Taken by the Alien Next Door (Aliens Among Us #1) - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,121
keep from squeezing her thighs together and bunching her skirt in her hands; it wouldn’t have helped that ache at all.
“What do you need, Hank?” Zevris asked as he walked to the other side of the booth.
Hank was standing at the tables between the two booths, his handmade wallets, belts, and other leather items on one side and Tabitha and Zevris’s candles, soaps, and woodworks on the other. Zevris had kept his stock to what he’d deemed relevant to Tabitha’s business—candle and soap holders, towel racks, a few wooden bowls and platters, and a few keepsake and jewelry boxes. He’d made many of the items over the last few weeks.
“Well, Tabitha gave me that printout she had of the other stuff you make,” Hank said, holding up the stapled sheets of paper in one hand.
As simple as it was, that printout had already garnered Zevris some business. It had been the best they could do on short notice, as neither of them had thought about it until they were loading up their goods on the first morning of the fair, two days ago.
“Anything you like?” Zevris asked.
Hank smiled and turned the paper toward Zevris, pointing to a photo. “Well, yeah. I think my wife would really like a table like this, but I was wondering if you could do some custom etching on it.”
“What’d you have in mind?” Zevris braced an arm on the table and leaned down as Hank held the paper forward.
“It’s our fortieth anniversary coming up, so I was hoping maybe to get something to commemorate that.”
Tabitha couldn’t help but smile herself as the two men talked. Though she’d been out with Zevris many, many times over their two months together, though she’d seen him interact with other people smoothly and naturally so often, it was still a wonder to her that he could do so at all. Yeah, he worded things strangely sometimes, and he didn’t understand many cultural references, but most people never would’ve noticed during those brief, everyday conversations.
After a few moments, she turned her attention toward the rest of the fair.
Music played somewhere in the distance, and she could faintly hear the mechanical sound of rides accompanied, of course, by delighted screams from adults and children alike. There were black, orange, and yellow ribbons tied to posts, and bunches of dried cornstalks, hay bales, and pumpkins decorated the wide walkway. Though it was close to closing time, people still milled about, browsing sellers’ booths and playing games.
Halloween was a couple days away, but it had come to the fair early—kids dressed in costumes were making their rounds to fill their bags and buckets with candy, several of them carrying huge caramel apples or giant bags of cotton candy.
The sky was painted with splashes of pink, purple, and orange as the sun set. Tabitha picked up her phone and tapped the screen. It was nearly five-thirty. The vendor portion of the fair was set to close at six, and the food and rides would close an hour later.
Movement drew Tabitha’s attention up. Two little girls had stopped in front of her table. The younger of the pair, who looked about six years old, was dressed in a soft, pink, poofy dress with glittery wings and a tiara, and the other, who was maybe eight or nine, was dressed as a ninja with plastic sais sheathed at her waist.
“Can we have a piece of candy?” the ninja girl asked, pointing to the big bowl sitting on Tabitha’s table.
Tabitha smiled. “Of course!”
The princess turned to the other girl and whispered, “Supposed to say trick or treat.”
Tabitha chuckled and picked up the bowl, which was only about a quarter full, casting a glance at the girls’ parents standing a short distance away. “That’s okay. Here.” She held the bowl out to the girls, and they both gazed inside. “Tell you what. Since we’re closing soon, you can each take a handful.”
“Really?” the ninja asked.
“Yep. As big a handful as you can.”
With giant smiles on their faces, they each shoved a hand into the bowl, candy trickling from their grasps onto the table and ground as they attempted to stuff their goods into their buckets. Their mother stepped forward to help them pick up the candy.
“Thank you,” the mother said with a smile.
Before they left, the princess turned back to Tabitha. “I love your ears.”
Tabitha grinned and reached up to touch the fuzzy cat ears on her headband. “Aww, thank you. Do you love cats?”