Page 70 of Second Chances

“That’s perfect,” Olivia said when he showed it to her.

“I purchased a few packs of film for her too.” He showed her the handful of extra film he’d grabbed.

Olivia laughed. “A few? You have a dozen.”

He shrugged. “I don’t want you to have to come back here anytime soon.”

“I can probably order them online,” she suggested.

“True, but this way you don’t have to for a while.”

“She’s going to love it.” Olivia smiled as she set a box of cookie cutters in the shape of her favorite characters in the cart. “I was going to make sugar cookies and have all of her friends decorate them during the party.”

“Great idea. I guess I never asked you how many kids were actually coming to the party.”

Olivia took a deep breath. “Twenty. So far.”

“Twenty?” he exclaimed. How are we going to keep track of them all?”

She laughed. “Luckily, their parents are all going to be there too. Sarah has arranged access for the adults, so we won’t be bombarded with other people’s kids.”

“Not that I couldn’t handle a few. I mean, watching Kayla and Rowan’s kids with Simona was nice.” He pulled her close to him in the middle of the aisle. “Made me realize that three kids, two girls and one boy, is the perfect dynamics for a family,” he said easily.

She was quiet for a while. “You… want three kids?”

“Sure,” he said as he started walking down the toy aisle again. “Don’t you want more?”

She caught up with him, and he could tell she was unsure of what to say. “I… suppose. I mean, sure.” She shrugged casually.

He turned down the boy aisle and smiled at all the trucks and building blocks. “You know, girls like playing with these things too.”

“Sure, they do. I don’t really think the stores have caught on though,” Olivia joked.

“They make pink guns and power tools; you’d think they could easily make pink GI Joes,” he suggested.

“They do. It’s called GI Jane.” She motioned to the action figures.

“Yeah, but… It’s not the same.” He leaned closer to her. “Unless you buy both. Then…” He wiggled his eyebrows, and she laughed.

They stopped in town for burgers for lunch and then went back to her place. She wrapped up the gifts while he replaced her front door handle and installed her new doorbell camera system.

“You know, you two could come stay at my place tonight?” he offered when she was about to leave to go pick up Simona from Crystal’s place.

“Thank you, but I think we’re okay.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “We wouldn’t say no to you staying here though.”

“I’ll head home and grab everything we need for our trip tomorrow.” He smiled. “I’m really looking forward to sailing again. It’s been years since I’ve been out on the water.”

“Adam’s boat is amazing. Not to mention there is always some amazing food to go along with it. He usually catches lunch, then grills it up right there,” Olivia said. “Oh, and grand-mère Sonya will be there. I hear she’s been looking forward to seeing how your French has progressed.”

He chuckled and in fluent French, said. “I’ll have to impress her with it then.”

Olivia shrugged. “You have me beat.”

“Since there will be four kids, we decided on turkey sandwiches. But Adam was going to make a couple sides to go with it all. There was mention of salad noodles of some kind.” He tried to remember what Adam had called it.

“Asian noodle salad?” Olivia smiled. “Yum.”

“I’ll trust you.” He smiled. “Go get our girl. I’ll go home and grab what we need.” Bending, he kissed her. “Be back soon.”