Page 36 of Magic and Mayhem

No more salads would be the best part of having a Daddy.

“Can I have broccoli with cheese? You won’t burn that, right?” When Daddy looked confused, I shrugged. “It’s temperamental.”

Smiling, Daddy nodded and gave me another kiss before he put the chicken in the cart. “Yes, I can make cheesy broccoli without burning it. What other vegetables do you like?”

“Carrots and bell peppers and zucchini but you can’t eat that without cooking it or it tastes weird.” So I hadn’t eaten it in a while.

Daddy must’ve realized that because he chuckled. “Alright, let’s detour around to the veggies so we don’t forget your strawberries and zucchini, and then we’ll be all done. How does that sound?”

Perfect.

I’d picked out lots of fun things for desserts and we had lots of meat and stuff that Daddy said he knew how to cook.

He was even going to make me lasagna.

Yep, definitely keeping Daddy.

“You have very good plans, Daddy.” He was smart and nice and ignored the nosy people. “Thank you for feeding me. My mother said I was going to have to learn to do it on my own because no one would do it for me, but I’m glad she was wrong.”

“I’m going to tell her you said that.”

Ugh, some people were so annoying…and we weren’t supposed to yell in the store, everyone knew that.

“If you do, I’ll tell her you were eavesdropping and hollering across the grocery store just to embarrass her baby.” Daddy was so smart and thought very fast.

Almost everyone in the store was saying the same thing too, but my nosy cousin just laughed.

“Thank you, Daddy.” Kissing his cheek, I thought about how I was going to say thank you very sweetly later. “It’s not nice to tattle.”

“It really isn’t.” Daddy gave me a quick peck and barely glared at the woman on the other side of the produce section who giggled. “I understand why she was worried, but you found your Daddy, so there’s nothing for her to worry about any longer.”

And if she was wrong, we didn’t need to point that out because she’d figure it out on her own.

“Because you’re going to take care of me.” That deserved another cheek kiss and it made him grin, which made it even better.

“And you’re going to keep me?” Daddy laughed when I nodded. “See, we’ve got a good plan.”

We really did.

“And we don’t need help or an audience.” Daddy raised his voice and glared as a few heads peeked around the salad dressing aisle to get a better view of us.

Looking like he wanted to sigh, Daddy turned back to me and smiled. “Help me remember I don’t care about supporting the local economy next time I say something stupid like that.”

Daddy shook his head as giggles came from somewhere near the baking section. “Next time we’re going to the Walmart. I don’t care if it’s further away.”

He was probably right.

“I’ll help you remember.” I wasn’t sure his patience could take doing this every week without it affecting how much chocolate and goodies he let me buy.

And that would be tragic.

****

“I don’t usually come home with this much food.” I couldn’t decide if it was scary or amazing. “There’s lots to cook.”

Daddy chuckled as he put the beef and the chicken into the fridge.

I hadboth…and they weren’t already precooked.

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