figured you might want something to wear if we have to go out for any reason.”
“Oh.” I glanced down at my bare legs. “Right. Thanks.”
“He also had me get you all the other stuff you might need: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, loofah, shaving cream, razors, hair ties, toothbrush, the works. Oh, and a really nice blanket. I figure if Dante is anything like my brothers, he keeps this place about five degrees too cold to be comfortable for us girls.”
“Itisa little chilly in here.”
“Exactly. I would stay and put the food away like usual, but I have an impatient brother about to honk at me from the car. So, yeah. I’m out.”
“Thanks, Sof. I appreciate it.”
“You know how to show your appreciation,” she said, shooting him a look. “Hazel, nice to meet you. I hope you feel better soon. And Aunt Giulia’s gotta be eating this up,” she said, gesturing between the two of us before she disappeared out the back door.
“Like usual?” I asked as Dante leaned the lead bar against the wall near the basement door before going over toward the grocery bags to start putting things away.
“Smush runs a service the men in the family have been using for years. She does all our shopping for us and even puts it all away. I only use her on occasion, but she makes sure nothing ever runs out.”
“So, your appreciation…”
“Money,” he said, shooting me a smirk before putting the vegetables in the crisper.
“This is really too much,” I said, pulling all the clothing and personal care items out of the bags.
“It’s not.”
“She’s very thorough,” I decided when I noticed she hadn’t missed a single thing that I used in my daily life, save for maybe some makeup. But I wouldn’t be putting anything on myface until the scratches healed anyway. Well, unless I needed something to cover them up for work.
“Hey, what about the garden center?” I asked, looking over at him as I ran my fingers over some fuzzy socks.
“What about it?”
“The shipments… the school trips…”
“It’ll go back to usual, sans you for the time being. Domenico and my guys can handle anything that comes up. Might not be as good as when you’re navigating it, but they will keep it from burning down, at least. Dom already got the shipments earlier today. He’s having the other employees set shit up. Worried?” he asked, coming over to the table to pull the pasta out of a bag. A lot of pasta. Who was he feeding, an army?
