Free After the Christmas Party by Janice Lynn Page A

hungry, tired and really didn’t want to fight the crowds. She’d told him she’d have dinner with him, so dinner they would have.
    Somehow she hadn’t envisioned him taking her to a shopping center for a slice of pizza or Chinese. Then again, she knew next to nothing about his eating habits and they had eaten sandwiches the night before.
    “True,” Riley admitted, not looking one bit guilty as he parked the car in a just-vacated parking spot.
    One more thing to not like about Christmas. Everywhere was packed. Parking lots, shops, streets. It was as if every person came out of hibernation and crowded every public place, searching for that great deal on the perfect gift that they’d spend money they didn’t really have to spend. Trinity would much rather be at home with a good book and Casper curled up in her lap than dealing with all the holiday hoopla.
    Her car door opened and she glanced up at the manwaiting for her to get out of the car. Really? She’d rather be with her cat than with this gorgeous man?
    Okay, so not really. But hanging with Casper would be a lot easier on her emotions in the long run.
    Please, don’t hurt me , she silently pleaded. All day she’d questioned why he’d taken an interest in her when there were so many women out there who would gladly kiss his rear end and had to be more suitable than her. She was just Trinity Warren from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. He was a cardiac surgeon who’d obviously led a privileged life. They couldn’t be more different.
    “Come on, princess.” A big smile on his face, he motioned for her to get out of the car. “We’re just going to do a little shopping before we eat.”
    What? He wanted her to go in there and face the shopping frenzy? Had he lost his mind?
    “I don’t think so. You didn’t mention anything about shopping.”
    “Didn’t I?” He pretended to look repentant. “Must have slipped my mind.” He took her hand and laced their fingers together. “No worries, princess. I promise to feed you, too.”
    As if skipping a meal or two would hurt her.
    Still, the last thing she wanted was to go into a mall all decked out with Christmas decorations and sales. Maybe she really was a Scrooge.
    “I don’t like shopping.” Had she sounded petulant? It hadn’t been her intent, but she felt like digging her heels in and refusing to budge. Seriously, the man did not have to have his way on everything.
    “Every woman likes to shop.”
    She snorted. How stereotypically male!
    “Shows how much you know about women,” she countered, chin high at his arrogant comment.
    He stopped walking and gawked at her. “How can you not like shopping? Especially at this time of year? Every store is a smorgasbord of treats just waiting to make someone happy.”
    Her stomach roiled. “It’s especially at this time of year I don’t like shopping and my guess is that that smorgasbord of treats causes more problems than happiness. Someone has to pay for all that stuff bought that no one really needed to begin with.”
    Wow. She sounded a lot like her mother.
    Which she really didn’t want because, God rest her soul, Trinity didn’t want any similarity between herself and the woman who’d given birth to her. Still, facts were facts. People went crazy at Christmas.
    “Bah, humbug.”
    “Make fun of me all you like, but I prefer if we eat and then you take me home before you do your shopping.” If his lower lip stuck out any further she’d swear he was pouting. “Or you can just take me home now and you can come back and do your shopping. We can do dinner some other time.”
    “We’re not doing my shopping and no way am I taking you home without feeding you first.”
    This time she was the one who stopped walking. She stared at him as if he was making no sense. Actually, he wasn’t making any sense.
    “Whose shopping are we doing?”
    “Yours.”
    Her face squished and her nose curled in disgust. “Mine?”
    He nodded, tweaking her