Molly - Sarah Monzon Page 0,17
moved with my manipulation, but beard? Really? Maybe I should pick up some wax at the store on my way home and say adios to the peach fuzz sideburns.
Pulling Chloe’s hand from my cheek, I managed to force a smile down at her. Definitely time for one of those redirects Mrs. Bardawski always said I should utilize more. “I think maybe it’s lunch time, hmm?”
She jumped from my lap and ran to the kitchen. Before I rounded the large island, she’d flung the refrigerator door open so wide I feared it would fall off its hinges. Thankfully the stainless-steel door didn’t ricochet back around and knock her in the head. After Ben’s panic this morning at seeing me at the hospital, a call informing him I’d let Chloe give herself a concussion probably wouldn’t go over so swell.
I reached for the jar of strawberry jelly beside a half gallon of milk. Thankfully I’d already settle on PB&J for lunch, because there didn’t seem to be a lot of variety sitting on the appliance’s shelves. “How does peanut butter and jelly sound?”
“With chips!”
I slid the vegetable crisper open and grabbed a bag of baby carrots. “With chips and carrots.”
“Yay!” Chloe raced under my arm and pulled out a chair from the eat-in kitchen table.
The jelly, carrots, and a loaf of bread went beside her plate, then I opened the pantry in search of peanut butter. Little flies didn’t buzz at me like in the cartoons when the door opened, but there also wasn’t a whole lot of food on the shelves. Not exactly old mother Hubbard, but closer to that than the food stores of a doomsday prepper. I grabbed the peanut butter, quickly slathered a layer and some jelly onto slices of bread, and slid a sandwich over to Chloe.
I remembered the tired bags under Ben’s eyes. The slope of his shoulders. He’d mentioned long shifts at the hospital, so he probably hadn’t had time to do much grocery shopping lately.
“You know what we should do, Chloe?” I said around a sticky mouthful of PB&J.
“What?” Her teeth crunched into a carrot.
Household chores like cleaning and cooking hadn’t been a part of the deal Ben and I had struck up—after all, he hadn’t advertised for a Mrs. Doubtfire—but determination to help him with more than just Chloe ground in me with conviction.
I pushed Chloe’s juice box closer to her so she could reach it. “We should do something special for your dad. Wouldn’t it be fun to surprise him with a nice dinner when he comes home from work?”
Her eyes grew round. “Yeah.”
“After lunch, let’s go to the store and buy the ingredients to make something really yummy.”
“Okay.” She munched on a chip. “What kind of ʼgredients are we going to get?”
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. “What do you think we should make for dinner?”
“Cake!”
Served me right for asking a four-year old. “Maybe we can make cake for dessert, but that probably wouldn’t be good for the whole meal.”
She shrugged and took another bite of her sandwich.
“What else do you like?”
“Pizza!”
At this rate I might as well buy a piñata and have a kid’s party. Note to self, don’t ask a child what to make for dinner. But I did want to cook something the whole Reed family would enjoy. Cooking a dinner that Chloe would turn her nose up at wouldn’t alleviate much stress from Ben’s shoulders.
This predicament called for advice from an actual parent. And since dinner was supposed to be a surprise, I couldn’t call Chloe’s dad. I pulled out my phone and dialed Nicole.
She picked up after the second ring. “What’s up, girl?”
I turned in my chair to scan the pantry shelves, looking for inspiration. “When Sierra was four, what kind of meals did you prepare that you both ate and enjoyed?”
“What?” she asked on a breathy laugh. “That has got to be the most random question I’ve been asked lately.”
Oops. Should have started with context. “Sorry. It’s for the new job I told you guys about. I’m going to cook dinner, but I’m not sure what would be something both Chloe and her dad would like, and it’s a surprise, so I can’t ask him.”
“Okay, well, I doubt you’re calling to ask me for my tofu curry recipe—which is to die for, by the way. But with kids, you need to keep it simple. Spaghetti, but with sauce on the side. A taco bar so they can pick what goes in the shells. Hot dogs.