Page 6 of Jaxson

“You do?” He didn’t actually answer her.

She laughed. “As it happens, yes, I do actually love to shop. Especially for food.”

He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t share the same excitement.” He looked into her cart. “Are you having a party?”

“What? No, no, absolutely not. I tend to buy in bulk, and I actually prepare meals in advance.”

“In advance?”

“It makes life really easy, especially during heat waves, when I don’t want to do a lot of cooking. I can just pull out a prepared meal, put it in the oven, or take it out onto the grill, and I’m done.”

“Do you want to show me?” he asked.

She was a little taken aback, but she didn’t see why not. “Of course, I can show you this afternoon if you would like.”

“If I fill my cart with the right ingredients, I could come over?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course. I would love that. It was what my mother taught me, and I’d be happy to help you save money and get a home-cooked meal out of it.” She wanted to tell herself to shut up, because she was starting to sound like an advertisement. She just couldn’t seem to stop herself with Jaxson.

He made her all tongue-tied, and she didn’t seem to have any control. She had never been this way around anyone.

They made their way to the meat and poultry section, and he filled his cart with the same deals.

At home, she had her herbs and spices, and she was happy to work with him, to feed himself for a couple of weeks, if not a few months.

They made their way around the aisles, and when she got to the baking one, she grabbed some chocolate chips, but advised he didn’t need to, as she was making herself a cake. She was not going to eat it all in one go either, she was going to make one, cut it up, and freeze it for when she craved some chocolate cake. This was how she didn’t throw things away. She didn’t have to do the math to make a tiny cake. She could make the giant cake and either share with her neighbors, who were always thankful, or freeze it.

Once they were done, they were heading out into the sunshine, and the moment she looked across the parking lot, she saw a man near her car, and Belle barking. She had left both windows down, and in Higher Ridge, she didn’t have to worry about people hurting Belle, but she didn’t like how close he was to her car. Panic set in, and she pushed her cart across the parking lot and got to her car, only to see it was Mitch, the doctor she had once worked for.

“Doctor Anderson,” she said, as she caught her breath.

“Hi, Tillie. I don’t think your dog likes me too much.”

He was close to the car, not quite touching it, but Belle wouldn’t stop barking. “Yeah, she’s not always a people person.”

At that moment, Jaxson joined them. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I was ... uh, I was worried because I didn’t know who it was next to my car, and I know Belle is not exactly a people person, and it was just Doctor Anderson.”

“It’s Mitch, Tillie,” he said. “We’re out of the office.”

“I thought a doctor was never off duty,” Jaxson said.

“We’re not, but Tillie doesn’t have to be quite so formal.”

Tillie looked between Jaxson and Mitch, and they did not seem to have any real love between them. She didn’t know exactly what to say to either of them. Instead, she opened the trunk of her car and started to load her groceries inside.

It was then she noticed Jaxson had parked on her other side.

“Well, it was good to see you, Tillie. It would be great to catch up with you sometime,” Mitch said.

“Yes, lovely to see you too, but I better hurry and get this loaded in. Belle’s making such a fuss.”

She didn’t like how Belle acted around Mitch, and she knew her dog’s bark had a tendency to irritate some people, although she found Belle’s bark absolutely adorable. The truth was, she loved everything about her dog. Even when they had to go for long walks in the snow, in fact, she especially loved her then.

Mitch nodded at both of them and walked away.

She was already loading up the car.