I poke my head into the den, where another fairly intense game of scrabble is ongoing. I'm glad to see that Donna's just a spectator. "Lulu's down for her nap, you ready to go?"

"Yep. You're good, right Zoey?"

"Yes. Charlie and I are perfectly capable of babysitting a sleeping child. Aren't we, Charlie?"

"Whatever you say, Zo."

"Here's the monitor." As I hand it off to Charlie, I give him some instructions. "She'll probably sleep about 90 minutes. When she gets up she'll probably thirsty. Water is fine. She might want some ohs too."

"Josh!" Zoey rolls her eyes. "We've got it. And if for any reason we didn't have it. My parents have raised 3 children fairly sucessfully. Plus Vic and Ellie are around here somewhere. We've got it covered."

"Okay. Hopefully we won't be gone for very long. We're only going to Target. I mean, how bad could it be?"

. . . .

"Oh my god, Donna! It's a zoo in here."

Donna just smirks at me, while my agent, Dave, looks like he'd like to shoot me himself. If we are in here too long, I might just ask him to. "Just remember, this was your idea. No whining."

Her agent, Kyle looks away quickly, and I think he's smirking, but by the time he looks back my way, he's covered it.

Donna seems oblivious and just continues giving me directions. "Grab a cart, and let's get this over with."

Then Donna charges ahead with Kyle at her side. Dave and I have to move quickly to keep up. I definitely don't want to lost her in this crowd. She heads straight to the Christmas section. I wonder how she knew where it would be? Once we get there she stops and starts looking over several boxes of lights. Reading the descriptions and mumbling to herself.

"Not the icicle. I think we want these smaller, twinkle lights, don't you?" She finally asks, holding up a box.

I just give her a look. "Charlie asked us to make the barn look nice. I don't think he has a preference, and I sure as hell know that I don't. Whatever you think works is fine with me."

She throws a few boxes in the cart then thinks about it for a few seconds before throwing a couple more in. "Better safe than sorry." She mumbles.

"Okay, now for home decor." She announces grabbing the cart and pushing it at a fast clip towards another part of the store.

As we walk past the children's clothing department, I pause. "Maybe we should look at some outfits for Lulu?"

"She doesn't need anything! Between you and the grandparents, she can barely wear all the clothes she has!"

"What about pajamas? Look- that sign says they're only $5! That's a great price!

"Look in the bin and tell me what you see." Donna suggests in a smug voice.

"Um. One top and a pair of socks."

"Exactly."

"Where are the $5 pajamas?"

"Oh, Josh. If you wanted bargains, you needed to be here when the store opened."

"What time was that?"

"6 am."

"Really? People got here at 6 am?"

"Yes, but some truly insane people got here a 4 or 5am and waiting in line outside so they could be the first one in the door."

"Why would the do that?"

"Televisions."

"TV made them do it?"

"No, the stores puts Televisions and other electronics on sale pretty cheap and people wait in line to buy them. See the arrows on the floor?"

I look down and sure enough, there are arrows made out of tape on the floor.

"That's to direct traffic. There were lines of people weaving all through out this store a few hours ago."

"That's insane!"

"My Mother and sister and I used to do it every year."

I open my mouth, and then shut it abruptly. There are several things I really want to say, but I can't imagine that any of them would end well for me.

Donna raises an eyebrow at me and smirks. She knows that I'm biting my tongue.

There's a long uncomfortable pause while we wait to see whether or not I crack.

"Good boy." Donna finally murmurs, giving me a kiss on the cheek before continuing her trek through the store.

I trot along after her, fairly pleased with myself. Somewhere along the way, I manage to snag a store circular and my eyes are fully opened to the wonders of Black Friday.

"Donna! They have digital photos frames for $59! We should get those for the grandparents. Then they'll always have current photos of Lulu!"

"We don't have a digital camera."

"Well, funny you should mention that. They have a digital camera on sale for $89!"

"We have a nice camera."

