Thwarting Cupid (13 page)

Quincy kept one ear tuned to Carissa and James, but the rest of him focused on the kid. The black case he’d set on the street had ‘Dragon’ written on the side in flame-like letters. What was this kid going to…Oh!

Quincy flinched along with several other passersby when flames shot out of the kid’s mouth. The next time he did it, the spectacle was a barely-controlled fireball. Nearby pedestrians jumped and gave him wide berth. The kid smiled and shot another flame their way. He never opened his case for people to give him money, so Quincy surmised that he just enjoyed scaring the crap out of people.

“So, just like that. You’ll go to Italy with me?” Quincy tuned back in to James and Carissa’s conversation. Whoa. How’d they get from her being ticked at him to going to Italy together? His multitasking skills needed some serious work.

“Why not? I’ve never been. And I have tons of vacation time accrued. Let’s do it.”

“And you’ll stick to my itinerary? No complaints whatsoever.”

“None at all. I’ll just be along for the ride.”

Not if Quincy could help it. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and pointed at the fire breather. Once he had the man’s subconscious attention, he beckoned him toward the not-to-be couple. On the way, the kid stuck his head between two passing girls and burped up another flame. They screamed and ran. That caught James and Carissa’s attention.

“We should go,” Carissa urged. James glared at the kid, but began walking the other direction, hand in hand with Carissa. Oh no. This would not do.

“Whassamatta, Chief? Kitchen too hot?” Quincy swirled the arrow, drawing the fire breather closer.

“Ignore him,” Carissa said to James and walked faster. Quincy noted how the man fought to make himself go along with her wishes. How cute. He wanted to take a stand. A couple more pushed buttons might make things interesting.

Quincy waved the arrow at the traffic signal. The pedestrian signal turned to ‘don’t walk.’ James and Carissa came to an abrupt halt while cars began to whiz by. That gave the fire breather a chance to catch up.

“What’s a sexy African queen like you doing with this uptight old white dude?”

“Walk away, man.” James warned. Huh. Quincy underestimated the guy’s stones. No matter.

The kid blew some flames their direction. “Or what?”

James pulled Carissa around behind him so his body was between hers and the fire breather. Before Quincy could determine just how big James’s stones were, there was a shout a few feet away.

“Police! Stop right there!”

James, Carissa, Quincy and the kid all turned to see two cops running at them. The fire breather recovered first.

“Shit!” He pushed past James and Carissa to make his escape. James launched himself at the guy and brought him down with a hard tackle. When they hit the ground, another fireball shot from the kid’s mouth–right in James’s face. He recoiled, but kept the kid pinned. Despite his small size, the fire breather put up quite a fight.

The cops ran up and wrestled the guy to his stomach. They cuffed him while James stood back out of the way. Carissa grabbed his arm.

“Oh my God! Are you okay?” Before he could answer, she punched him in the arm. Hard. “What were you thinking?”

“Ow! I was okay until just now,” James complained, rubbing his arm where she’d socked him.

The cops hauled the kid to his feet, but had trouble keeping him there since he refused to stand on his own. They were careful to remain behind him and hold him at arm’s length.

“Are you okay, sir? Do you want us to call an ambulance?”

James frowned. “An ambulance? For what?”

One of the cops circled a finger in the air indicating his face. “You don’t have any eyebrows, sir. And your skin looks a little red.”

James put his hand up to check for his missing eyebrows. Carissa grabbed his hands before he could.

“Don’t. It looks…a little raw.”

Quincy snickered. ‘A little raw’ was an understatement. James’s brows and the tops of both cheekbones were so shiny and red they’d have given a certain reindeer a run for his money when it came time to lead Santa’s sleigh. The hank of hair that used to tumble over his forehead was much shorter and singed on the ends. All in all, he looked a hot mess. Or at the very least a charbroiled one. Quincy snickered to himself.

