For the Love of Donuts

6. Guard the Booty

Skye

Let me just say that rock climbing was originally Tatum’s idea. I don’t mind it too much since the rock walls at the climbing gym aren’t super high or anything, and having longer limbs does make it easier, but I’m just not an athletic person.

I literally own a shirt that says: ABS ARE GREAT BUT HAVE YOU TRIED DONUTS?

Honestly? I’m more of a casual walker. Or a lazy swimmer.

However, Tatum and I like to try out different activities together, so we’ve been doing indoor rock climbing at least twice a month.

Right now, we’re warming up. And exchanging proposal ideas. Well, Tatum doesn’t seem to have any, though, because he’s been saying stuff like: “I don’t know” or “Well, what do you think?” since I asked about it in the car. So, he’s doing most of the warming up while I am hard at work doing the talking.

“I just don’t want to pick something lame, ya know?” I drawl as he stretches his toned arms over his head. “Like, rose petals and candles everywhere? Cringe . Or some big, awkward display in front of strangers at a restaurant? Hard pass .”

It might be a fake engagement, but I do still have some dignity left.

Tatum switches to knee pull-ups. “Mmhmm.”

“Tate!” I huff, planting my hands on my hips. “That’s not exactly the response I’m looking for here. If you were going to propose to a girl, how would you do it?”

“Ah, Skye,” he replies, putting a stop to his stretching. “I don’t know—” Ugh, again ? “—I haven’t really thought about it much. And none of my relationships even got remotely close to that point.”

“Humor me,” I tell him, doing some half-hearted arm stretches so he doesn’t yell at me. “I feel like you would come up with a pretty chill, yet super romantic proposal.”

Maybe something a little goofy, but nothing too bad.

“I think you’re forgetting about my horrible promposal to Janna Fronz,” he deadpans, now touching the toes of his climbing shoes. “Does over-the-top scavenger hunt and getting lost ring a bell to you?”

I hold back a snort. Yeahhhh. When Tate had originally told me about his scavenger hunt idea for Janna, I thought it was really cute. But then Janna misunderstood one of the clues and ended up stranded at an empty lot—which caused her to freak out—and she thought someone was trying to play a mean prank on her.

So, that was a definite fail. Poor Tate was pretty upset about the whole thing. After Janna eventually turned him down and my supposed-to-be-prom-date bailed on me a week before the dance, Tatum and I just went together.

“Don’t worry, Tate,” I say, tugging on the bottom of my pastel tie-dye top, “I don’t hold your promposal mishap to Janna Fronz against you.”

He stands up straight again and rolls his eyes. “Wow, thanks, Pink Stuff. You ready to climb, or what?”

Nope. Definitely not.

“What about our fake proposal? We need a solid story before the brunch tomorrow!”

“The brunch,” he says, snapping his fingers at me, “how about something donut-related? That’s a thing, right? And Zoya will be all over something like that. Problem solved.”

Huh. I mean, it’s not a terrible idea. A little on the nose; but I do love donuts and Zoya will probably think it’s adorable.

Promotion. Promotion. Promotionnnnn.

“Okay, Jacobs,” I tell him with a nod, “we’ll go with a donut proposal. I knew you’d be able to come up with something.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quit stalling, girl. Your butt is going to climb. And no whining.”

“I don’t whine,” I say in a total NON-whiny way. “And you know, sometimes I still have that fear of falling off one of the walls.”

Unlike him , I refuse to get extra climbing practice done during the week, so I’m basically starting fresh whenever we come here together.

“Skye,” he drawls, placing his hands on my shoulders, “you always drag your feet about climbing and then you’re fine afterward. Besides, I’ve already told you that I’ll be the very first one to sign your cast if you hurt yourself in the highly unlikely event of falling.”

I squint my eyes at him. “Such a great pep talk.”

“I aim to please.” He gives my shoulders a light squeeze. “Now, let’s climb.”

Good news, I didn’t end up falling.

Bad news, I chipped a nail.

I’m not one of those girls who lose their ever-loving minds when fate decides that it’s time for a fingernail to suffer, but I still hate when it happens. Thankfully, Tatum bought me a mango and coconut smoothie from Smoothie Slaps to distract from the chipped nail.

And now, we’re at The Ahoy Toy Chest looking for my perfect present to give the twins.

Even though Lanie and Nova are spoiled as heck—and definitely aren’t lacking in the toy area—I’m their aunt. Not buying them more toys would be a crime. And—AND—I have a rep to protect! I’m the cool aunt, unlike Dria’s sister-in-law Shelby who buys the twins books for any gift-giving occasion.

For the record, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with books, but what the crap do four-year-olds need encyclopedias for? And does Shelby have a “Coolest Aunt Around” mug? Yeah, no, I didn’t think so.

