"New house?" the manager asked with a smile.
"Good guess," Vincent complimented, which could be taken as agreement or not as the man liked.
"Not much of a guess." The manager chuckled. "It has to be a new house. About the only thing you haven't got here is a microwave."
Vincent stilled and turned accusingly on Jackie. Sighing, she threw her hands up in the air and turned to head back to the housewares section.
Half an hour later, Jackie watched impatiently as the last of their items were rung through... including a black and chrome microwave. "We won't have room in the car for all this," she pointed out. "And we still have to get the actual groceries."
"I'd be happy to have one of the boys deliver your purchases for you," the manager said accommodatingly.
"Oh great!" Vincent beamed and Jackie just managed not to roll her eyes. It would just figure that he actually seemed to enjoy shopping. The man had been relaxed and cheerful through the entire grueling two hours in this store. She'd have been happy to grab a coffeepot and paper plates, but not Vincent. If they were doing it, they were doing it right, he'd said, and proceeded to take his time over choosing the dish patterns, as well as the style of drinking glasses, and then had insisted on color-coordinating all the appliances.
Jackie shook her head. Who cared if the teapot was white plastic, the cappuccino machine was chrome, or the vegetable steamer was blue? Vincent did. He wanted everything black and chrome to match.
Sighing impatiently, she shifted her feet as Vincent handed over his credit card.
"The man at the house is called Tiny. If the gate is closed and locked and you have to buzz, just tell him it's a delivery authorized by Jackie," Vincent instructed.
"I'll call him to warn him it's on the way," Jackie said impatiently. "Can we go now?"
"Don't mind her," Vincent advised the manager. "She just flew in from New York. You know how New Yorkers can be."
"Oh... Yes." The manager nodded solemnly, looking梖or all the world梐s if he wanted to offer Vincent his sympathies for having to deal with her.
Finding the whole matter beyond exasperating, Jackie turned on her heel and headed for the automatic doors.
"Come again!" the manager called cheerfully as Vincent followed.
"We are not doing this at the grocery store," Jackie said grimly as she started the engine of the rental car. "We are not going to buy out the grocery store. You're a vampire, you're not supposed to eat."
"And you're a woman. You're supposed to like shopping," he responded mildly. "I guess things aren't always what they seem, are they?"
In her impatience, Jackie managed to stall the car. Feeling her face go red with embarrassment, she ground her teeth together and restarted the engine. Pausing then, she took a deep steadying breath.
"Must be jet lag," she muttered under her breath as she pulled out of the parking spot.
"No doubt," Vincent said agreeably.
"Are you always this damned cheerful?" she asked with irritation.
"Mostly always," he assured her with a grin.
Jackie blew her breath out on a sigh. "You're nothing like Bastien. He's..."
"Serious? Sober? Solemn? And all those other S's?" Vincent suggested with amusement.
"Grown up," she said dryly.
"He's a businessman. I'm an actor," Vincent pointed out as if that said it all.
Jackie frowned. She'd forgotten, but he was also a businessman, with his own company. It made her wonder how much of his cheerful, easygoing behavior was for show.
"Do you have Tiny's list?" Vincent asked as they walked into the grocery store ten minutes later.
Jackie reached into her pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper Tiny had handed her on the way out the door. She unfolded it, read the single word at the top, blinked and then burst out laughing.
Curious, Vincent took the list from her. He smiled faintly. "Well, you did tell him to write everything on it."