Page 27 of Guarding the Doctor
Taking the hint to change the subject, I headed out to the car with my two bodyguards. I really wanted to go to the mall, but they immediately nixed that.
“We can go to one store,” Darla said firmly. “It has to have at least two exterior exits, and we just go in, get the necessities, and come back out, okay? No dawdling.”
“Let’s go to Target then.”
***
“What is this place?”
Cassie and I looked at Darla’s stunned expression with amusement.
“Are you saying that you haven’t been to a Target before?” I asked in astonishment. “Ever?”
Darla shook her head, her eyes darting back and forth like she was afraid she was going to miss something important.
“No. I grew up in a town so small we had to drive thirty minutes to get to the closest Walmart. And other than basic training, all my assignments were overseas. I’ve never seen a store that has so much nice stuff all in one place before.”
Cassie was rolling her lips in, trying not to laugh as Darla grabbed a throw pillow with a colorful geometric panel from an end cap. “I need this for my apartment.”
She grabbed a second one. “I’d better get two.”
We wound up spending nearly two hours at Target, visiting every aisle in the store. I picked up a couple of pairs of jeans, some dressier black pants, a handful of shirts, and two sweaters as well as underwear, pajamas, and socks. Meanwhile, Darla picked up multiple items for her apartment.
“How long have you lived there?” I asked, eyeing her cart. It was full of things that anyone who lived on their own would already have.
“Six months.”
“And you’re just buying a frying pan?” I asked incredulously.
“I mostly eat out,” Darla replied. “Ooh! A dish drainer! I need one of those.”
“Please tell me you have a shower curtain,” I said.
“The shower has a glass door,” she said. “But I could use one of those absorbent mats, so I don’t have to put a towel on the floor while I dry off.”
“I’m surprised you have towels,” I teased.
“Bella had a couple extra ones from when she moved in with Lucy.”
“Oh my God.” I pointed to the towel aisle. “You’re a grown up now, Darla. How about you buy some towels?”
By the time we checked out, we had two carts full of items, most of them destined for Darla’s apartment. After stuffing our finds in the back of the SUV, we drove across the parking lot to another new discovery for Darla: Chipotle. I’d never seen anyone so enthused about a burrito bowl in my life.
“What’s next?” Cassie asked as we finished our meal. I could tell by the way that Darla was staring at the menu that she was thinking of ordering more food.
“We should probably head back to the house,” Darla said regretfully. “Lois is going to stroke out if she finds out how much time we’ve spent here and at Target.”
I had to smile at the reverent way she said ‘Target’.
“Should we drop all your stuff off at your apartment?” I asked, suddenly curious about this place she lived that didn’t have a bathmat or a dish drainer.
“We’d better not,” she said regretfully. “I’ll just want to start putting it all away, and my place isn’t secure enough for us to hang out for long. I’ll just keep it all at the safe house until we finish the mission.”
The rest of the day was quiet. Cassie and Darla were mostly working on their laptops, and I stretched out on the couch and read a book I’d been wanting to get started on. Since none of us was particularly proficient at cooking, we made a plate of sandwiches and ate them with leftover salad and chips.
Sunday passed much the same, but I was very much aware that Darla and the crew were going to try to break into Xi’s lab that night. I felt uncharacteristically worried about it. Worried they were going to find more dead people. Worried they were going to find genetically altered super shifters under the control of the Chinese government. Worried that Darla would get hurt.
That was a new one. Growing up in a military family, I’d long since learned not to be stressed out about every mission and deployment. But for some reason, the idea of Darla getting hurt worried me. I wasn’t worried about the rest of the team, just Darla. I mean, I was worried about them in an abstract sense, just not personally worried.
