back to his own clipboard and plucked out the check he’d printed out before Silvio had arrived. He quickly signed the slip that verified everything had been inspected and received.
“Be good,” Silvio said in parting, angling his head in the direction Shea had gone to retreat toward the front. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Either Dev had been that obvious or Shea was that hot. It was definitely some of the latter and probably some of the former considering the knowing look Silvio gave. Heckling notwithstanding, Dev liked Silvio. He was a little guy who did business with other little guys.
After he’d closed up the loading dock, Dev locked the back door and made his way back up to the front. “I don’t talk to everyone like that,” he said honestly to Shea. “I save my worst for people I know. He and I go way back. Along those lines, I apologize in advance for what your bill’s gonna look like.” Dev glanced down briefly at his clipboard before resting it on the table that held the broth. “You won’t believe what he charged me for the sumac.”
“Really—it’s okay,” she said with a polite smile. She had just dispensed a steaming cup of broth. “I’m used to paying much more in the city.”
Dev had heard she was from New York, though they’d never discussed this personally. If he’d had to wager a guess, New York wouldn’t have been it. Last he’d checked, New Yorkers still had accents, wore a lot of stern facial expressions and head-to-toe black. Shea seemed vibrant and bursting with color. It made him wonder where she was really from; if he had to put her in a city, he could picture her in Berlin or Paris.
“You enjoy your broth, and I’ll bring you your things.”
Free samples added to the store’s expenses, but people seemed to appreciate them and Dev liked to offer his customers healthy things. Bone broth was nutrient-rich, joint-protective and it helped with nighttime sleep. Getting people around here to eat better was the whole reason why Dev had bothered to open a health-focused grocery as part of the restoration. Health was priority number one.
It didn’t take him long to find her order: sumac and Humboldt fog cheese along with a few not-cheap bottles of wine. And it seemed he had finally gotten in the small bottle of pumpkin seed oil she’d requested three weeks back. He’d had to track it down to a place in Connecticut, from some sort of Austrian imports specialty store.
“How’s the broth?” Dev asked as he made his way back to the front, walking more slowly than he strictly needed to. She held a steaming cup in her right hand but seem to be inspecting the table around the urn. She shifted a pile of napkins then craned her neck to see the spaces to the left and the right, for what, he didn’t know.
Her brow knit from behind her glasses. Today the color was yellowish-green—a chartreuse that flattered her.
“Do you happen to have any salt?” she asked.
“No. But I can take some out of inventory.”
Dev quelled the urge to mention the link between salt and high blood pressure—a link of which he was sure Shea was aware. It turned out, wanting everyone to be healthy and seeming patronizing while he was doing it had a finer dividing line than he realized. He’d gotten an earful from his sister once or twice—accusations of mansplaining.
“Oh! I didn’t mean for you to have to do that. I thought maybe you had the little packets. Never mind. It’s not a big deal.”
“I insist.” He waved her to follow him to the aisle that held the spices, anticipating already that this would be fun. “Is there any special kind of salt you would prefer?”
He asked the question with humor in his voice. His unmasked amusement was as good as saying it out loud. It was understood between them that her special requests were odd enough to have earned her a reputation as someone finicky but fun.
It followed, therefore, that she returned her own little look, raising her chin in indignation and pride. It was subtle, but very cute.
“Now that you ask…” she baited, “…a medium gray sea salt would be best. Much better for you than table salt and some of the mineral properties keep blood pressure in check.”
“Gray salt it is.” Dev was still smiling as he located the brand he had in mind and plucked it off the shelf, then held