Chapter 27

 

It was the day of Grandma's yard sale and they were all up at dawn putting up signs and setting up on the side of the house. Grandma arrived with her big boat of a car loaded down with some things from her house she wanted to sell.

"More work for us?" Rico said to her as he went over to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Antique hunters will be swarming this place, and I want to make the most of it," she said and rubbed her hands together.

Rico and Mitch started to unload the stuff that was wedged in her trunk and in the back of her car every which way. "I can't believe you brought this stuff here last minute," Rico complained as he got out a lamp that was more like a full sized crystal chandelier.

"It's for a good cause," Mitch reminded him.

Wearing a yellow dress and her big lilac hat, Sammy was excited and eager to help, so Grandma put her to work too. "You can put the stickers on this stuff I brought. And then you and me are going to sit in lawn chairs with our big hats on and make us some money."

"To help people," Sammy added and the two of them got busy.

Grandmother was donating the money from the yard sale to a free clinic in Ashbury that was in danger of closing, and Rico was sure she would add to the money. They had put up a sign to let people know that the clinic needed help if they wanted to write a tax-deductible check right on the spot.

 

Soon most of the stuff was set up where his grandmother wanted it, so Rico turned his attention to Mitch. As Rico looked at him now, the night of their swim seemed like a dream to him. Was that really the same man who now seemed so serious and intent on the work he was doing?

Rico could still see him naked, rising out of the river, water streaming down his sculpted body, moonlight outlining every inch of him. He had to be a dream or some kind of vision. Back then as he devoured him with his eyes, Rico wanted to be the river and the rivulets of water, and the moonlight shining on him so lovingly.

He did get to have Mitch in his own way, and he got to sleep in his arms too. It all happened, but some part of his brain refused to believe it.

 

With a fan in one hand and a box with small change on her lap, Grandmother settled herself into a folding chair. From there she took care of some early shoppers, mostly dealers, who swooped in to pick over the stuff before anyone else. One guy was different though. An older guy in a shabby suit, he arrived first and looked over everything very quickly while tugging on his ear. Grandma seemed to recognize him.

"It's Mr. West. Nice to see you again," she said then told Rico about him. "This is the man who was interested in the house. Too bad I haven't put it on the market yet."

Rico hated that reminder that Mitch and Sammy would have to move out of the house, but Mr. West only nodded vaguely and scanned the stuff for sale. Standing on her toes next to Rico, Sammy waited to see if she could make a sale, but apparently the man wanted something they didn't have.

"You got any other silver pieces?" the guy asked.

"What you see there is all the silver," his grandmother told him.

"I was looking for something... different. As a gift," Mr. West said.

"This thing is pretty interesting," Rico said and held up a tiered candelabra with a spiral design.

Mr. West barely even glanced at it. He grimaced and walked away.

"Not a satisfied customer. Oh well," Rico told Sammy.

In the meantime, plenty of other people had gathered around the stuff that was for sale. Mitch was already taking one lady's money while she smiled at him like she would be happy to give him more.

Mitch wasn't exactly working hard to charm her, but then all he really needed to do was stand there in a white t-shirt that showed off his biceps, flash his blue eyes, and everyone with a pulse was throwing money at him.

Since they weren't needed, Rico and Sammy tried out one of the treasures they found among Grandma's things. It was a faded, pink hula hoop and they took it to the clear space on the side near Grandmother's table to try it out.

"I don't want to know why you had this," Rico warned his grandmother when he saw that she wasn't in the middle of a transaction just then.

His grandmother was determined to tell him anyway. "The way I could work one of those things when I was a girl. Oh, the things I could do. In my younger days, I could hook my leg..."

Rico had to jump in. "No, no, no. Stop right there, Grandma. No," he told her firmly.

"Spoilsport," she told him while Sammy looked between them curiously.

She and Rico took turns with the hula hoop but spent most of their time picking it up off the ground. Mitch watched them. By the look on his face, he wasn't impressed.

"You want to give it a spin?" Rico asked him.

He shook his head. "You're both so good at it. Show me how it's done," Mitch said.

Rico took the first turn. He was terrible. Then he handed it off to Sammy, and she was terrible too. She didn't seem to know it as she picked up the hula hoop off the ground and offered it to Mitch.

"We'll teach you how, Daddy," she said.

Mitch smiled and told her, "No, thank you, honey. You guys have fun."

 

Not long after that, Sam arrived with Lara, Gloria and Noreen, so he must have caught a ride with them from town. Sammy ran over to them to give her report.

"We have a hula hoop, and I got to put stickers on stuff," Sammy said and showed an orange sticker that was still stuck to her arm.

