Joel turns to me. “What do you say, Rose? Want the company?”
“It’s going to be boring. Ben hates grocery shopping, and I’m not exactly fond of it either.”
Joel nods. “We can keep each other company through the hell that is grocery shopping.”
“It’s notthatbad,” I say with a reluctant smile.
Grinning, he wraps his arm around my shoulders and steers me toward Ben. “See, I’m already helping you overcome this terrible fate.”
I laugh. “Okay. If you want to come, that would be great.”
We say goodbye to all the firefighters and gather Ben’s stickers. This takes a while because Ben hugs everyone goodbye, including Noah, who emerges from his office and drops into a crouch to receive Ben’s goodbye hug, and there are an awful lot of stickers. Then we head out to our cars for the short drive to the grocery store, just a few minutes away.
Chapter 16
Rose
“How about that?” Joel points at a bag of barbecue-flavor chips.
We have two bags of chips in our shopping cart, which is one more than I intended to grab when I wandered down this aisle. The Rios Grocery Store isn’t massive, at least not like the huge Walmart we had in Weldon, but its shelves are packed, and I’ve been able to find everything I need.
I shake my head. “You’re worse than Ben.”
I forgot how much easier grocery shopping is when I don’t have to keep half my attention on Ben while also trying to read a shopping list I made on my cell phone after I went through the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer this morning to see what we were running low on.
Ben, perched on Joel’s shoulders, gives me puppy-dog eyes. When Joel does the same, I let out a defeated sigh. “Put it in the cart.”
I’m a strong woman, at least when it comes to resisting puppy-dog eyes, but that’s too much cuteness to say no to, especially with the story of Joel’s rescue of Waffles the hamster fresh in my memory.
He tosses the bag into the cart and gives Ben a triumphant fist bump. “How about we grab a box of popsicles to eat in the backyard when we get home? My treat.”
Ben’s pleading gaze implores me to say yes, and yet again I relent with a sigh. “That sounds great, thanks.” But I add, “And I am never taking both of you grocery shopping at the same time again. We’d leave with a cart full of snacks and not one green thing.”
As we work our way around the store, tossing products into the shopping cart, Joel chats with Ben, and I can focus on the list I made. We’re in and out of the store in under thirty minutes, a literal record.
Since Joel drove to work this morning, we load the groceries into the trunk of my car. Not that I manage to lift one bag before Joel takes over, and we drive back to the house separately.
Joel beats us to the house by seconds and climbs out of his car while I’m parking up in the driveway beside him.
He leans against my open window. “Why don’t you get Ben out of his car seat and into the house while I unload the groceries?”
“Would I be wasting my time offering to unload as well?” I ask, already suspecting I know the answer.
He straightens. “Without a doubt.”
I open the trunk for Joel, then get Ben and his bag of stickers and sticker book into the house. In the kitchen, Ben asks for a popsicle while Joel carries in four bags of groceries. After a quick search, I find the popsicles, unwrap one, and hand it to Ben.
“Eat it slowly,” I say.
“Okay, Mommy. Can I go in the backyard?”
He’s still wearing his yellow plastic firefighter helmet, and I will have to pry it off his head before his bath later, so I don’t ask him to take it off. He was proudly showing it off to Sara, thegrocery store owner, so I’ll leave that battle for when he’s tired out.
There’s not much that can hurt him in the fenced-in backyard, so I nod. “And no running up and down the porch stairs.”
“Can I sit on the bottom step?”
“Yes, you can.”
