Chapter 161: He Was Distracting Her on Purpose

Dove asked the driver what the sign said before deciding a chain meant trouble. A closed gate could belong to raiders, frightened residents, or a man who was simply tired of strangers borrowing his chairs. She wanted the correct kind of problem before packing for it.

He had not stopped close enough to read the whole thing. Iris had asked someone on a later run for a better report, and it would come through before the household left.

"Then we wait for that," Dove said. "Nobody gets to turn a guess into my afternoon."

The shop’s doorway stood open to the Base B road, with the curtain pulled across their private room behind the counter. Edrik set their travel bag on the rear table while Thorne checked the pickup’s straps in the higher yard. They would take one cart, leave the other, and keep enough space in the truck to return with useful goods instead of arriving full of things they might trade.

Dove chose household supplies over breakfast. Sprout filled the cabinet with fitted sheets, three sales for forty-seven normal coins. She looked at the offer, then at the receipt for the bedding she had just given the landlord.

"You waited until I paid rent to offer these."

"The rotation was not arranged around your rent payment."

"That’s exactly what something enjoying my suffering would say."

Could she choose pillows tomorrow instead of sheets? Sprout reminded her that she chose the category, not each product. Dove eyed its little picture of a pillow. Apparently it could tease her with home comforts but couldn’t take a hint.

Dove decided to sell the sheets and rebuild ordinary trade stock with what customers brought. She already had clean bedding. Wanting another soft set did not make it the best use of scarce Favor when the shop upgrade remained a goal.

Edrik watched her fold the sample corner back into its pack. "You wanted those."

"I also want a swimming pool and a world without mosquitoes. We’re making choices."

"We could start with the sheets."

She smiled at him, then shook her head. "If I decide to keep them, I’ll say so. You don’t have to rescue me from every purchase I don’t make."

He accepted that without turning quiet or offended. The next thing he offered was coffee, which she took with considerably less moral strength.

Thorne checked the lunch bag with her instead of guessing what she would want. She added fruit and something salty, then asked him to pack enough for a delay. He tucked the sour candy beside her portion without announcing it. Dove saw, smiled into her cup, and decided she was keeping that man forever.

Their lesson happened in the service yard before the customer rush. Thorne watched from the doorway as Edrik practiced the same controlled wrist escape with her. The cabinet handled approved trades. Dove had improved enough to become irritated by the attempts that still went badly.

"Your eyes keep leaving my hand," he said after she missed the grip.

"Your face is directly above it. That’s poor planning on your part."

His mouth curved. "You could stop staring at it, sweetheart."

"I’d like you to stop knowing what you’re doing."

He stepped closer to reset the exercise, giving her the same safe grip and room to move. She turned correctly, slipped free, and caught his sleeve before he withdrew. The surprise lasted only a moment, but it was hers.

"There," she said. "Now you can look pleased."

He drew her close by her offered hand, stopping short of making the lesson another kind of invitation. "I am. You waited until you had the opening."

She liked the praise because she could tell which part she had earned. She also liked his thumb moving over her knuckles, which she decided did not weaken the first reason.

After practice, she asked Sprout about the men’s development books again. The requirements involved controlled work, repeated safely, with a clear release. Breaking something dramatically would not prove better control. She described that to Edrik and Thorne over lunch, and both agreed they wanted the manuals when the household could fund them without emptying the next shop upgrade.

Dove closed the offers without buying. She liked watching them practice, but she wanted enough left to open the next shop shelf too.

Through the afternoon, Dove traded sheets for canned food, a sound pan, and sealed soap. She kept household goods separate from the hotel payment bag. At closing, the daily sales and exercise rewards brought normal coins to 1,542. Fresh reactions settled Favor at eighty-eight. No daily stock remained to keep or return.

They ate thick sandwiches with roasted vegetables and fruit while the room cooled enough to become pleasant. Thorne brushed Dove’s tail after she asked, careful around a small tangle. Edrik sat against the bed with her bare foot resting on his thigh and no work in his hands.

"You look suspiciously comfortable," she told him.

"I keep expecting to find you here when I come back."

The words were simple. They still made her stop teasing for a moment.

"You will," she said. "Unless I’m at the counter yelling at somebody. Then you can find me very easily."

He smiled, but she reached down and touched his cheek before the joke could become the only answer. She liked being expected. She liked that the room had become somewhere he returned to rather than somewhere he happened to sleep.

Thorne finished the tangle and kissed her shoulder. She stayed between them until the final message arrived, delivered by the repair-shop neighbor from Iris’s driver.

This time the hotel sign had been copied clearly. The chain barred recovery teams from Base A. Ordinary traders could request entry, but anyone arriving on behalf of the inner district would be turned away.

Dove put the message beside Iris’s order. Their buyer had known enough to seek equipment from the hotel, yet nobody had mentioned that the people living there had already decided to keep that buyer out.