That is until Carissa touched James’s jaw with a gentle finger. She turned his head to get a better look. Why wasn’t she running away screaming?

“Does it hurt?”

“No. I mean, I don’t feel anything out of the ordinary.”

Two more policemen rolled up on bicycles. “We can get witness statements while you guys walk this kid in.”

The kid piped up. “I know my rights. You can’t make me walk anywhere. I demand you transport me in a squad car.”

One of the original cops snorted. “Why? So you can barbecue another back seat? I don’t think so.”

The officers who’d been on foot nodded to the ones on the bikes. “Thanks, guys.” They addressed Carissa and James. “This is Officer Yancy and Officer Stephens. You two are in good hands. And thanks for your help.” They shook hands with James before half pulling, half pushing the guy off down the street. He continued to yammer on about his rights and how he was going to have their badges for his mistreatment all the way. Every now and again, he’d blow another fireball.

Carissa frowned and gestured to the strange processional that had pedestrians jumping out of the way before they stopped to stare, too. “How is he still doing that? His hands are cuffed.”

Neither Yancy nor Stephens glanced away. The younger of the two, Yancy, answered, “Nut job. Had his teeth altered in Mexico. They’re flint. Last time we ran him in, the judge said it was unconstitutional to have ’em removed.”

Officer Stephens chimed in. “Sooner or later he’s gonna flame the wrong person and they’ll remove them for him. With their fist.” He flipped open his notebook to take their statement. He nodded at James. “That was some tackle.”

Yancy nodded and gestured behind them. “We were a block away when the incident occurred so we’ll just need you to fill in a couple details.”

“Anything to help,” James agreed. He was all puffed up like a peacock and grating on Quincy’s nerves. The man wasn’t supposed to come out of this run in smelling like a rose. Yet, somehow he had, if Carissa’s admiring expression was any indication.

Yancy added, “There’s a first aid station down the block if you don’t want an ambulance. You should really have someone take a look at that burn.” James deflated like a balloon someone had poked with a sharp needle. Cheered Quincy right up.

Chapter 13

It was an hour and a half before Carissa and Hutch were finished with the police and the first aid station. Hutch scrunched up his face a couple times, feeling the heavy duty ointment that the nurse
 
had slathered on.

“Stop it,” Carissa warned and squeezed his hand. “You’ll make it worse.”

“It’s fine. I’ve had sunburns more painful than this,” he said with a false bravado. The area around his eyes was starting to sting. He should probably go home and sleep it off. Except he wasn’t sure when Carissa would let him hold her hand and be all touchy feely again. It was plenty low of him to take advantage like this, but he was going to make lemonade with these lemons one way or another.

“If you’re sure.” Carissa shrugged and pointed down a side street. “Let’s check out that yard sale.”

“Lead the way,” Hutch agreed, even though the last thing he was interested in doing was checking out a bunch of old junk.

He changed his tune when he saw the items for sale weren’t the typical yard sale fare. Instead, the woman running the sale had shelves of razors, shaving cream, shampoo, conditioner, body wash and a ton of other items for around the house. Seeing the bottles of toiletries reminded him that he hadn’t been shopping for a while.

The woman greeted them both with a large, friendly smile. “Welcome to my Sassy Saver’s Shop.”

Hutch couldn’t help the smile that bloomed on his face. Carissa laughed out loud.

“Sassy Saver’s. I like that,” Carissa complimented and checked out the large selection of toothpaste.

“Thank you.” The woman accepted the compliment then gestured around the yard. “Everything’s about fifty percent off retail.”

“That’s a good deal.” Hutch picked up a razor.

“My prices are posted. I want you to see how much you’re saving.”

Hutch checked out the list hanging under the razors. Turned out that the Sassy Saver’s price was a bit more than half off retail for the shavers, but the shampoo was only discounted by forty percent.

“This is so perfect. I never got to run my errands last week,” Carissa said, picking out some products. “Are you here all the time?”

