Free Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie Page A

Damn.
    She went back to the living room. Courtney hadn’t moved.
    Trudy dumped her armload on the coffee table and sat down beside Courtney. “Forget about rotten men. There was one good thing that happened tonight. I got you a present.”
    Courtney turned her head a millimeter. “Does it have gin in it?”
    â€œNo, but you want it anyway.” Trudy pulled the Twinkletoes box out of her last shopping bag and handed it to Courtney, who stared at it for a moment, her eyes unfocused.
    Then she sat up slowly, her forehead smoothing out, her lips parting. “Where—”
    â€œThey’re making them again. Like a reissue. Second chance. Do-over.”
    â€œOh, please,” Courtney said, but she said it while she was ripping the cellophane off the package. She pried open the top and pulled out the cardboard shell with the Twinkletoes doll and her manicure set wired to it. “These aren’t the same colors of polish as the old one.”
    â€œI’m sorry—”
    â€œThese are better.” Courtney began to unwire the doll. “She has really big feet.”
    â€œWell, she needs really big toenails if little kids are going to paint them.” Trudy watched her for a minute and then went back to the gingerbread house as Courtney set up her play station. One thing had gone right that evening, she thought as she beat sugar into the thickening icing. Now if she could get the icing and the gumdrop shingles to stay on the iced roof, that would be two. It was tomorrow morning that was going to be bad.
    Poor Leroy.
    Damn it.
    She began to spackle the roof with the thicker icing, thinking vicious thoughts about government agents who took toys from little kids on Christmas. She picked up a red gumdrop and shoved it into the icing with more force than necessary and almost cracked the roof.
    Easy, she told herself and looked back at Courtney, who was studying the Twinkletoes doll with an odd expression on her face.
    Well, she was drunk.
    Trudy shoved another gumdrop into the icing and dared it to fall off. It didn’t.
    At least Leroy would have a gingerbread house in the morning. That might help calm things down. She filled in rows of red gumdrop shingles, trying to think of things to say to him.
    â€œSorry about your Mac, Leroy, but Santa sent you this nice toy cow instead.”
    No, they’d shot the cow. Jesus.
    â€œSanta got delayed over Pittsburgh but he’s going to put your Mac on backorder.”
    No, Santa was not a mail-order house.
    â€œMaybe it fell off the sleigh.”
    Trudy shoved another gumdrop in. Bastards.
    Not that Leroy would throw a fit. He wasn’t a fit-throwing kind of kid. But he’d be disappointed; that stillness would be on his face, like the stillness that had been there when his father left.
    Men, she thought, and shoved in another gumdrop, but that wasn’t fair, she knew it wasn’t fair. Nolan had risked his life for her at the end. Maybe even before the end, maybe that was why he’d gotten in the cab, because he cared. Trudy sat up a little. “You know, I think he came along in the cab to save me.”
    Courtney had the doll out now and her shoes off. “Who?”
    â€œNolan.” Trudy watched Courtney pry open the bottle of silver nail polish, awake and alert, if still a little unsteady from the booze. “He took the Mac away from me at the end after he’d sworn to me he wouldn’t, but when he got in the cab at the toy store, he thought he already had the codes. He didn’t need me anymore. Maybe he got in to protect me from Reese.” She put the last gumdrop on the roof gently. Maybe Nolan cared about her, at least as much as he cared about the Mac.
    She looked closer at the roof. The gumdrops seemed to be sliding down.
    Beside her, Courtney painted the first Twinkle toe, her face concentrating on the job. Court didn’t look particularly happy, but she did look alert. That was