“Me?” he said. “I do all right. I once benched—”
“No. I mean we should get really strong furniture.”
Again, Colin laughed. “You’re not going to let me indulge my ego, are you? First you knock both sex and me down, and now you’re saying I might break the furniture just by sitting on it.”
“I guess you could prove me wrong on both counts,” she said softly.
“I would love to do that,” he said. “Genuinely and deeply love to.”
She looked out the truck window to hide the warm glow that came to her face.
“Thanks,” he said.
She looked at him.
“I really mean it, Gemma. Thank you for listening. I didn’t sleep at all last night and I was at Mike’s gym at five.”
“By yourself?”
“Yes. Bad, huh?”
“Very bad. If a heavy bench press slips, it can kill you.”
He was still holding her hand. “I guess you’ll have to go with me next time.”
“I’ll be there at six-thirty tomorrow.”
“I’ll be waiting,” he said as he pulled into a parking lot.
As Gemma had figured, the furniture store was an enormous warehouse that seemed to go on forever. She couldn’t resist telling him her dilemma about what to wear.
“You guessed right,” he said as he stepped down, then pulled a thick roll of blueprints from behind the seat.
Gemma got out of the truck and walked around to stand beside him. “How much furniture do you want to buy?”
He handed her a plastic pouch containing an architect’s scale, mechanical pencils, and some triangles. “Know how to use those?”
“Only vaguely. You’re not planning to furnish the whole house today, are you?”
“I am,” he said. “I never want to spend another night in that apartment of mine and I’d like to get this over with. Besides, by now everyone in Edilean knows I bought the house, so why try to keep it a secret? You have any favorite colors?”
“Whatever color the book jacket is, that’s what I like.” She was feeling a bit like she wanted to say she’d wait in the truck. The only reason she’d ever seen the inside of a furniture store was because she’d gone with her friends before they got married. “Colin,” she said tentatively, “I really don’t know—”
He opened the glass door, and she saw what looked to be acres of furniture. Overhead ceiling fans whirred. To the right was a long row of antique shops; to the left were light fixtures.
“Come on, Ranford, buck up your courage,” Colin said.
“I don’t know where to start.”
“I want a couch,” Colin said firmly. “Something I can take naps on.”
“I don’t think your living room is big enough to hold that,” she said without cracking a smile.
Colin put his hand to his heart. “Wounded again. Come on or I’ll hide your gloves and you won’t be able to box.”
Gemma put her fists up beside her temples. “Then I’ll take you on with bare knuckles.”
“May I help you?” asked a woman behind them.