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 ITOSS TWENTY-FIVEpound bags of flour into the cart. It’s nothing compared to lugging around bay bales for the cattle.
 
 Maggie hauls a bag off the shelf.
 
 “I got it.” I try to take it from her.
 
 “So do I.” She heaves it into the cart, and then sends me an I-told-you-so look.
 
 It’s sexy as hell.
 
 This strong independent woman gives me all the feels.
 
 I hold up my hands. “Alright, then.”
 
 We finish loading the flour. The cart squeaks as I push it. We turn down the spice aisle.
 
 “How late do you anticipate we’ll be baking today?”
 
 “Well past midnight. Then back up at the crack of dawn for another full day. If your grandfather is anything like Grams, it’s early to bed and early to rise.”
 
 “He is. And I anticipate he’ll want to get up earlier to beat Betty.” I’ve never seen my granddad so competitive.
 
 “I’m sure she’ll be up earlier than usual to try and beat Fred.”
 
 We both laugh.
 
 Maggie shakes a bottle of sprinkles. “We should coat all the cookies in sprinkles. Grams would be madder than a wet hen.”
 
 “Would she now?”
 
 “She believes colorful icing is all you need for decorating.”
 
 “In that case.” I toss bottles of sprinkles in the cart.
 
 “No.” Maggie laughs and pulls them back out. She places them neatly in a row on the shelf. “We can’t.”
 
 I lean my arms on the cart handle. “What if we didn’t bake their cookies?”
 
 “What do you mean?” She fixes the last bottle of sprinkles.
 
 “We’ve already spent the day baking their cookies. And their petty fighting destroyed them. I say we bake Dreamy Monster Cookiextreme’s.”
 
 Her luscious lips part. More than likely to object. But no words come out. She’s weighing the pros and cons.
 
 “I saw a glimmer in your eyes when you mixed your batch today.”
 
 She peers intently at me. “A glimmer of what?”
 
 “Excitement and peace. At the same time. Like you were in your element, doing what you’re made to do.”
 
 Her face relaxes. “You saw all that from watching me bake?”
 
 “I did.”
 
 “And you call me the peeping Tom.”
 
 Ilaugh. “Why don’t we share your cookies with the world?”