Second Hand: A Tucker Springs Novel 2

the weekend working on my yard.
Unfortunately, my neighbor Bill had the same idea.
    His rose bushes were in full bloom, and next to them, my string of lilies and bargain bin hostas seemed pathetic. He stood in his front lawn, a sheen of sweat on his bald head, wielding a pair of red-handled clippers. I wasn’t exactly sure what he was trimming. I bent my head back to my own work, trying to dig dandelions out of the dirt at the base of Stacey’s chicken statue.
    “It’s looking great.” The voice came from behind me, and I turned to find Velma. She had a sun visor on today, and a tennis skirt that revealed tan, shapely legs. “The flowers really add a lot of color, don’t they?”
“Yeah, they were a good idea. Thanks for suggesting it.”
    She smiled at me. She had freckles on her nose. I wondered if she had a dog at home named Scooby. “You should think about some morning glories for over there.” She pointed to the corner of the house. “Put a little trellis there for them to climb. Or maybe some clematis.”
    That corner of the yard did look bare. I’d already spent my money from El, but there were still appliances in my pantry. “Are those expensive?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it would be a nice touch, though. It might make the place more inviting.”
Inviting?
Was she one of the judges? I wanted to ask, but she probably wouldn’t have told me anyway. I glanced over at Bill. He was at the nearest edge of his lawn, allegedly trimming something from one of his rosebushes, but I was positive he was listening in.
I turned my back on him, stepping closer to her and lowering my voice. “Which ones would be more colorful?”
She lowered her voice too. “The clematis. There are some lovely purples that grow well here.”
I nodded, already debating which of Stacey’s abandoned appliances would net me the most money at El’s shop. “Thanks for the advice.”
She waved and went on her way.
I tried to ignore the weight of Bill’s angry glare between my shoulder blades.

chapter 10

“Y
    ou still have a spring in your step,” Denver observed the next time he and El did laundry. “I take it this means Strawberry is still in the picture?”
    El took great pains to focus on matching up his socks on the folding table. “You know, you don’t have to limit yourself to giving me an imaginary love life. You can make one up for yourself just as easily.”
    “Nah. Isn’t half as fun.” Denver grinned as he leaned back against the plastic row of seating, his huge arms taking up the backs of a chair in each direction. “You still stuck at flirting, or have you dusted off that box of condoms in the back of your medicine cabinet?”
    El flipped him off without looking up and reached for the next sock.
He laughed and settled deeper into the row of chairs, making them groan. “You should bring him by the club tomorrow night. I’m working. I could comfort him when you don’t put out.”
Finishing with his socks, El moved on to underwear. “Give it a rest. He’s straight.”
“My ass he’s straight.”
“Did you miss the part where I met him while he was buying a necklace for his girlfriend?”
“Ex-girlfriend, as I recall. And it wasn’t her I heard he was smiling at drunkenly across a patio table. He’s also still coming in to buy things from you, unless you’ve crawled out from beneath the used toasters to meet him in the real world.”
“He’s not buying, he’s selling,” El corrected, then paused as he realized his mistake.
Denver’s grin was feral. “I bet he’s selling.”
El tossed a pair of socks at his head. “Appliances, dumbass. Cappuccino makers. Blenders.”
“Kitchen crap, which you bitch all to hell about taking because they never move. Interesting.” He frowned. “You said he’s selling like he’s still doing it. How many appliances does this kid have? He sure doesn’t look like someone who’d be fencing.”
Shit. “I think my dryer is about done,” El murmured and hurried away.
Denver didn’t follow, but he didn’t need to, his voice booming over the noise of the spin cycles. “Avoidance. This must be damn good, whatever it is.”
A student trying to study at a table near the vending machines glared at El, likely because he didn’t dare glare at someone as imposing as Denver. El staked out a spot in front of his dryer, which still had ten minutes to go.
“You know,” Denver called out, “I think I have some extra crap in my closet I’m going