Chapter 29: Chapter 30

Nicolae looked happy. He was in his element. His smile was warm and his mood light. Dustin could have stood there all day and watched him. Jewel, however, was having none of Dustin’s “googly-eyed tomfoolery” as Jewel had so eloquently put it.

With a sigh Dustin let Jewel yank his arm just as Nicolae held up a crystal snowflake for a woman pushing a stroller. As the sun hit the crystal and the light danced over their immediate area—yellow, red, blue, and green—the child in the carriage cooed in delight, the mother giggled at something Nicolae said too low for Dustin to hear, and Nicolae secured another sale. “Good, God, man!” Jewel frowned. “We’re leaving for a couple of hours, not a lifetime!”

Dustin laughed. “I’m coming! It’s just cool, that’s all.”

They fell in step beside one another. “That’s not cool,” Jewel said, his voice only half-teasing. “It’s pathetic.”