Sealed with a Kiss, Leeanna Morgan [black authors fiction .txt] 📗

“Wait here.” Tank crouched behind an aisle and scanned the store. Twenty feet away, an exit signed glowed on the wall.

Rachel glanced over her shoulder and tried to see what was going on. There was a whole lot of raised voices and banging still coming from the front of the store.

Tank pulled her and Bella down beside him. “Keep low and stay here.”

“Wait. I think I heard someone laugh,” Rachel whispered to Tank. “People don’t laugh when it’s something serious.”

“When I hear gunfire, everything is serious.”

“Shouldn’t we at least see what’s going on?” Rachel slid farther down the aisle, trying to see if anyone else was hiding.

Tank growled low in his throat. “We leave now and ask questions later.”

“Excuse me? Can I help you?”

Rachel spun on her knees and saw a pair of black sneakers behind Tank. Above the sneakers was a pair of khaki colored trousers and a Walmart shirt. “Caitlin? What are you doing here?”

“Hi, Rachel. I still work here when Tess doesn’t need me at the café. It helps pay for college. What are you doing on the floor?”

Tank pulled Caitlin’s hand until she was sitting beside them. “I heard a gun. We’re getting out of here.”

“It wasn’t a gun,” Caitlin explained. “The store had a competition to see who could pop the most balloons in two minutes. They held the final round outside the main entrance.”

“They were balloons?” Tank looked almost as surprised as Rachel.

Caitlin nodded. “Walmart is the main sponsor of the competition.”

Tank frowned at Rachel as if this was her fault.

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and stood up. “I guess we can keep shopping.”

Caitlin looked between Tank and Rachel. “What’s going on? Do I need to tell the store manager something?”

Bella jumped in the air like a jack-in-a-box. “Tank’s making sure we’re safe. Do you have any angels for the top of our Christmas tree?”

“Sure. Follow me.”

Tank rolled to his feet. He grabbed hold of Rachel’s hand and pulled her along the aisle behind Caitlin and Bella.

Rachel looked down the aisles they passed. “What about our cart?”

“I’m more interested in where Bella’s going,” Tank growled.

Rachel tried tugging her fingers out of his hand. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a big sale. If we leave our cart in the aisle, someone will take what’s in it.”

“It’s not like you’ve chosen one-off decorations. They’re made in China for Pete’s sake. There are thousands of exactly the same decorations everywhere.”

Caitlin stopped at a display of Christmas angels. “Here you go. These are half price as well.”

Tank looked unimpressed with the display.

Caitlin put on her most professional face and smiled at Tank. “It’s true that most of our decorations are made in China. But Walmart guarantees the quality of all its products. There’s something for everyone in our stores.”

“Like glow-in-the-dark Santas,” Rachel said with a grin aimed straight at Tank.

Tank chose to keep quiet.

Rachel studied the display. There were angels in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some were made from glass, others were made from plastic with lights flickering in their bases.

Bella pointed to an angel with big, glittery wings and a red dress. “That’s the one.” She looked up at Tank and smiled. “It will look pretty on our tree.”

Tank took the angel off the display. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Bella said with a firm nod of her head. “Thank you for coming with us, Tank. This is the best Christmas ever.”

Tank, the man most unlikely to be swayed by feminine attention, practically melted on the spot. He cleared his throat and patted Bella on the head. “I’m glad you’re happy. Now let’s go and find our cart and get out of here.”

Rachel didn’t need to be told twice. She walked quickly across the store and found their cart sitting forlornly in the middle of an aisle. “We’re lucky it’s so close to Christmas. Most people have got their decorations by now.”

“We’re late bloomers,” Bella said proudly.

Tank froze. “Who told you about late bloomers?”

“Mrs. Daniels. Poppy’s getting a training bra for Christmas. When I asked Mrs. Daniels when I’d be getting a bra, she said I’m a late bloomer. We all get there in the end, but sometimes it just takes a little longer.”

“That’s too much information,” Tank muttered as he pushed their cart toward a checkout counter.

Rachel took hold of Bella’s hand and smiled at the blush on Tank’s face. “Mrs. Daniels is a wise woman.”

John opened the front door and stared at the entranceway.

“Surprise!” Bella shouted from the staircase. “Do you like what we’ve done?”

John’s mouth dropped open and his mind went blank. He hadn’t seen so much tinsel in one place in years. Six years.

“Your dad’s blown away by how beautiful it is, aren’t you, John?” Rachel looked down from the top of the ladder she was standing on.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Rachel stuck another piece of tape on the ornament that was hanging below his chandelier. “We’re bringing the Christmas spirit indoors.”

Bella ran down the stairs and hugged her dad. “Isn’t it great? We went shopping and bought a whole cart of decorations. Tank thought someone was shooting at us and we found a blow-up Santa. We weren’t going to bring it home, but Tank thought it was too good a bargain not to buy it.”

Bella was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something that made sense. “Someone shot at you?” He was struggling to keep his voice level.

“No.” Rachel wobbled on the ladder and he reached out to steady it. “Thanks. There were no guns. It was a balloon popping competition.”

“And you thought it was a gun?”

Bella took a decoration out of the box on the hall table. “Tank thought it was a gun. We crouched on the ground and looked for a safe way out of the store. Do you want to see our Christmas tree?”

John wiped his hand across his eyes. “You got a tree?”

Tank stuck his head around the edge of the doorframe. “Sorry, boss. There was no stopping them.”

Rachel sent Tank a withering glare. “Did you, or did you not, have a good time buying the Christmas decorations?”

“I did once Santa was in my truck.”

Bella grabbed hold of her dad’s hand and pulled him into the living room. “We haven’t put the Christmas angel on the top. We were waiting for you.”

John stood in the middle of the room and looked at the Christmas tree. It was loaded with decorations in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. Tinsel glittered from the branches and sparkling fairy lights flashed slowly through the tree.

Once he’d gotten used to the tree, he let his gaze wander around the rest of the room. A huge blow-up Santa and a reindeer sat in one corner, glowing from some kind of light inside them. The coffee table was decorated with a red tablecloth, pinecones, and candles. And to bring the whole nightmare together was Christmas music, wafting through the room on his sound system.

He didn’t know what to say.

Rachel was looking at him, prompting his sluggish brain into saying something that was so far from the truth that it wasn’t funny. Up until this Christmas, he’d managed to keep their celebrations to a minimum. They’d unpack a small artificial tree, drive into town to see the Christmas parade, and go to church with Patty and her husband on Christmas Eve.

This year he’d been thrown head-first into the festive season, whether he wanted to be there or not.

Bella handed him a red and gold Christmas angel. “She’s really pretty. Can you reach the top of the tree?”

“Wait there.” Rachel darted out of the room and came back carrying the ladder. “This should work.”

Her smile was supposed to be encouraging, only he couldn’t see any reason to be part of what they’d created. Until he looked at Bella. Her eyes were full of excitement and wonder and so many other things he’d forgotten. He felt like a cold-hearted fool.

Tank opened the ladder. “You okay?”

John nodded. He had to be. Bella was looking at him as if this was the most natural thing in the world for him to do. But it wasn’t, not by a long shot.

The smile on Rachel’s face disappeared. She watched him closely, wisely choosing not to say anything.

Bella followed every step he took on the ladder. “Higher, Dad. The angel needs to be at the top of the tree.”

He took another step, slipping the tie at the back of the angel around