William waved the bread and can of beans at him, before placing them in the cart. "What's next?"

Thaddeus crossed off another two lines from his grocery list, then slipped the notebook and pen back into his pocket. "I need to grab some stuff from the frozen section. Do you need anything else?"

Need wasn't the right word. William could live his whole life without ever eating another pint of s'mores ice cream, but something told him it'd end up in the cart before they left.

He shrugged. "If I see something, I'll grab it."

The cereal aisle was on his left and pet foods on his right when Thaddeus pulled the cart back with a screech. A little girl, no more than six, stumbled forward, then quickly picked up her pace.

"Brianna, I told you to stay close to me!" A tired looking woman with thin blonde hair hurried forward. "My apologies," she said, pushing her own cart hurriedly ahead of him.

Thaddeus made a mental note to call his local Target later to ask that they start opening at six-thirty every morning. Though with his luck, he'd arrive to find a crowd of other eager early morning shoppers.

"Dad, if you had hit that kid, would you have gone to jail for manslaughter?"

"I probably would if I were stuck with you as my character witness."

Thaddeus parked his cart outside of the freezer section, then slipped past another cart and a tired-eye couple to grab some frozen peas. Just as he was about to close the door, he grabbed a bag of mixed vegetables as well. It wouldn't save William from rotting his teeth, but at least he could sleep easy knowing he'd eaten halfway healthy that evening.

Back at the cart, Thaddeus raised an eyebrow. "What's a cookie dough typhoon?" He picked up the ice cream carton and quickly scanned the ingredients label. No traces of peanuts or tree nuts. With that out of the way, Thaddeus placed it back down.

"What? It looked good."

"I don't understand how you don't make yourself sick from all of this junk."

"It's a secret I'll carry to my grave."

Thaddeus rolled his eyes. "Anything else you need?"

William's eyes widened. "Can we go look at video games, please?"

"Not unless you want this," he said, pointing back down to the ice cream, "to melt. Though I could always put it away."

William stuck his tongue out. "Fine."

Thaddeus handed it to him. "Go put this back. And remember to thank me forty years from now when your doctor isn't complaining about your blood sugar levels."

"Whatever."

As Billy hurried off, Thaddeus grabbed some more peas.