She shrugged. "Of course you can. You can't borrow any of Tess's, though—you're too tall. We can shop together!"
I grinned. "Maybe I'll wear a tuxedo, instead. I don't want to frighten anyone with my hairy legs."
Just then, Zane burst out the front door and waved. "Shelley! We have ALL the junk food!"
Tess sighed. "Oh, goody. Shelley, remember the funnel cake—"
Shelley groaned. "Will everybody stop bringing that up already?"
"Bringing that up." I chuckled. "Get it? Because youbrought upthe funnel cake?"
Shelley put her hands on her hips and frowned at me. "Enough. Also, if you have to explain a joke, it wasn't very funny."
"Ouch," Tess said, her eyes dancing with amusement. "She told you."
We waved goodbye to the budding Spielbergs and headed for Tess's shop, so she could relieve Eleanor and finish the day.
At Dead End Pawn, I kissed Tess goodbye for at least five minutes, but that probably doesn't belong in a case report.
[Sorry, Tess, I'm just feeling smug.]
On my way home to do chores, Dave Wolf called.
"Hey, sorry I missed you when you dropped Shelley off. I was out back doing some painting. How's it going?"
"I'm going to a Father-Daughter dance," I blurted out.
"What? You have a kid?"
"No! I mean with Shelley!"
"That's great. Shelley deserves to have nothing but wonderful times after what happened to her."
"I'm not really father material. I'm more 'point me toward the bad guys, so I can rescue the hostages.'"
He laughed. "You'll be great. I think Tess is civilizing you."
I caught myself grinning at the thought.
"Hey, not to change the subject," Dave said, "but have you heard anything about a theft ring operating in Dead End recently?"
"A little, at Beau's."
"They hit one of my construction sites. Stole about two grand in tools. I filed a police report for my insurance, and Andy said there has been a spate of minor crimes. Somebody keeps painting graffiti on the vet's clinic, for example."
"Yeah, we saw that. Most of what I picked up at Beau's was about the UltraShopMart and the Santas fighting, though."
"USM has already been in touch with me about doing some of the work for the construction. Minor stuff, of course. They have major contractors who do the big stuff. But a quick scan of the contract shows that it isheavilyin favor of them. It's the worst, most unfair contract I've ever seen, to be honest."
"Are you going to turn them down?"
He blew out a breath. "I don't know. It's a lot of work, even with the bad terms, so we'd pick up a lot of money. I have people on the payroll who'd appreciate the extra work. I just don't know. But you and Tess need to watch out."
I could feel a growl rising in my throat. "Why is that?"
"There were some preliminary blueprints attached to the copy of the contract. I don't think he meant for me to see them. They had a big garden center plotted out right where your office and the pawnshop are."
"Not a chance," I told him. "We're not moving."