"Yeah. But it's not digital. I think we should get one. It's the wave of the future."

"And you do like to be on the cutting edge of technology." Donna deadpans.

"You're just a mouth full of wiseass today, aren't you?"

"What can I say, it's Black Friday!"

. . . .

When the manager is done putting the Target bags in the trunk, including the one holding a small digital camera and three digital photo frames, I open the SUV door and hold it for Donna.

"No."

"No?"

"Oh, no. We're not done shopping yet. We're going to Michael's."

"Who is Michael?"

"Michael's. It's a craft store. It's right there. We can walk." She points to another store further down in the strip mall.

I look to Dave, and he nods, then motions to the agent driving the SUV to follow us.

As we walk through the door, the first thing I notice is that the checkout line is about 30 deep. Thank God we won't have to wait in it. Normally, Donna doesn't like to have special treatment, but even she was willing to have the secret service instruct the manager at Target to check us out at customer service with no waiting. We are definitely doing that here too.

"What kind of hell is this?"

"I told you it's a craft store. We need some tulle and burlap."

"It's a barn. Doesn't it already have burlap bags?"

"We need some NICE burlap."

"Alright." I'm not sure what the difference between regular and nice burlap is exactly, but Donna's got that look about her that says that she knows, and that it's in my best interest not to question her.

. . . . .

After we get the tulle, and the "nice" burlap, and a cart full of other things, we end up in the fake flower section.

"What are you getting here?"

"Rose petals."

"No."

"What?"

"No. I've let you run the show up until now. But I'm putting my foot down. No fake flowers."

"You're putting your foot down?" Donna repeats incredulously, and for a second, I'm tempted to backtrack. But no. One thing I've learned is that there are times to back track and times to double down. This is for Charlie.

"Yes. I'm putting my foot down. No fake flowers. We'll find a florist. I would never give you fake flowers, and Charlie and Zoey aren't going to start the rest of their life together with them either."

Donna actually beams at me. "Okay."

. . . . .

Once we are in the car, Dave turns around, "Where next, sir?"

"Are you from around here?"

"Yes, sir."

"We need a good florist."

"Yes, sir."

When we pull up in front of Ellen's Flowers, I'm relieved to see that there's only one car in the parking lot. Dave looks pleased too.

We walk in the door, and a little bell rings. Then someone calls out from the back, "Just a minute."

Donna looks at me and shrugs. "Roses?"

"I'll take care of it." Flowers are my thing.

I have to smile to myself when a little old man comes to the front counter. Perfect. I'll bet he's the owner. A guy like this, on a day like this. I bet he knows his flowers.

He looks a little taken back to see the four of us standing there. "Can I help you?"

I stride forward with my hand out. "I'm Josh Lyman."

"I'm Frank Williams."

"Are you the owner?"

"Yes, I am. What can I do for you?"

"I love your shop. I'm going to need quite a few flowers. I'm helping a friend propose to his girlfriend. My wife and I are going to decorate a barn and that's where he's going to do it."

"Excellent."

"So . . . I need a dozen long stem red roses for him to give her. Those need to be nicely boxed. Then I'm going to need some rose petals to scatter on the floor. I think a mixture of some red, white, and pink."

"Very good."

"And then some flowers to put in some mason jars and old bottles, but not roses, maybe daisies or black-eye Susans?"

"I have some Osteospermum Asti White. They have a dark center instead of yellow. They'll have that rustic feel but they won't draw away from the red, white, and pink color scheme."

"Perfect. How soon can you have all this together?"

"Oh about an hour. Faster if you'd like to pluck the roses yourself."

"Well, Mr. Williams,"

"Call me, Frank, please."

"Well, Frank, we don't mind plucking but we want to be as stealth as possible when we get back to the farm. Would it be alright if we did it right here?"

"Not at all. Why don't the two of you join me back in the work room. You can leave one of your agents here and one can come guard the back door while we work."

So he knows who the agents are. I wonder if he follows politics or if he just watches a lot of television.

