Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,55
she heard a rustling and his muffled voice followed by what she was sure was Mac’s. A moment later, Decker rattled off Mac’s shoe size, shirt size, and pant size and then asked to speak to Bricker. CJ thanked him, and handed the phone to Bricker, silently reciting the sizes in her head as she walked along the row of shoes, examining the ones in the size Decker had mentioned.
In the end, she settled on some black Rockport slip-ons that looked comfortable but could pass for both casual and dressier. The man had lost everything in the fire and items that could do double duty seemed a good idea to her.
Of course, now he needed socks. Leaving Bricker to follow, she headed for the men’s clothing section. CJ found herself stopping to examine a pair of faded, straight-leg jeans along the way. After the barest hesitation, she selected a pair in the size Decker had given her, and slung them over her arm. She passed through shirts next, where a bright blue polo shirt caught her eye. It joined the jeans and then she continued on to the socks.
“CJ,” Bricker said, hurrying up to her a moment later. “None of us thought to mention it, but Mac and Decker are both allergic to the sun. Maybe I should—”
“What?” she interrupted, turning with a pair of black socks in hand. “Allergic to the sun?”
“Well, their skin is sensitive to sunlight,” he said slowly, his gaze moving over the clothing she was holding. “Holy crap, woman! Are you done already?”
CJ looked down at everything she held and shrugged. “I guess I am. Except for underwear,” she added with a frown. “He probably needs underwear too.”
When she hesitated, frowning at the idea of picking out something so personal for Mac, Bricker caught her arm and urged her along the aisle to the underwear. Releasing her there, he eyed the selection and then picked up a pack of boxer shorts and another of boxer briefs and held them up. “Which ones?”
CJ glanced from one to the other and then pointed to the briefs and Justin nodded and tossed the others back. “We’re done. Let’s go.”
“So, Mac and Decker are both sensitive to sunlight?” she asked as they got into one of the long lines at the cash registers. It was surprisingly busy. Well, not really surprisingly, she supposed. It was Saturday and Saturdays were always busy at Walmart.
“Yeah. It’s a family thing. Runs in my family too,” Bricker muttered, drawing her attention back to him. She saw his gaze slide impatiently over the people in line in front of them as he added, “We all avoid the sun as much as possible because of it.”
“That explains why you’re all so pale,” CJ commented. Bricker didn’t respond. In fact, his attention had settled on the woman in line in front of them. He was staring at the back of her head with a concentration that seemed weird to her. Trying to distract him, she asked, “So what happens when you guys are out in sunlight too long? Do you break out in a rash or something?”
“Or something,” Bricker said evasively, and urged her forward as the customer in front of them suddenly took her cart and left the line. CJ thought the woman must be going back to find something she’d forgotten, but she simply pushed her cart to the next line and took up a position there.
CJ pursed her lips, and glanced between Bricker and the woman, wondering if the shopper had sensed his concentrated glare on her back and left because he was making her uncomfortable. She’d barely had the thought when the next customer in front of them suddenly took his few items off the conveyor belt and walked to another line as well.
“That’s weird,” CJ said with a frown as Bricker started taking the items she was holding and setting them on the conveyor belt. “Both customers just up and moved to another till.”
“People are weird,” Bricker muttered, pulling out his wallet to retrieve what looked to be a company credit card.
“Yeah, but the guy would have been next to be rung up. He already had his stuff on the belt,” CJ pointed out, eyeing the man with curiosity. As tall as Bricker, but with arms as big around as her thighs and covered in tattoos, the guy didn’t look to be the type who might be intimidated by someone glaring at him.