Page 42 of Sugarplum Dreams
His lips turned up in a smile as their eyes met. “Let’s give them some time.”
She nodded and looked happy that he suggested it, and he was glad he didn’t insist. He would really like for them to call him Dad, it seemed a lot more casual than Mr. Wilson, but at the same time, they had a dad, and he hadn’t been gone long. And Wilson didn’t want to push in where he wasn’t welcome or make the kids resent him. Maybe, the kids were an awful lot like Charity. They could just use a little bit of time.
Chapter Eighteen
“I’d like for you to go and get groceries this afternoon while the kids are sleeping,” Wilson said to Charity three days later after they spent the morning moving things from her house to his.
The next day, they were moving all of the kids’ beds and they would start staying at his place, even though there were still a few odds and ends to move out.
There were things that weren’t going to fit in his house, and she would either have to put them in storage or, more likely, sell them. Or just let them go with the house.
She hadn’t decided which. She didn’t want to pay for storage, couldn’t afford it, and while she wasn’t attached to very many things, there was an end table that had been her grandmother’s that she would like to keep.
“Okay,” she said, focusing on what he had just told her. He’d like groceries.
She didn’t have much money and had been waiting until someone had paid her for the holiday pies that she had made before she went. Honestly, she hadn’t even considered that it would be more expensive to be eating with a man in the house.He liked to have meat with every meal, and she was used to getting by with cheap, inexpensive foods or mostly carbs and vegetables.
She tried to hide the growing panic in her chest, the way she felt when she was going to throw up, and didn’t even notice that he had his wallet out until he waved it in front of her face.
“Take this. You can use any of the cards that are in there, and there is also cash. I’ll text you the pin, I know this is terrible, but it’s the same for every card.”
He had multiple cards? And cash? Enough to buy groceries? Did he know how expensive groceries were?
He was used to only buying groceries for one person, though that one person ate more than her five kids put together.
She tried to shut that voice off in her head and just focus on taking things one thing at a time. There was no point getting upset and worried about it.
She took the wallet from him, her fingers brushing his, and she tried not to jerk back.
He didn’t want her touching him, and he didn’t have the same reaction she did, and she needed to be okay with that as well.
It all felt overwhelming, but she forced herself to give an easy smile and say, “Thank you. Is there anything in particular you would like?” There, she sounded completely normal, even kind and friendly.
“I eat whatever. I’m not picky. You get what you are comfortable making for the kids, and you know I’ll eat along with you.” He grinned, and she returned his smile. But his words didn’t help her. She wanted to make things that he liked. She wanted to get the groceries that he wanted. Of course she knew what she would make for the kids, but she wanted to be considerate. It was kind of hard to do that though when the man wouldn’t give her a hint of what that would be.
“You go on. I can put the kids down for their nap.”
“All right. I’ll text you when I’m leaving the store, and that way, you’ll be around to help carry the stuff in.”
“Sounds good,” he said, but he didn’t turn away. “I kind of wish I could go with you,” he said. Then he shook his head. “That’s weird, because I’ve always hated grocery shopping.”
“I don’t particularly like it either. I mean, I could spend all day in a candle shop, or clothing store, even a department store, but groceries? No, thank you.”
“Well, I guess there are shops I could spend all day in, but they wouldn’t have candles or clothes, except for maybe coveralls and work boots.”
She laughed. She wouldn’t mind going to that kind of store with him, just to see him interact with the things that he liked.
That was crazy. She was acting like a silly schoolgirl, who couldn’t get enough of her current crush.
Except, she was much older than a schoolgirl, and she didn’t have time for crushes. Not even if the object of her crush was her husband.
She walked out the door, feeling strangely tingly. Somehow, every interaction with him gave her a silly smile and made her heart feel warm and happy.
She wished it were the same for him and wondered for the millionth time if there was anything that she could do to get the man to fall in love with her, but she knew there really wasn’t. People either felt that way about someone or they didn’t. And those feelings were fleeting, she knew that, but…she wanted him to look at her like she was the only woman in the world.
She had gotten into her car before she came up with a brilliant idea if she did say so herself. Dialing Wilson’s mother’s number, she held her breath until the woman answered.
“Hello?”
