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Taylor stopped and looked at Christina with suspicion, as if she might

have packed an anaconda or a viper into her bag underneath all those toys.

“I wanted to say— uh— that I’m sorry for what I said to you

yesterday.” Christina set the bag down for Chloe to look through. She bent

and began to eagerly rummage through everything. “I know you must be

under a lot of pressure and a ton of stress. I didn’t mean to make it worse. I

didn’t mean to get into your business or insinuate that you’re— well, you

know.” She didn’t want to say a bad mother in front of Chloe. “I got a lot of

calls done yesterday and I don’t have many more to make today. I brought

my tablet and was going to work on some marketing designs to run past

you. Flyers for the grand opening, ads for papers and websites. That kind of

stuff. It won’t take me all day, so I thought that me and Chloe could do

some crafts and stuff together. The movies are probably getting old.”

“Um…” Taylor looked behind her and to the side. Chloe was still

eagerly rummaging through the bag. “I…” She wanted to say something,

but then she just shrugged. “If you want to, that would be awesome. I can

still check in—”

“No need. I know the fencing is really coming along. You guys are

doing an amazing job out there.”

“You’re quite positive this morning—”

“Mom, look!” Chloe cut Taylor off before she could really get the

sarcasm rolling. She held up a set of paints and a coloring book that came

with it.

“Wow!” Taylor switched from being guarded and annoyed with

Christina and looked at Chloe adoringly. It was quite a change and it

happened in just a few seconds. “That’s awesome! You love painting.”

“Books too!” Chloe pointed. “Crayons! Markers! Scissors, glue, paper,

she brought everything!”

“You’re going to have a busy morning.”

“Snacks!” Chloe shifted aside some of the art stuff and let out a whoop