Somewhere in the Middle

Two for Two

"We need these," Lucas announced, holding up a huge barrel of cheeseballs.

Evie stared at it for only a moment.

"Do we?" she asked doubtfully.

"I do," Lucas said with a shrug, putting them in the cart and getting completely sidetracked by the wide array of cookies Walmart offered.

"Where are we even going to put these?" Evie asked, completely amused as she followed Lucas with the cart. "They're not going to fit in any of the cabinets."

"I'm not opposed to keeping them in my bunk," Lucas said, tossing a package of chocolate chip cookies in beside the cheeseballs.

Evie had to laugh, pushing the cart after him as he walked further down the aisle. "When I said we needed to stock up, I was thinking more along the lines of, you know, fruit? Vegetables?" At Lucas' blank stare, she clarified, "The green stuff that's good for you?"

Lucas looked thoughtful. "Nope. That's not ringing any bells." He tossed a large bag of chips into the cart and glanced around at the rest of the snacks.

Evie giggled. "It's like I'm with a four year old."

"I resent that," Lucas said, tossing a package of Hostess donuts into the cart.

"Okay, seriously?" Evie reached in and held up the cookies and donuts. "Pick one."

Lucas looked between the two with wide eyes. "Don't make me do this."

Evie smiled, and couldn't help but think he looked adorable when he was stressed. "You don't need two sweets."

"That's what you think." Lucas grabbed the cookies. "But Greg's gonna demolish these. I might only get a couple, so I need a backup."

He gently removed the donuts from her other hand, watching her like she might attack, before setting both back down in the cart.

Evie shook her head, trying to suppress laughter, and hiked her bag further up onto her shoulder. "Fine. But when you feel like crap after eating all this sugar, don't come to me."

Lucas laughed. "You're the first person I'm going to."

Evie tried really hard not to blush when he squeezed the top of her arm, a move that was both innocent and, she was sure, strategic. "Well, you won't find any sympathy."

She did her best to guide the cart to the real food aisles, and Lucas kept stride with her for the most part, chattering about how it was always difficult to keep food on the bus. With all those men living out of it, everything went a lot quicker than it should've.

"It's a good thing you like mostly healthy stuff," he said, picking up a bundle of bananas and putting them in the cart. "No one reaches for it."

"They should," Evie said, smiling at him, only half wondering why he was sticking so close to her when everyone else had disappeared into the depths of the store. She was pretty sure she knew, though, and had been actively trying not to think about it since they'd walked in.

"Yeah," Lucas said half-heartedly, picking up a package of green grapes. "But come on... where's the fun in eating grapes?"

Evie eyed the bag for a moment before grabbing them and putting them in the cart. "You can throw them at each other?"

His eyes lit up. "True! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Cause you're too busy trying to avoid eating them," Evie said, grinning at him.

Lucas smiled, and was quiet for a minute, but kept up with Evie as she headed toward the vegetables, looking for baby carrots. "You know what I think?" he said then.