“Oh, years now,” the Immortal Enforcer said evasively, and followed up quickly with, “Where are you from?”
“Who says I’m not from Sandford?” CJ asked rather than answer.
“You’re staying at a bed-and-breakfast,” Bricker pointed out. “That kind of suggests you’re maybe not from around here.”
“Ah, right,” CJ said on a little sigh, and admitted, “I’m from Mississauga.”
“But you met Marguerite and Julius on Pelee Island?” Bricker asked.
Mac watched with fascination as CJ actually smiled. Her voice even went soft as she said, “Yes. I have a cottage there and went down on my vacation. I went to the tavern for dinner the first night and ran into Marguerite, Julius, and their friend Ildaria. We shared a table and had a nice night. When I woke up the next morning their RV was parked on my neighbor’s yard. They were renting space off him while on the island and none of us even realized it when we were talking the night before,” she said with a laugh.
Mac exchanged glances with Bricker and Decker. None of them believed for a minute that Marguerite, Julius, and Ildaria had been renting a spot there before they met CJ. It had no doubt been arranged after Marguerite realized CJ might be a life mate for Mac.
“Actually,” CJ added, “now that I think about it, it’s kind of weird. I never would have even imagined my neighbor, George, would rent space to anyone, let alone allow them to hook up to his power and water. He’s a grumpy old bastard who doesn’t generally even seem to like people, let alone want to have them around.” She pursed her lips briefly and then said, “Not sure how they ended up there. I wonder how that came about,” she added thoughtfully. “I should ask Marguerite.”
“Sounds like you had fun with them, though,” Decker commented, and one look at the concentration on Decker’s face as he stared at the back of CJ’s head told Mac the Enforcer was reading CJ’s mind and memories.
“Oh, gosh, yes,” CJ said with a grin. “We got on like a house on fire. I spent my whole vacation hanging out with them. Took them to Lighthouse Point, showed them Flat Rock, had bonfires, barbecues, went swimming. I even took them fishing. We had a blast. It reminded me of my childhood,” she added, her voice turning reminiscent. “My foster parents originally owned the cottage and left it to me. We used to go down every weekend during the summer, plus usually three weeks to a month straight into June or July. Our trips to the island make up some of my best memories.”
“It sounds idyllic,” Mac murmured.
“Yes,” she agreed with a faint smile.
“Ah,” Bricker said suddenly with understanding, and when CJ raised her eyebrows in question at him in the rearview mirror, he explained, “When you first started talking about a cottage on Pelee Island, I wondered why you wouldn’t have got one up Muskoka way. It’s closer to Mississauga, I think. But if you inherited it . . .” He shrugged.
“Yeah.” Her smile suddenly faded, as if Bricker’s words had made her think of something unpleasant, and then she flicked on the blinker and announced, “Here we are.”
Turning his head, Mac saw that they’d arrived at Walmart. Time for shopping, he thought with an inner sigh. He hated shopping.
“Well, Mac, so far you’re doing a bang-up job of wooing her,” Decker commented dryly fifteen minutes later. “You hardly said two words to her in the car and now you’re sitting out here with me while Bricker is inside shopping with her.”
Mac turned to give the man a scowl, but didn’t tell him to shut up like he wanted to. Everything Decker had said was true. He’d let the other two men carry most of the conversation on the drive over, and now he was sitting out here on the hood of her car waiting for CJ and Bricker to return with a pair of shoes for him to wear into the store.
Mac looked down at his bare feet, hardly able to believe he’d left Mrs. Vesper’s place barefoot. It was, of course, how he’d been carried out of the burning house last night and how he’d been walking around ever since. He’d got so used to it that he hadn’t even noticed that he didn’t have shoes on until the door greeter inside Walmart had politely explained he couldn’t enter barefoot. Now CJ and Bricker were inside buying him shoes so that he could shop for clothes he didn’t really need just to spend time with her. So far, he wasn’t acing this wooing business.
“She’s very guarded,” Decker said suddenly.
“I had noticed,” Mac said wearily.
Decker nodded and then added, “She’s going to be a hard sell.”
Mac looked at him worriedly. “Do you know what the issue is that Julius mentioned?”
Decker shook his head. “Nothing has popped up on the surface of her thoughts yet.”
“Hmm.” Mac turned to look back toward the store entrance and said impatiently, “What the hell are those two doing in there? How long does it take to buy a pair of shoes?”
