Free The Journal: Fault Line (The Journal Book 5) by Deborah D. Moore Page B

you can load those in the van, I’ll
finish here and we can head over to Exit 31.”
     
    ***
     
    “It feels like weeks since I’ve been in here,
not days,” Christine remarked as they made their way to the front
counter of the next store.
    “I know what you mean.” Trevor took her hand
and turned her toward him. “I feel like we’ve been together for
months. I’m really comfortable with you, Christine, I want you to
know that.” He let go of her and coughed to cover his nervousness.
“Okay, first things first. We need to stock you up. Do you have a
freezer at home?”
    “I just use the small one with the
refrigerator. My dad put a deep freeze in the garage, but it isn’t
plugged in.”
    “Good! Bread freezes fairly well, and so does
milk and cheese. Eggs stay fresh a long time in the fridge. I want
a good portion of this stock at your place. Let’s load you up
first.”
    “Why are you doing this, Trevor?”
    “Christine, I like you. I mean I really like you, and I’d like to believe we will be spending
a lot of time together. This food will make things much easier for
both of us.”
    They loaded the SUV with garbage bags filled
with bread and baked goods, crates of milk, and boxes of eggs,
leaving more than half still on the shelves and in the cooler.
    “What next?” she asked, overwhelmed with the
amount of food in her car.
    “Now we load up the step-van with boxes of
canned goods. When we’re done, I’ll follow you back to your house
and help you unload,” he said. “Then it’s back here and get ready
for the first giveaway.”
     
    ***
     
    “What are we going to do with all that juice,
Trevor? We can’t possibly drink all of that before it starts to
ferment.” Christine was now beyond overwhelmed, looking at the box
filled with fresh orange juice.
    “It will freeze, just like the milk, and just
like the milk, we need to take some out first so it doesn’t rupture
the container when it expands,” Trevor said. The refrigerator was
near full with bread, lunchmeats, milk, juice, butter and eggs,
dozens and dozens of eggs. The big freezer in the garage was
humming away, more than half full, with pizzas, frozen dinners,
snacks, more lunch meats and bread, with room reserved for the milk
and juice.
    Trevor opened the back of the step-van and
started unloading boxes onto the handtruck. He maneuvered his way
to the back of the garage and settled the boxed food against a
wall.
    “ More food?” Christine exclaimed.
    Trevor just smiled and kept unloading. He
knew deep in his heart and soul that even if things didn’t work out
between them, Christine would let him have back anything he wanted.
He also knew it was safer here than at his store.
    “Look at it this way: you won’t have to go
grocery shopping for a long time.”
    She didn’t see the crates of dried pasta,
pancake mix, salt and flour. And all the boxes of wine she had
filled the day before.
     
    ***
     
    At the Exit 31 store, they stacked a dozen
boxes of canned goods by the front counter. On top of the counter,
Trevor lined up the cartons of cigarettes, while Christine made
room on one of the shelves for the liquor bottles. Then Trevor
started phoning his employees.
    “They’ll be here in an hour, Christine,” he
said after he’d called the last one. “We need to push some of the
remaining warehouse stock out of sight and we’ll be ready.”
    “Isn’t the rest of this for them?”
    “No. I want the perishables and the frozen
items taken. That’s the idea here, to not waste what could go bad.
This stock,” he waved his arm toward the rest of the unopened
boxes, “is mine. I’m not giving it away. When I reopen, I can still
use it. Tomorrow we take this over to Spring Hill.”
    “That makes sense,” Christine agreed.
    “I’ve got one more thing I need to do. Pull
your car around to the gas pumps and fill the tank. I’ll do the
same.” After he filled the van, he slipped a heavy yellow plastic
sleeve over the pump