“Getting out of the house.” I gave him a quick smile that generally made me look slightly stupid and went back to emptying the cart.
“Are you feeding an army?” The man had the nerve to lean over my shoulder and study how much stuff was in the cart.
Lord.
The man had no concept of personal space.
“They march on their stomachs.” It was technically a response even if I hadn’t actually answered in a way he wanted. “A full pantry makes me feel more content. Doesn’t it for you?”
Emeric’s snicker was justified considering how empty Braun’s was, but unfortunately it drew Mr. Stein’s attention again. “Who’s he?”
Good grief the man was nosy.
He’d spent the entire first parent-teacher night looking over my desk and asking me odd questions about my personal life. Even his son and the cousins I had in some of my classes had spent the whole time rolling their eyes behind his back.
I thanked God and every deity I could think of on a daily basis that the kids were much better behaved than he was.
“Where are the boys?” I just ignored his question which delighted Emeric. “They’re usually all together.”
Because they ran in a pack.
Hmm.
Oh.
If he wasn’t human, some of his behavior might not be as weird as I’d thought.
There was no good way to ask that without looking insane, though, so I just focused on the never-ending cart and piled on a stack of reusable bags because we hadn’t been able to find any in Braun’s house.
Emeric’s guess was that Braun didn’t realize we’d need them because he’d probably never been there in person, but I was worried they were organized away in one of the storage spaces. Either way we’d made the decision that we’d just buy more, but luckily for us, there was a stack of boxes by the cashier we could use as well.
I thought we were safe from Mr. Nosy as we greeted the woman helping us with our groceries and ignored her wide eyes at how much we were buying, but my hopes were dashed as Mr. Stein inched closer again. “This isn’t reasonable.”
What wasn’t reasonable?
“He’s not your child.”
Duh.
I now had to ignore the cashier giggling as well as Emeric, but that was better than the alternative. “I think it’s wonderful how communities come together to bond.”
When he just blinked at me, I smiled wider. “You’re always watching over your nephews and I think that’s admirable.”
Oh, I’d stumped him.
That was much more fun than chasing him away from my desk.
“They’re family.” It seemed to be the best the nosy man could do, but I got a reprieve when I had to move the cart forward so the cashier could use it as well. My 3D puzzle-inspired stacking job couldn’t be easily copied based on the way she was frowning at the growing pile.
“Sorry.” There wasn’t anything I could do about it, though. “Saying this was a big shopping trip would be an understatement.”
She nodded without saying how insane the situation was, but Emeric snickered again. “There’s no food in the pantry at all.”
“Nothing reasonable at the very least, but we’re fixing it.” Slowly. “We did a good job on this trip, though.”
It was just going to take several more to handle the problem completely.
“How did you let your pantry get this low?” Mr. Stein just couldn’t help himself. “It’s not a good example for kids.”
