Page 10 of His Wounded Heart

I look behind the woman who has to be Drake Avery’s sister and see that two more customers have queued up.

“Sorry.” I wave to them.

I look at the bagger. “Get me another loaf of bread.” He stares at me like I’m speaking a foreign language.

“Now,” I say, using my command voice.

“But… but… I’m supposed to bag,” he stuttered.

“I’ll bag my own groceries, and the next customers’, until you get back with a loaf of bread to replace the one you ruined. Hurry it up.”

Dennis looks over at the checker, who just shrugs. She rings up the rest of my items, and I move along to bag my groceries. When she’s done, she announces the total and I give her cash to cover it. She looks at the bills like she’s never seen them before.

“Can’t you use a credit or debit card?” she asks.

“Why?” I ask.

“It’s a pain to make change.”

“For the love of God. Are you kidding me?” Yep, I’m hanging on by a thread. Drake’s sister puts her hand on my arm.

“Amanda, you owe him five dollars and eighty-five cents,”

“Thanks, Mizz Trenda.”

“Yeah, thanks.” I give Trenda Drake the best smile I can muster. After all, she’s just saved me from a prison sentence. She nods her head with a mischievous smile. She knows that she’s just saved Amanda’s life.

“Mr. Clark, can I help you bag groceries?” Bella asks.

“Do you know how?” I ask the little cutie.

“Nope, but I know not to squish things, and you can teach me everything else, right?”

Her mother rolls her eyes. God help Trenda when this girl hits her teens.

“Ask your mom.”

“Mama, please?”

Trenda gives me a head tilt as she finishes emptying her basket onto the conveyor belt. I nod.

“Sure, but make sure you listen to everything Mr. Clark tells you to do and move fast. We don’t want to keep people waiting.”

“Got it.” She gives her mom a thumbs up.

“Since you can’t reach, your job is to identify what items are coming our way, then tell me what kinds of things go together in a bag. Like all the canned food would go together, then all the soft items would go together, and all the produce would go together.”

“Got it.” She gives me a thumbs up this time.

They use both paper and plastic bags, so I choose paper. I get four bags ready, and double-bag two.

“Cans coming for bag one. Apples in bag two.”

I grab them, loving the look of concentration on the kid’s face.

“Should all cold stuff go together?” she asked me.

“Yep.”