Gloria was impressed. "I love stickers!"

"Stickers are all done, but see what you can do with this." Rico handed off the hula hoop to her, but Lara tried to stop him.

"No, I want to see you work those hips," Lara told him.

"There isn't much to see, but I bet you could show us how it's done," Rico challenged her, but she shook her head.

Lara first checked that the girls were out of earshot. "Stacked girls can't do the hula hoop. It turns into porn. Ask Noreen to have a go. She's G rated from head to toe," she said as Noreen gave her the stink-eye.

"You're a terrible person," Noreen informed her then she went to join the girls and did the hula hoop pretty darn well.

"What was she complaining about? Look at that little swizzle stick go," Lara said then she gave them the happy news that Stella was long gone. "She never stays long. She doesn't like Peach Tree, and when I told her that Rico already stole Mitch away from her, she liked it even less."

"He didn't steal him," Sam said in Rico's defense.

But Rico was fine with that version. "No. I like it. Yeah, I totally stole him. I'm such a bad boy."

Sam laughed. That wasn't the reaction he was looking for so Rico glared at him. "Where's your man anyway?" he asked as Lara went to browse and say hi to Mitch.

"Wyatt and the boys will be here soon," Sam told him. "Then we'll be off to volunteer for the festival. How are things with you and Mitch?"

"I have one word for you. Skinny-dipping," Rico told him, but he couldn't say more because Grandma called Sam over. As he left, Sam gave him a look like he wanted to know more.

Rico wondered how much he should say about what happened. Mitch didn't like it when he overshared, but Rico wasn't sure where the line was.

He probably said more than he should have already, so why worry about it? But he did worry. It wasn't like him, but Rico didn't want to ruin what they had. And at the same time, he wanted to test if what they had was strong or so fragile that it would fall apart if he said one wrong word.

 

After looking around, Lara and Noreen ended up with several good finds loaded into Lara's car. Just as they had collected Gloria and were ready to go, Wyatt and the boys showed up.

"Did you get all the good stuff already?" Wyatt asked them and the boys looked at all three of them with alarm.

"I got a keychain," Gloria said.

"Oh, no!" Riley said and DJ looked worried too.

As she was leaving, Lara told Mitch, "We'll need more of your help with the festival soon. A few things have cropped up that the amateurs don't know how to handle." As she said that, she looked at Wyatt in particular and he objected.

"Hey! You know I'm only good for grunt work."

"And we appreciate it," she told him but then she turned to Mitch. "I'll be contacting you for your hours."

"There isn't as much to do here so I should have the time," Mitch said.

Rico thought about how Wyatt and Sam volunteered as a team and wondered if he and Mitch might be able to do that.

Once the girls were gone, Sammy bragged to the boys, "I sold the elephant lamp for a lot of money," she said.

"You did. How much?" Wyatt asked her.

"Fifteen bucks," she said like she was saying a million bucks instead.

Wyatt whistled and said, "You are rich."

"It's not for me. It's to help people," Sammy said.

"So you got some big money for charity, good for you," Wyatt told her.

"Sell me something, Sammy," Riley told her and they ran over to the nearest table.

Sammy went straight for a red enameled trivet in the shape of a rooster. "Watch out, Ry. It's heavy," she said as she gave it to him with a huff. "Now gimme two bucks."

Taking the rooster from him, Wyatt handed the money to Riley before he asked, "What is this thing?"

"A rooster," Sammy said, and the boys nodded. They also knew it was a rooster.

"Grandma said it was a trivet," Rico told them. "Hey, Sammy, those ladies look like they need help. You want to show these guys what you can do?" Rico pointed her toward two ladies, one of whom was looking at a bronze statute of a mermaid with a fish.

Sammy went right over and asked, "Can I help you?"

When the lady asked her the price, she pointed at the sticker. She was a pro.

"Can you make me a deal?" the lady asked with a smile.

Sammy shook her head. "No." But the lady still bought it.

The other lady was looking at a colorful, beaded bag. "How much?" she asked.

Rico whispered in Sammy's ear, and she said, "It's only ten bucks, but you can give me more if you want."

She thought about it for a while. Sammy watched her with her big, blue eyes intent. Finally the lady had to cave to Sammy's high-pressure sales tactic and handed over the money.

"You are good at selling stuff," DJ praised her.

"Of course she is. We're going home with this," Wyatt said and held up the trivet in the shape of a rooster.

In the meantime, Riley had moved on to his next discovery. He had his eyes glued to a ship in a bottle.

"I think you're buying that," Rico told Wyatt.

"I'll sell it to him," Sammy offered and Riley looked ready to buy.

