Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,71

walked up to the first shop that had bottles of water and got two for them. They drank the water as they walked into a clothing store. Marie immediately found several dresses, a pair of shorts, and several t-shirts. “Can I put this on and bring the tag out to you to pay for it?”

“Of course, missy,” the thin young man with bleached blond hair and flirtatious eyes drawled. “You just go right on in the changing room and put that on before you roast to death. Just got into Texas have you?”

“Yes, I guess it’s obvious.” She looked down at herself and laughed.

“Just a little, but you’ll fit right in. Go on in and change now, I’ll be out here with this hunk you’ve got trailing behind you.” He winked at Marie and she laughed happily.

She put on the dark-green strapless dress that swirled down to her ankles and put on the pair of strappy sandals she’d found to go with it. She felt much cooler and walked out of the changing room to pay. The salesman was obviously very interested in Anton, while Anton was busy blushing and trying to dissuade the young man from his attentions. The look of relief that came over Anton’s face when she walked out was almost comical.

When he all but ran out of the store she had to tease him. “Anton, come back here. I think I’ve got your number on my phone if you want to give it to him.”

“No,” he murmured and ducked his head down.

“Come on, then, let’s find some clothes for you and Matteo, then we can find food. That sandwich wasn’t enough.”

“Fine, but I’m not going back in that store.”

“Oh, but I just remembered, I need another pair of shoes.” His face was a picture of fear and she laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m only teasing. I’ll stop now.”

“Thank you,” he whispered, but Marie heard him.

“Right. Jeans, shoes, boots maybe, shorts, did you get a basket? Oh, good, thanks.” Marie took the deep basket and started to add things to it. By the time they were ready to go, she’d just started taking things to the counter. She found everything she needed for Matteo, Anton added to the pile, and they walked away with almost more bags than they could carry.

“One more stop,” Anton said as he headed for an electronics store.

Marie waited with the extra bags but he wasn’t gone long before he came back with even more bags.

“Can we carry all of this?” she asked, and he looked down at all of their new purchases. Marie looked at Anton and couldn’t help but laugh at his helpless look. “Call a taxi and get room service at the hotel?”

“Good plan. I’ll call the number from the other taxi.”

When the car arrived outside the complex, Marie grinned to see it was the same woman. “We’ve been busy.”

“I see that. Wow!” She was good-natured, not nasty, and Marie took it that way.

“I think there might be a couple of things left in there, but not many, if you need anything.”

“That’s nice of you.” The driver loaded the bags into the car and then pulled out into traffic with Anton and Marie in the back. “Here we are.”

It was only a two-minute drive for the woman, and most of that was spent at the stoplight in front of the mall.

“This one’s on me, ma’am. It wasn’t that much out of the way from where I was, and you’ve obviously had a problem lately. I’m not prying, just observing. You take care and I hope things get better for you all from here.”

“Thanks, really.”

“Take care now.” The woman waved out of her window when she got back in after unloading the car again and drove away.

“She was really nice,” Marie said to Anton and they carried the bags up to the room number Matteo had texted to them.

“She was,” he agreed and knocked on the door.

Matteo opened the door, a smile on his face. “I ordered a pizza when you said you were getting a taxi. Room service is bringing it up when it’s done. Apparently, it’s huge and will feed us all.”

Marie grinned, for the first time in days, she was relaxed and really happy.

21

Later that evening, Anton was in his room, playing with the new toys he’d found, and Marie was setting up her new phone. All of their new phones were pre-paid, so no contract, and they’d be able to use them in Mexico, he’d made sure of