Ten
“I really can’t see Mac wearing those,” CJ said, eyeing the paisley-patterned, plastic purple flip-flops Justin was holding up with the disgust they deserved. Good Lord, she wouldn’t even make Captain Dupree wear the ugly things, and he was in her bad books right now.
“Yes, well, it seems to me he doesn’t have much choice since we don’t know his shoe size,” Bricker pointed out.
CJ frowned. He was right, of course, but still . . . The flip-flops were really ugly, and she was quite sure he’d never wear them after today, if they even managed to get him to wear them into the store. She debated the matter briefly and then heaved out a sigh and shook her head. She simply could not do it. Especially not when he had so much that he had to replace at the moment.
“No. It would be a waste of his money,” she said finally, and started to dig in her purse for her phone, only to stop when she recalled she’d forgot to charge it. Letting her purse drop back to her side, she asked, “Can I use your phone?”
“My phone?” Bricker echoed with surprise.
“Yeah. Mine is dead or so close to dead it might die mid-call and I want to call Decker,” she explained.
“Decker?” Bricker said dumbly.
“Well, Mac doesn’t have a cell phone. I presume Decker does?” she asked, and when he nodded, she arched an eyebrow. “So? Let me call him on your phone so I can have him ask Mac his shoe size. Then we can at least pick something he might wear more than once.”
“Ah.” Bricker nodded, but looked slightly disappointed as he set the purple flip-flops back and handed over his phone after opening it to Decker’s number. CJ got the feeling he’d really liked the idea of making Mac wear the ugly things.
Boys! she thought, shaking her head as she tapped the green phone symbol and placed the phone to her ear.
Decker answered after the first ring with, “Hope you are nearly done, Bricker. We are sitting out here in the sunlight waiting on you two, and you know that isn’t good. We should have brought a cooler with us.”
“A cooler of what?” CJ asked with amusement. “Cold water or beer?”
“CJ,” Decker said with obvious consternation. “Sorry, I just assumed it was Bricker.”
“No. I borrowed his phone to call and find out what size shoe Mac wears,” she explained. “And maybe his clothing sizes too.”
“Right. Hang on,” Decker said, and then must have pressed the phone to his chest because she heard a rustling and his muffled voice followed by what she was sure was Mac’s. A moment later, Decker rattled off Mac’s shoe size, shirt size, and pant size and then asked to speak to Bricker. CJ thanked him, and handed the phone to Bricker, silently reciting the sizes in her head as she walked along the row of shoes, examining the ones in the size Decker had mentioned.
In the end, she settled on some black Rockport slip-ons that looked comfortable but could pass for both casual and dressier. The man had lost everything in the fire and items that could do double duty seemed a good idea to her.
Of course, now he needed socks. Leaving Bricker to follow, she headed for the men’s clothing section. CJ found herself stopping to examine a pair of faded, straight-leg jeans along the way. After the barest hesitation, she selected a pair in the size Decker had given her, and slung them over her arm. She passed through shirts next, where a bright blue polo shirt caught her eye. It joined the jeans and then she continued on to the socks.
“CJ,” Bricker said, hurrying up to her a moment later. “None of us thought to mention it, but Mac and Decker are both allergic to the sun. Maybe I should—”
“What?” she interrupted, turning with a pair of black socks in hand. “Allergic to the sun?”
“Well, their skin is sensitive to sunlight,” he said slowly, his gaze moving over the clothing she was holding. “Holy crap, woman! Are you done already?”
CJ looked down at everything she held and shrugged. “I guess I am. Except for underwear,” she added with a frown. “He probably needs underwear too.”
When she hesitated, frowning at the idea of picking out something so personal for Mac, Bricker caught her arm and urged her along the aisle to the underwear. Releasing her there, he eyed the selection and then picked up a pack of boxer shorts and another of boxer briefs and held them up. “Which ones?”
CJ glanced from one to the other and then pointed to the briefs and Justin nodded and tossed the others back. “We’re done. Let’s go.”
“So, Mac and Decker are both sensitive to sunlight?” she asked as they got into one of the long lines at the cash registers. It was surprisingly busy. Well, not really surprisingly, she supposed. It was Saturday and Saturdays were always busy at Walmart.
“Yeah. It’s a family thing. Runs in my family too,” Bricker muttered, drawing her attention back to him. She saw his gaze slide impatiently over the people in line in front of them as he added, “We all avoid the sun as much as possible because of it.”