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He forgot—his exact words

Lucky for him, I covered for him and told her that his swim meet ran late It was risky Mrs Parks could’ve easily h school pool to see if the team was still there, but she didn’t question it Instead, she was just thrilled to have the boxes filled with the Angel Tree gifts all accounted for, wrapped, and with my help, piled inside of her car I updated her on the adopted faed and ready to go All we needed was to shop for groceries, divvy the

But as I waited for him that afternoon at the Sweet Water Market, ito show

Sick of waiting, I sent hiit like I had ent shopping together for the gifts, I hated every single solitary minute I had to somehow

navigate two carts, then park therab a third By the time I was done, I was exhausted and made a point to call Ethan to ensure Carson wasn’t ho I wanted was to see him at the moment I didn’t want a confrontation and couldn’t truststupid

When I pulled into the driveway, Ethan was already waiting forinto the house, which we divided a the boxes Luckily, Mrs Brooks had erator for the cold items like the deli trays and Christmas hams

The entire ti worried looks nore

“This is ridiculous He should be here,” Ethan said

“No kidding” It was all I could think of to say

He shook his head “It doesn’t make sense He helped you this whole ti to hi, too She asked him if he was supposed to help you today and he said you didn’t need his help That you’d handled it Handled it, my a—”

“It’s fine” I snapped, then sighed “I’m sorry I just don’t want to talk about it, okay? You’re here now, and I’ht to help deliver We’re supposed to use his Jeep”

“But I thought you tere getting along? What happened?”

“Your guess is as good as ritted teeth

When we placed the final bag in the freezer, Ethan turned to ht, but you and I can catch lunch if you want?”

I shook my head and tried for a so ho, then I’ll be back”