Take A Chance With Me (With Me in Seattle 18)

I might want to marry this car.

I didn’t even want to get out of it on the ferry while we rode over to the island.

I pull into my driveway just ahead of Cam with my music blaring. He parks behind me, and I push the button to turn off the engine, then hurry out of my brand-spanking-new vehicle and run to my man, jumping into his arms to hug him close.

“I listened to the music on my phone!” I inform him and kiss his cheek. “My ass was warm, and my hands were warm, and I could see the blue sky if I wanted to!”

“So, you like it then?”

“I love it. I’m not even mad anymore that it took another hour at the dealership this morning.”

“Good. Let’s go in and clean up the fridge mess. The new one will be here this afternoon.”

I frown as he sets me on my feet. “Wait. This afternoon?”

“Yes.”

He’s walking away from me, toward the front door, and I have to pick up the pace to keep up with him.

“How? We’ve been busy all day. How did you find the time to get me a fridge?”

I unlock the door, and when we step inside, I have to cover my nose with my hand.

“Oh, God. How did it get so smelly so fast?”

“Food goes bad,” Cam says grimly. “It’s called bacteria. Start opening windows, and I’ll get the trash bags.”

“We can’t open the door of that thing,” I protest, breathing into the sleeve of my sweater. “Cam, can’t we just throw it all away in one fell swoop?”

“I don’t think the appliance company will haul it away with the food still inside,” he says. “Unfortunately, we have to clear it out. You can do it. I’m sure you’ve seen worse.”

“I work in a bar. Of course, I’ve seen worse. Maybe.”

I hurry around the house, opening all the windows and doors, flipping on overhead fans. I even drag out the big box fan I use in the summertime.

I don’t have A/C.

With the fan on full blast and with both of us wearing gloves and armed with trash bags, Cam and I hurry to empty the fridge and freezer of all their contents.

“I’ll never look at turkey the same again,” I say as I try to breathe through my mouth.

“I don’t think I’ll eat stew anytime soon, either,” Cam agrees as we hurry out to the dumpster with the first few bags, then rush back inside to fill two more. “That’s it. Let’s haul these out, and then we’ll muscle this thing out to the porch.”

I hurry behind him and toss away the food. When we’re back inside, Cam and I manage to work the fridge out of its space between the wall and my kitchen counter and get it out onto the front porch.

“It already smells better in here,” I say with a sigh. “But it might take a day or two to get back to normal.”

“I bet it’s much better in a couple of hours. We’ll spray some air freshener.”

“Should we haul the garbage somewhere?” I ask. “It’s going to smell up the neighborhood.”

“When is your garbage day?”

“Not until Tuesday, and today’s Thursday.”

Cam cringes. “I’ll call the garbage company and ask if they’ll make a special trip over here in the morning.”

“They do stuff like that?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to ask them.”

Cam pulls out his phone to make the call, and I go hunt down the air freshener.

I spray every room. According to the bottle, my house is going to smell like a spring meadow. And it will if it’s the last thing I do.

“Good news,” Cam says when he finds me in the office, spraying. “They’ll come by today on their last route.”

“Well, that’s handy. Thanks.”

“I know you’ve been hard at work spraying that stuff, but now the house just smells like a rotten meadow.”

I sigh in defeat. “Yuck.”

“It’s okay. We’ll stay at my place tonight, and we’ll leave the windows open all night to air it out. It’s safe here, it’ll be okay.”

“Okay. That should work. Besides, maybe some of what we smell is coming from outside.”

“Very possible. I think I hear the delivery truck.”

By the time my new fridge is in and running, and the old one is long gone, I’ve almost forgotten about the smell.

“This is an expensive appliance,” I say as I turn to Cameron, who wears an expression of absolute innocence.

“You said you wouldn’t complain.”

“But did you have to get the most expensive one they had?”

“It’s not. They didn’t have that one in stock, and I knew you wouldn’t want to wait.”

“Ha-ha.” I open the stainless-steel appliance and sigh in happiness. “It is gorgeous. And it’ll hold so much stuff!”

“I know you love to cook, and you need a good fridge. You often cook for the pub ahead of time, so you should have an almost top-of-the-line appliance.”