“Have you eaten yet?” I ask him.
“Nope.”
“I guess I’m cooking you dinner then.”
“If you don’t want to cook, we can order take-out. Call Ryan and tell him I’m broken, he’ll probably even deliver it.”
I crack a smile. “You’re gonna milk this so bad, aren’t you?”
“I would convince you that a blow job is the best medicine, but I’m fairly certain an orgasm would cause me immense physical pain.”
“Good thing I like you for more than your body,” I tell him, pushing up off the ground. “What would you like for food?”
“I’m an easy customer. If you make a box of mac and cheese and warm up some chicken tenders in the oven, Cassidy and I will both be fine.”
“That’s not dinner. I’ll make real food. What’s her favorite vegetable?”
Instead of answering me, he calls down the hall, “Cassie, come tell Nikki what your favorite vegetable is.”
Cassidy trudges down the hall, wrinkling her nose up. “I don’t like vegetables. Yuck.”
Derek smirks at me.
I shake my head in refusal. “Nope. That’s not going to work. You need vegetables to make you big and strong.”
“Yuck,” Cassidy says again.
“Supergirl eats her vegetables,” I inform her.
“Well, I don’t,” Cassidy tells me.
“I’ll give you a dollar to eat five bites of broccoli. I’ll make it yummy. I’ll put cheese on it, just like macaroni and cheese. You won’t even think it’s a vegetable, it’ll taste so good.”
Cassidy contemplates this offer. “Big bites or little bites?”
“Big bites,” I stipulate.
“Two dollars,” she counters.
“Cassidy Marie Noble,” Derek says.
I can’t help smiling. “It’s okay, I admire her negotiation skills. Done, two dollars for five big bites. I need to go see what you have in the refrigerator.”
“Spoiler alert: not broccoli,” Derek tells me.
A quick trip to the refrigerator as well as the lengthy grocery list pinned on Derek’s refrigerator door tells me dinner is not going to happen unless I make a grocery run. Since he won’t be able to walk for a few days, he won’t be able to go grocery shopping, so I might as well do it for him. I pluck the list off the fridge and shove it into the shallow pocket of my jeans.
“All right, Cassidy, do you want to go to the store with me, or stay here with your dad?”
“Store, store, store,” she says, running to the door to put her shoes on.
“You’re not ready for this,” Derek tells me.
I walk in and kneel down by the couch again. “Do you need anything before I leave?”
“Hang on, let me grab my wallet.”
As he starts to move, I put a hand on his arm, shaking my head. “For what, the groceries? No, don’t worry about it.”