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Maybe I’d have to believe her someday.
Especially since Asher and I couldn’t be in the same room without tense silence or child-rearing conversations wedging between us. And none of them were about the baby I was carrying. We both kept avoiding that one.
It was all about Lily right now.
Safe in all ways. It was as if she was an actual mutual wall we spoke over every day like neighbors. Until the nighttime. Then we went to our separate corners. After we cleaned up from dinner and put Lily to bed, Asher would close himself into his home office and do…whatever it was moguls of large companies did. I wasn’t sure because he never shared anything with me.
Except the hot, heavy looks across the hallway in the middle of the night when we fought over who would take care of Lily when she awakened with one of a half-dozen needs. The last few nights had been teething in the extreme. Everything was fair game for her mouth lately.
I was pretty sure her drool was going to be part of my DNA soon.
“Girl, I’m never going to keep those five pounds off my ass if you keep cooking things with biscuits.”
I caught up to Gabby and met her at the huge kitchen island. “Keep those paws off my dough. It’s not done resting yet.”
“Speaking of, how many deliveries do I have to make today?”
“Seven.”
“Hey, that’s pretty good.”
I shrugged. “It’s growing slowly. Better than the three it was last week.”
“Word of mouth. My mom talks you up all the time. Of course, she calls your website the Facebook, but small steps.” She put air quotes around the word Facebook.
I laughed. “Are you sure I’m not keeping you from anything tonight?”
She pulled the top off one of the slow cookers and moaned. “Bathing suit season? What’s in there?”
“Beef stew.”
Before she could reach into the bubbling food and burn herself, I smacked her hand. “Sit, I’ll make you a bowl.”
She made a face at me but followed direction. “What time does the kiddo go to bed?”
“It’s only ten-thirty in the morning.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know, but I’m thinking about tonight already. I even brought a bottle of wine.” She glanced at her watch. “And it’s eleven, thank you.”
That wine was going to be a party for one. God, I had to tell her everything and I so didn’t know how. “I haven’t even made the gravy for this yet.” But I ladled out a bit of vegetables and meat because I knew she’d eat it regardless of the biscuits and gravy. “I can make you a sandwich.”
“Nope. I’m ready for whatever that is.”
I shook my head and added a little broth. “Thanks for coming over to help.”
“Sure. It’s easier for me to do the deliveries around the transcription work I do than for you to put Lily in a carseat. Not that a cute kid doesn’t help sell stuff. They’d probably think you were a single mom and double their order.”
I swallowed. That would be a true statement in a few months. “Yes, well, if things get a little bigger, we’ll both be making deliveries. At least that’s the hope.” I pushed aside the panic of telling my best friend all my news. “Anyway, that handy bilingual thing keeps you busy all the time, so it’s still a big ask.”
She waved me off and gave me heart eyes as I set down the food in front of her. “All good. It gets me away from the screen. Ugh. I love my mother’s food, but you do the best comfort food in the damn state.”
“Even if it doesn’t have Spanish spices?”
She hovered her nose over the bowl. “Rosemary is just as good.”
I floured the marble countertop and used my steel cutter to make little piles. “I added another half-dozen recipes to the site. Hopefully, that will make people want to try me out.”
“How many do you have cooking today?” She waved her spoon.
