And—joy—she'd scheduled a town hall meeting for "all business owners and other interested parties" for Monday. And the UltraShopMart representative would be there.
Also, I still didn't know why they wanted to build a garden center on our property, which was pretty far from the site where they were putting the main store. People would have to get in the car and drive ten minutes to travel between the two.
I closed the text loop and noticed a voicemail message from … "Speak of the devil." I waffled, but finally listened to it.
Miss Callahan, this is Delvaney Craven of UltraShopMart. Please call me. I have an exciting business opportunity for you. My number is —
I clicked off my phone. I wasn't in the mood to think about it and Jack was on his way with pizza. I poured myself a little more iced tea and made a quick salad in my ongoing quest to get Jack to eat more—or any—vegetables, and then I checked the fridge for beer.
Yep. Two bottles left. Jack wasn't much of a drinker, like me, but he did like a beer with pizza.
I realized how easily I'd become accustomed to thinking about Jack's preferences after the past few years of living alone. Maybe it should have made me worry, but an almost incandescent feeling of joy bubbled up inside me. I touched the tiger's eye pendant he'd given me the month before.
Helovedme.
He lovedme.
When I heard his truck pull up outside, I went to meet him, carrying Lou.
"Hey, kitten," he said, giving me a wicked grin as he got out of the truck carrying pizza.
"Nope. Not kitten. No animals. Not bunny, or kitten, or turtle, or hamster."
"Hamster?"
I sighed. "Middle school was tough."
He dropped a kiss on my head. "I was talking to Lou, anyway."
"Sure, you were."
"So, Mr. Craven from UltraShopMart called," I said, following him into the kitchen. "He said he has an 'exciting business opportunity' for me."
"I think the old snake oil sellers said the same thing," he drawled, putting the pizza on the table and pulling me into a hug.
I took a deep breath and relaxed into his arms. It was one of my favorite places to be.
"He wants to buy our property where the shop and my office are," Jack said. "Dave saw the plans when Craven tried to buy strong-arm him into signing a crappy contract for a lot of money to do some work."
Heat rushed through me, and I took a step back. "I'm not selling! Never!"
Jack gave me a lazy grin. "Me, neither. Problem solved. I heard there was talk of a shower?"
I could feel my cheeks turn pink. "Um. Don't you want dinner first?"
"Dinner can wait," he growled.
"Dinner can wait? Wow! You reallydolove me!"
He chased me down the hall to my room, and we were both laughing all the way.
I don't think I stopped smiling until I walked into my shop the next morning to discover that the cat-burgling Christmas tree had struck again.
11
Tess
"Oh,no," I moaned to my empty shop. "Not Mrs. Frost, you stupid tree. Why did you have to stealherpresents? She has acrossbow."
