A Small-Town Reunion by Terry McLaughlin Page A

somehow catch on fire and move to the next step.
    It could happen. Relationships took a lot of work, at times, and it was only reasonable that some of them might need more of that work in the early stages. She was willing to try. Was Mick?
    “A penny for your thoughts,” he said.
    “Huh?” Addie blinked, her cheeks warming as she realized she’d been staring at him. “Oh. Well.” She gestured awkwardly at her desk. “I’m not sure I have any pennies to spare.”
    The bell over her door signaled a customer, and she turned to greet a woman and her young daughter. Mickquietly slipped behind her counter to take a break at her work bench. He sipped from his can of soda while she answered their questions about mosaic supplies and sold them a kit for assembling a pretty mirror frame.
    “Given any more thought to those stained-glass lessons you mentioned?” Mick asked after her customers had left. He’d returned to his project, hooking his tape over the edge of a board to measure for another length of shelving. “I know a couple of people who might be interested in signing up.”
    Addie sank into her desk chair and smoothed a hand over her paperwork. “It’s a frustrating situation. I know I’d sell more supplies. And I’d earn some extra money from tuition, of course. But first I’d have to spend some money to get things set up for the class. Money I don’t have to spare right now.”
    “Money for what?” Mick pressed his nail gun against the base of the storage-bins shelf and pulled the trigger. Whomp. “Stocking up on those supplies you’re going to end up selling anyway?”
    “Money for an expanded work area for the students to use. More table surface, more outlets for the irons. Better lighting.”
    She wandered around her current worktables, visualizing the setup. She’d have to move some boxed inventory into her cramped living quarters temporarily, but she’d gladly sacrifice space for income. “I’d need to replace the bit on one of my old grinders or buy a new machine for the students to use. And I’d need to enlarge the grinder bench to hold it.”
    “Good thing you know a carpenter.”
    “Mick.” Addie sucked in a deep breath and turnedto face him. “I can’t keep relying on you to help me out like this.”
    “I don’t see why not.”
    “If I can’t afford to buy materials, I can’t afford the labor.”
    “How about a trade?” He bent to measure another length of wood. “My mama’s birthday is coming up real soon, and I’ve left my shopping until the last minute, like I always do. You’d be doing me a big favor if you let me take my pick of one of those pretty glass pictures hanging in your window. I’m sure she’d love it.”
    “None of those pieces is worth as much as what I’d owe you.”
    He shot her a sly glance as he set the saw for the cut. “How about throwing in the wrapping? And the shipping?”
    She waited until the buzzing whine of the saw had stopped. “And a card?” she asked.
    “Good idea. That’ll save me some shopping time, too.”
    “You’ll have to find the time to sign it.”
    “Lady, you drive a hard bargain.” His grin spread wide. “But you got yourself a deal. Tossing in the card was the clincher.”
    She sighed, still unconvinced the deal was a fair one. “Which piece did you have in mind?”
    He dropped the saw, stepped over the boards and strode to the front of her shop. “This one, right up there.” He pointed without a moment’s hesitation to a tangle of opalescent irises rising over a rippling blue pond, and Addie quickly figured out he’d been planning on a trade—or a purchase—all along.
    “Mama has a bunch of these spiky flowers in her garden,” he told her, “so I know she’d like it. If she got something this nice from me, she’d be as happy as a gopher in soft dirt.”
    “All right then.” Addie joined him beneath the displays suspended against her large shop window. “I agree—it’s a deal. That bit about the