TO THE MOON & TO SATURN | shawmila

nine.

"Mommy, can I have a piece of candy?"

"When we get to the checkout, baby."

"This is taking forever!"

Camila ignored Luna's whining and kept shopping. She knew it was taking longer than their usual trips to the grocery store, but this wasn't an ordinary grocery run.

Luna was officially on Thanksgiving break from school and not only was Camila very excited about one of her favorite holidays, but it would be her first time celebrating it in a house where she had her own full-sized kitchen.

It was her dream to be able to host Thanksgiving for her family, to have everyone eating happily around the table and eating all the food she'd cook just like her mom used to.

Camila called her parents earlier, casually suggesting she host this year, and after some back and forth, her mom agreed to let Camila host and cook almost everything—everything but the turkey.

Camila was a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to cook the most important part, but maybe her mom just wasn't ready to give up all parts of one of their favorite family traditions.

Even though she wasn't making turkey, she was still making plenty of other dishes, so it was going to take a full cart of groceries. Camila filled the whole cart and after over an hour of shopping, Luna was on the verge of a meltdown.

"Look, we're at the checkout!" Camila smiled, grunting slightly as she pushed the cart towards the line. "You can pick whatever candy you want!"

Luna smiled and ran to the shelf by the checkout, carefully picking one as Camila loaded all the groceries onto the belt. She then paid and loaded all the bags into the cart once more.

Camila usually only had to take two or three trips to get all the groceries inside, but as she drove home she had a feeling it was going to take much longer.

If only she had a strong man to help her.

Camila grabbed her phone at the last stop sign before her house and texted Shawn, using plenty of pouting emojis.

'I'm bringing home a lot of groceries. Do you think you can help me unload the car?'

She smiled when she pulled into the driveway and saw Shawn waiting for her.

"Wow, this is a lot of stuff." Shawn said when she opened the trunk.

"It's for Thanksgiving dinner."

"Oh, yeah." He chuckled. "Almost forgot about that."

Camila rolled her eyes at his joke, knowing there was no way he forgot when he'd spent the last week before the break helping the kids make Thanksgiving-themed crafts at school. Camila had Luna's handprint turkey stuck to their fridge right now.

Shawn helped her carry in all the bags. Camila handed Luna a few light bags so she could help too. Luna then gasped and laughed as Shawn picked her up and carried her under his arm like she was groceries too.

Camila had asked Shawn privately if there were any kids at school bullying Luna or even the other little boy over what happened, but he assured her that they weren't, and if they were, he'd make sure to put a stop to it.

"Kids have short attention spans." Shawn assured her. "They forgot all about it."

Camila was pretty sure that wasn't entirely true, but as long as Luna didn't seem sad, Camila wasn't going to press the issue. She was just glad her daughter was so resilient.

They finished carrying all the bags inside. Camila had her arms full, walking through the living room towards the kitchen when she noticed Seth watching them from the open door to Shawn's.