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“What kiss?”
“The one you fell asleep dreaming about.”
She gave an honest-to-God snort.
He frowned. “I hate shopping. I especially hate shopping with a woman.”
“Then don’t come with me.” She marched into the center of the mall, then came to a dead stop. She was in a real American shopping mall, and she didn’t have to shake a single hand or solicit a vote. “This is wonderful!”
He looked at her as if she were crazy. “It’s a third-rate mall in the middle of nowhere, and every store is part of a chain. For a blue blood, you sure are easy to please.”
She was too busy making a beeline for the Gap to reply.
Despite Mat’s grumbling, he’d been well trained by those seven sisters, and he turned out to be a first-rate shopping companion. He held Button with only minimal complaint while Nealy looked through piles of clothes, and he passed generally astute judgment on what she should and shouldn’t buy. Since she’d been raised with a keen eye for fashion, she didn’t need his opinion, but it was fun asking for it.
In addition to basics for herself, she picked out a couple of sundresses for Lucy, then made a quick detour through Baby Gap to buy some outfits for Button. Mat, however, spoiled her fun by refusing to let her pay for their clothes. While he was handling the transaction, she slipped to another register and purchased a jaunty little pink denim cap.
After she set it on Button’s head, Mat studied it for a moment, then turned the bill backward. “This is the Demon we’re talking about.”
“Sorry.”
She expected the baby to pull off the cap, but because her adored Mat had positioned it, she let it stay. “I bought you that hat, not him,” Nealy grumbled.
Button tucked her head into his neck and sighed.
Nealy could hardly believe that no one was paying any attention to her. Between her altered appearance, the fact that no one expected to find Cornelia Case in a small West Virginia shopping mall, and the camouflage Mat and Button provided, she’d acquired a glorious invisibility.
They moved on to the mall’s main department store. She loved the novelty of being able to look over the merchandise without a dozen people trying to help her. It was nearly as much fun as eavesdropping on everyone’s conversations while she stood in line at the register.
When she located the lingerie department, she set about getting rid of Mat. “I’ll carry Button now. Would you mind taking my packages out to the car?”
“You’re trying to get rid of me.”
“Of all the paranoid notions. You told me you didn’t like to shop, and I was just being courteous.”
“Tell me another one. You either want to buy Tampax or underwear.”
All those sisters . . . “I need some lingerie,” she conceded, “and I’d rather do it by myself.”
“It’s a lot more fun as a group activity.” He charged toward the lingerie department. Button bounced happily in his arms, looking adorable in her pink cap with the bill turned backward.
Nealy was forced to trot to keep up with him. “You’ll be the only man there. You’ll embarrass yourself.”
“Embarrassment is being the only man in the lingerie department when you’re thirteen. At thirty-four, it doesn’t bother me at all. Matter of fact, I’m looking forward to it.” He headed straight for a lacy black nightie that was almost entirely transparent. “I think we should start with this.”
“I don’t.”
“Okay, how about these?” He approached a display of black bikini panties.
“How about not.”
He held up a black demi bra. “Let’s negotiate with this.”
She burst out laughing. “You like black underwear, do you?”
“There’s just something about the way it looks on a fair-skinned woman.”
That sent a sizzle right through her. She made a dash for the Jantzen cotton briefs.
