world. I don’t care what you’re charging, it’s not enough.”
“Actually, this service is free!” I said cheerfully. “We accept donations. All proceeds go to the Happy Bones dog shelter.”
A few other customers overheard this and quickly got in line.
It was busy all day. My hands never stopped moving on the table, positioning boxes and cutting wrapping paper and pulling tabs of scotch tape. I ran out of wrapping paper at two in the afternoon and had to rush out to buy more. On the way back inside I stopped by Macy’s to check on Riley. The line of women waiting for his services wrapped around the table and down an aisle. He had removed his jacket, and the faded t-shirt he wore fit tightly against his chest. His biceps practically bulged out of the sleeves, including a huge vein that ran down to his elbow.
They’re here for the show, I thought when I saw the line. I guess I’ll take the donations however I can get them.
“Perfect timing!” he said when he saw me. He grabbed the four rolls of wrapping paper from under my arm. “I was about to run out.”
I laughed and said, “Actually, I was going to tell you that you can leave whenever you want. You’ve done plenty for me.”
“He can’t leave until he wraps my box!” a woman in line snapped at me.
“Don’t worry, ladies—I’m not going anywhere!” Riley turned to me and said, “I’ve only been here a couple of hours.”
“Uh, it’s two in the afternoon,” I said. “You’ve been here seven hours.”
He blinked, then recovered with a flash of a smile. “Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess. I’ll take care of everyone in line and then head out.”
“You can give your donation jar to Sandy. It’s safest with her because there’s a mall security guard right outside Express. The rest of the materials you can just toss in the bed of my truck—”
“Yeah yeah, he gets it,” said the next woman in line. She beamed at Riley and said, “I’ll take the purple wrapping paper with the snowmen on it, please.”
I retrieved more wrapping paper from the truck and visited Harper next. His line was just as long as Riley’s.
“I had a sandwich an hour ago,” he told me. “I’m okay to keep going. Really.”
“I’m sure you are, but you can leave whenever you’re ready. You’ve definitely helped enough today.”
“Umm. I’ll leave when Riley does,” he replied.
I returned to my table and resumed working. The afternoon flew by with hardly a break in the action. There was still a steady stream of customers at six o’clock, but I was out of wrapping paper and I was exhausted, so I packed up the station and carried everything out to my truck.
Sandy was slumped in her chair in Express. “We had a good day, Christie,” she said.
“It looks like it—your donation jar is full!”
She grinned wearily. “It’s been full for an hour. I had to unscrew the top and shove all the bills down to make more room.”
“How much did the boys collect?” I asked.
Sandy shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them.”
“But they were supposed to drop off their jars…”
I trailed off as panic rose in my chest. Riley and Harper seemed like trustworthy guys, but even the most straight-laced person might think twice when tempted by a giant jar of cash…
I hurried over to Macy’s at a pace that was just below a run. The tall brunette was still there, hunched over the table and wrapping a huge box in blue-and-white paper. A middle-aged woman wearing a leopard-print jacket—how stereotypical could you get!—was leaning across the table to showcase her cleavage.
“I wish I could wrap you up and put you under my tree,” she said in a cigarette-laced voice.
Riley laughed. “I’m not sure your husband would like that.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t kill him.”
“You’re still here?” I asked him.
His smile changed when he saw me. It was subtle, but it went from a polite smile to a genuine one. Like he was happy to see me. Something moved deep inside my chest.
“Christie! I was just finishing up a few customers.”
“You said that four hours ago,” I pointed out.
The leopard-print woman looked me up and down with a scowl. “Honey, your boyfriend can decide for himself.”
“Oh, he’s not my boyfriend,” I said with a nervous laugh. “He’s one of my volunteers. And he’s been here since seven in the morning.”
“I got in a groove. I didn’t want to stop.” He finished the