His Christmas Bride. Dana Corbit

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      “This is one thing you could have done without me.”

      At this newest round of Dylan’s grousing, Jenna looked over her shoulder at him and grinned. “And have you miss all this?”

      She gestured toward the rows of sweaters in the discount store’s women’s department. He was bored, but if she had agreed to his suggestion that they divide the list of stores and meet up at the end of the day, she wouldn’t have had the chance to see him all afternoon. So much for not forcing him to work with her. She sighed. This was getting more complicated by the minute.

      “Have some mercy, will you?”

      Dylan leaned his elbows on the hand grip of the shopping cart and rubbed his eyes, yawning. They’d already found several outfits and coats for Brad and the boys at the charity clothes closets and resale shops she’d marched him through for hours, but they were purchasing a few clothes for Kelly now. Jenna was in her element, and she wanted her purchases to be just right.

      “Okay. I’ll be finished here in a minute.” She made her final selections and dropped them in the cart. “How does someone so impatient survive a job where you stare at people’s eyeballs all day?” she teased.

      She would have taken the strange sound he made as a laugh if he’d chuckled at any of her other jokes today.

      “Believe me, even just asking, ‘Better or worse?’ and ‘Which is clearer, A or B?’ is more interesting than shopping for women’s clothes.”

      He did chuckle that time—at least something had brightened his spirits. He checked his watch again.

      “You see,” he said, “I was right. At least in this one store we could have gotten more done, faster, if we’d separated and met up at the cash register later.”

      Jenna frowned as she gathered several items in her arms. “We also would have gotten half as many things for twice as much if we’d done that. Haven’t you ever heard of comparison shopping? You can’t just march up to the undershirt display and pick the brand with the best commercials. You have to look at price. We only have so much money, and we want to get as much as possible.”

      “But I could have handled toiletries.”

      “Probably.”

      “Probably? How do you think I earned my professional degree? Bid on it on an Internet auction site?”

      When she whirled to look at him, Dylan had his arms crossed. Even with his chin tilted up that way, he looked…oddly appealing.

      “No. Not the Internet. But can you tell me what kind of shampoo wouldn’t sting a kid’s eyes or would give long hair like Kelly’s a nice shine?”

      At first he frowned, but finally he raised his hands in defeat. “Fine. You win.”

      With this part of their shopping complete, Dylan wheeled the cart out of the women’s department and hurried with apparent relief toward Health and Beauty. Jenna had to jog to keep up with his longer stride.

      “It wasn’t that much of a defeat, was it?” she asked when he finally slowed down in the toothpaste aisle. “What would you know about kids’ or women’s shampoo? Besides, you always hated to shop. You hated malls, too. Your mom used to bring clothes home for you to try on. She had to return the ones that didn’t fit.”

      “Guilty.” He picked up the most expensive tube of cinnamon-flavored toothpaste, but when she lifted her brow, he set it back on the shelf and gestured for her to select one. “But in my defense, malls are just consumer prisons where they pipe in music with subliminal shopping messages and where the lights are so bright they convince you that whatever you’re trying on looks good on you.”

      Jenna picked up a tube of toothpaste next to a sale sign and moved on to the toothbrush display. “Next you’re going to tell me about conspiracy theories and grassy knolls.”

      “A little before my time, don’t you think?”

      He had smiled at her comment. Finally. A success. She thought back to all the times he’d regaled her with stories from documentaries about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or the sinking of the Titanic, realizing now that she’d only half listened. A better friend would have listened more closely as he spoke about his interests. Note to self, she thought.

      Jenna selected two adult toothbrushes on a two-for-one deal and picked two junior-size brushes for the boys. “I still don’t understand why you assigned us to the clothes committee when you hate clothes shopping.”

      Dylan pulled one of the toothbrushes from her hand and tapped her on the head with it. “Are you kidding? How could I not pick the shopping committee when I was working with the crowned queen of shopping? That would have been a waste of your talents.”

      Jenna laughed, and for a second, it seemed like old times between them as he grinned at her. She smiled in return, and they just stood there for a moment until Dylan seemed to catch himself. He quickly turned away.

      Jenna grabbed a container of dental floss and crossed it off on the list before moving on to the СКАЧАТЬ