"Hey good morning half stranger. What are you doing?"
Lindsay chuckled at the greeting and lifted Colton out of his high chair.
"Rockin' the mommy thing. You?"
"Same! Small world after all."
"You're chipper, Aust."
"Danny bought some coffee that tastes like Jack Daniels."
"Well that'll do it. What's up?"
"I was just thinkin' that I haven't seen you in a while. And I'm off today, and you're off today and if you're not busy maybe we could grab lunch."
"What if I told you that I am busy?"
"I would be sad."
"Are you sure there wasn't real Jack in that coffee?"
"Are you really busy?"
"I have to go to the store."
"And how long will that take?"
"Well, it's the store store, not the bodega."
"Why the heck would you do that?" Austin asked, completely befuddled.
"Because," Lindsay chuckled. "Sometimes I need stuff that they don't sell at the bodega, or I can get them cheaper somewhere else. And sometimes I also have coupons from said store that I need to use. Sometimes I need to drop off a roll of film I found in the back of the junk drawer."
"See, now when I have something like that that means I can't go to the bodega, I say screw it."
"You are such a city girl. Want to go with me?"
"Sure. I must find out about this store store thing."
"You act like you've never been anywhere."
"It's part of my mystique."
"You are such a dork. Hey, by the way, I found a pair of Colton's jeans that don't fit him anymore, but they have a hole in the knee, so I thought you might want them for Isa."
"Yes please. Why doesn't anyone make holey baby jeans?"
"It's injustice I tell you," she replied with a chuckle. "We need to find her a leather jacket to go with it."
"Mind-reading. This is why we work, Linds."
"It's not so much mind reading as it is thinking what I would think and then taking it one step further."
"I don't know if I'm insulted or not."
"Don't worry, you're not. I'll swing by and pick you guys up in like… an hour? My child needs a bath before he's presentable."
"Messy breakfast?"
"Sometimes I think it will be easier to just let him feed himself. I regret it every time."
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
"You sound like Hawkes."
"I did learn that from him."
"I'll see you in a little while," she said with a grin.
"Bye."
They hung up and Lindsay looked down at Colton, grimacing at the oatmeal in his hair. He smiled back up at her, showing off his most recent tooth and clapping happily.
"I don't think you could look more like your daddy if you tried," she said, picking him up and heading to the bathroom.
"Dada," he shouted, looking around for Adam.
"He went to work. I know, I shouldn't have mentioned him. Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"
He sighed as she started the water, then seemed to forget about missing his daddy once she gave him a bath toy to distract him. He was easy to please most of the time, and a change of pace could change his entire demeanor. Exactly like his father.
"You weren't kidding about coupons," Austin said with a raised eyebrow, looking down at the handful of small papers Lindsay held.
"Hey, you just watch me get some diapers for cheap."
"How cheap?"
"Find clearance diapers, and then I have a store coupon for two dollars off, and a brand coupon for three dollars off. If the stars align I could get 200 diapers for less than ten bucks."
"I marvel at this and yet I could never clip coupons."
"I'm cheap."
"That's what the boys say down at the docks."
"Walked right into that one."
"I am pretty sure you even saw it coming," Austin smirked, adjusting Isa on her hip. "Oh my word, you have a list too?"
"What?"
"You're an after school snack kind of mom, aren't you?"
"I guess I am. While you're the kind of mom that all the neighborhood kids will think is the only cool adult in existence."
"You're the mom that lets them play video games."
"You're the mom that lets them cuss."
"I am pretty cool."
"Let's just say this; between the two of us, our kids are going to be really popular."
"That is, after all, the most important thing."
"Definitely."
"Geez, this store really does have everything," Austin remarked as they passed by the electronics section. "And much classier than Wal-Mart. Bravo."
"That's what I think too."
"So what's on your list?"
"A lot of stuff. I usually put off a store store trip for as long as I can. Then I need more of what I needed before and then I put off the trip longer because I don't want to spend the money, but then I end up spending more because once I go it's a months worth of stuff rather than just two weeks."
"Vicious circle."
"Very much."
"Does it bother you that Colton is chewing on the cart?"
"Oh gross," she sighed, lifting his head up from the cart. "Every single time. You'd think we didn't feed him enough or something."
"I think those cheeks tell a different story."
"They are getting quite large. I think he's storing up for winter."
"He needs to give Isa some tips on eating. She gets bored with it really fast and moves on to something else. Like tossing her bottle on the floor and letting it roll under the couch where I don't find it for three weeks."
"That's lovely."
