Read Online Sealed with a Kiss by Mae Nunn - Free Book Online Page A

these regional markets.
    Every month shoppers saw a new round of wares. The untrained eye could be deceived. That deception ran both ways. A smooth-talking dealer could pawn off a good copy of a Tiffany lamp on an unsuspecting buyer. On the other hand, a six-hundred-dollar Roseville bowl might nestle amid garage-kiln pottery on a table labeled Nothing Over a Buck!
    Thirty minutes into the search, a jiggling display of bobble-head dolls stopped her cold. Celebrity cartoon faces smiled and nodded agreeably on their springy necks. But it was the padded surface they perched upon that caught her attention.
    She squatted to eye level with the tabletop and used a thumbnail to gently scratch at the surface and chip away black paint from a carved leg. It was in desperate need of stripping and refinishing, but beneath the dust, cigarette scars and coats of household lacquer was a Victorian kneehole writing desk with a tooled leather top. Restored, it would easily bring three thousand at auction.
    Sitting in dilapidated lawn chairs were two seventy-something gentlemen in seersucker cover-alls, mirror images of one another. She extended a hand.
    â€œHello, I’m Tara Elliott.”
    One clasped her palm in a friendly shake. “Evening ma’am. Name’s Ward Carlton. This here’s Walter. We’re the Carlton brothers.”
    â€œPleased to meet you, gentlemen. What are you asking for the desk?”
    â€œWell, we don’t have a price on the desk. We only sell the dolls. Right, Walter?”
    Walter nodded.
    â€œBut you would consider it, wouldn’t you?” She smiled at Walter.
    â€œDon’t know why not. Ward?”
    â€œWorks for me.” Ward scratched his gray head and took several turns around the table. “How about thirty-five?”
    â€œHundred?” Tara gulped. Maybe this wasn’t her day after all.
    The brothers stretched their lips back over their teeth, grinned and nodded, looking like bobble-heads sprung to life.
    â€œPoint well taken, ma’am.” Ward continued to chuckle. “Okay, I guess that was a bit much for this old thing. It’d been sittin’ in the barn forever. I dragged it out and put a new coat of paint on it a couple years back and it makes a pretty good display table, don’t you think? But it’s awful heavy to get on and off the truck, even for both of us.”
    He pointed over his shoulder to the late-model diesel pickup.
    â€œI think TV trays would do just as good, don’t you Walter?
    Walter nodded some more.
    â€œSo we’ll take twenty-eight dollars, twenty-five if you have cash.”
    â€œTwenty-five dollars ? That’s all you’re asking?”
    Ward squinted one eye, leaned his whiskered chin against a weathered hand and rocked back on his heels to study the desk.
    â€œYou think it’s worth more, ma’am?”
    â€œAfter a good deal of restoration I’m certain it will command a handsome price.”
    â€œWell, that settles it. Two cans of spray paint is all the restoration it’s gonna see from me or Walter. The price is twenty-five cash. Take it or leave it.”
    â€œSold,” she agreed, and handed the man two bills. “What time will you be leaving today? My rental truck ran out of gas halfway from Beardsly and I have to pick it up and come back.”
    â€œWe’ve got a place right outside of Beardsly. We’ll deliver for another five.”
    â€œMake it ten,” she bartered. “Deliver the bookcases I already bought and you’ve got a deal.”
    â€œMake it fifteen and we’ll deliver everything else you buy today, too.” He rubbed leatherypalms together, eyes twinkling as he anticipated the payoff.
    She checked the time. “In that case, I’d better get busy.”
    Â 
    Sam caught sight of Tara about fifty yards from the gate. Her lustrous hair, set off by the yellow blouse, made it hard to miss her. He saw others take note of her, as