Page 40 of Blame It On the Lattes

“I’m supposed to go shopping with her this weekend at the Frosty Fest. I’m hoping we have a chance to talk before then because I don’t want it to ruin the day. Do you want to come with us?”

“I wish I could, but I’ll be running the Sugarplum Lattes booth there. But I’m glad you guys are going. It’s really fun, and Kennedy will love the reindeer. They always have them in a pen after the parade so the kids can go feed them. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there too, so you can take Kennedy to see them.”

She nodded, but I could still see the wheels in her mind going a mile a minute. I took the opportunity while she was distracted and started putting most of the stuff she’d picked for Cassidy back.

“What else did you want to look for in here?” I asked, taking over steering the shopping cart.

“Cassidy sent me a list with a few things she said Kennedy wanted. I guess she’s been making notes of the stuff Kennedy sees on TV and wants, which is better than anything I’ve got. She finished her shopping, so she said these items were good to buy.”

“Can I see the list?” I asked, pulling to the side of the aisle so we were out of the way.

“Sure.” She handed her phone to me, and I cringed when I saw the list.

“What?” she demanded, her shoulders slumping and disappointment heavy in her voice. “You already bought these for her, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged and offered her a smile, hoping she still found it somewhat cute.

“I am never going to get my shopping for her done,” she groaned, closing her eyes.

“I’m so sorry. I honestly didn’t even think about it. I just noticed she seemed so excited when she saw them, so I had to grab them.”

“It’s okay.” She sighed heavily and looked into the shopping cart that was now almost empty. “Maybe I should just give up for tonight and try again this weekend. This isn’t going quite as I had hoped.”

“That’s not a terrible idea,” I said, keeping my tone gentle. “Maybe tomorrow night we can sit down and help her write her list to Santa. Unless she’s already done that?”

“Oh my God,” Avery groaned, putting her hand to her head. “I completely forgot about the damn list until now. I’m a terrible mother.”

“You’re not a terrible mother. You’re an overwhelmed human who has a lot on her plate right now. But we can handle this, okay? Let’s go pay for what we have, and then we’ll work on getting a list out of her tomorrow. We can go from there, and I can even send you to run errands while I watch Kennedy so you can sneak out and buy stuff.”

She took a deep breath in and slowly released it.

“Okay. We can make that work.”

I smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as we walked to the front registers to pay for what we had.

“You’re really good at this,” she commented vaguely.

“Shopping?”

“No. Parenting. You’re going to make a wonderful husband and father someday.”

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