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She glanced over at him.
“You’ll question your decision no matter what. So just pick one.”
She blew out a breath.
“Do you need to check with your imaginary friend?”
Clary’s chest rose. “Jesus, which should I choose?”
Seth grinned and left Clary to it while he grabbed all the Iron Man bags. “There are only seven. Should I grab the other Iron Man designs?”
She groaned and ran her hand through her hair. “I can’t decide.” She pressed a hand to her face.
Seth laughed at how exasperated she was. He put his hand on her back and kissed her hair. “We’ll get both.”
“But—”
“And then you pray Jesus will give each child the right bag. It’ll be out of our control after we wrap them anyway.”
She bit down on her lips, then released them with a light pop. “Yup. You’re right. Okay. Let’s do that.” She closed her eyes, then opened her mouth, clearly still undecided.
“We’ll do that,” he said and loaded more bags into the cart. “There aren’t thirty with the same design anyway. So just grab what you can.”
“I can go talk—”
“No. I don’t want to talk to anyone else.” He wouldn’t have to, since Clary would do the talking, but he didn’t want her so troubled over a decision.
“Okay,” she said and sighed. “Let’s just do this.” She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek, which caught him off guard. “Sorry.” She ran a hand down his tense back. “I just wanted to thank you.”
He hooked his arm around her waist and dragged her forward for a kiss on her lips before releasing her. “Don’t apologize for this.”
“I forgot. Sor—” She cleared her throat, and he grinned.
“What’s next?” he asked, while tallying the number of bags he’d already taken. He was just getting the last five bags they needed when he thought he noticed a familiar figure strolling past the end of the aisle.
Seth turned to get a better look, but all he caught was the leg of the passing person. A passing person who looked a lot like Pete Laker.
“What’s wrong?” Clary asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing. We’re done here.” He put his hand on her back to keep her close. “How many more things do we need to get?”
“Just a few.” Her gaze roamed across his face. “Are you okay? Do you want to go?”
Yes, but it wasn’t about being among people.
He shook his head and jerked his chin forward. “Lead the way.” He took out his phone from the pocket of his jeans and texted Zane as Clary strode ahead.
They were all in the same store, but had gone separate ways to get whatever was on their list.
He didn’t care about the competition now. He wanted Zane to be close so there would be an extra pair of eyes on Clary.
“Miss Fiore?”
Though it was clearly a female voice, Seth jerked his attention up from the phone. And despite the bright red lips curled back in a wide smile, he stepped in front of Clary when the black woman moved closer.
“I’m sorry.” The woman, with a phone pressed to her chest, gave him a head-to-toe scan. “It is Miss Clary Fiore, right?”
“What do you want with her?”
