“Really?” Man, did she sound surprised, which was a little nice and a little insulting. She kind of giggled. “I mean, the crazy has more than started, but a quiet evening with just us would be fun. I’d love to. I’m sure Hank would too.”
Quickly, he estimated the pickup on his new clothes. Benny had promised he could get them on Sunday even though the store was closed. “How about we meet at the Flying Fish at six on Sunday, if I can get a reservation?”
“The Flying Fish? Really?”
“If you’d rather go somewhere else—”
“Oh no, I love the Flying Fish.”
“Okay, it’s a date unless Hank’s tied up or I can’t get us in or—it’s a date.”
“Wow. So the, uh, thing?”
“All handled.”
“Seriously? Oh my God, Rick, thank you. Thank you.”
“See ya, brat.”
“Not if I see you first.” With their old joke ringing in his ears, she hung up, and he smiled. For the first in a long time, he felt—cool. Right before he panicked. What if they wanted to see his apartment? Oh no, Alice would know better. She’d been there. Jimothy’s words about sprucing up rang in his ears. Wouldn’t it be great if—he reached for his phone, clicked, and said, “Call Jimothy Castlemane.”
It rang once. “You can’t possibly be in Laguna yet. This road is a damned parking lot.”
“Nope. I’m stuck somewhere behind you.” No way those words should be sexy, but heat filled his belly. He cleared his throat. “Hey, if I wanted my apartment to look passable by Sunday evening, what would I have to do? I mean short of dynamite.”
“You’re serious?”
“Uh, I think I am.” There was a pause. “Jimothy?”
“Make a U-turn and meet me back in Benny’s parking lot.” He laughed as a silver Lexus whizzed past Rick going the opposite way on the two-lane road. “Catch me if you can.”
“Holy shit!”
Rick looked closely for cops chasing Jimothy, and when none appeared, he turned and sped back the other way. It only took seven minutes to get back to Benny’s. The Lexus was already there with Jimothy standing outside it. He waved Rick to him, and when the truck got there, he opened the passenger door and climbed in, his skinny jeans tightening over his long legs. “To IKEA!”
“Seriously?”
“Do you know anywhere else we can get furniture in one day?” He giggled. “And I’ll bet you even know how to put it together.”
Sweet Jesus. His foot hit the accelerator.
Two impossible, ridiculous hours later, they drove out of the parking lot of IKEA with the back of his truck so loaded with boxes and bags, it was tied down. Rick stared out the windshield in shock.
Whirlwind Jimothy hadn’t stopped spinning yet. After racing from department to department pointing at stuff, writing it down, ordering it, and charming people into helping load the truck fast, he was currently checking his list like he was late holiday shopping. Hell, it felt more like Christmas than Christmas.
Jimothy glanced over. “Uh, are you okay?”
“What? Oh yeah.”
“I warned you.”
“What?”
Jimothy’s expression was—sheepish. “I warned you that I can be super bossy and controlling, and you’ve really got to stop me, or I take over your life.”
“That’s okay. I could never have done all this.” Some piece of his brain wanted him to say his life needed taking over but no way.
“Seriously, we can return half this stuff. Don’t let me railroad you.”
“It’s okay, really.” He just kept driving and staring. The weird-ass fact was, he’d had fun. More fun than he could remember having. Maybe it was because he didn’t really have many personal friends. Having a gigantic secret kept him from getting close to people. For a little while in IKEA, he’d forgotten that Jimothy was his “consultant” and just enjoyed doing something that was about him. Well, not really. It was about Alice. But it had been fun.
He sighed very softly.
“You sure you’re okay? Did I make you spend too much money?”
Rick smiled and let it warm him all over. “I’m great. It’s all new, but it’s terrific. Tell me what we do next.”
“Okay, well—”
On the ten-minute drive back to Rick’s apartment, Jimothy outlined the plan—deliver the stuff to Rick’s, pick up Jimothy’s car, head back to Laguna where Rick would check in on the work and line up helpers for the next day while Jimothy picked up Princess Leia and took her home. Rick would meet Jimothy there, and the plan would proceed as previously outlined. Then, tomorrow, bright and early, Rick would start revamping his place with a lot of help from his friends, hopefully.
Unloading proved to be not such a big issue after Jimothy commandeered two teenage boys from the complex to help for a ten-dollar bill apiece, and way sooner than expected, Rick was avoiding Laguna Canyon Road and scurrying down Pacific Coast Highway to try to grab Fred and some of the other guys to help him on Saturday for all the beer and pizza they could consume.
It took another hour of checking the work and explaining what he had in mind before he got Fred and Jose to “volunteer” to spend their Saturday with him. They were looking at him like he was nuts since he barely ever took a day off and was always there before his crew and stayed after. The fact that he’d been missing the whole day had weirded them out. Still, they seemed kind of happy to see him interested in something besides riding their asses about the work.
Finally, he hit the road, his phone spouting directions to the address Jimothy had given him. It was in North Laguna, the area of town most desirable to a lot of people because it avoided some of the traffic when trying to get to the rest of the county.
Suddenly, it hit him. He was going to Jimothy’s place. Didn’t he say he lived with his dad? Jeez, how uncomfortable was that? Poor guy. A grown man living with his dad and his cat. Does Jimothy have a social life?
He inhaled. Hellfire. Jimothy had just wasted a whole day doing stuff for Rick. At least Rick could act happy to meet his father. And truthfully, Rick kind of liked his cat.
“Turn right ahead,” the GPS droned.
Man, nice neighborhood. He was driving through the popular “tree” streets of Laguna Beach where all the addresses were tree names, and all the real estate price tags were in the millions. What does Jimothy’s dad do to make this much money? Didn’t Jimothy say something about advertising? Hell, do ad men make this kind of gilt?
“Destination ahead on the right.”
Rick pulled the truck up in front of what somebody might have called a modern cottage. The street had a beautiful view of the ocean, but the real attraction were the big lots, charming lawns, and easy walking access to downtown Laguna. Wow. Sliding out of the truck, he didn’t even bother to double-check the padlock on his tool chest. Nobody in this neighborhood needed Rick’s stuff. Even though he was wearing one of his couple pair of jeans he didn’t wear for construction, he still felt grimy and tattered.
As he opened the gate and strode up the walk, the door flew open and Jimothy smiled out at him. “Hi, welcome. Come on in.” Surrounding his feet was a small army of curious felines.