Page 44 of This Thing of Ours

Marco scooped the pup up and scratched at his belly. Fred licked him under the chin. Gabby’s heart melted, and her stomach did a little flip. Hot guy and puppy. There was no defense against that.

“He did fine last night. I’ll turn the TV on for him. Just make sure his water bowl is full.”

The TV clicked on, and a minute later, Marco was back, standing on the other side of the breakfast bar.

Gabby waved her hand at the floor. “Fred has plenty of food and water.”

Marco scooped up his keys. “Okay. Then let’s go.”

If someone hadtold Gabby ahead of time that Marco could manage to suck all the fun out of shopping, she wouldn’t have believed them, but it had taken her less than an hour to discover it was true. And all because of a few simple facts.

Marco was bored.

It wasn’t anything like shopping with Olivia who was full of energy and excitement. Or even her mom who, although took shopping way too seriously, at least had helpful advice. Nope, by the second store, Gabby had noticed a glazed look had fallen over Marco’s eyes, and he was about as animated as any of the many mannequins that adorned the stores.

When he wasn’t bored, he was tense.

With less than two weeks until Christmas, the mall was packed. As in you-had-to-make-a-conscious-effort-not-to-bump-into-anyone-while-navigating-around-the-mall kind of packed. Marco was not happy about this. She’d thought Ricky and Leo were intense bodyguards? They had nothing on Marco. She’d been worried he was on the brink of whipping out his gun a few times already. His grumpiness had also killed the buzz she’d been experiencing at finding a cute pair of shoes on sale.

He wouldn’t let her pay for anything.

Which had been embarrassing when he’d argued with her for ten minutes about it with the Macy’s saleswoman watching the proceedings with a fake smile on her face, all the while, staring hungrily at the credit cards each of them had been flapping around. Of course, Marco had won—and, incidentally, that had been one of the times she’d been sure Marco wanted to pull out his gun.

So, after all that, fun-sucking Marco was officially crossed off her shopping go-to buddy list.

Plus, he’d made her hate shopping.

Okay, so that last part was a lie, but it was a close thing.

They only needed to make one more stop then they could both put their misery behind them. The dress she’d bought—or more accurately, Marco had bought—could only be worn with a strapless bra. She’d actually contemplated going braless. That’s how much she didn’t want to go into a lingerie store with Marco.

Spying Victoria’s Secret a few shops away, her steps slowed to almost a crawl. One would think she was taking a walk down Death Row in preparation of her execution. That’s how slow her steps had become.

Of course, Marco noticed. He gave her hand a squeeze before asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie,” Mr. Human Lie Detector pointed out.

They were coming upon a bench that was, surprisingly, unoccupied. “What’s the chance of me getting you to sit on that bench so I can go somewhere alone for about fifteen minutes?”

“None.”

Gabby sighed. Yeah, that’s what she’d thought.

“Why? What’s going on?”

They were nearing the store, and if she didn’t just bite the bullet, they would soon pass it. “I, ah, need to get a bra for my dress,” she said, pointing a finger at the store so he would understand the gravity of her statement.

Marco glanced into the shop’s window then frowned down at her. “Okay. So?”

He obviously didn’t understand the gravity of the statement. “So? So, it’s a lingerie shop.”

He took another look at the store, his frown growing deeper, then repeated, “So?”

“So?” Why did she keep repeating him? Oh, yeah, because she was uncomfortable. “Because it’s embarrassing.”

“Why?”

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