Page 18 of Jingle Bell Jilt
“Yeah, well, Big Rig here needs a lot of space.” She smirks. “I don’t have my commercial driver’s license, you know.”
I laugh. “I didn’t realize you needed one to drive one of these.”
She snorts. “Well, apparently you don’t. But I think they should have at least given me some lessons first.” She grabs her purse and opens her door. Looking over her shoulder she shrugs. “It’s for everyone’s safety that I take two spots. Trust me.” She hops out.
I climb out and meet her at the front of the car. “So, where do we start?”
She slings her purse over her shoulder and puts her hands on her hips. “It’s a competition. I’m not going to share my secrets.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “But you made up the rules. How am I supposed to have any chance against you?”
“There aren’t many rules. You can’t spend more than twenty dollars.” She raises her hands to her side. “What about that is difficult to understand?”
“That’s it? Just the twenty-dollar limit?”
She softly taps my temple. “And your design sense. That’s it.” She’s close enough that I can smell her perfume. Or maybe it’s lotion. Whatever it is, it smells good.
“Will you at least tell me what store you’re going into?” I put a hint of pout into my ask, hoping she’ll take pity on me. I really have no idea what I’m doing in pouting or decorating for Christmas. Where do I even start?
She tips her head to the side. “I think I’m going to start at the dollar store.”
“The dollar store?” I look over my shoulder. “Do they have any tasteful decor?”
She looks at me with pursed lips. “I guess you’ll just have to use your imagination. Or lose the contest.” She tips her head. “Or was your boasting about winning just some big talking, fancy walking?”
I can’t help myself. I start to laugh. “Big talking, fancy walking? What does that even mean?”
She shrugs. “Just what it says. Now, are we going to go to any of these stores, or are we just going to celebrate the baby Jesus here in the parking lot?”
I wave my hand toward the line of stores. “After you, ma’am.” She flinches slightly but walks past me and heads to the dollar store.
We walk inside and she grabs a cart. A cart? She’s planning to buy so much stuff that she needs more than a basket? From what I can see, this store has nothing that constitutes classy or tasteful.
I follow along behind her, not at all disappointed by the view. She has curves in all the right places. I shake that thought from my head. I’ve got to stop looking at her like that. She’s Nathan’s ex. Instead, I focus on trying to find anything she can possibly use that would win this challenge. Maybe I have nothing to fear.
We haven’t even gone three feet before she snatches up three boxes of red, green, and white candy canes. She looks at them closely, shaking the boxes up and down.
“What are you doing?” I peer over her shoulder.
“Making sure none of them are broken. I can’t use them if they’re all in pieces.” She gently puts them in the seat of the cart. Then she grabs three packs of green tinsel garland and three boxes of colored ornaments—the round kind that you color on every Christmas tree picture there is. I’m completely baffled and slightly worried my house is going to look like Christmas threw up on it.
She looks up at me. “Do you have a glue gun?”
I shake my head.
“Crap.” She grunts. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“What’s wrong? Why do you need a glue gun?”
She frowns at the stuff in her cart. “I have a glue gun and glue sticks at my house, so I hadn’t really thought about needing to buy those with the twenty bucks.”
I smile and pat her on the arm. “I’m going to be generous because itisChristmas and allow you extra money to buy the glue gun stuff.”
She looks as if she’s going to fake cry. “Wow. Look at you with the Christmas spirit.”
I nod. “I know. Didn’t I say I would be the one to feel the holiday spirit and give up all my exploiting ways?”
“You really need to cut back on the Hallmark.” She gives me a hip bump. “Come on. I have a few more things I need to get.”
