Saskia hitched a ride to the town-wide garage sale with her parents. Meanwhile, Raven was overseeing operations at the orchard itself, getting ever closer to the money for a car of his own.
The information booth, next to the Clemens Orchard stand on Main Street, offered packets with vendor details and a map of the town. Not a map, Saskia thought glumly. The directory of participating houses included blurbs to describe what wares each was selling, everything from sports equipment, to children’s clothing, to what was in Saskia’s personal crosshairs: jewelry.
The town was dense enough to cover on foot. She helped her parents open their stand and then set off, armed with her jeweler’s loupe and other tools of the trade.
The first house she visited had a huge amount of stuff on the lawn and in the garage. The tables on the lawn had bins upon bins of jewelry, so Saskia knew she was in for a good hunt. To check the seller’s vibe, she twirled through the garage first, where the homeowner was set up. Sure enough, she spotted an antique apple peeler on a shelf. The homeowner caught her looking.
“You know what that is, little lady?” he asked. Neither little nor particularly ladylike, Saskia bristled.
“It’s an apple peeler.”
“Girls love their kitchen toys, don’t they? Fifty bucks and it’s yours.”
Gross. Saskia had no idea what would constitute a good deal for an apple peeler, but she would never miss an opportunity to dicker over a sale. Even if she had no intention of buying this apple peeler.
“Tell you what,” she said in her most folksy tone. “I’m going to go look at some jewelry out there, and you can come out and give me a better deal on that when you’re good and ready.” Then she sashayed across the driveway toward the lawn. She relished a chance to show a little dominance over a patronizing man.
The jewelry bins turned up true treasure. Plenty of real stones and metals that she would love to put back into the jewelry ecosystem. She was amassing quite a pile when the homeowner came to interrupt her.
“I’m sorry, miss, but I got a gentleman here who wants to buy the apple peeler, and I wanted to give you a chance since I offered it to you first.”
She was ready to wave the man away until she noticed the beautiful string bean of a man behind him. Someone she thought she might never see again. The last time she’d seen his eyes, they were questioning. This time, they were bright, hopeful.
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