Part 6 (2/2)

”How'd you find me anyway?” I asked, back to the task at hand.

”Not the way you think.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth. Roch.e.l.le, of course.

”I told him!” Renee shouted from the front, sounding particularly proud of herself. She was definitely full of surprises.

”I called your job and she filled me in.” He stroked his bald head, then picked up a package of latex gloves from on the floor beside me. He pulled on each elbow-length glove carefully, smoothing it up to the crook of his arm, then b.u.t.toning his cuffs carefully around his wrists. He lifted the chemicals I'd abandoned with ease and started for the back.

I tried to get up. Didn't quite make it. ”Hey that's-”

”Lye. Sodium hydroxide. Fatal if swallowed. You'd wish it were fatal if it gets on your skin. You forget I was a chemist before I turned candlemaker?”

True. In fact, it was Adrian who'd helped Tracey and I get on at Scents and Savings during his tenure there as a fragrance formulator, back in the good years before they starting ordering stuff that smelled like fumes. ”Just being careful.”

He paused. ”Haz-Mat cabinet?”

I nodded. ”It's just as you go in. The red one. And watch yourself, even with those gloves...” Chemist or not, Adrian's days in the lab were long gone, and sodium hydroxide was no child's play. In the eyes it could blind, in the belly it could kill, and on the skin? Trust me, not fun.

”Got vinegar?” His shoulders flexed as he lifted the tub out of my line of sight.

I pointed to a gallon of white vinegar a few feet away. ”Yeah.”

”We're good then,” he said, his body disappearing, too.

”Should we lock him up back there?” Renee called out from the front.

Void of any energy to deal with another moment of this day, I dissolved in laughter. ”You're a mess, you know that?”

Renee smiled. ”I know it. My husband knows it, too. Now if I can just get you two nitwits together. Maybe I'll just leave and see what-”

”Don't.” The alarm in my voice surprised me. ”Please.”

The thought of me alone with Illinois' Businessman of the Year in a poorly lit retail unit scared me senseless. Sure we'd spent a lot of time alone together growing up, but then he was a virgin chemist, not a s.e.xy widower with an earring.

Before I could compose myself, Adrian returned. Renee whizzed her way back to the front as quickly as she'd come. He made two more trips, each faster than the last, moving the remainder of my lye s.h.i.+pment. He held out his wrists in front of me. If lye was on his gloves, he couldn't risk touching his clothes.

I opened the pearl snaps on his sleeves and took my seat on the floor. He peeled off the gloves and tossed them into a paint bucket nearby. He grimaced, then dashed his forearm with vinegar. He smiled at me. The bionic music mounted in my head. Where was Roch.e.l.le with that food?

”What should I do next?”

Drive back to Chicago? ”We've got things under control here. Thanks for asking though.” I held my breath, waiting for some crazed announcement to the contrary by Renee, who was now wiping the stainless steel interior of our facial cart. She made a squeak with the rag, but said nothing.

Adrian narrowed his eyes at the metal kiosk Renee was polis.h.i.+ng. ”What is that?”

”Facial bar. Fresh fruit. Veggies, too.”

He nodded, walking to the front for a closer look. ”This is ingenious, Dane. You could take it to the mall, outdoor shows, anywhere with power. I could formulate a natural preservative-”

”Stop. I'm over my head just being here. If it gets to that point, I'll call you.” Or the local firing squad.

Adrian slipped across the room for that bag, the one I'd amazingly forgotten about after one look at him. He reached inside and pulled out a small, stuffed animal. A cheetah. I dropped the ice scoop.

He approached cautiously and placed it in my hands. ”I know that Tracey's wedding was hard for you, for a lot of reasons.”

I listened, but didn't look up from the toy. It got to me, this gift, even though I'd chucked my stuffed animal collection long ago-a zoo of elephants, tigers and bears, most won by Adrian at fairs and amus.e.m.e.nt parks over the years. Then there were those two wedding gorillas Jordan won for Roch.e.l.le. She couldn't bear to look at them after he left. One ratty bunny with the beans falling out that Daddy had given me many Christmases ago. And a life-size cheetah, identical in looks to the tiny one in my hands, that I'd won myself.

”I also stopped by to share a little news of my own.” Adrian dragged one of his shoes across the floor.

The cheetah squished in my fingers. Don't tell me. He's getting married. I should have known.

Instead of proclaiming his undying love for another woman, Adrian nodded toward the partially covered front window, where I watched in horror as two men lifted a sign onto the marquis on the shop across the street. I read the teal and fuchsia sign with wide eyes.

Kick! Candles.

Adrian shrugged. ”We're neighbors.”

Chapter Five.

”You've got to be kidding.” Roch.e.l.le looked at me like I was crazy, and then plopped a bag of food on the counter. Never one to be caught without cute shoes, even for painting and scrubbing, she sported a pair of peach Reeboks. And matching socks, of course.

”I wish I was kidding. How did you miss that? Kick! across the street? There's no hope for me...he's got the best candles in the state. Probably the Midwest. How much did we spend when we went last year? A couple hundred between us?”

As if starting my own business wasn't scary enough, having the man I'd spent most of my life loving across the street terrified me. Having Renee jump for joy at the sight of Adrian's sign hadn't helped things, either. She'd offered to stay, but I'd been all to glad to send her home when Roch.e.l.le showed up. We'd needed to be alone for this, for Roch.e.l.le to tell me that my stuff was just as good as Adrian's and to rebuke me for my negativity.

Not.

”We spent three hundred at least. We bought gifts, too, remember? To think, I wasn't even into candles then. I burn his raspberry honeysuckle every night.”

But you won't touch my stuff. ”Same here. Lemon pound cake. The soy one.” I rubbed my chin, remembering all our undercover trips to Adrian's store over the past couple of years. The candlelight lent an eerie effect and I'd often thought we might all go up in flames, but it worked somehow.

Tension drained out of me when I walked in there-after I made sure he or Sandy weren't around, of course. I'd always want to stay for the next scent, but the thought of running into either of them made me run through the store grabbing stuff like a crazy person and then ducking into Roch.e.l.le's car.

I stared across the street at the men struggling with the sign and Adrian giving directions from the sidewalk. The candles were the least of my worries. How would I ever avoid him?

A soft punch landed on my shoulder. I definitely couldn't avoid Roch.e.l.le's clutches. Should I show her the cheetah? I'd told the story up to his store moving across the street and stopped there. Maybe later. Roch.e.l.le didn't know how to stay calm in these situations. She'd be having me fitted for a wedding gown...just in case. Not that I could fit much of anything right now. Maybe if I skipped the fries...But there was always Flex Points.

And Velcro jeans.

Roch.e.l.le turned on her heel, her paisley headscarf bobbing with her words. ”I didn't tell him anything about this.” She discarded the bun and wrapped her turkey in a leaf of lettuce. ”He didn't do this on purpose, Dane, if that's what you think. He wouldn't.”

”I know. He called the office. Renee told him. But he'd paid on this place already.”

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