He grinned.
Behind her, a frantic woman, probably her mother, rushed behind her and gave Smith a wary look.
Smith held up his hands. “Just passing by. I’m with Vets on the Go! moving Mr. Chen out today.”
The lady paused, then looked out the door, up and down the hall. “Everything okay?”
“Yep. No problems.”
She nodded, looked pensive, then asked in a hesitant voice, “Do you think you could do me a little favor? It wouldn’t take but a few minutes of your time. I can pay you.”
Not much, from the state of what he saw inside and the condition of the apartment complex. But she looked a little desperate, and the kid was adorable. “Let me finish with Mr. Chen. I’ll be back.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
After he finished helping Finley move the rest of Mr. Chen’s items, Finley and Stan drove the truck to the new address. Smith would take his truck to the next move on the list to help out the Jackson brothers.
Mr. Chen was so grateful tears came to his eyes, which made Smith feel awkward.
“It’s no trouble. Seriously.”
But Mr. Chen refused to let him leave without giving him a few vouchers for his new restaurant in Tacoma. Something Smith didn’t think he’d ever use, but he accepted the gift all the same to soothe the man’s pride.
He knocked on the door of the stuffed dog handler and her mother. It opened quickly. Again, the lady looked up and down the hallway before encouraging him to enter.
The apartment looked clean and neat though rundown, the furniture beaten, the paint on the walls dingy. A little house had been fashioned from sheets and pillows over a table, a collection of stuffed animals and dolls surrounding her castle. The girl waved a magic wand made from a wooden spoon tied with sparkly ribbon and addressed her many toys as her “royal subjects.”
He waved. She grinned and waved back, showing a missing front tooth.
The mother drew his attention toward the kitchen, where a medium-sized refrigerator stood near an empty space. The woman shrugged. “I paid good money for the delivery, and the guys just dropped it off and left since I refused to pay them an extra fifty!”
He frowned. “You should call the store and complain.”
She rolled her eyes. “Honey, if I’d bought it from a store I would have. This came from Abe’s downtown.” At his blank look, she said, “Abe’s has all sorts of stuff you might need at a discounted rate.”
“Sure.” Made sense. She hadn’t said it was a pawn shop. And he didn’t ask where she thought it might come from. “So, you need help moving it back and installing it?”
“I have twenty-five bucks I can give you.”
Money that would be better spent on her kid and herself.
“Hold that thought.” He had no problem muscling it into place or plugging it in. It fit without a problem. When done, he turned to her. “Look, while I’m here, you need anything else moved?”
The woman brightened. “Actually, I do.”
He spent the next hour using her tools to fix her bed and her daughter’s broke-ass dresser. He also moved the couch against the far wall, where the woman, Martha, had wanted it in the first place.
“You, Smith, are a lifesaver.” Martha beamed. “I can’t thank you enough. Will forty dollars cover it? I can do forty.”
He straightened to find the little girl staring at him.
She frowned. “Are you my daddy?”
Martha clapped a hand over her face, her cheeks pink. “No, Sherri. That is not your daddy.”
He grinned. “I’m not lucky enough to have a kid like you. You’re too cute.”
Sherri beamed and darted back to her castle.