"I have a feeling she is going to create a lot more lovely moments as she gets more mobile."
"Kids tend to do that."
"She army crawled across the kitchen last night. The dog bit her diaper and drug her back."
"Was she mad?"
"She screamed her head off."
"She's nothing if not clear in her opinions."
"Exactly."
"Kind of like someone I know."
"My mom always said she hoped I had a child just like me."
"You're so in for it."
"I'm scared."
They spent the next hour browsing the store, doing more talking and giggling than actual shopping, but feeling quite accomplished all the same. By the time they loaded the purchases and the kids into the car they were exhausted however, and plunked down into their seats, loathe to move enough to even buckle their seatbelts.
"And that is why I put this off as long as I can."
"No kidding. Hey, where are the pictures? I want to see what was on that mystery roll."
Lindsay found the envelope in her purse and opened it, grinning at the first picture.
"Oh my word. We were so young," she commented, handing the picture to Austin. "That was like three years ago when Hannah came to stay with Adam. He let her play with his camera and apparently we were her favorite subjects."
"This must have been before you and I were even friends," she commented, slowly looking through the stack of pictures.
"I know. A whole lifetime ago."
"Why are you guys laying on the kitchen floor?"
"We were making cookies and we sat down on the floor to play cards… not sure how we ended up laying down though."
"Looks like Hannah adores her big brother."
"She does. He loves her right back though."
"Looks like you're pretty smitten with him too."
Lindsay grinned as she looked at the picture, both of them sitting on the counter with a bowl of cookie dough between them, facing each other and laughing. The picture captured so much about them in a blink of a moment. They way they looked at each other, their smiles and happy eyes, the fact that they were fighting over the spoon with the cookie dough on it, the way their legs dangled off the counter and their feet twisted together. So much had changed since then, but so much had stayed the same as well.
"He makes me happy," she said wistfully.
"I can tell."
"I kind of can't stop looking at it."
"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but um… it's sorta precious."
"That was a hard word for you to say."
"It was all I could think of besides cute and that didn't seem to… stop laughing at me, Lindsay!"
"Sorry."
"It's just… it's like a picture of when you fell in love. Danny and I don't have one of those."
"Austin, you two have been falling in love since you were kids. Every picture is a picture of that."
"Not right in the thick of it like this though."
"Not like this, but we're different. Sometimes I think I would kill to have that history you guys have."
"And I would love to know what it's like to meet someone and fall in love as adults."
"So we're just always going to be jealous of each other?"
"To some degree, I think yes."
"Well at least we can admit it. Though why you would be jealous of me is… a totally foreign concept."
"Uh, the weird thing is that you would ever be jealous of me."
"Aust, are you serious? You're like… I can't even describe it. You have this "screw you" attitude that I always wanted but was too chicken to have. You walk in a room and you own it. You're the only friend I've had in my life that I can say anything to, no matter what it is. You work so hard for everyone around you and you have never let me down. People listen to you when you talk and even though you act like you don't, you have this ability to love people sometimes more than they deserve."
"Maybe I do have all that, but you're perfect."
"I am not."
"You are too! You're the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect friend. Everyone loves you instantly. You could murder someone's best friend and they would love you ten minutes later. You never have to put on a front or be someone else. Everything is just effortless for you. You have your stories and catch-phrases that make you this memorable person that everyone wishes they could be. You have everything, Linds."
They looked at each other for a moment, contemplating what had been said before saying anything more.
"Why do we always do this?"
"Do what?"
"Talk about real things."
Lindsay snickered and shook her head.
"I don't know. I don't hate it."
"It's not really us."
"Maybe it is, but neither one of us ever knew it."
"Maybe. Thanks for… seeing all those things in me."
"Thanks for being all those things."
"We're sappy."
"Don't tell anyone, okay?"
"We got reputations to protect."
"I feel like we should do that best friends pinkie swear thing."
"I think our kids have that figured out already."
Raising her eyebrow, Lindsay looked into the back seat. Colton and Isa's carseats were strapped in next to each other, but they were both leaning as much as they could into the middle, sleeping and holding hands. It was quite the stretch and they had probably done it more out of marvel at seeing another baby than anything, but the reason didn't matter as both moms took out their cell phones and snapped pictures.
"We're so in for it, Linds."
"I think we'll be okay. I mean after all, ducks fly together."
"Did I mention you have the best movie references at the best time?"
"Thank you for noticing."
They grinned and fist bumped for lack of anything better to close off the conversation and then drove off, because that was simply that.