Free Sizzle by Julie Garwood Page A

these rituals, where people displayed their personal belongings to the world in hopes of bringing in a little cash.
    While other people saw the sales as occasions to pick up cheap items, Lyra saw them as stories. As she would browse among the articles the owners had chosen to discard, she would create a narrative about the people and their lives. It was a strange thing to do, but as long as no one else knew about it, she didn’t care. Lyra used the stories she made up as creative exercises.
    She usually didn’t look at clothing, but in one sale she saw a beautiful white wedding dress, vintage 1970, the tags still on. Obviously no one had worn it. In a box filled with pieces of jewelry, Lyra found a bracelet inscribed “Love you forever, John.” Lyra’s imagination took over, and she envisioned a young couple madly in love and on their way to the altar. Had the woman changed her mind or had he? One dramatic story emerged and then another, all triggered by that little price tag and an inscription.
    The sale that caught her attention today was particularly odd. Lyra couldn’t quite make out the story behind this one yet. The frantic woman throwing all of her treasures out had a noticeably strange look in her eyes. She seemed desperate to be rid of everything, shouting to people to just take whatever they wanted.
    Lyra’s downfall was books. She couldn’t walk by one without looking at it, so naturally she had been drawn to the pile in the center of the yard. When she knelt and picked up a couple, she was amazed at what she found. Some of them were quite old. She opened a worn copy of The Grapes of Wrath and looked at the title page. Clearly inscribed on it was John Steinbeck’s signature. She carefully turned the page and looked at the copyright, realizing it had to be a first edition. Gently laying the book down, she reached for another, The Lord of the Rings. Inside was Tolkien’s signature. She went through a dozen other classic books and found four more signed copies. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
    In this pile, haphazardly strewn across the grass, there had to be a fortune in first edition and inscribed volumes. Surely the hysterical woman rushing around the lawn had no idea what she was giving away.
    Lyra tried to explain to the woman that the books were worth a great deal of money, but she didn’t seem to care. In fact, she screamed at Lyra that, if the books weren’t taken, she would build a bonfire and throw them all in. Appalled, Lyra sifted through the stacks and took as many as she could to her car.
    On the drive to her grandmother’s, Lyra struggled to decide what to do with them. Until she could come up with an answer, she would have to store them in a safe place. These were valuable editions, and she couldn’t risk anything happening to them. Gigi’s house was small, and Lyra felt it would be an imposition to ask her to keep them there. The apartment she shared with Sidney was also out of the question: it was already packed to the rafters with books and clothes. There simply wasn’t room for more. That left the family ranch in Texas. Lyra and her two brothers had inherited the fifteen-thousand-acre spread from their grandfather.
    She pulled off at an exit and called the housekeeper to tell him that she was shipping a few boxes of books. They should arrive within the next week, and would he please put them in her bedroom.
    Lyra finished the call, then turned into a McDonald’s parking lot and used her GPS to find the nearest pack-and-mail store. As she was unloading the books, she saw the box of DVDs and CDs. She’d forgotten she’d picked them up as well. Not wanting to take the time to sort through them all now, she decided to ship them to the ranch, too. Forty-five minutes later, she was back on the highway and the books, CDs, and DVDs were on their way to Texas. One problem solved. Now on to another.

    Gigi lived in a quiet community north of San Diego. Her neighborhood, a row of