Did I happen to buy that mug for myself?

I’ll never tell.

“So, what are you thinking?” Tatum asks, pushing the pirate ship-designed cart as I sip on my smoothie.

“Nothing,” I reply in a hasty but casual way. “Why? What are you thinking?”

He’s super judgy about the mug, so he doesn’t need to know that I was thinking about it.

“I’m talking about what you’re going to get the twins, Pink Stuff.” He raises an eyebrow at me. “Someone sounds guilty though.”

I ignore his observation. “What did you get them?”

“No way.” He scoffs at me as we walk past the outdoor toys section. “I know you. You’ll just try to one-up me, even though it’s not a competition.”

“How about a trampoline?” I use my smoothie cup to motion toward the display of large trampolines. “Look how happy those kids are. Lanie and Nova would love that!”

“Yeah, but your sister and Trey wouldn’t,” Tatum points out. “Didn’t they already tell you the girls are still too young?”

Ugh, he’s right.

Darn him for being the responsible one.

“Fine,” I grumble, trudging beside him, “but a trampoline would be epic.”

“How about one of those little playsets?” he suggests, starting to push the cart in that direction. “Like an ice cream truck or something?”

“I got them a dessert stand for their third birthday, remember?” I widen my eyes at him as he drums his index fingers against the shopping cart’s handle. “It came with the plastic cakes, cookies, pies, donuts—oh, that reminds me!” I swat Tatum’s arm for emphasis. “Donuts! On the way over here, I looked up some proposal ideas. The two most common choices were donut letters that spelled out: ‘Marry Me?’ or a single boxed donut with the engagement ring on top of it. Like, one of the not-so-messy donuts though, so the ring doesn’t get gross.”

“Hmm,” he hums as we turn down the aisle where all the playsets are, “which one do you like best?”

I hold out my smoothie to him, so he can have the rest of it. “Which one do you think I like best?”

He takes the drink, and I eye him expectantly as he slurps a couple of gulps down. “Well,” he says after smacking his lips, “this is you we’re talking about…and I think you’d want the donut letters proposal.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

“Pssh, because you’d want eight donuts instead of just one.”

I press a hand to my heart and pretend to be choked up. “You know me so well, Tate.”

He takes a sip or two from my smoothie, then proceeds to smirk at me. “You’re not exactly subtle about a lot of things, Carson.”

I let out a hmmph . “Maybe that’s why I’m lacking in the boyfriend department.”

“ Skye .”

I wave off his warning tone. “Yeah, I know, the right guy won’t be fazed by that. And I’m not lacking, it’s just not my season yet .”

As if I’m some kind of failed plant that’s behind on blooming.

He chuckles, biting on the smoothie’s straw. “You make me sound like a nagging, know-it-all mom.”

Ironically, neither of our mothers are like that though.

“If the shoe fits,” I tell him with a cheeky grin. “You’re definitely more of a mom-friend than I am.”

Which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Sometimes it feels like everything might fall apart if I didn’t have Tatum’s reliable side to keep me grounded. We balance each other out. It’s one of the reasons our friendship is so awesome.

“Well, I—”

“Tatum!” I yell, pointing ahead of us. “THAT’S IT!”

The perfect gift for Lanie and Nova.

“ What’s it?” he asks, sounding a tad bit huffy. “There’s like, at least twenty things you could be pointing to.”

I scowl at him. “Isn’t it obvious? The cute pet unicorn with the pink stall AND MAGICAL ACCESSORIES!”

Take that , Shelby! She lives in Ohio though, so she probably won’t be seeing the gift anytime soon.

Tatum proceeds to curse with a laugh. “Girl, that box isn’t going to fit in this cart.”

“Fair enough,” I agree, glancing around. “But I’m buying that sucker, so we just need to find a lovely store associate to help us. Do you see one close by?”

“No, but I guess we’re going to track one down?”

“One of us is going to track an associate down, and the other person needs to stay here and guard the booty.”

Tatum cocks an eyebrow at me, drinking the rest of the smoothie.

“Booty,” I repeat myself, widening my eyes at him. “Like pirate booty ? Because we’re at The Ahoy Toy Chest?”

“I get it.” He places the empty cup in the cart’s baby seat. “I just didn’t think it was funny.”

I flip him off like any good best friend would. “You know, just because you said that, you’re going to babysit the unicorn to make sure no one takes it.”

“Skyeeee,” he groans as I start walking away from him, “there’s like, three other boxes here! I think we’ll be fine.”

“I’m not risking it,” I tell him over my shoulder. “What if some crazy unicorn-obsessed lover shows up and wants them all! WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN, TATUM!”

“That smoothie made you crazy!” I hear him yell at me.

“Lies!” I holler back. “We both know I was already crazy before the smoothie!”