Free Secondhand Stiff by Sue Ann Jaffarian Page A

approached the sidewalk, Steele greeted him with an outstretched hand and a smile.
    From time to time, Greg tells me that I’m too hard on Steele, that he’s really a great guy under all the fancy clothes, expensive trappings, and arrogance. And I know that. Really, I do. He’s not only a brilliant attorney, but much of his character is built of higher quality materials than the suit on his back and the car he drives. He’s annoying, it’s true. He treats women in general as objects of amusement and turns a sarcastic nose up at the ordinary things the rest of us enjoy and love. But he’s as loyal as the day is long to the people he cares about. If he weren’t, I wouldn’t have my job at T&T, nor would I have wanted to go there in the first place. If Clark is my big annoying brother, then Steele is my younger annoying brother, even if he isn’t bonded by blood.
    But I’m still buying that fireplace poker.

seven
    The day after the auction, I spent the morning taking care of some household chores. Although I work from home much of the time, we still maintained a housekeeper. Her name is Cruz, and she comes once a week on Wednesdays. Because she had a houseful of company for Thanksgiving, Cruz hadn’t been to the house in two weeks and it showed. I try to keep it tidy, but Cruz works magic.
    â€œDidn’t you say your cleaning lady was coming this week?”
    â€œYes, tomorrow morning.”
    Mom was seated at the kitchen table, watching me sort through mail that had piled up on the counter in the past several days. I was discarding the trash and stacking the non-trash into specific piles.
    â€œI don’t understand why you’re cleaning before she comes.”
    Mom had wanted to clean the guest bathroom this morning, but I had stopped her, advising her of Cruz’s pending visit. “I’m not cleaning, Mom, just tidying up. Cruz is paid to keep the house clean, not to pick up our clutter.” I had already stripped our bed and the guest bed and had thrown the sheets into the wash—something I would normally leave for Cruz to do. Nervous energy was oozing out of me like an oil leak in an old jalopy, and in spite of what I was saying to Mom, I was tempted to grab a pail and start mopping just to burn it off. “As soon as I get this done, I’m going to dig into the work Steele brought by.”
    â€œWhy do you call him Steele when everyone else calls him Mike?”
    I stopped reading the junk mail in my hand. “I don’t know, Mom. He calls me Grey and I call him Steele. It’s always been that way between us. At work Steele calls everyone by their last name.”
    â€œBut he calls Greg by his first name.”
    I sighed and set the mailer with grocery coupons to the side so I’d remember to stick it in my purse. “Greg doesn’t work for him. He also calls Clark by his first name.”
    â€œSounds very military to me. Like he’s your commander and you’re the troops.”
    â€œUh-huh. It kind of is that way to Steele.”
    â€œSteele.” Mom said his name carefully, as if tasting hot soup. “Steele,” she said again. “I think I’m going to call him that, too.”
    I kept my head down so Mom couldn’t see me roll my eyes. “Knock yourself out.”
    She got up from the table. “I’m going outside to read, if you don’t mind.”
    â€œGo ahead,” I told her. “But wear a sweater. It might be warmer here than back home, but there’s a chilly breeze coming in off the ocean.”
    Mom retrieved her sweater from the back of a chair and her Kindle from the kitchen counter and slipped outside. Greg and I had gotten the e-reader for her last Christmas when she complained it was getting more difficult for her to read as she got older. At first she’d balked about using it, but once Clark showed her how to change the fonts to larger sizes, she took to it