“Noise,” Lou repeated with a sneer, then sighed.“But it’s not that simple.”
Chloe closed her eyes.“My head hurts.”
“I’d offer you drugs, but I don’t have any.”
Chloe opened her eyes to smile at Lou.“I appreciate the thought.”
“We’ll give you a lift home,” Sawyer offered.
Chloe started to thank him, then hesitated.“Actually, I think I’d rather go somewhere else, if it’s not too much trouble.It’s not far.”
“Happy to play taxi driver.”Sawyer looked at his wife.“Do you want to pee again before we go?”
“Shut up.Chloe, I want to talk to you about earrings.”
“Okay,” Chloe said as Lou pushed to her feet.“Did you find a pair you want?”
“Yes.All of them.”
Chloe blinked.“Pardon me?”
“I want all of them, and more besides.Dammit, I do have to pee.I’ll be right back, we’ll talk in the car.”
Chloe stared at a grinning Sawyer.“Did she say she wants all of them?”
Sawyer gathered up the mugs and carried them to the counter.“Yep, that’s what she said.”
“There’s fifty pairs of earrings in my shop right now,” Chloe said, baffled.“Why would she want fifty pairs of earrings?”
He pulled her coat from the hook by the door.“Probably for the store.”
Chloe took the coat he handed her.“The store?”
“Lou is short for Tallulah,” Sawyer explained.
“Tallulah,” Chloe echoed blankly, not understanding, then her eyes went wide.“Wait, Tallulah as in Tallulah’s?The boutique in Chicago?”
Sawyer shrugged into his coat and pulled his cap out of his pocket.“She wants to expand the accessories lines.Been looking at designers for months.”
“There’s a Tallulah’s in New York,” Chloe said, numb with shock.“And San Francisco.”
“And in Baton Rouge,” Sawyer added.“She gets pissy when people forget that one.”
Chloe just stared at him.“She wants my earrings for Tallulah’s?”
“Seems like.You should put your coat on, it’s still snowing.”
“Are youkiddingme?”
“No, it’s really coming down.We’re going to end up with half a foot at this rate.”
“I didn’t mean—” Chloe broke off to shrug into the coat.“Sawyer.Is this for real?”
“I don’t know exactly what she has in mind, but if Lou says it, she means it.”
Chloe gaped at him while the implications swirled through her head.“Holy shit.”
Lou waddled up, belly leading the way.“Holy shit, what?What’d I miss?”
