Shopping

“I don’t understand it.” Jordan stood with his hands on his hips and stared off into the distance. Just moments before I had released my ‘favourite’ bowling ball of the day, a cloudy black ball that just ‘felt right’ when I used it, and watched it rolled confidently down the lane, knocking over every single pin that stood in its way.

“It’s just luck,” he tried to blow my victory off as nothing.

“Luck?” I snorted as I turned around to face him. “I got lucky six times in a row?”

“Yeah,” he crinkled his nose as he glared at the pins that just reset at the end of the lane. “The air came on or –“

“Jordy!” I went to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. Looking up adoringly at him, I squeezed him tight. “The air didn’t come on nor did anything else happen that wasn’t going on when you were up.”

“Come on Anna, six in a row? Tell me that’s not lucky.”

“Could be luck,” I agreed. “Or it could be the time I’ve spent playing Wii Play Bowling with Natalie – I rock that game!”

“Ohhh,” he chuckled, his arms slipping around my waist. “I see; you’ve been practising.”

I tilted my head back and grinned. “Yeah well you could –”

“I love you,” he blurted out.

I actually stumbled over what I was in the middle of saying when it clued in what he said to me. As if it was the first time he said those words to me, I felt this warmth start in my chest and spread outwards. “I love you too.”
I was still smiling like a young girl in love a half hour later as we strolled through the mall, hand in hand. At every couple store windows, Jordan would stop and point to something but we didn’t go into any of the stores until we came to Kidz Threadz.

“That dress is pretty,” he said as he pulled me towards the entrance. “Do you think it’s pretty enough for a Christmas dress for Jenna? I want her to look her best when -” He stopped and cursed. “I almost forgot that I wanted to buy a camcorder, the one I have finally crapped out a couple weeks ago.”

We walked into the store and he immediately headed towards the dress in the window. The dress in question was a rich scarlet red silk dress with little pink flowers under the bust and the same shade of pink used as a neck line and cuffs. It was a pretty little dress but once he was up close to it, he screwed up his nose. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s cute,” I told him. “But maybe you should see what else they have in stock and maybe check out other stores before buying it if you aren’t 100% sure that you like it Jordy.”

“Yeah but Babe, what do you think?”

“I told you, it’s cute.”

He looked at me. “But?”

“But…” I shrugged. “You didn’t look too impressed with it so I think you should check around before you buy so that you are happy with the dress when you get it home and put it on your pretty little girl.”

Slowly, we made our way through the store. As we went Jordan stopped to look at all the girl clothing as well as the baby boy clothes. He picked up a couple cute outfits for Jenna and Bradley. “Amy will tell me I didn’t have too but he’s my nephew and Godson, I have double the right to spoil him rotten.”

“Mmmhmm,” I nodded absently as I checked out a cute little baby blue dress.

“It’s pretty.” He reached around me and fingered the soft material. “For Jenna?”

Smiling, I glanced at him over my shoulder and felt a familiar tug in my chest.

After we showered that morning, he stood in front of the mirror, staring at himself while rubbing his hand over his jaw. “I should probably shave.” It only took me telling him that he looked super hot all scruffy for him to forget about that idea.

“Yes, it is. I thought this would be a good time to think about buying Christmas presents for those on my list this year. It’s just over a month until the day, you know.”

“I know but I was thinking that instead of worrying about that on this trip, we could come back in a month and then work on our list.”

I started to tell him that it sounded like a plan when he asked me if I was doing the Christmas shopping trip with the girls again this year. “Yeah, they had a blast when we did it last year and they’ve already been hinting that they wanted to do it again.” I told him that he should come with us.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “That’s their time with you, I wouldn’t want to get in the way. And besides, how can you all buy me the coolest gift if I’m hanging over your shoulder?”

I laughed, “Good point!”

On that note, we moved away from the rack, with the dress I picked out and wandered to the back of the store. Jordan didn’t find the dress he was looking for in that store. It would take a half hour more and a couple stores later before he exclaimed, “I found it!”

“You did?” I quickly dropped the clothing I was looking at and hurried to his side. “Oh my! That’s it. Jenna will look so adorable in that.”

That was a long sleeved teal velvet dress with beading in the shape of flowers on the bodice and around the bottom of the skirt with a lighter green ribbon just under the bodice. Under the green velvet there was a layer of silver satin that just added to the beauty of the dress.

“I’m getting it,” he told me as he spun around and damn near ran to the cashier.

With one item scratched off his list we headed towards an electronics store. Once we found a camcorder he liked, we strolled through the mall, hand in hand, as we headed towards the exit.

Just as I was putting our shopping bags into the back seat of his truck, my cell phone, which was in Jordan’s pocket, rang.

“Want me to get it?”

“Sure,” I shrugged. “It’s probably just Zack calling to see how things are going.”

On the third ring, Jordan flipped the phone open and said hello. Two seconds later my phone was shoved in front of my face and Jordan walked around the front of his truck muttering something under his breath.
I frowned as I watched him climb up into the driver’s seat. “Hello?”

“Where are you?”

It took me a moment but I finally recognized the voice. “Josh?”