Page 51 of Recipe for Rivals
NOVA
Christine,the woman with the sofa, offered to sell me a queen-sized bed with a mattress if I was interested, so we went into her house and looked at the guest bed she had been thinking of replacing for some time.
Two hundred dollars later, I walked out of that house a whole sofa and bed richer. She had obviously charged me so I wouldn’t have to accept charity, but I wasn’t blind to her kindness. She had been trying to help. She’d even offered to get her husband to follow us home in her truck with the bed, but Dusty turned her down. “My buddy is already on his way,” he told her.
I shot him a glance.
“Tucker,” he said. “I texted him while y’all were haggling. Gotta tell you, ma’am, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the buyer trying to pay more and the seller talking her down.”
Christine grinned at me. “That’s how we do things here in Beeler.”
Not true for everyone. There had been two other couches I’d liked today and neither of them were willing to go under a thousand dollars, which was outside of my budget by a long shot.
By the time we’d finished loading the couch into the back ofDusty’s truck and tying it down, Tucker showed up in his black truck with another guy in the front seat. They both hopped out, and though the second guy was shorter and leaner than Tucker, the resemblance was high.
“Jack, come meet Nova,” Dusty said, then introduced me to Tucker’s brother.
“You caught us delivering one of Jack’s pieces to the homestead, so your timing was good,” Tucker said.
“Jack refinishes furniture,” Dusty reminded me. “They call their parents’ house the homestead.”
“Thanks for the translation.”
Dusty winked. He leaned down to Alice’s level. “You want to climb in the back of my truck and wait there?”
Her eyes brightened and she looked up at me. “Can I?”
“Just don’t crawl under that couch. I don’t want it falling on you.”
Alice and her pink monkey ran off.
Dusty lowered his voice, his caramel eyes on me. “You can wait out here if you want to watch her. I’ll get you if we need another set of hands.”
Looking at the three pairs of arms in front of me, I knew my puny muscles were unnecessary. I bet they could open any jar in the world, especially with the three of them together. Dusty, Tucker, and Jack followed Christine inside, and minutes later they were carrying out the mattress and the headboard. The bed had been taken apart and carried out in pieces. It took twenty minutes for the guys to load everything and tie it down. I’d tried to help, but they were clearly used to working together. They were more efficient without my meddling.
I stood on the lawn, the sun warming my face, while they finished up. Carter would never have done this. Never. He would have paid guys like these men to help us move things, but he wouldn’t have called a buddy and gotten it done.
I knew the comparison wasn’t smart. Maybe this wasn’tCarter’s style, but he still had plenty of good qualities—things that had made me fall in love with him in the beginning.
But, after being the person in charge for so long, I’d be lying if I pretended not to love how they were taking care of me right now, even just a little.
Dusty patted his truck twice when he passed it. “Let’s get these ladies home.”
My heart squeezed a little.
He stopped near Alice. “Want to fly down?”
She looked uncertain but nodded.
He put his hands up and she stepped into them. Dusty flew her like an airplane in a circle down to the ground, plane noises and all. Alice beamed.
My heart, in that moment, might have fallen just a little bit in love with the Texan firefighter. He opened the back door for Alice to scramble into the truck, and I slipped past him before he could do something crazy like open mine as well. My pulse was racing. I was probably high on the excitement of having a real bed to sleep in tonight, but I didn’t even care.
For the first time in a really long time, I felt happy.
The feeling lasted longinto the afternoon. The men carried our new-to-us sofa upstairs and put it in the small living room. When they went back for the bed, Alice followed them down. She stayed out of the way while they untied the frame, but she wanted to watch them, and I let her. I snuck into my room and let the air out of the mattress, rolling it up quickly so I could shove it in a closet before the guys got up here.
“I thought you’d still be out shopping the garage sales.” Dusty’s voice carried into my room. I balled up the air mattress and tossed it into the closet, pushing the accordion door closed.It popped out a little, so I pushed harder and stood back. It stayed.