Infamous Bargain. Daphne Clair

right?’ Briar prompted him.

      He turned to her. ‘Yes. That’s fine.’ His eyes went back to her partner. ‘I hadn’t realised—’

      Puzzled, she glanced at the red-headed young man by her side who was serving the other customer. It dawned on her that Kynan had expected her friend and employer to be female.

      He was looking at her again now, a peculiarly searching look. She smiled at him blandly and handed him the card. ‘Do you want to write something in it?’

      He scrawled, ‘Love, Kynan’ on the inside. She could read it, even upside-down and trying not to. He hadn’t attempted to hide it. She placed the card in the parcel and made a professional job of wrapping it before tucking the fifty dollars in the till and handing him the change.

      He picked up the parcel and stood as though weighing it in his hand. Then he said, ‘What time do you finish here?’

      ‘We lock up at five tonight, and spend about ten minutes cashing up.’

      Pat glanced at her curiously as he reached across to the till, and she stepped back to give him room.

      Kynan waited until the other transaction was finished, the two people had left, and Pat was moving away to help another customer who was picking up bags and belts at random and replacing them.

      ‘Come and have a drink with me before you go home,’ Kynan suggested. ‘Or better still, let me take you to dinner.’