Page 29 of Holiday Home 2
“Well, that’s on her for not prepping you.” As the cashier finished scanning the third candle, Avril pulled her clutch out of one of the zippered pockets on her jacket. Seconds later, she’d handed over an Amex Black Card—the fabled Centurion—to the cashier, whose expression flickered with recognition. Liam’s did, too. He also remembered how amused Tess had seemed once when he’d suggested that it would be Anna who was the most used to exclusive clubs among the roommates.
It wasn’t a card you signed up for; it was a card you receivedstrictlyby invitation.
“I don’t want you to spend your money onmygifts,” he still protested.
“And that’s so admirable and sweet of you,” Avril said, reaccepting and returning her card to its clutch once the sale went through. “But this isn’t technically my money, and I have a yearly spending quota to meet.”
Once it was offered, she took the bag the three candles were stowed within, which she then handed to him. As they walked out of the store, she flashed him a maverick smile.
“Listen, I need a partner-in-crime. I’m here to spendat leasta couple thousand dollars on some ridiculous and completely unnecessary gifts for Anna, Tess, and Victoria. So, hop on board and help me get it done here in the next couple of hours. If you do…”
She trailed off, though her eyes completed the sentence her mouth had begun. As it dropped to his waistline, the butterflies in his belly, which he’d only recently quelled, renewed their rebellion.
“Well, I did say it was a date we’re on. And if it’s a good one, I don’t mind continuing what we started in my car.” Her eyes glowed lustily. “I wouldn’t mind that at all.”
His body wouldn’t mind that either. It was only a specific section of his mind that cautioned him from nodding like a puppy thrilled to go on a walk. Every other part of him desperately wanted to see how far he could get on this “date” of theirs. The former part questioned him intently.
Just how muchdidhe want this to be a real date?
Chapter Twelve
A Complete Bastard
They needed a shopping cart. Or a forklift. Or for Avril to relax with her rampant spending spree. Of those three options, Liam favored his chances of getting his hands on one of the first two before the last one occurred. Avril was a woman on a mission, and that mission really was to spend two or three thousand dollars.
After the candle shop, revealing the efficiency that Tess had warned him about, Avril led them to several other stores within this quadrant of the mall. There, she picked up a suite of lavish, expensive gifts, ranging from ludicrously expensive smartwatches to fashionable winter clothes to decadent chocolate. Before today, he hadn’t known that a two-pound box of chocolate could go for almost a hundred and thirty dollars.
He did now, and Avril bought three boxes.
Laden with upwards of forty to fifty pounds of items in the dozen bags he’d yet accrued in his role as her “manservant,” which she’d already called him twice, she didn’t seem close to stopping. He couldn’t help but feel that Tess or Anna, considerate as they usually were, should have given him a warning about the test of stamina that he now underwent.
“Don’t drag your feet,” Avril called, flashing a smile over her shoulder. “Your stuffed animal shop is right there.”
Walking on the second story of the mall after a brief escalator ride, Liam’s attention shifted in the direction she pointed, which brought him to a neon blue flashing sign aptly namedPlush Planet.Anna’s requested gift would hopefully reside inside.
It didn’t take more than a few moments inside the store to realize that he’d need Avril’s help to find it. There’d been a lot of candles in the first store they’d stopped at. Here, there were more stuffed animals than there were Ewoks on Endor.
“Good lord,” he muttered under his breath as the sheer horde of blue, red, green, and yellow stuffed animals crammed into the relatively squat store nearly overwhelmed his senses. Shelf upon shelf, bin after bin, there were so many that a minor earthquake might prove lethal if the customers inside were buried under a thousand pounds of terrycloth and cotton. There was even a spiderweb array of rope strung up along the ceiling, where dozens of colorful plush bears, tigers, and dogs waited for a chance to rain down upon unsuspecting customers if such an event occurred.
Next to him, Avril grinned and elbowed him. While he’d been gawking at the sheer volume of stuffed animals before him, her discerning eye had already saved them from spending an eternity searching within the store. She pointed toward a line of shelves about midway through the store on their left.
Following her gesture, he spotted several slanted shelves built into the wall that were claimed by four types of large—about two feet tall, which was bigger than he’d imagined that they’d be—stuffed animals. Cats, elephants, sloths, and puppies.
“Which one did Anna tell you she wanted?”
“Uh, the sloth. Sam. Sammy. One of those two.”
“Very good!” Avril grinned, which informed him that she’d already known the answer to her question.
They—well, he left the physical act to her, as he didn’t have many hands left for picking things up from shelves—nabbed one of the grey sloths. It seemed to be one of the more popular variants, given how few remained on the shelves. Afterward, they made for the checkout counter. They ended up in a line behind a few other shoppers, which gave Liam time to settle a few things in his mind.
Regardless of Avril’s generosity, though it might just be boasting instead, he still wanted to purchase his gifts for everyone. Yeah, she was clearly wealthy enough to splurge in a way he clearly couldn’t, and he could have readily accepted her generosity without any qualms. Except that he couldn’t. Maybe it was all because of a dose of dumb pride, but he still felt the way he felt.
However, he wasn’t interested in arguing with someone as stubborn as Avril. So, while they waited for the line to disappear, he brewed a new tactic. One that let her have her way here today. Tomorrow would be a very different story.
A few minutes later, Avril flashed the Centurion and purchased Anna’s Hugimal. As they exited the store, leaving a thousand other stuffed animals still available for the other last-second shoppers, they stopped long enough for her to add it—and the five or so pounds it weighed—to one of their bags.
“Don’t worry, we’re almost through,” she said. “Do you have any ideas about what you want to get Victoria? Oh, and me? I know you’re going to get me the most thoughtful gift you can.”