the day. Trusting them to take it to the bank wasn’t any crazier than that.
“Here’s a deposit slip. Make sure to get a receipt for my records,” I said. “I still don’t have access to the account on my computer, so I need the deposit receipts to keep track of roughly how much money I have.”
Riley took the slip and kissed me on the cheek. “We’re on it.”
Both of them had to work early the next morning so I was alone that night. As I drifted off to sleep I thought about the sexy, public fun Riley and I had engaged in. I had never done anything like that before. It was dangerous—if we got caught I wouldn’t just be embarrassed, I would probably lose permission to set up my gift-wrapping stations in the mall. What we had done was a huge risk.
Yet I couldn’t wait to do it again.
Logan was waiting for me at the mall the next morning, right on time. His messy black hair poked out under his trucker cap on all sides, and his hands were shoved into the pockets of his leather jacket.
“I was wondering if you’d be here,” I said as I hopped out of my truck.
His baseball cap was pulled low over his eyes, but I could see his roguish smile. “Told you I would be. Want to know something about me? I keep my promises.”
I opened my tailgate and tried not to think about how his smile felt dirty. “Did you find those hikers you were looking for?”
He grunted. “Assholes overstayed their passes. Found them in their campsite, high on edibles. Better than the alternative, though. So what am I doing today?”
“Since it’s your first time, I’m going to pair you up with Sandy. One of my other volunteers. Here she comes now…”
A van pulled up and Sandy hopped out of the passenger door in her Girl Scout uniform. “Morning Christie.” She glanced at Logan. “More court-mandated volunteers?”
I expected Logan to be offended, but he barked a laugh. “You’ve got a good eye. I’ve got eighty-some hours left.”
“What’d you do to get so many hours?” she asked.
In a deadpan tone he replied, “Killed a man.”
Sandy looked skeptical in the way that only a teenager could. “They don’t give community service to murderers. They put them in prison.”
“Smart girl,” he said while helping unload my truck. “I was a Boy Scout.”
Both Sandy and I flinched. “Really?”
He glared at us. “Don’t sound so surprised. I earned the twenty-one badges required to become an Eagle Scout.”
“You did not,” Sandy shot back.
“Did too. How many badges you got?” He aimed a finger at her sash and began counting. “One, two, three… Looks like you’ve got a lot less than twenty-one.”
“Fewer,” she said. “I have a lot fewer badges.”
Logan grunted. “Didn’t know they had a badge for grammar.”
“They don’t. I know it because I’m smart.”
“Not smart enough to have more than eight badges, though.”
Logan hefted one of the folding tables and walked toward the mall entrance.
“Sorry about him,” I told Sandy. “I know he has an attitude, but he’s mostly teasing.”
“Are you kidding? I love him!” Sandy replied. “He reminds me of my older brother. Logan! Wait up! What badges do you have?”
She was enamored with Logan as we walked through the mall. She picked his brain about all the badges he had earned, which led to them discussing camping. Which of course segued into Logan’s job.
“You work in the Grand Canyon?” Sandy asked while we set up the table. “I want to be a National Park Service Ranger when I grow up too! Is it hard?”
“It’s very hard. But it’s easy for me. Once you get twenty-one badges the world is a piece of cake.”
“I bet you don’t know which was the first National Park.”
“That’s easy. It’s got to be the Grand Canyon.” He winked at me.
Sandy scoffed. “You’re off by, like, fifty years! Yellowstone was the first, founded in eighteen seventy-two. But the National Parks Service wasn’t founded until nineteen sixteen…”
“You didn’t ask which was the first to be founded,” Logan pointed out. “You just asked which was first. And I’m pretty sure the Grand Canyon is the oldest.”
“You know what I meant!”
“All I know is what you said, kiddo. Why aren’t you in school, anyway?”
“I’m home-schooled.”
Logan glanced sideways at her. “That explains a lot.”
While the two teased each other, I gazed around the mall. They had finished putting up Christmas decorations, and every surface in the mall sparkled with Christmas lights or tinsel. The