Free Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie Page B

something. Trudy picked up a green gumdrop and flattened it and then threaded it onto a toothpick, the first set of branches for a gumdrop tree.
    Okay, so Nolan worked for the NSA. Well, good for him, protecting his country. And of course he had to lie to her about his name, he was undercover.
    And if he’d gotten into that cab without needing to, if he’d gotten in with her to save her, then maybe he was a good guy. She flattened another gumdrop onto the toothpick and then paid attention for the first time to the music in the background, a slow growly voice singing, “Hurry down the chimney tonight.”
    She looked at Courtney, jolted out of her fairy tale. “Is that ‘Santa Baby’?”
    Courtney nodded as she finished Twinkle’s last toe. “Yeah. I couldn’t get it out of my head after you talked about it.”
    Trudy listened to the slow, jazzy version on Court’s stereo. “That is not Madonna.”
    â€œEtta James,” Courtney said. “The only good thing I know about Pres is his taste in music. And his kid.” She screwed the top back on the polish and looked at the doll, her pretty face puzzled.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œThis is a dumb toy.” Courtney turned Twinkle around so Trudy could see her vapid plastic face.
    Trudy sighed and stuck the last green gumdrop on the top of the toothpick. “I always thought so, but then I wasn’t the manicure type. You probably would have loved it when you were six.” Timing is everything. If Nolan already knew all he needed to about the codes when he got in my cab—
    â€œNo, it would have been a huge letdown then, too.” Courtney set the doll on the table, where its pink party dress flopped into the icing. “I’m sure there’s a lesson in this, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.”
    â€œI know what you mean.” Trudy stuck her gumdrop tree into the gingerbread beside the door. The red gumdrop shingles had moved another millimeter. “I’d love to find a meaning for what happened tonight besides ‘Don’t trust men,’ but I don’t think there is one.” Except maybe Nolan came with me to keep me safe.
    â€œYou don’t know that yet.” Courtney picked up the manicure set and unzipped it. “The doll was a letdown, but this could be a really great manicure set. You have to believe.”
    â€œDo you really think so?” Trudy said, trying not to sound hopeful.
    â€œNo. But I think that’s what I’m supposed to say.” Courtney opened the pink plastic manicure set. “And this is not a great manicure set.”
    â€œOh, sorry,” Trudy said. “I used the nail file to stab somebody, so it’s gone.”
    â€œNo, it’s in here.” Courtney held the case so she could see in. “It looks like it’s in pretty good shape. No blood.”
    Trudy straightened. “It shouldn’t be in there at all. The last time I saw it, it was stuck in Reese.”
    â€œMust have been a different box.” Courtney took the file out. “This box was kind of mushed in the back. Did you—”
    Trudy took the box and turned it over. The bottom corner was smashed, as if somebody had driven it into a counter, and over the creases was marked a tiny black X.
    Oh no, she thought as her hope deflated. This was why Reese had been in the toy store; he’d been picking up this year’s codes. And that was why Nolan had gotten in the cab: he hadn’t been trying to save her, he’d been following Reese and the Twinkletoes. More Chinese codes, not her. You’re so dumb, she told herself. He betrays you and you still want to believe.
    â€œWhat?” Courtney said.
    â€œNolan picked up the wrong Twinkletoes box in the warehouse. He got Reese’s instead of mine.” Trudy pulled out the instruction sheet. “He wanted this.” She stared at the flimsy paper with its