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But that didn't mean I had to admit it to him.

I flipped him the bird. "You don't need to tell me you all were a terrible influence."

He slapped me on the shoulder. "You're welcome."

Damien held up one of the gray skeins against a pale purple yarn. "What do you think of the heather gray with the lavender?"

I nodded. "I think that works. How much do we need?"

"How big is the blanket?"

"Don't know."

"We should just buy it all just in case."

"Good idea," I said as I turned to search for a cart.

Walking to the end of the aisle I spied an empty cart next to a woman looking at wooden birdhouses. "Are you using this?"

The woman backed away as she stammered while hugging her purse to her chest. "Um…n-no…take it."

Ignoring her reaction, I smiled. "Thank you."

Rolling the metal cart back to the yarn aisle, we piled all the available gray and purple yarn into it.

As we headed back toward the cashiers, we passed the paint aisle.

Gregor turned. "Is that buy one get one free on canvases? I should get a few for Samara."

Damien pointed to a few aisles down. "While you're doing that, I'm going to grab Yelena some sketch pads and pencils, she mentioned at breakfast she was running low."

As Gregor headed down the paint canvas aisle, he tossed over his shoulder, "We should call Mikhail and ask if Nadia needs anything."

I pulled out my cellphone. "On it."

An hour later, we rolled three cartloads up to the cashier. As the employee checked us out, another woman in line cleared her throat.

We all turned.

She blinked and backed up a step. After visibly swallowing, she pointed at our cart. "That is a chunky yarn. You'll…you'll want to make sure you have 7 or 8mm needles for it. The regular ones will be too small."

We all exchanged a look.

I shrugged. "I have no idea what needles she has."

The older woman pointed over her shoulder. "I could help you pick some out."

After giving her a wink, I stretched my arm out. "Lead the way."

With bright red cheeks, the woman giggled as she led me back to the yarn aisle. As we walked more women joined us.

"Does she have a pattern? I can select a few that I've done and liked."

“You only have two colors, three really would be better.”

“I’d recommend at least one crochet hook just in case.”

It was amusing to be surrounded by so many women who under any other circumstance would have crossedthe street at my approach…and with good reason. “That would be very helpful, thank you."