Free All or Nothing by Dee Tenorio

was getting a definite yen to rip this woman’s hair out. “I’m afraid I can’t take the veil back, miss.”
    “If it’s about the money, you can refund it to Lucas.”
    “Store policy is that all sales are final, but even if I could, I wouldn’t accept the veil back.”
    “What? Why not?”
    “That veil has hung in this store for thirty years, Miss Riggs. It was never intended to be sold. Yesterday, your Mr. Lonnigan came in and knew it was made for you. Who am I to argue?”
    The goddamned owner, that’s who. “He said that? Made for me ?”
    “He didn’t have to.”
    Belinda’s hopes—which she was pretty sure she’d never allowed to rise—plummeted.
    “It was something on his face,” the lacery woman continued in a dreamy, over-romantic tone. “I get a lot of women in here: women in love, women in need and women who just want. I’ve never had a man in desperation.”
    Lucas didn’t get desperate. If he did, it would not be a good sign. “I can’t keep this. He’ll take it as tantamount to an accepted marriage proposal.”
    “Oh, I seriously doubt it,” the woman said dismissively.
    Belinda pulled the phone from her ear to stare at it. Was I just pooh-poohed? “Why wouldn’t he?”
    “I don’t think he knew what it was.”
    Belinda frowned, turning to give the box the same disbelieving glance she’d leveled at the phone. It didn’t take a master of the obvious to figure it out. “It’s a veil.”
    “He seemed under the impression you might drape it somewhere. Like a curtain.”
    Belinda closed her eyes. Her grandmother’s doilies. The lace curtains she’d inherited and didn’t have the heart not to use. The observant schmuck was paying too much attention.
    “I truly believe he bought it for you, but not as a message. I got the sense he knew you would cherish it, which is the only reason I allowed him to buy it. Aside from pity, of course.”
    Belinda choked. “Pity?” On Lucas ?
    “Well, the poor man seemed to have been all over the place looking for just the right thing. I’m sure if he didn’t find something soon, he was going to burst.” Lucy Lacery coughed. “Unpleasantly.”
    For the first time in the conversation, Belinda laughed. Lucas in a state. It’d been a long time since she’d seen that. Probably not since he broke her arm when they first met. “I still can’t accept this, it’s too much. I can’t accept anything from him.”
    “It was a gift from his heart, Miss Riggs.”
    Belinda’s smile fell away. She knew it was. So were the roses. Even the loopy puppy. But she didn’t want gifts from Lucas’s heart. She didn’t want anything. Still, she couldn’t destroy the veil, either.
    They both waited in silence, each hoping the other would give in. Belinda’s gaze fell on the scrap pile she was going to be cleaning up as soon as this mess was over with, the shards and shavings already swept into a little pyramid.
    “You wouldn’t happen to have any scraps of your work, would you, Lucy?” she asked, gripping the phone tightly, an idea being born that might allow them all to get what they needed. “Pieces that might be similar to what this veil is made out of.”
    “Of course I do, but—”
    Belinda sent a glance to the clock above the bay door. Assuming Lucy closed at five, she’d have an hour to get to the store. Plenty of time. “How about you let me know exactly where you are. I’d like to buy them off you.”
    Lucy sighed. She had to have a clue what this meant. She probably didn’t like it. But she relented when Belinda said it was either the scraps…or the real thing.
    This would make Lucas go away.
    It had to.

Chapter Five
    Having a dog wasn’t so bad. He’d never particularly wanted one but there was something to be said for happy company. Kind of like Kyle, with less yapping. Carrying around stinky plastic bags tied to your pack was a little sickening, but only until the next receptacle came along. The pup was even starting to run in