Close to His Heart by Carolyne Aarsen

Author:Carolyne Aarsen [Aarsen, Carolyne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781988660011
Publisher: Misty Ridge Publishing
Published: 2018-01-09T06:00:00+00:00

As Jace pulled in front of the thrift store, he laughed at the irony of his high-end vehicle being parked outside. Uncertainty tugged at him. This morning, on his drive back to Sweet Creek, he argued back and forth over what to do. What to think.

But as he crossed over the river and into Sweet Creek, he had decided he’d had enough with the uncertainty. He found out from Tess’ mother that she was working at the thrift-store this morning. No, he was going inside the store and asking Tess, point-blank, what happened.

He strode down the sidewalk, pushed open the door, and let his eyes adjust from the bright sun outside.

Tess was sorting through a bag of clothes behind the counter. She looked up, and her surprised expression gave Jace a curious lift in spite of his frustration with her.

“So you stored the painting at your place?” he asked bluntly. “I waited at the office for quite a while the other night.”

Tess frowned. “I left a message with your secretary. My friend called me right after you left the coffee shop. She told me she would drop the painting off at your office this afternoon.”

“Callie said nothing before she left that day, nor did she give me any message.”

“I specifically told her to give you the message.” She gave him a quick smile which didn’t help his equilibrium and took the edge off his anger. “Didn’t want you to think I was unreliable.”

Her unconscious repetition of the very words Carson had used gave him a guilty start.

He thought of the scribbled messages his secretary had given that day, the ones Callie had said weren’t important. He hadn’t even looked at them. One had probably been from Tess.

“No problem.” Relief sluiced through him. Thank goodness he hadn’t called her or come storming in here, full of self-righteous indignation. He would have looked like a fool.

In a much better mood now, he glanced around the shop, surprised at the ambience. Clothes were sorted by kind and size, hanging neatly from circular racks. On top of each waist-high rack stood a mannequin modeling an outfit. The fanciful outfit on each mannequin made Jace guess that Tess had dressed them.

Shelves full of toys lined one wall. Another set of shelves held shoes, neatly laid out. It looked like a regular clothing store, except some of the items looked worn and a bit ragged.

“See anything you like?” Tess asked, a faint edge in her voice.

“I might, if I had time to look around.” Jace pointed at the piles of clothes. “What are you doing?”

“Triage. We get so many donations, we have to be ruthless about what we keep.” Tess held up a neon pink shirt with a rip down one sleeve and mismatched buttons. “See?” She tossed it over her shoulder in a colorful arc. “To the dump. No one would buy it.”

“People still give a lot of junk, don’t they?”

Tess shook her head. “I don’t know why people don’t stop to think about what they’re giving away.

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