Keep on telling myself

 "I don't even want to know what he's up to," Gabe said about Kevin trying to help Jared. "Maybe he's up to nothing. Vada's the one who's up to something."

Gabe could only imagine how romantic their Valentine's day would be. It was sickening to him. No way would he dress up fancy. Even if he did, he'd be spilling some kind of sauce on it. He wasn't like his brother Pan. Yeah, he bet Wade was taking him out somewhere so devine that Gabe wished not to know.

Suds covered his fore arms, really, he'd had enough of washing dishes. They had a dishwasher, but Sammie thought the detergent was expensive and besides it was just the two of them. And Gabe was fine with that unless he had all the dishes to wash.

He caught Sammie yawing as she was looking for spices to make a quick chili for their supper.

"I know, I'm a real snooze fest. You probably want to go out for Valentine's day?"

He remembered, although, a little too late. He wanted to kick himself, but he'd seen that truck parked in front of the daycare with a sign on it ROSES FOR YOUR LOVED ONES. He almost drove into it when he found out the cost, forty bucks for a bouquet.

"No, I don't." She looked back at him with a swelled frown. "It's Nebraska. Winter advisory weather. It's better to stay home." She nodded.

"I thought you were going to make a frittata, to keep the place warm while it was in the oven," He looked at her hoping she didn't mess up one more dish. Thank God, she didn't make that heart shaped chocolate cake she was wanting.

"You know the price of eggs," she went back to looking in the cabinets for the ingredients she needed. "Where's the cumin?"

"What cumin?"

Now he was going to have look for it on the shelf too high for her. Just as he was reaching up she fell back on him and he caught her in time. Maybe a Walgreens run was in order, but he didn't.

He told her to rest, and brought her a glass of water to the couch.

"I'll take care of dinner," he said.

"What are you going to make?"

"I'll surprise you," he smirked. She looked at him as if she knew there were about three things he could make and scrambled eggs were out of the question. They were rationing them through the week these days. 

"But try to stay awake." He clicked on the TV and upped the volume. He knew that was a sure way to put her to sleep because she never could make it through Nash Bridges without falling asleep. 

He went to look for the onion and pepper in the fridge to chop up. That was when he got the idea, it wasn't snowing yet, maybe they could  go to the garden center after her power nap and dinner. Definitely, they both needed a sign of spring.

Yeap, it would be tacos. Of course, he needed to look for the cumin.

 And if it snowed...well, maybe he'd just trim her toenails later and paint them bright red like he knew she wanted, but never had the time.