“I’m here because I received a call from Bull. Apparently, you’re on your deathbed, and I had to get over here to take care of the hellions, but you look okay to me,” she says, looking me up and down.
Hearing those words melts my heart. I have never had anyone who goes above and beyond to take care of me, which only has me falling even more in love with him. With everything going on in his life right now, Bull still makes the time to make sure I’m alright.
“He thinks I’m pregnant.”
“WHAT?”
“Shh,” I say, quickly glancing into the kitchen to make sure the girls aren’t listening. The last thing I need is for a little person to accidentally mention it to their father. All hell would break loose.
“Settle down. I’m not, thanks for your concern,” I say with a small smile. “I can’t be anyway. We’ve been completely safe, but I’m still feeling sick from your cooking the other night. It’s killing me. I think this has been the worst so far, Zo. You cannot be responsible for cooking ever again.”
A wave of nausea comes over me, and I prop myself against the wall. “You're turning very white,” Zoey comments. “Are you sure you’re okay? Nobody else is still sick.”
“I’m not sure,” I tell her, shaking my head as I place my hand on my stomach.
She steps back from me as though she could catch my food poisoning germs. “Could you be pregnant?”
I laugh off the preposterous question as I walk past her into the kitchen. “No, I’m sure. Your cooking sucks, that’s all.”
“Maybe you should take a test just in case,” she suggests, picking up a few of the barbie dolls and putting them away properly.
“Nah, it’s fine. It’s just food poisoning. But speaking of, I’m starving.”
Walking past the girls, I give them each a small kiss on the top of their heads before heading into the kitchen. I haven’t eaten anything today, so I know my shit mood is more to do with that than anything else.
I move to the cupboard and start looking for something that will satisfy my craving and realize I’m in desperate need of groceries. I get onto my tippy toes, trying to see if there’s anything hidden in the back that might fix this hunger.
Spotting a can of unopened pickled cucumbers, I nearly do a happy dance. Perfect. I jump up and down, trying to reach the bottle, and once I grab it, I throw the fridge door open and find the block of cheese. I wedge it under my arm as I move to grab the crackers, salivating at the contents laid out before me. Delicious. I haven’t had this in ages.
Grabbing a butter knife, I start layering on butter before cutting the cheese and picking out a few cucumbers. Though, I’m not going to lie, there were a few detours past my mouth before making it onto the cracker.
Zoey scrunches up her face, watching me with disgust. “Gross.”
“Not gross,” I tell her, shaking my head.
“That’s a very interesting concoction you have going on there.”
“No, it's not. I haven’t had it in a while, though,” I say, spinning the jar around in my hand, trying to find the expiration date.
Zoey walks around the kitchen and grabs hold of Ryan, placing her down on the ground like I should have down ages ago. “What are you looking for?”
“Just trying to work out if these are still good to eat,” I say, continuing to look over the glass jar.
“How come?”
“Because I don’t remember when I bought it. It could have been up in that cupboard for years for all I know.”
“Hmmm,” Zoey grins, taking a seat at the table. “I’d bet that it’s probably been in there for two years.”
“Why do you say that?” I question, tapping the top of the jar to see if the seal is broken.
She scoffs in that irritating tone she generally saves for all of her ‘told you so’ moments. “Because the last time you were eating shit like that was when you were pregnant with Coby,” she answers, smug as fuck.
I stop what I’m doing and take in all the ingredients I have laid out before me. Dread begins to fill my veins, making me feel ill as I frantically look up at Zoey with fear in my eyes. “It’s probably just a coincidence,” I stutter, trying to play it off. “I mean, it’s all I have in my cupboard.”