I look to Dave to make sure he's okay with this plan and he nods once and signals to Kyle to stay put.

"Let me just check the back, sir. Please stay here a minute."

Frank grins and opens the little half door in the counter to let Dave through. "Right this way."

While Dave is gone with Frank, Donna and I look at all the flowers in the cooler.

"Oh! I really like those ones!" Donna exclaims, pointing to a bucket of pink Queen of Sweden roses. I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm sure we have another anniversary coming up soon. Maybe the anniversary of the day we moved everything out of her old apartment?

"It's all clear, sir. There's just one back exit. I'll take that." Dave announces, then disappears back into the rear of the store.

"So, what did he think? That I'd have an assassin hiding in the basement just in case the White House Chief of Staff stopped by on Black Friday?" Frank chuckles.

So, he does know who we are. Well, I guess that answers that. And he earns himself a quick grin from Donna for his comment. "I know! Right?"

"Okay, you two. Help an old man out here. Mr. Lyman, can you grab that bucket of white roses? Mrs. Lyman, you grab the pink. And I'll grab the red, here."

"Okay," Donna answers, "but if we are going to call you Frank, then you have to call us Josh and Donna." Donna's response earns her a quick grin from Frank. I can tell they are going to be fast friends.

We each take our bucket and follow Frank back to his work area. He's got a large butcher block table with several stools around it.

"Okay. Here's what you are going to do. Each of you take a rose. Now, Grip the closed bud very lightly just below the petals. Squeeze around the base just below the petals and gently twist the stem to loosen the petals. Grip very carefully to avoid bruising them. You can place them in this plastic container. When you think you have enough petals, we can count the stems to see how many you used. Okay? While you are doing that, I'll work on the rest of the order."

"Okay, thank you."

"So, Frank, how long have you owned this shop?" Donna asks as she begins working on de-petaling her first rose.

"Well, my wife and I started it in 1955, the year after we were married. She loved flowers, my Ellen. She inherited just a bit of money from her Grandparents and we used it to start this business. We ran it together for 50 years before she passed."

"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss!" Donna exclaims, and I see her blink a few times.

"Yes, I miss her very much." Frank replies, stopping to pat Donna's hand. "The kids have suggested that I close up shop. But I have such happy memories here, I don't want to leave. When I'm surrounded by flowers, it still feels like Ellen is with me."

"That's very sweet. So you were married for over Fifty years! Any tips for us?"

"Sure." Frank looks me right in the eye. "Your wife is always right."

Donna bursts into laughter. "Oh, Frank! I like you."

Donna's eyes are sparkling, and her cheeks are a little flushed. She always looks amazing when she laughs. And I like anyone who makes my wife look at me like that.

"But seriously, kids. Here's the secret. My wife's mother actually told her this, and as much as I like to make Mother-in-law jokes like the next guy, she was really quite a remarkable lady. She said that her mother said to make a list of ten things that you'd forgive your spouse for no matter what. Except don't actually write it down. Then anytime your spouse does something that annoys you, just say to yourself, boy, he's lucky that's on the list!"

Donna smiles at Frank. "Oh. That's a good idea."

"Really? Do I do that many things that annoy you, Donnatella?" I ask in a sassy tone and give her a little grin. It never hurts to pull out the dimples.

"Less and less every day, Joshua." Donna replies seriously. "You've become quite the extraordinary man, husband, and father. I couldn't ask for better."

Her sincere response stuns me for a second. Then I lean over and give her a long kiss. I don't care if Frank is watching!

When we pull apart, Frank is looking at us fondly. "Aaah. I see you already know the secret. You kids will be just fine."

We chat a bit more about local politics, and, believe it or not, the weather. Then when we are all ready to go, I pay the bill, which seems far less than it should be.

As we are almost out the door, Frank calls out, "you tell Charlie Young that Frank Williams said that Zoey Bartlet is a fine woman, and that their love can withstand anything the world throws at them."

"Sure thing."