I scowled at her over my shoulder before opening the door. Deacon was wearing jeans, a sweater and a coat, and he was holding something purple. “Deacon, come in.”
He stepped inside. “It’s seven o’clock.”
“Yes, it is,” I said. I got the feeling punctuality was important to him. “You’re right on time.”
“Hello, Deacon,” Ro said, carrying a stack of books to the table. “It’s so generous of you to help.”
He looked around the store, at the books, at the still unopened boxes, and at the pile of flattened cardboard. “It’s very messy.”
I laughed. “It is. It’s organized chaos though. We have a system.” I gestured to the books on the table. “Those have been entered into the computer, and these are yet to be done,” I said, gesturing to the unopened boxes.
It was then I realized I was still holding the small milk bottle. “Oh, I just finished feeding the boys. Which is good timing, actually, because we should be good until it’s time to go home.”
He nodded, then handed me the purple thing he was holding. “This is for you. You said you had a scarf at home, but that meant you didn’t have one here.”
Oh . . .
He got me a scarf?
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, touched by his thoughtfulness. “That’s so nice of you.”
“It’s just from work. We get them for free. It has a brand logo on it for a dog wormer. Dad said you might not want that, but at least you won’t be cold.”
Dog wormer . . .
I unfolded the scarf and sure enough, there on the purple fleece was a black, gray, and white logo on the end of it. It made me laugh again. It was the ace pride colors, and it was so utterly perfect for me.
Not that he could possibly know I was ace. It was purely coincidental but still...
Perfect.
“I love it,” I said. “Thank you so much.”
I wrapped it around my neck and grinned at him. “Do you like it?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
I looked at Ro, and she was smiling so fondly at me. She was such a sap. I silently told her with my well-aimed, very-pointed glare not to say anything. She took a deep breath in and let out a sigh, going for her coat.
“I’m going to go home,” she said, putting her arm through the sleeve. “I’ll take Merry and Bright with me, get them settled. If you’re not home by the time they want supper, I’ll feed them, so don’t you worry.”
If I could shoot lasers out of my eyes, I would have. She had no tact.
She picked up the basket with the kittens in it and gave us both a huge smile. “You boys be good. Don’t stay up all night,” she said with a wink at me, before going out the back door.
I sighed and turned to Deacon. “I really do appreciate you helping me. Ro needed to leave, apparently.”
“You have a lot to get done,” he said, looking at the majority of still empty shelves.
“I do, and just two more days to do it in. I want it all done by tomorrow night, if I can. Then I can spend Friday doing all the final touches, adding the display to the window, ready for the grand opening on Saturday.”
“Then we should stop talking and start working,” he said without any trace of humor.
It made me smile though. “We should. What did you want to do? You said you stock inventory at the clinic. Computer entry or sorting products?”
“Both. I do it all.”
I grinned at him. “Perfect.”
