Winter Interlude (2 page)

H
e begrudgingly changed directions
and
she offered another smile, this one more fake than a Gucci
knockoff
.
“I appreciate your help
.”
At least
Peter
hadn’t dropped or scratched anything
.
She wondered where her regular guy was
.
“Do you know if Tony will be back on the route soon
?”
She gritted her teeth to hold her smile in place, doing her darnedest to remain pleasant, the entire time praying Tony hadn’t quit
.

“How do I know
?
I’m just a
—
”

“Delivery guy
.
Yeah, I got that.”

He yanked the
hand truck
out from under the armoire
.
“That should do it
.”

Kate
signed the delivery release form and handed the clipboard back to him
.

“I’ll be sure
to
tell your supervisor how much help you were,” she said to his departing back
,
as he trudged out the rear entrance
.
“When hell freezes over,” she
muttered
,
as she locked
the door behind him
, then grabbed
her own
hand truck
.
Peter could definitely use a few pointers from Tony on his customer service skills.

She returned
to the showroom, kicked off her pointed
-toe
high
heels
,
and began with the rolltop desk
.
The first step of l
eaning it back onto the
hand truck
took some doing
.
Holding the heavy piece firmly in place with one hand and pushing the awkward load wit
h the other, she angl
ed
it
toward the perfect corner
.
N
early dropping it twice along the way, she slowly set the
hand truck
upright but quickly
tighten
ed
her grip to stop the load from hitting the floor too hard
.
With a greater respect for Peter, she used as much
strength
as she could muster to inch the desk into place
.
Satisfied, she steered the
hand truck
back across the room to tackle the rest of the delivered pieces
.

She set
the last item, a Chippendale table, next to a Victorian sofa
and
stood back
,
sigh
ing
contentedly
.
She brushed the dust off her skirt and then made a slow circle around the new pieces, touching each one reverently, as she imagined others of bygone generations had done
.

After all this time, my shop is in the black and doing well
!
Her dream
was finally
com
ing
true
.
Even though
it had been four years since she opened, the same feeling of accomplishment swept over her whenever she took stock of any new inventory
.
All of these antiques were hers, at least until they sold, which wouldn’t
take
long
.

She rolled her aching shoulders and stepped into her shoes on her way to the cash register
.
O
ne more chore, then I can get off my feet
.
Her day started early
.
She hadn’t stopped from the moment she arrived in the store that morning
.

N
ot wanting to dwell on her mother’s call or her sister’s
upcoming
wedding, she counted out the day’s receipts, happy with the week’s gross
.
Yesterday’s Treasures’ customers didn’t seem to mind that her shop was in a
shabby
section of San Bruno, a city on the outskirts of San Francisco
.
She had several ladies in mind who would probably snap up most of her recent purchases
,
and increase her profit margin at the same time
.

Kate
worked her tail off for years building her reputation
.
Now her sales were strong and steady, providing a decent salary, enough to live in one of the nicest areas of an expensive city
.
As long as she was frugal
—
which she was.

D
one with her receipts,
Kate
let herself out and locked the front door after setting the state
-
of
-
the
-
art security system, her one big splurge
.
Before starting the car, she checked her smartphone to see if James had texted her
.
Nothing
.
A twinge of disappointment fluttered inside as she typed a quick message to say hi and to ask about their plans for the next day
.
After all, she had no problem communicating
.
Her long-term boyfriend did
.
As much as she tried to pretend
his inattention
didn’t matter, thoughts of
the decisions she’d made
while on her buying trip kept intruding on her good mood
.
It had been
over a month
since they’d spent any quality time together
,
and even then
,
James had
been distracted and distant.

T
his might not mean anything, she reminded herself,
as she backed
out of
her parking
space
.
I
knew he’d be busy working
.
He’s on a deadline with his latest project, which is due on Monday morning
.
H
is lack of communication
will not
get
me
down
.
Thankfully, her mental pep talk worked and, as she drove to the bank, she
bani
shed all thoughts of James Morrison
from
her mind.

Her
deposits
safely made
, she sped toward San Francisco via Highway 101
.
Traffic was light for a Friday commute
.
She exited the freeway, weaved through city streets
,
and turned into the lot at
the
Safeway not far from her Marina District apartment in half of the usual twenty minutes
.
She headed into the grocery store, having almost forgotten her earlier promise to pick up a few items for her next
-
door neighbor.

Soon she was back on the road
.
At her street, she slowly circled the block
three times
,
then sighed
.
The daily chore of searching for a parking spot was one of the downsides to living in the city
.
She turned to increase
her circle by a block
and
spotted
a space
right away
.
As she
quickly backed in,
she sent
up a huge thank
-you
to the parking gods
.
A space, even this far away, required more than luck on a weekday
.

After grabbing the groceries and her
hand
bag, she emerged from the car and started the two
-
block trek to her apartment building
.

At Mrs. Pike’s door,
Kate
pressed the buzzer
.
The TV inside blared as usual, so she didn’t release her finger until the volume eventually lowered.

“Who’s there?” came
the
cautious voice that always made her smile.

“It’s me,
Kate
Winters
.”
It didn’t matter how many times she’d been at this same spot at this same time in the past year delivering groceries
, h
er neighbor always asked the same question
.
“I have your milk and eggs.”

Mrs. Pike o
pened the door and pe
e
ked through the space
.
“Oh, my
.
Aren’t you a dear
?”
She opened it wider and moved to the side, pushing her walker out of the way.

Still smiling,
Kate
stepped past her and carried the heavy bag to the kitchen counter
.
“There you go.”

“I hope it wasn’t too much trouble
.”
The older woman
slowly followed her into the room, using the walker for support
.