Wickham and Tonic move my way. “Can I help with that?” Wickham reaches for my cart. I hand it over gratefully. Park Slope is aptly named, and the incline from the grocery store is killer on the days I’m prepping to cook for Ming.

“Thanks.” I remove a bag to lighten the load, and Tonic takes it off my hands. I unlock the outside door, and we cram into the vestibule, through the interior door, and into the lobby. Wickham balks at the stairs, glancing at the cart.

“I’ll get the wheel end if you don’t mind walking backward,” I offer. He gives me a thumbs-up, then guides the cart to the bottom stair. I get ahold of the base, and we start the trek, finding a groove after a few precarious steps.

Wickham nods at the cart. “This is a lot of food for two people.”

“Closer to three. I have an exchange with Ming.”

“An exchange?”

“For services rendered.” I shift my grip, my recent return to climbing making my forearms complain under the weight of the cart. “The Twins do it, too. Ming’s our go-to seamstress, and I pay her back by cleaning or doing meal prep. But when I cook for her, I get in portions for Jane and me, too.”

“What’s on the menu?”

“All stuff that can be frozen. Mostly mains and proteins. Getting Ming to eat her vegetables is an exercise in futility—she’s like a four-year-old.”

“Any way I can get in on this meal planning?” he asks, and wiggles his eyebrows.

I stop myself before I make a joke about whatever “services” he thinks he can provide in exchange. “So are things going well with that venture you mentioned? And the family thing?”

“I have a few irons in the fire.”

I think of Darcy’s warning, the question about my boss and Wickham. “You helping expand Toby’s empire?”

“Toby has enough going on for now,” he says, managing a shrug he probably regrets when it throws off his balance with the cart. “Work It is already coast-to-coast, though if I’d reached out sooner, I might have been able to offer Toby some guidance.”

While I’m glad to hear he’s not involving himself with anything Work It related, I bristle that Wickham thinks he could have swept in and done better than my boss did. Toby might be a goob, but he knows what he’s doing.

Wickham hauls the cart onto the final landing. “I’ve had some inspiration lately. If I can get it together by the end of the month, I’ll be money.”

“Big month for a lot of people,” I say, thinking of the Meryton sale and whatever it might mean for me. “Best of luck. And thanks for the assist.”