Page 54 of Peach Tree Family

"See if you can use it," Noreen told them. "Just don't expect to hear anything else while it's running."

"It looks new," Theo said. "I should pay you for it."

She agreed right away. "Fine. I'll take a dollar."

Theo started to argue. "It's worth..."

"Fine, you drive a hard bargain. Zero dollars. And I have a no return policy. If you hate it, just chuck it. I never want to see it again."

"All right. Thank you." Theo then prompted Ace. "Want to say thank you to your teacher?"

"Thank you, Ms Kurtz," Ace said but he looked uneasy. "Is it charity, Theo?"

Noreen answered before he could. "No. You have to pay me." While Ace looked worried, Noreen named her price. "I know you have a cat. You have to let me cuddle with your cat any time I want. Deal?"

Ace thought about it hard. "OK. It's a deal."

"And I want my first payment right now," Noreen demanded.

"We have to find Butter first," Ace said and started searching for her. Noreen really had him convinced that she was taking proper payment.

"That was nice of her," Theo said while Noreen went to get paid.

"Yeah. She doesn't seem too nice, but she is. Sort of like you," Seth said and Theo gave him the side-eye.

"I bought an ax and a hand saw at the hardware store in town. Left them in the kitchen," Seth told him.

"For chopping wood?"

"And I can trim some of these trees that are close by the house." Seth pointed out a few of them.

"I was going to buy what we needed," Theo told him.

"I'm supposed to pitch in. I did pick up the dinner shift Saturday and Sunday, but I'll help you out as much as I can this weekend."

Theo told him about his plans, though he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to get as much done as he wanted since he was working Sunday.

Noreen spent some quality time with Butter then left her to Ace, and came over to them. "That is a nice cat."

"She's always jumping on us," Theo told her.

"Theo likes her," Seth said and got another dirty look from him.

Noreen was looking at something over his shoulder though. "Oh, no," she said and they saw that they had a new visitor.

A car parked next to Noreen's and soon Sammy and that little redhead, Gloria, were released from the back and went running over to Ace. They were yelling for him, then yelling for the kitty.

Following them much slower was a redheaded woman who had to be Gloria's mother. She was young and hot and had the kind of curves that did nothing for Theo, but he had to resist the urge to check if Seth was drooling over her.

He was distracted by the welcome Noreen gave the hot redhead. "And what are you doing here?"

"Don't pretend you didn't know what would happen when you texted me to brag that you were over here cuddling with the new cat," the redhead told her then she offered her hand to Theo. "Lara Salinger. Sorry to just show up, but I told the girls what Noreen was up to and they started jumping up and down. 'Please, Momma!' and 'Please, Gloria's momma!' I had no choice."

"We're happy to have you. I'm Theo Atkins. This is our friend Seth Brewer."

"Nice to meet you guys," she said.

"You have more guests coming," Noreen said and pointed to the arrival of another car.

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