Page 34 of The I Do Over

“We filled up on pancakes and then weren’t hungry for all the stuff we brought with us,” she explained. “So I’ll make you a deal.”

He was instantly beside her. “I’m listening.”

“I’ll make the pancakes…”

“Yes!”

“But…you have to let me pack out food for fishing. We don’t need to bring nearly as much as we did last time.”

“Yeah, but…what if I want some of the trail mix and grapes, along with some sort of meat and cheese? I mean…this is a lot of stuff to pack in the cooler. We’d need like a dozen containers. It’s just not practical.”

He had a point, but she was fairly crafty and kind of the queen or packing and organizing, so…

Inspiration hit and, with a soft gasp, she faced him. “Where are those clear bins we bought the other day? The rectangular ones that we were going to use to organize our tackles and lures?”

“They’re probably still in the bag in the mudroom. Why?”

She was on a roll and quickly went and found the bag and brought it back to the kitchen and pulled the containers out. They were perfect for what she was thinking. And after washing them with hot, soapy water and drying them, she went to work.

“Um…Mads? What are you doing? Those aren’t for…”

“Shh! Just give me a minute,” she murmured as she moved some of the dividers around and placed some of the food in the spots just to give him an example. With a little more time, she’d fit more in them, but for now, she liked how it was all coming together. “Ta-da!”

Knox came and stood beside her. “What exactly am I looking at? Why did you put food in the tackle box? Now there’s no place for our stuff.”

She gave him a sour look. “Obviously we didn’t need them for the other things and they were just going unused. Now we can each customize a tray and bring it with us to snack on while we fish! Pretty cute, right?”

“Um…”

Why wasn’t he getting how awesome this was? It was the perfect solution. It was…

“It’s a snackle box,” she said confidently.

“It’s a what?”

“Snackle box.” Pausing, she grinned. “Snack in a tackle box. Snackle box.”

He looked at her like she was crazy, but then a slow smile crossed his face. “Holy shit.”

“What?”

“You used to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Make up words to get your way,” he said, moving in close. When his hands gently grasped her waist, he squeezed. “I had totally forgotten about that, but between bancaked and snackle box, it all came back to me.”

She felt herself blushing. “It’s not a bad thing, right?”

“It’s cute as hell, Maddie. I used to get such a kick out of that. You used to come up with some of the craziest words, but I think you’ve gotten better at it.”

“Well, I’ve had a lot of years to practice,” she replied with a small laugh. “So? Will these work?”

Nodding, he leaned in and kissed her. “Yeah. These will be great.”

She almost sagged with relief.

“You’re going to make pancakes now, right?”

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