"You're all set to go out there and get yourself a job. What do you want to sell cars or insurance?" Wyatt asked Sammy.

"She's too little to have a job," DJ jumped in to say like he thought she might overtake him and get a job before he did.

Sammy wasn't pleased to hear that. She glared at DJ then she suddenly aimed her fierce expression at Rico.

"Am I in trouble?" he wondered.

She shook her head. "Pick me up so I can be big, bigger than everybody."

"I can do that." Since she was wearing a dress, Rico picked her up and had her sit on his right shoulder as he held on to her. "There, you're big now," Rico told her.

"Pick me up, Uncle Wyatt," Riley said, not to be outdone.

"Uh oh," Rico said. Together Wyatt and Riley had an inch or two on them.

Sammy realized it too. "Oh no, Rico."

"Let's run. They can't beat us if we run away," Rico said. He hoisted Sammy over his shoulder and ran with her while she giggled and squealed.

"Did we beat them?" she asked as they went over to join Sam and Mitch.

"We sure did," Rico told her and she looked so happy. Wyatt was running all over the field with Riley on his shoulders, and Sammy and DJ went over to chase them.

"Why did she look so happy?" Mitch wondered.

Rico wasn't sure how to explain. "The short version is we cheated and we won."

"What have you been teaching her?" Mitch said.

"How to have fun," Rico told him with a grin. He was thinking about what they got up to by the river, and he could swear that Mitch knew it. Rico gave him a look that said, "There's more where that came from."

"Behave yourself," Mitch told him, but he smiled too, so he didn't really mean it.

As Mitch got busy selling something, Rico went off with Sam to help an elderly couple load a tall lamp and a small side table into the back of their car.

 

"Did you really go skinny dipping?" Sam asked him as they strolled back toward the house.

Rico nodded and smiled at the memory. "Yes. I know this secret spot where no one could see us, but it was still exciting."

Sam looked happy for him. "I'm glad we thought to invite Sammy over. You certainly made the most of it."

"Why? What did they get up to?" Wyatt asked sneaking up behind them.

Rico made sure there were no kids nearby before he told him. "Skinny-dipping. Now tell me how jealous you are."

"Maybe we went skinny dipping too," Wyatt said and sidled close to Sam.

Rico looked to Sam for the answer. Sam stayed silent but he didn't need to say anything. "You didn't," Rico concluded.

"How do you know?" Wyatt demanded.

Rico pointed to Sam. "Check out your fiancé. He's an open book. If you took him skinny-dipping, do you know how hard he would be blushing right now?"

Wyatt admitted defeat grudgingly and only for now. "Fine. But when we do go skinny-dipping, we'll do it better than you."

"It's on," Rico said with a laugh while Sam rolled his eyes.

"Something to look forward to," Wyatt told him and gave his transparent fiancé a kiss on the cheek.

As he watched them, Rico told himself that at least he and Mitch beat them at one thing.

 

Calling for their uncle, the boys were asking to buy something else, and Wyatt went over to see what they found. Sam went with Rico to grab a drink from a cooler they had on the porch. Sitting on the steps together, they drank some sodas and watched the yard sale action.

To get him to talk, Sam nudged Rico and said, "Skinny-dipping sounds like progress."

Rico thought about it. "I think so, but right now I don't know if Mitch is unsure of me or himself. It's all jumbled up."

"Does Mitch have anyone to talk to?" Sam asked.

Rico frowned at him and stated the obvious. "He has me."

"He's supposed to talk to you about you?"

"Why not?" Rico said obstinately.

"I know that I was kind of lonely before you came to town," Sam admitted then he looked embarrassed.

"Oh, you. You are so adorable," Rico teased him and threw an arm around him. "Hey, Wyatt. Sam loves me!"

"Shut up," Sam said to him.

"It's true. Look at how he's blushing," Rico yelled.

Wyatt came over to break it up. He tried to pull Sam to his feet, but Rico wouldn't let him. Sam laughed at their tug of war then finally pulled Wyatt down to sit next to him.

"Just making sure you stay jealous of me," Rico told Wyatt and shot him a wicked grin.

"That was for all of two seconds, and then I was over it. Completely over it," Wyatt claimed.

"Even if I sit in Sam's lap?" Rico moved to do it.

"Do not do that," Wyatt warned him and Rico laughed triumphantly.

He watched Wyatt pull Sam over to him to cuddle with him. As he turned away with a groan, Rico caught sight of Mitch glaring at him. He wondered what that was about. Did he disapprove? That would be just like him.

Rico sighed as he wondered again where the line was. What would Mitch consider going too far? What would make him wash his hands of Rico?