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Buck is trying to decide between two jars of pesto - one red and one green when a throat clears next to him and he stills, a jar in each hand. With a quick turn of his head he finds exactly who he thought he would, unfortunately recognising them from the sound of their throat clear, which isn't a good thing.
“Tommy, hey.” Buck says in greeting as he returns both jars of pesto back onto the shelf and turns to face his ex fully. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Clearly not. It's good to see you Evan. It’s been a while.” Tommy replies with a smile.
“Ye-yeah it has.” Buck agrees with a slight nod.
“You look good.” Tommy points out, eyes trailing obviously over Buck, who feels his neck grow hot at the scrutiny from his ex.
“Uh thanks. You too.” Buck offers weakly with a little wave of his hand.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about you a lot recently.” Tommy begins, pushing his cart aside a little and taking a step closer.
“You have?” Buck lets out, wringing his fingers together in front of himself.
“Yeah. I heard about what happened to you in Nevada-”
“New Mexico.” Buck cuts in.
“What?”
“It was New Mexico.” Buck states, feeling a little more sure footed as Tommy looks back at him puzzled.
“Are you sure?”
Buck nods, “Pretty sure.”
“Right. New Mexico. Anyway, I heard about what happened, the car accident-”
“We were ran off the road. It wasn’t just a ‘car accident.’” Buck interrupts, needing him to know that there was more to it than what he’s saying.
Tommy’s jaw is clenched as inhales deeply through his nose, clearly annoyed at the interruption.
“Anyway, I wanted to reach out. See if you were doing okay. But I figured you wouldn’t want to hear from me. Being your ex and all. But I’m glad to see you’re okay. You are doing okay, aren’t you?”
“I’m good. Thanks.” Buck answers with a faint, forced smile, as he reaches forward to grip the handle of the cart for something to do with his hands.
“You're married?” Tommy states sounding surprised, eyes fixed on Buck’s left hand.
Buck’s own eyes snap down to look at the silver band sitting on his ring finger on his left hand and his stomach does a flip as butterflies erupt, just like they do every time he looks at the band.
“Yeah.” Buck dreamily tells him, his voice soft as he toys with the ring, expression soft.
“So, who's the lucky girl or guy? Do I know them?” Tommy asks, sounding a little hostile as he folds his arms over his chest as he all but glares at Buck.
“BUCK!” A tiny but loud voice calls from behind him and Buck lets out a laughing “oof” as a four-year-old collides with the back of his legs. Buck instantly lets go of the cart as a pair of small arms wrap around his thighs, and he runs a hand through unruly curls.
“Theo. I told you to be careful. And not to run in the grocery store.” A fourth voice chuckles, getting closer with each word and Buck's eyes flash to Tommy’s face, finding it pinched as his eyes harden at the sight of Eddie approaching them.
“Hey mi amor.” Eddie calls out, smiling at Buck and Theo as he comes to a stop next to them, his hand brushing over Buck's back before settling on his waist, giving it a squeeze as he leans over and places a bag of Theo specially selected oranges into their cart.
“Uh h-hey.” Buck stammers, feeling Tommy's cold eyes flitting between him and Eddie.
“Oh, hey Tommy. Didn't see you standing there.” Eddie smiles mildly, hand still sitting on Buck's waist, a hand that Tommy's eyes have now zeroed in on.
“Diaz. So he’s who you're married to? He’s your husband?” Tommy scoffs, looking between Buck and Eddie. “So you finally got together then?”
“Such astute observations.” Eddie sasses, his grip tightening on Buck’s waist as Theo walks around the pair and nestles into Eddie's legs.
Tommy huffs, shakes his head as he looks down at Theo, who buries his face further into the material of Eddie’s cargo shorts, hiding from the man staring down at him.
“And that's not Christopher.” Tommy states and Eddie snickers.
“Four for four Kinard. You're being really observant today.” Eddie snarks and Tommy’s jaw tightens in annoyance.
“Eds.” Buck says lowly, looking at the man plastered to his side. “Why don't you take Theo to get a coloring book, yeah?” Buck can see the hostility coming off Eddie in waves.
Eddie turns his attention to Buck, his eyes instantly softening.
“You sure?” He asks softly, hand shifting from his hip and instead running up and down Buck’s lower back.
Buck nods.
“Okay. Come on chiquito, let's go find you a coloring book.” Eddie addresses Theo, offering the little boy his hand, who grins widely up at Eddie and accepts the hand with a loud slap as Buck looks on, besotted.
Theo steps away, tugging at Eddie to follow, but before Eddie detaches himself fully from Buck he leans forward, big brown cow eyes fixed on Buck’s as he presses a ‘mwah’ kiss to Buck’s shoulder before quietly saying, “See you in a minute, okay?”
Buck can feel the blush burning his cheeks as he nods, gazing adoringly at Eddie as he steps away with Theo impatiently yanking on his hand, not even giving Tommy a second look.
“Can we get a coloring book for Chris?” Theo asks as he and Eddie make their way down the aisle.
“Of course we can mi chico. But you’ve got to choose it.” Eddie replies as he and Theo turn the corner and disappear out of view.
Buck stands there for a moment, eyes locked on the end of the aisle feeling his heart brimming with affection and an doting smile on his face.
Tommy’s voice breaks Buck from his EddieTheo induced trance and he turns his head slowly to look back at his ex, brows furrowed, he didn’t hear a word of what Tommy just said.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
Tommy scoffs loudly, shaking his head.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter.” Tommy says bitterly before manoeuvring his cart away and walking back the way Buck assumes he came from.
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Buck pulls the passenger door close and lets out a small sigh.
“You okay?” Eddie asks from the driver's seat, looking over at him while Theo sits in his child seat in the back, playing with the spider-man action figure he’d left in the truck earlier.
“Yeah. Yeah I’m good.” Buck answers, shooting Eddie a reassuring smile.
Eddie stares back for a long moment, eyes boring into Buck’s before he gives a single nod and looks away, leaving Buck blushing and smiling faintly to himself as he ducks his head.
“So what did he say?” Eddie enquires because he simply can’t not know what Tommy said while Buck was alone with him.
"Nothing important.” Buck shrugs, he doesn’t want to talk about his ex, because he’s an ex for a reason, while Eddie is his present and his future.
“Buck.”
“I’m serious. It was nothing important. He’s not important.” Buck states firmly and after a long moment of simply staring at him Eddie relents.
“You’re right. He’s not important. He never was and he never will be.” Eddie states confidently with a smile, as he turns the key in the ignition and Buck can’t help but chuckle at Eddie’s never ending dislike for his exes.
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