Best Thing In Town

Despite her pregnant stomach that seemed to grow an inch every week, Audrey found no problem finding some nice maternity clothes while out shopping with Adrienne. She had her boys tugging on her, left and right, complaining about being board and wanting to go look at toys. Audrey had the same problem with Katarina. Both women just sighed and had to promise, 'Soon.'

"You sure you're ready for a son?" Adrienne teased. Picking up a red dress, she walked over to Audrey and held it up to the pregnant woman with a smile. "You should get this," she said plainly.

Audrey scrunched her nose. "For what?"

"Valentine's Day? Ever hear of it?" the older woman teased. "Isn't Mike taking you out somewhere special?"

Shrugging, Audrey touched the dress admiringly. "I dunno. We haven't talked about it."

Adrienne tsk-tsked. "You should drop him subtle hints, then."

"Subtle?"

"You're a woman. Use your wiles."

Audrey laughed and took the dress from Adrienne, who was trying to pass it off anyway. Leaving Katarina with the Armstrongs, she disappeared into the dressing room and shed her clothing in order to try on the dress. Potbelly aside, it looked great on her, and she was always critical about what she wore. The price wasn't ideal, but considering Mike was getting a son out of the deal, he spared the money on this dress. Not like he didn't have it. But thinking like that made Audrey a little guilty. She had fallen so much in love with Mike that she'd wanna be with him even if they lived in a cardboard box and had to steal clothes from Good Will.

She stepped out of the dressing room and called to Adrienne who came over without all three kids in tow. "I knew that'd be a good dress for you," she smiled. "You gonna get it."

Audrey nodded. "Yeah, I think I am."

"Well, now you just need shoes."

"But, mom! You said we could go look at toys!" Jakob whined.

Adrienne sighed. "I know I did. How about this: I'll take all three of you to the toy store while Audrey goes to find some shoes." She looked at the younger woman and shrugged. "That sound okay to you?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Audrey bent down as best as she could in the dress and kissed Katarina on top of the head. "You behave for Adrienne, alright?" Her little girl nodded and she bid them farewell as she headed back into the dressing room to change, taking one last time to admire the dress before slipping out of it.

* * *

Adrienne had dropped off Audrey and Katarina around four in the afternoon. The house was quiet and empty when they entered. The sound of water dripping was the only other inclination of noise aside from their footsteps. Setting their shopping bags down on the kitchen table, Audrey gave a sigh, wondering what she could fix them for dinner. She turned her head in the direction of the living room where Katarina had skipped off to with her new Barbie doll.

"Katarina? What do you want for dinner?" she called.

"Pancakes!"

"Pancakes for dinner?" she questioned with a smile.

"Uh-huh..."

"Sounds good to me," Audrey muttered to herself. She moved the bags to the floor, bending over to search through them for where she'd placed the apron she'd bought that looked cute. It said, 'Kiss The Buddha,' and considering she was pregnant, it fit how she felt and looked. Putting it on, she began to think about Valentines'. Yes, it was today...and she and Mike had nothing planned. It was kind of a bummer, considering this would be the first time in four years she'd have someone to be her valentine.

Moving to the kitchen cupboards, she pulled out the pancake mix and syrup and set them on the counter and then went to town with mixing water into a bowl after she'd settled on a decent amount of pancake mix. She grabbed a frying pan, poured five small pancakes and waiting in front of the stove with a spatula in her right hand, plates set out next to her on the left and wearing her new apron.

As she placed five pancakes one of the plates, she poured more of the batter onto the frying pan and stood there waiting just as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her stomach and the hands clasped in front of her. As she tilted her head back to be met with Mike's head leaning forward and moving in a way that he could rest his chin on her shoulder and kiss her cheek.

"Hey, babe."

Audrey smiled. "Hi."

"Nice apron. What's it say?" he asked as he pulled her away from the stove and stood her in front of him. "Kiss the Buddha, huh? Yes, ma'am." He pulled her back toward him and kissed her lips gently.

"Mmm..." Audrey cooed. She closed her eyes a bit and then placed one more kiss on his lips before turning back to the stove to flip the pancakes over. "Without sounding like June Cleaver, how was work today, dear?" she teased.

Mike grinned. "Awesome," he replied, taking a plain pancake of the plate beside her and biting into it. "Worked on this new song Billie wrote. Then, took a lunch break and ordered some Chinese. Jammed. Pretty much a good day. What about you? D'you have fun shopping with Adrienne today?"

"Yeah, I did. She even convinced me to buy this dress."

"You gonna model it for me?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows devilishly.

"I would if I had an occasion to wear it for..."

"You mean like a wild night out for Valentines'?"

Audrey turned around and looked at him. "A wild night out? You have something planned?" she wondered hopefully.

"Might." His eyes seemed to twinkle like a little boy up to no good. "But I see you're busy playing housewife with the apron and the pancakes, so...maybe next year..."

"Nuh-uh," she shook her head incredulously. "These are for Katarina. You and me...that's another story."

"Good. My mom said she'd come over and babysit tonight," he informed, leaning in to plant a kiss on her lips. Mike then leaned over to whisper huskily in her ear, in a way that made her knees want to buckle and turn into goo. "Why don't I give Kat the pancakes while you go get incredibly sexy in your new dress?"

When he moved back from her, he met her gaze and gave her a very seductive smile with his eyes only. Audrey simply nodded and took off her apron, handing it over to him as she headed to get ready.

She couldn't wait!