The Baby beneath the Mistletoe. Marie Ferrarella

other side of the lot. She wondered if he was actually going to wait for her to pull her car around.

      The night air was cold and the lot had an aura of isolation about it, even though Tony could see the headlights from passing cars just down the road. They were moving like tiny white jewels rolling down the road. “That’s because they probably all hide when they see you coming.”

      She stopped at his car. Without waiting to be asked, she took Justin, baby seat and all, from him and let him fish out his car keys unencumbered. “Enough foreplay. We’ll go shopping for a few essentials and then go to your place.”

      “My place?” He hadn’t thought of her coming over. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. This was getting way out of hand. “Be still my heart.”

      With the car door open, she handed Justin back to him. The next moment she was already sprinting back to her car. “To have your heart be still,” she called out over her shoulder, “you would have had to have one beating in the first place.”

      He watched her go for a second, a moth watching the flame that was destined to kill it gain breadth and depth. “Touché,” Tony murmured, fastening the baby seat in the rear passenger position. He always believed in giving the devil her due.

      

      Shopping with Mikky, Tony quickly discovered, was not unlike trying to find evidence of footprints in a snowstorm. Just when he thought he saw her going down one aisle, she’d be heading for another. He had half a mind to leave without her, but in his heart he knew that she probably did have more experience at this than he did. The female of the species, he grudgingly allowed, had a better feel for this kind of thing. Even wolverines.