Page 50 of The I Do Over

“You are the kind of person who seriously needs to shop with a list. You’re super organized in everything else that you do, but when it comes to food—or at least the farmers market—there is no rhyme or reason to your purchases.”

With a shrug, she told him, “What can I say? When it comes to food, I go with the flow and lead with my heart.”

He laughed softly. “So your heart told you to buy avocados and brie?”

Another shrug. “Guacamole one day and then a yummy addition to a sandwich the next. I’m not seeing a problem with that.”

“You know, you made fun of me for all the food I bought when you were in Raleigh and yet you do the same thing. I’m just sayin’…”

She groaned again. “Oh my goodness…are you going to keep going with this?”

“With what? Pointing out facts? Telling the truth?” he teased because it was kind of fun to get her all riled up.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she huffed. “I just want to stop at one more booth and get some bread. I’m thinking of making chicken salad for lunch with bacon, and this guy has the best bread I’ve ever had in my life.”

“You’ve said that about every booth we’ve gone to. They have the best this or the best that…”

“Are you always this crabby when shopping? Are you hangry?”

That made him stop in his tracks. “Am I what?”

“Hangry? You know, angry because you’re hungry.”

“I can assure you that I am neither hungry nor angry. We’ve been eating the whole time we’ve been here.”

“Pfft…little bites here and there. They don’t count.” She was about to say more when her phone rang. Taking her hand from his, she reached into her purse so she could answer it. “Hello?”

Knox knew immediately that something was wrong because she took several steps away from him and talked so softly that he couldn’t hear her. He wondered if it had something to do with one of her patients and if it was normal for them to call her on a Sunday morning. Then he wondered if maybe she had an on-call service that screened these things for her so that she wouldn’t have to be bothered on her day off.

But that’s when he realized it was something else he had learned about her—she loved her job and her patients, so he greatly doubted she’d see a call on her day off as an inconvenience.

Then I guess it’s just me…

And yeah, he wasn’t proud of it because right now he was a little selfish with their time. They already didn’t have a lot of it to spend together, so while they did have the chance to be in the same place at the same time, he resented any interruptions.

Even the ones that were going to come in the form of his friends next weekend, if Maddie agreed to it.

Something to talk about over lunch, he supposed.

But when he watched her slip her phone back into her purse and hang her head, it confirmed that something wasn’t right. Walking over, he stood beside her. “Hey,” he said softly. “What’s going on?”

There were tears in her eyes when she looked up at him and quickly wiped them away. “That was, um…that was the memory care nurse who takes care of my mom,” she began. “Mom’s having a bad day. She’s very agitated and arguing about everything poor Nora is trying to do with her.” Pausing, she sighed, her expression defeated. “I really need to go and help her out. I’m sorry.”

His initial reaction was to be annoyed because he certainly didn’t have great feelings toward her parents, but considering her mother’s condition, he really couldn’t hold on to that feeling.

But that didn’t mean he had any good feelings toward the woman either.

If it were her father, though, Knox knew he’d have no problem expressing his displeasure.

“It’s okay, Maddie. You need to be there with her. I get it.”

Her shoulders sagged. “We didn’t even get to have lunch.” She looked around as if trying to figure out where they were. “Obviously we need to go back to the house so I can get my car, but feel free to stay and eat and hang out until you’re ready to go.” Then she paused again. “Unless…”

“Unless…?”

“You maybe want to take the ride with me? It’s a little over an hour and I’ll probably stay for the afternoon, but then we can come home and have dinner before you have to head back to Raleigh. What do you think?”

That I’d rather have a root canal with no anesthesia…

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