Claire

This can’t be right, she thought as she picked the last star off the tree.

There were only about seven stars left on the tree. She loved shopping, so this would be a snap to accomplish in one night. Tomorrow at work, she thought, maybe the other office workers could help her wrap gifts. They could perhaps have a wrapping party at lunch break.

But when she had picked the final remaining star off the tree, she stopped. It read:

Girl, 13; clothes, 5 misses.

Wants: socks, batteries, freeze-dried meals, flashlights, backpacks, gas cards.

Girl, 7, wants markers, pens, pencils, paint.

Boy, 5: stickers.

These three kids were absolutely, 100 percent hers. This was her family. How did this happen?

Her blood started to boil. Her heart rate sped up.

She had not applied for any kind of assistance. She had not made it known to anyone about their situation. Yet somebody had seen fit to put her family on the Helping Star tree.

However this happened, she couldn’t have her boss buying these things for her family.

The store clerk was watching her carefully. She couldn’t throw it away or pocket it. What if it wasn’t actually by her siblings? What if this was some other family, by some wild coincidence?

She couldn’t decide what to do, so she quickly put it back on the tree, just as the clerk came over to ask if she could help her with anything.

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

Claire walked away, grabbed a buggy and got to shopping.

She would just have to hope for the best that somebody else besides WX Genetics would grab up the star, and she would have to live with the fact that somebody, perhaps a teacher, decided their family was in need. They weren’t exactly not in need.

Claire cleaned her mind of all the negativity and focused on the good things. Like this first list on the top of the stack.

Boy, 17, wants: Xbox One and games to go with it. Clothing: size men’s small.

Devin had given her free rein to buy everything on the list and also add on as many extra things as she wanted. She would have to drive over to the big-box store on the other side of town to get the Xbox, but there were certain things she could get here at the general store. In the clothing aisle, she picked up some hoodies in all the sizes listed for each child on each of the stars in her hand. Some packs of leggings for each of the girls’ sizes, everybody got socks. That was a no-brainer, whether they asked for it or not.

In the bare-bones humble sporting goods section, Claire picked up the 17-year-old boy a baseball mitt, bat and glove. He was going to need some outside time to balance out all that Xbox time.

She picked up a few of the requested sports jerseys and hats, then she hit winter gear and tossed in some knit hats, gloves and scarves for everybody.

Some of the kids, as her youngest sister had, asked for art supplies. That was easy to fulfill here. For a country general store, they had a pretty amazing selection of pens, charcoal pencils, brushes, paint and good paper. It probably had something to do with some local place that offered art lessons that she’d been hearing about lately.

Claire gazed at the paint brushes and wondered if she should spring for lessons for May. Maybe she would be able to afford something like that over the summer.

She rounded the corner to pick up some toiletries and gift sets for the older kids when she nearly ran over her boss.

“Devin!”

“Claire! Hi, I came to see if you needed any help.”

She grinned. “That’s very kind of you. But I thought you had a…community thing?”

“Yeah, it was over quickly. Some ribbon cutting for the chamber. Apparently, I’m a chamber member now and they want us to show up for a photo in the newspaper every time anybody decides to so much as sell Tupperware. I scooted out of there before they busted out the wine and cheese.”

She laughed. “Do people still sell Tupperware?”

“Hell, I don't know.”

She smiled. Wow, he was cute when he was working so hard to make her laugh. He had a way of making eye contact when he was trying to please her that she found incredibly charming and sexy. She also enjoyed the way his ears were red from being out in the cold. She would very much like to warm them up with her lips.

“Um…since you asked, I do have a list of things I’m going to need from…you know…that other place in town that’s not the general store. Feel like making a teenage boy’s dream come true and picking up an Xbox and some ridiculously expensive games?”

She held out the paper star for him to look at, but he didn’t seem as excited about that as she would have thought.

“Actually, I noticed when I came in, you forgot one.” He held up a star and of course, it was the one with the list belonging to her siblings.

She, of course, lied through her teeth. “Oh, that’s funny, I can’t believe I missed it.”

He smiled. “No trouble, just glad I caught it. And look at this!” He leaned in close to her to show her the star. He was so close she could smell his aftershave. Like a walk in the snowy woods. She closed her eyes without thinking.

He continued, “Some 13-year-old girl wants freeze-dried meals and batteries. How awesome is that?”

Claire nodded. “Yeah, she must be unique.”

“And look at this kid. He wants socks. What kid asks for socks? Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting electronics. But a kid who wants to build herself a bug-out bag? That’s a badass kid I want to meet. Is that weird?”

His appreciation for her siblings’ wish lists charmed her to her core and yet made her sad at the same time. “Well, I don’t think you deliver them yourself. You give them to the assistance center or the school or whatever and they deliver them.” Thank god.

He looked crestfallen. “That’s disappointing.”

“I think it’s for the dignity of the recipients. To keep it anonymous, so they don’t feel beholden to anyone. And in the case of the recipients knowing the giver? That just adds a whole other level of embarrassment. “

Devin frowned. “Being poor is not something to feel ashamed about.”

“True, but I think the agency is probably trying to prevent poverty tourism.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

She had to mine all of the knowledge she had to concentrate on giving him an answer and stop being distracted by the scent of his skin, his piercing eyes. Those dangerously close lips. “People treating the underprivileged like they are an exhibit in a zoo. Givers who give just so they can have an experience for themselves, rather than just giving because it’s what we are supposed to do.”

Devin stared blankly at her for a moment.

She felt as if she had said too much. What did she care if he wanted to deliver gifts himself? Besides, she felt that if that was what he wanted to do, there was no stopping him.

“You’re really smart,” he said.

She looked down at her feet. “Thank you.” She wished like hell he would back up and put some distance between him and her, but on the other hand she really wished he would get even closer.

“Thank you.”

She looked up. He was staring down, studying her eyes, her face, her hair. And then she felt his eyes slipping down farther.