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John raised his eyebrows.
“Alone, so don’t get any funny ideas.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. If we were sleeping together, I’d have to tie you to the bedposts to make sure you didn’t strangle me during the night.”
Rachel always knew she had an over-active imagination, but the pictures inside her head were way too x-rated for even a bad girl. She ignored the wave of heat hitting her face and turned toward the stairs. “I’ll sleep in the same room that I did last time.”
John didn’t move or say anything.
She looked over her shoulder as she walked up the stairs. John’s heated gaze followed each step she took. Rachel smiled. She wasn’t much of a bad girl, but it looked as though John appreciated her efforts.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rachel pushed the shopping cart down aisle three, then stopped to consult her list. “How many sets of Christmas lights do you think we need, Bella?”
Bella looked along the shelves. “Ten.”
Tank groaned from behind them. “No one needs ten sets of lights.”
Rachel held her hand to her ear. “My goodness, Bella. I think I heard the Christmas Grinch speaking.” She waved her hand at the shelves. “Hand me the lights you want and I’ll put them in the cart.”
Bella quickly chose an assortment of lights. “What’s next?”
“Tinsel.” Rachel pushed the cart further down the aisle, turned right and sighed at the rainbow of sparkly tinsel lining the shelves.
“It looks cheap,” Tank said from behind her.
Rachel raised her eyebrows. “Is this pearl of wisdom coming from a man who wanted to buy a blow-up Santa for the front porch?”
Tank crossed his muscly arms in front of his chest. “He was six-foot tall and had glowing lights inside of him. I know quality when I see it.”
“And we could have bought a matching reindeer,” Bella said with more than a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “He would have looked good on the porch.”
Rachel tapped her list. “Let’s focus people. We’re here for interior decorations - and for junior ears, that means decorations for inside the house. I don’t want to scare your dad before he walks in the front door.”
Tank picked up a bright red packet of tinsel. “I don’t like to burst your bubble, but he’s going to be mad whichever way you do it.”
Rachel plucked the tinsel out of Tanks hands and threw it in the cart. “Thank you for your vote of confidence. We’ll have six more of those.”
“There’s ten-feet of tinsel in each packet,” Tank said.
“You’re right. You’d better make it ten packets.”
Bella giggled as Tank started stacking tinsel. “This is fun. Why doesn’t dad like Christmas decorations, Tank?”
“You’ll have to ask your dad.” He looked around the store. “We’d better hurry if you want to put these decorations up tonight. It’s going to take me a couple of hours to hang everything.”
“Don’t forget the tree. I saw a ranch selling Christmas trees on the way into town.” Rachel walked further along the aisle and pointed to the Christmas tree decorations. “What color do you want, Bella?”
“I want lots of colors. Can we have two of each?”
Rachel calculated how many decorations were hanging on each row, multiplied it by the number of columns, and decided they’d need at least two of everything. “You start down one end, and I’ll go down the other. Tank can be our stacker.”
Tank leaned forward. “You know I’m a bodyguard, don’t you? I’m not your personal shopper.”
Rachel patted his cheek. “Think of it as multi-tasking. If I have to stay in John’s home, then I’m going to make it look as though it’s Christmas. There isn’t one decoration anywhere.”
“Now we’ve got lots,” Rachel said proudly. “These decorations are so pretty. Dad won’t know what to say.”
Rachel had a feeling that would be the case regardless of what they bought. So rather than buy one or two token decorations, she was going the whole way. The house would be so bright and shiny that John wouldn’t be able to find fault with anything.
“This is going to cost you a fortune,” Tank said as he took another two decorations out of Bella’s hands.
“Walmart never breaks the bank, and everything’s half price. You can’t go wrong.”
Tank muttered something under his breath as Rachel loaded her decorations into the cart. She looked at the number of decorations, then back at the cart. “We need more room. I’ll go and get another cart while you fill this one.”
