The Brightest Star - Fern Michaels Page 0,54
more; whoever the recipient of this gift was had to be someone super-special. She casually glanced to see if he wore a wedding band, which nowadays didn’t mean much, but still, she couldn’t help herself. His ring finger was minus any jewelry. “It will take a couple of hours if you want them packed for shipment, but if you just want them in their boxes, gift-wrapped, I can have them ready in about an hour.”
“Perfect,” he said, whipping out his wallet. “Gift-wrapped will be fine.”
Lauren mentally tallied the total and decided that if she didn’t make a sale the rest of the month, this alone would match half of what she’d added to Razzle Dazzle’s business account.
“Sure. You can pay me when I finish wrapping them,” she said. “Did you want to wait?”
Part of her hoped he would, and another part of her wished he would leave, give her a few minutes to calm her rapid heartbeat. Brush her hair. Put on mascara. And lip balm.
“You said an hour?”
“Yes, to gift-wrap them.”
“Is there a place a guy can grab breakfast around here? I could use a bite to eat.”
Angels were smiling down on her today. “Yes, two blocks west of here, right on King Street, you’ll find Ruby’s Diner. Best food in Fallen Springs,” she added, because it was true.
“Thanks. I’ll go have a bite and see you in an hour.”
She nodded because her mouth was so dry that her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth. Before she did anything stupid, she went to the office, chugged a bottle of water, brushed her hair, took the mascara from her purse, and added three coats to her pale lashes. She searched for lipstick, but all she could find was an old tube of Dr. Pepper lip balm, her favorite since high school. Right now, more than anything, she wished Madison was here with her purse full of high-end makeup.
As soon as she finished, she packed each music box into its original packaging; then she wrapped them, one by one, all in different paper, as Mr. Hunk hadn’t specified any particular style of paper. Of course, she had been so flustered that she hadn’t shown him her selection, either. She’d hope for the best. She took her time with each box, sad to see them go but thrilled with what their purchases did for Razzle Dazzle’s bottom line. Mom would be beside herself when she told her about this huge sale. Dad would be reinforced in his beliefs that the store would continue to hold its own.
Lauren packed each wrapped music box in three of Razzle Dazzle’s reusable cloth bags, and then placed them two to a few larger bags, in the hope they wouldn’t bang against one another and break. After the amount this was going to cost Mr. Hunk, surely he would be extra careful when he loaded his car with his purchases—though she didn’t recall seeing a car parked in front of the store, and this early in the day, she would have noticed. Maybe his friend who has the birthday on Christmas dropped him off. No, that didn’t make sense because Lauren would have seen that, too. There was one taxi service in Fallen Springs, and she hadn’t seen it either. Maybe he had walked. But from where? The only lodging in Fallen Springs was the Langdon House, a beautiful bed-and-breakfast that rarely had a vacancy, as it only had four rooms.
This was absolutely none of her business, though Lauren knew he was not from Fallen Springs. She would have known had someone like him lived here. He stood out like a giant, and a very handsome one, too. No, he definitely was not local, of that she was sure.
She placed the three bags on the counter next to her old-fashioned cash register and prayed that he would be writing a check, because if he used a credit card, she’d have to use their ancient slide machine. Something about this guy was sharp and contemporary, and he probably didn’t have a clue what an old credit-card machine like the store’s looked like.
She’d no more had the thought when the bell jingled again, only this time instead of Mr. Hunk, it was Brent Ludmore. Lauren felt her stomach knot and wished to high heaven he’d chosen another time to pop in. “Hey, Brent, what’s up?” she forced herself to ask.
“Not much. Just trying to keep the citizens of Water County safe for one more day.”
She laughed.