72 A Busy Day

The next day greeted me very unexpectedly… with the smell of baked goods.

Ann wasn’t next to me anymore, but I could hear the loud chirping of kids and the girl somewhere deep in the apartment.

Not believing my ears and nose, I wandered toward the kitchen and caught a very cute scene: Anya and the kids, covered in flour, happily molding something on the table. They hadn’t noticed me yet, so they didn’t get distracted from their fun activity. Looks like the brunette decided to actively earn sympathy points with the kids.

But regardless of that, the whole picture of what was happening pleased me like hell. I could already see my beloved, with a rounded belly, conjuring something up in our kitchen while a couple more little brats ran around nearby. And me walking up from behind, gently wrapping my arms around her stomach and kissing her shoulder, greeting her in the morning.

“Morning, people!” I decided to make my presence known, since I needed points too. “I see you’ve decided to trash my kitchen while I’m sleeping.”

“You sleep like a damn marmot!” Masha snapped back, and I saw Ann had worked on her. The girl’s hair was styled into two high buns. “And we’re permanently hungry people.”

“It’s only 8:45!” I protested dramatically.

“Exactly!” Anya smiled, putting a tray into the oven. “And how do you even run a salon with discipline like that?”

“I’m the boss, I can do whatever I want,” I replied smugly, noticing the gang had baked some kind of fragrant cookies. “Didn’t even know you could bake,” I grabbed one oddly shaped cookie and tasted it. “Tasty.”

“I don’t know how,” the girl smirked. “We followed YouTube, and didn’t dare try it, we were waiting for you…”

After hearing that, I froze mid-chew, eyes bulging at these experimenters. That cracked up the kids and Anya, and Masha even snorted, which made everyone laugh.

We had breakfast and got ready to go shopping. We spent half the day in the mall, buying necessary things for all occasions, and got really tired. The funniest part was that Masha got exhausted the fastest, since she had to try on a ton of clothes.

Once everything we needed was bought, we decided to wrap it up and grab a bite at the mall café. But on the way, we passed a toy store, and I saw Lukas sneaking glances at the display windows.

Fuck. What an idiot I am.

They’re KIDS.

I confidently turned our whole crew into the wide, bright doors. The little ones stared at the shelves, unable to hide their excitement, mouths hanging open.

“Hey, Luka, what toy would you like?” I crouched in front of the boy. I’m not completely dumb, I know you need to be at eye level with kids for better connection.

“Can I?” the kid’s eyes lit up with hope.

“Well, I wouldn’t be offering for nothing,” I smiled, and the boy looked at me shyly.

“Can I… have my own little car, with wheels?” he lowered his gaze like he was afraid of me. “I found one once, but it had no wheels and didn’t go…”

I saw Ann press her lips together in frustration, watching our conversation. I sighed, stood up, and we went to the boys’ section.

I didn’t stop at just one car, and we picked a bunch of interesting things. Anya helped me choose. Besides toys, we got educational stuff, creative kits, and a construction set. Luka was over the moon, smiling ear to ear, hugging the brand-new car to his chest.

“And you don’t want to pick anything?” I asked Masha, who was thoughtfully watching her happy brother.

“I’m not a little kid,” the blonde snorted. “I don’t need toys.”

“You know,” Ann addressed her, “I think every girl, at some point, dreamed of having her own doll.”

“But not me,” the little one muttered. “I had more down-to-earth dreams.”