“Why did he hate it?”
I shrugged. “I think it embarrassed him. He didn’t like people thinking I couldn’t afford things. But I had fun organizing all the barters and getting stuff for free. I sort of find it exhilarating. In hindsight, I should have bartered his ass for a backbone and done what makes me happy.”
Merrick’s eyes swept over my face, and he smiled. “Tell me what else you’ve bartered.”
“Everything.” I shrugged. “Anything. I’ve babysat for frequent flyer miles, got my oil changed in exchange for tutoring a mechanic’s daughter in math. Once I even traded baking forty dozen cookies to get my friend’s nursery painted with a Pete the Cat mural.”
“What’s Pete the Cat?”
“A cartoon.”
“Who needed forty dozen cookies?”
“A couple getting married who wanted to give everyone a small box with fresh-baked Italian flag cookies as a parting gift.”
“You make those things?”
I nodded. “I bake a lot. My grandmother owned a bakery when I was a little girl.”
“Milly did? I didn’t know that.”
“Yep. She sold it a year or two after my grandfather died. She said it wasn’t the same without him. But she still baked a lot, and it was something we did together every time I visited. I don’t remember ever walking into her house without it smelling like a fresh batch of cookies or a cake. I’m more of a mood baker than a regular baker, though. I don’t usually bake if things are just rolling along in my life. But if I’m happy or sad, I get a certain energy and need to keep myself busy, so I wind up in the kitchen. I also tend to snack when I’m nervous, so I suppose the baking and snacking go hand in hand. And…” I laughed. “I have no idea why I’m telling you all this.”
Merrick smiled. “I’m not even sure how this conversation started anymore.”
“Ah…” I raised a finger. “My sister wants your sperm.”
Merrick’s phone buzzed. “We might’ve needed this call as an interruption. God knows where this discussion would go next.”
He swiped to answer and brought the phone to his ear. “What’s up, Bree?”
Unlike the way he’d listened to my entire conversation, I couldn’t make out more than a word or two of his. Though the voice on the other end was definitely a woman. After a minute, he shook his head.
“Sorry. I won’t be around next week. I have a business trip.”
He listened again. This time, he looked over at me before he spoke. “That’s nice of you to offer, but I’m not home now either.”
Quiet.
“Probably not. I’ll be pretty late. But thank you anyway.”
He swiped his phone off and went silent. I just couldn’t help myself.
“You know, your phone is so low, I could only hear one side of the conversation.”
“That’s because I turned it down after you were able to hear my entire conversation with Kitty the other day.”
I shifted in my seat to face him. “So you’re not going to tell me who you just blew off?”
“How do you know I blew someone off if you didn’t hear the person on the other end?”
“A woman knows when she hears a blow off, whether it’s for her or someone else. It’s one of our innate talents.”
Merrick’s lip twitched. “Bree is my neighbor.”
“Is she super tall?”