Page 36 of Afternoon Delight

Zak

“Were the kids okay last night?” Kyle asked me when he came by the next morning to help me load the van.

“Fine.” I had babysat at Zara’s house so I could put the kids to bed.

Dad had called Lance ‘Zak’ and Jade ‘Zara’ a few times, but he had remembered that Lance liked cars.

They had gone through Lance’s Breakdown of a Motor Car Engine book a few times.

Written in the eighties, it had turned up in the shop at some point.

Almost none of it would be applicable to today’s smartphones on wheels, especially not by the time Lance was driving, but he had a helluva career ahead of him in classic car restoration.

“Ollie got a case of the sillies when it was time to brush teeth, but Jade read him the riot act. What do you even need me for? She seems to have those two firmly under control.”

“The Zara is strong in that one,” Kyle agreed from his end of the oak tabletop. Maybe it was exertion that made his tone sound a shade more sardonic than affectionate.

“Everything okay between you two?”

“No.”

Great .

“I should have come home sooner,” I said once we’d set down the tabletop inside the van. “I’m here now. I just told her the other day that I’m not going back to Vancouver.”

“Does Erica know that?” He looked up from tightening one of the straps.

“I texted her. Said we should talk more seriously about whether she’s staying in the condo and how that looks on paper.”

“What’d she say?”

Nothing yet, but I didn’t get a chance to tell Kyle that. The receiving door of Meg’s shop popped open. She poked her nose out.

I paused in gathering the table legs so I could take in how pretty she looked. Her blue top was thin enough I could see the shadow of her black bra beneath it. Her hair was loose, and her jeans were the ones I liked. They cupped her ass really well.

“You know you’re going the wrong way with that?” she said as I handed the legs to Kyle.

“That’s what she said?” I tried.

She snorted and used her foot to slide a paint can into place as a doorstop, then came out to survey all the furniture I’d staged for loading.

It was the first of March and sunny, but it was always cool here in the receiving bay. She folded her arms, keeping me from seeing her nipples stand up against her top.

“You did not make a sale, Zak.” She pretended astonishment. “You assured me that never happens.”

“I didn’t. Dad did. It’s easy when you tell a nice couple from Leavenworth that we deliver.

” The town was a ninety-minute ferry ride, a border crossing, and four and a half hours of driving from here.

“I called them back and said if they want us to do that without charge, they have to take the sideboard and the china cabinet.”

“You sold the china cabinet!” She was suitably awestruck.

“Hell, no. But they’ve taken over an old rooming house and are updating it with new furniture before listing it on Air B&B.”

“ New furniture.”

“Yep.” I shrugged. People were strange. “They agreed to take the sideboard, then offered a room for the night if I threw in the mahogany bedframe and a night table.”

“You drive a hard bargain.”

“All the way to Leavenworth,” Kyle chimed in with a smirk.

They high-fived in appreciation of their puns. It was friendly enough. Kyle wasn’t crossing any lines. I still didn’t like it.

He might have read that in my expression. He gave me a silent, What?

“I’ve never been to Leavenworth.” Meg was perusing the furniture like she was considering buying it herself. “Joel’s family used to go there from their summer home in Penticton.”

The town was a couple of hours east of Seattle. It had been tricked out with a Bavarian theme back in the 1960s, purely to draw tourists. It worked, usually for Oktoberfest and Christmas light displays.

“Hopefully, your room is conveniently located near the morning Alpenhorn performance,” Kyle said.

“Do they still do that?” I tied off a rope that secured the bedframe to the wall of the van.

“Mom and Dad took us there the year after they took us to Disneyland. You can imagine how that went over. We asked mom if we could go to Euro Disney, and she said Leavenworth was like going to Europe. Spoiler alert: It was not like going to Europe. I’m still mad. ”

“At her? Or Leavenworth?” Meg was grinning at my disgust.

“Both.”

“ That’s why Zara is so obsessed with Paris,” Kyle dropped his hands onto his hips.

“Maybe take her for a weekend in Leavenworth,” Meg suggested.

“Update your will first.” I shook out a blanket and draped it over a cabinet. “I offered to let her do this trip, and she told me to shove it up my ass. Sideways. Dad’s excited to see the nutcracker museum again, though.”

“You’re taking your dad?” Meg lifted her brows.

“Sure. What could go wrong?” I deadpanned.

A distant jangle from inside her shop had her looking in that direction. “I have to go. Safe travels. Try not to get arrested.”

“That depends on whether Thelma behaves herself, doesn’t it?”

She closed her door on her way through it.

Kyle gave me a long look.

“What?”

“You and her...?” He cocked his head toward her door.

“We’re friends.”

“But you told Erica you’re not coming back.”

“You want me to put the kettle on? You can tell me what’s going on with you and Zara while we’re at it?”

“No.”

“Then shut up and load the truck.”

He kicked his mouth sideways and we finished up.