“You aren’t going anywhere on your own. If you’re heading to the front of the store, we’re all going.”
“Isn’t that a little extreme? John’s not here now. I won’t tell him if you don’t.”
“I need to go with you.”
“But it’s such a short distance away. The longer it takes for us to talk about it, the sooner I could have been back here.”
Tank turned the cart around and waited for Bella and Rachel to walk with him. “Like I said. All for one and one for all.”
Bella danced beside Tank. “I know who said that. The Three Musketeers.”
He looked down at her and smiled. “You know your stories.”
“I love books. Dad says that I’m going to turn into a bookworm one day.”
A loud noise erupted from the front of the store. Before Rachel could look over the aisles to see what was going on, Tank grabbed their hands and started running toward the back of the store.
“Keep your heads down and follow me.”
“What about our decorations?” Bella wailed. “Someone might take them.”
“Wait here.” Tank crouched behind an aisle and scanned the store. Twenty feet away, an exit signed glowed on the wall.
Rachel glanced over her shoulder and tried to see what was going on. There was a whole lot of raised voices and banging still coming from the front of the store.
Tank pulled her and Bella down beside him. “Keep low and stay here.”
“Wait. I think I heard someone laugh,” Rachel whispered to Tank. “People don’t laugh when it’s something serious.”
“People don’t make noises like guns are being fired, either.”
“Shouldn’t we at least see what’s going on?” Rachel slid further down the aisle, trying to see if anyone else was hiding.
Tank growled low in his throat. “We leave now and ask questions later.”
“Excuse me? Can I help you?”
Rachel spun on her knees and saw a pair of black sneakers behind Tank. Above the sneakers was a pair of khaki colored trousers and a Walmart shirt. “Caitlin? What are you doing here?”
“Hi, Rachel. I still work at Walmart when Tess doesn’t need me at the café. It helps pay for college. What are you doing on the floor?”
Tank pulled Caitlin’s hand until she was sitting beside them. “I heard a gun. We’re getting out of here.”
“It wasn’t a gun,” Catlin explained. “The mall had a competition to see who could pop the most balloons in two minutes. They held the final round outside Walmart.”
“They were balloons?” Tank looked almost as surprised as Rachel.
Caitlin nodded. “Made in America for Americans. Walmart is the main sponsor of the competition.”
Tank frowned at Rachel as if this was her fault.
She pushed her hair out of her eyes and stood up. “I guess we can keep shopping.”
Caitlin looked between Tank and Rachel. “What’s going on? Do I need to tell the store manager something?”
Bella jumped in the air like a jack-in-a-box. “Tank’s making sure we’re safe. Do you have any angels for the top of our Christmas tree?”
“Sure. Follow me.”
Tank rolled to his feet almost as fast as Bella had. He grabbed hold of Rachel’s hand and pulled her along the aisle behind Caitlin and Bella.
Rachel looked down the aisles they passed. “What about our cart?”
“I’m more interested in where Bella’s going,” Tank growled.
Rachel tried tugging her fingers out of his hand. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a big sale on. If we leave our cart in the aisle, someone will take what’s in it.”
“It’s not like you’ve chosen one-off decorations. They’re made in China for Pete’s sake. There are thousands of exactly the same decorations everywhere.”
Caitlin stopped at a display of Christmas angels. “Here you go. These are half price as well.”
Tank looked unimpressed with the display.
Caitlin put on her most professional face and smiled at Tank. “It’s true that most of our decorations are made in China. But Walmart guarantees the quality of all its products. There’s something for everyone in our stores.”
“Like glow-in-the-dark Santas,” Rachel said with a grin aimed straight at Tank.
Tank chose to keep quiet.
Rachel studied the display. There were angels in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some were made from glass, others were made from plastic with lights flickering in their bases.
Bella pointed to an angel with big, glittery wings and a red dress. “That’s the one.” She looked up at Tank and smiled. “It will look pretty on our tree.”
