This is short because I wanted the last chapter to be primarily Kovac...but something was missing. Hope it doesn't confuse...
Peppermint ice cream. She scanned the grocery store freezer and couldn't find it. She knelt down to see if there was something on the bottom. That's when she saw him.
David Burns was also scanning the freezer section. He opened a door and pulled out a frozen diner, read the preparation instructions on the back, looked at the picture again and slipped it back on the shelf.
"What's the matter?" Susan said as she read the cover of the dinner he had replaced. "Fiesta Chicken with rice and green beans not tasty enough?" David laughed and shook his head.
"Why aren't you home somewhere gorging on turkey and cranberries and sweet potatoes casserole with toasted marshmallows like the rest of America?" he asked.
"I was working," she said. "What's your excuse?"
"Lack of good company, I guess," he said. "Kind of futile to do the turkey thing for one."
"Do not tell me that a good looking guy like you didn't get an invitation or two?" she scoffed. A rakish grin spread across his face.
"So…you think I am good looking?" She grimaced and shook her head.
"You are a cad…." She chuckled as she walked away shaking her head.
"But a…um….good looking ….cad?" She put her hands on her hips and turned around. He was looking at her with a hopeful smile.
"Just what exactly are you hoping for here?" she asked. David glanced around at the empty aisle lined with freezers and stepped closer to her.
"I was hoping for a friend," he said quietly. "Someone who might understand about waking up at two in the morning and reaching for someone that isn't there. Someone who still keeps a few things in the top dresser drawer and opens it now and then just to see if the smell is still there. Someone who knows what it's like to pitch a carton of butter pecan ice cream in the grocery cart forgetting that you don't like it and she won't be there to eat it." Susan's eyes widened a bit and she took a deep breath.
"You mean Chunky Monkey ice cream," she breathed. David grinned slightly and thrust his hands in his pockets and waited. Susan looked down at the floor and then up at him again.
"Okay…you can come home with me," she said quickly. "Luka and Susie are cooking and you can count your blessings that it's not Abby at the stove." She turned back to the freezer.
"My job is to bring peppermint ice cream home with me…..which I can't find….." Her voice trailed off as she searched again and he pulled a door open. He drew out a brown container with 'Peppermint' printed on the top. She frowned a little and then shook her finger at him.
"It's the brown container," she said. "Peppermint belongs in something pink, wouldn't you say?" He grinned as he tucked the container under his arm like a football and they headed toward the checkout counter.