Sealed with a Kiss: A Small Town Christmas Romance

Chapter 7

Rachel pushed the shopping cart down aisle three, then stopped to consult her list. "How many sets of Christmas lights do you think we need, Bella?"

Bella looked along the shelves. "Ten."

Tank groaned from behind them. "No one needs ten sets of lights."

Rachel held her hand to her ear. "My goodness, Bella. I think I heard the Christmas Grinch speaking." She waved her hand at the shelves. "Hand me what you want and I'll put them in the cart."

Bella quickly chose an assortment of lights. "What's next?"

"Tinsel." Rachel pushed the cart down the aisle, turned right and sighed at the rainbow of sparkly tinsel lining the shelves.

"It looks cheap," Tank said from behind her.

Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Is this pearl of wisdom coming from a man who wanted to buy a blow-up Santa for the front porch?"

Tank crossed his muscly arms in front of his chest. "He was six-foot tall and had glowing lights inside him. I know quality when I see it."

"And we could have bought a matching reindeer," Bella said with more than a tinge of disappointment in her voice. "He would have looked good beside Santa."

Rachel tapped her list. "Focus people. We're here for interior decorations—and for junior ears, that means decorations for inside the house. I don't want to scare your dad before he walks in the front door."

Tank picked up a bright red packet of tinsel. "I don't like to burst your bubble, but he'll be mad whichever way you do it."

Rachel plucked the tinsel out of his hand and threw it in the cart. "Thank you for your vote of confidence. We'll have six more of those."

"There's ten-feet of tinsel in each packet," he said.

"You're right. You'd better make it ten packets."

Bella giggled as Tank started stacking tinsel. "This is fun. Why doesn't Dad like Christmas decorations, Tank?"

"You'll have to ask your dad." He looked around the store. "We'd better hurry if you want to put these decorations up tonight. It will take me a couple of hours to hang everything."

"Don't forget the tree. I saw a ranch selling Christmas trees on the way into town." Rachel walked along the aisle and pointed to the Christmas tree decorations. "What color do you want, Bella?"

"I want lots of colors. Can we have two of each?"

Rachel calculated how many decorations were hanging on each row and multiplied it by the number of columns. Two of each would be perfect. "You start down one end, and I'll go down the other. Tank can be our stacker."

Tank leaned forward. "You know I'm a bodyguard, don't you? I'm not your personal shopper."

Rachel patted his cheek. "Think of it as multi-tasking. If I have to stay in John's home, then I'm going to make it look as though it's Christmas. There isn't one decoration anywhere."

"Now we've got lots," Bella said proudly. "These decorations are so pretty. Dad won't know what to say."

Rachel had a feeling that would be the case regardless of what they bought. So rather than buy one or two token decorations, she was going the whole way. The house would be so bright and shiny that John wouldn't be able to find fault with anything.

"This will cost you a fortune," Tank said as he took another two decorations out of Bella's hands.

"Walmart never breaks the bank, and everything's half price. You can't go wrong."