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When he reached the front of the line, the wo orders smiled at him

“I heard you have toys for the toy drive,” she said “That’s great We’re hoping to fill two trucks this year”

Word traveled fast, he thought “The toys aren’t ready,” he said “They need to be painted”

“That’s okay You have a couple of weeks Or you can ask for help We’re always happy to step in”

“Thanks” He placed his order, then went to wait

He shouldn’t be surprised that soht already knew about his offer He would guess the sharing had nothing to do with hi two trucks with toys

He’d ht Maybe the toasn’t what he was used to but he liked it He felt comfortable For a second he allowed himself to believe he could have it all A wife and a few kids A normal family Not that it was really possible He’d seen what the attention did to those outside of the business How it ripped families apart Why would he do that to someone he claimed to love?

But as he took his coffee and headed for Paper Moon, he savored the possibilities The what-ifs And unexpectedly, the woman he pictured wasn’t his usual faceless stand-in It was a pretty blonde with an easy laugh One who had bluntly told his, she had no idea what she was doing

He found Madeline wielding an industrial-size clothing stearinned

“Thanks for rescuing me Rosalind had a sudden rush of shoppers Wednesday afternoon That generally ends rinkled samples They have to be fluffed back to perfection for the next custoht side, I’ood for my skin”

He liked the combination of practicality and optimism She was, he had to admit, a temptation Were they on a movie set, with a predeteroing anywhere, he would behis move But they weren’t And Madeline was a forever kind of woman She deserved a man who understood that A man who could believe in forever

She led the way to her office “What’s up?”

“I spent a little ti favors” He pulled a couple of sheets of paper out of his jacket pocket

“I’ favors are,” she admitted

“I’ve been reading up” He shrugged out of his jacket, then pointed to the papers “There’s a company that makes custom cookies They coer and Oliver can have their initials on the cookies or have the cake”