“I do flea markets twice a month, but there’s been a lot of foot traffic through here lately. I thought I’d give it a shot.”

“I’m glad you did,” Carissa stated.

“Me, too.” Hutch picked through the razors looking for cartridges. “Do you have the refills for these?”

The woman didn’t seem to have heard him. She was focused on another guy looking through a shelf of deodorants. After a moment, she glanced back at Hutch. He held up the razor and repeated, “Refills?”

“Sorry, no. There are never any good deals on the blades. Marketing strategy. The company sells the handle with a sample blade for cheap on purpose. To hook the consumer. Then they charge an arm and a leg for the cartridges. Your best value is to keep buying the whole razor.”

“You really know your product,” Carissa complimented. She glanced at Hutch and flicked her eyes to the deodorant guy. It was strange. It was almost like the guy was fondling the deodorant.

The lady smiled at Carissa. “I pick up little facts here and there. I thought it was interesting so it stuck.”

The other guy butted in. “So how much for all the deodorant?”

The woman’s smile dimmed a bit. “Excuse me a moment.” She joined the guy near the shelf.

“They’re two dollars each and there are, let’s see…twenty-two. Your total would be forty-four dollars even. You would also get two free gifts since it would count toward two fifteen dollar purchases.”

“I’ll give you twenty for all of them and you can keep the free gifts.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I do not negotiate my prices. You’re already getting
 
substantial savings.”

“Yeah, but I can get that price myself in a store,” the guy insisted. Hutch would love to know where he shopped to get such a great discount.

The woman held her ground, but remained pleasant. Though it was still obvious she was annoyed. “You are welcome to try.”

The man frowned and pouted a bit. How lame. Feeling sorry for the woman, Hutch spoke up. “Excuse me. What’s the price on the dental floss?”

She gave him a grateful smile and returned to the table. “Two dollars each.”

“Great. I’ll take two.” Hutch held up the packages of floss and three razors. “These, too. I may never buy the refills again.”

“Excellent. I don’t buy them for myself, either.” She reached under the table and pulled out a bag for him to carry his purchases. “You’re at seventeen dollars. What would you like for your free gift?”

“I get to pick?”

“Yep. Anything in the store that’s priced under three dollars. That’s pretty much everything except for the razors, those large bathroom cleaners and the toilet paper. A thirty dollar purchase would put those in play.”

“Really?” Hutch hadn’t even noticed the tower of toilet paper until she mentioned it. He was down to his last roll.

“How much is the toilet paper?”

“Twelve double rolls of Cottonelle is six bucks.”

“Throw one of those in, too.” Hutch reached for his wallet.

“Excellent.” While the woman went to get the toilet paper, Hutch looked at Carissa. She was staring at the toothbrushes with a frown of concentration on her face.

He closed the distance between them and gave her a gentle bump with his hip. She looked at him, startled.

“It’s just dental care. I don’t think anything in that crate holds the answer to the universe.”

She gave him a nervous smile that made no sense to him whatsoever. “You’re right.” Carissa took a deep breath. Because she was looking right at him, he had to enjoy the sight of her bosom’s heave with his peripheral vision.

She picked up a hand full of toothbrushes. “Which do you like?”

He picked out a Spin Brush. “This is the one I use. You should try it. They work great.”

Carissa put the other brushes back in the crate, but picked up a different power toothbrush. “I’m an Oral B girl myself.”

Carrying both toothbrushes, she headed to the shelf of soaps and lotions. The guy still stood there pouting over the deodorant.

“Here you go.” The woman returned with the toilet paper in a large bag. She placed his smaller bag inside and handed it over. “Your total is twenty-three dollars. Have you decided on your free gift?”

Hutch looked at Carissa. She was sniffing her way through the men’s body wash. A ridiculous idea settled in his mind. He smiled at the woman and reached into the dental care tub. Hutch pulled out a toothbrush identical to the one Carissa had picked out.