The 6'1" Grinch by Tiffany White Read Free Book Online

will you know? Because if you don’t plan to buy it, my daughter wants it.”
    â€œI’m waiting for someone,” Noel explained lamely.
    â€œCan I hold it?” the little girl asked, her tears making her eyes bright.
    He knew better, but he was on the spot. Besides, what could it hurt to let the little girl hold the doll? Once her fascination was done with, she’d move on to wanting something else. Even children lost interest in things they’d wanted desperately, once they had them.
    He relented and handed the doll to the little girl, who presented him with a smile. Noel wished Hollie would hurry up and return.
    Another younger woman, perhaps twenty, felt the material of his jacket, distracting him.
    â€œWhere did you get your jacket? I need a present for my boyfriend and I really like yours. Was it terribly expensive?”
    â€œIt’s ah…” Noel couldn’t remember who the designer was.
    â€œCan I check the label…?” the bold young woman asked, inching closer, reaching upward with her arm.
    â€œIt’s Calvin Klein,” Noel blurted, backing away.
    He was getting warm, and the din of the shoppers was closing in on him.
    Where was Hollie?
    The young woman was incorrigible. And it was clear now that more than the jacket interested her.
    â€œWas that doll you were looking at for your little girl?” she asked.
    It was plain to Noel she meant “Are you married?”
    â€œNo. It’s for—” He glanced around and his stomach sank. The little girl and her mother were gone.
    And so was the Barbie.
    â€œExcuse me,” he said, moving away from the woman flirting with him to search for the two who’d lifted the Barbie he was supposed to be holding for safekeeping. He didn’t want to be there when Hollie got back if he’d lost the doll.
    But the two weren’t in the front of the store by the register. They’d checked out in record time, and now he’d never find them. Well, there was no use in waiting around in the store for Hollie to appear. He might as well find her and tell her he’d screwed up and get it over with.
    He thought he’d heard Hollie mutter something about another toy store when she’d left. He asked the checkout clerk, who said there was one at the south entrance. Just as he was exiting the store to find it, loud beeping went off.
    â€œSir, sir. You have to wait,” a young male clerk yelled after him.
    While Noel stood where he was, the clerk called the manager to come to the front of the store. The manager still had pimples, and he had an attitude about having responsibility. He had something to prove to Noel.
    â€œIf you’ll just step back inside the store and come with me,” he instructed Noel.
    â€œThere’s some mistake,” Noel stated between clenched teeth.
    â€œIf you’ll just come back to my office.”
    Everyone had stopped to stare, making Noel feel like a criminal. He knew he hadn’t stolen anything, but no one else did.
    Hollie chose just that moment to return.
    â€œHey, John, how’s the new house?” She’d met John Pritchard a couple of months earlier when she’d helped him and his young wife find the ideal starter house—a cozy two-bedroom in the suburbs.
    â€œGreat. We love it. On another matter, do you know this man, Hollie?” John asked.
    â€œYeah, he’s shopping with me. Why?”
    â€œThe beepers went off when he tried to leave the store.”
    â€œWhat? Are you trying to steal the Barbie, Noel?” Hollie teased.
    â€œI don’t even have the Barbie,” Noel said, fuming.
    â€œWhat?” The teasing note was gone from Hollie’s voice. “What do you mean, you don’t have the Barbie?”
    â€œI let a little kid hold it and she took off with it,” Noel explained.
    â€œThere you have it, John. Some little kid set off the beepers.”
    John glanced at the clerk by the