Hush Baby Hush

“And why aren’t you over there right now?” She turns the burner off under the pasta water.

“I promised I’d help you cook.” I take the potholders from her and wave her away from the stove. “Here, let me do that. It’s heavy.”

“You should have texted me. I would’ve ordered out.” She groans loudly. “What am I going to do with you, Kenzie?”

“You can say, thank you, bestie, for not blowing me off to go get laid.” I strain the pasta through the colander, then transfer the spaghetti into the pan with the sauce so she can toss it all together.

“This isn’t about getting laid. If all Austin wanted was to hook up with you, he would’ve done that already. Face it, Kenzie, he likes you.”

“Then there’s definitely something wrong with him.”

She frowns. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?” I meant it as a joke, but I can’t deny the kernel of truth beneath the dark humor. “I’ve never had a boyfriend. Never gone out on a real date. Then the guy I like says he doesn’t want to fuck me while I’m wasted, and I freak out.”

I scrape the chopped cucumbers into the bowl with the salad greens, avoiding Hollywood’s gaze. She doesn’t say anything for a long moment.

“Why did you go out with Jeremy last night?” she asks. “I didn’t think you liked him very much.”

“He’s not so bad.” I’m reluctant to tell her the reason I agreed to go out with Jeremy was to give her and Cal some time alone, because then I’d have to tell her how upset I was by our conversation about me switching rooms.

The doorbell rings.

“Can you get that?” she asks. “I need to babysit the garlic knots.”

I wipe my hands on a dishtowel and then make my way to the foyer. As soon as I open the door, three-year-old Joey rushes past my legs.

“Joseph Caleb Parkes, do not run in other people’s houses,” Teagan calls out. She sighs. “Please tell me you guys are serving something loaded with carbs, because he could really use the crash.”

“You’re in luck. It’s spaghetti night.”

“Perfect.”

I move aside so she can pass with her new baby, Lucy, in the detachable car seat. I almost shut the door on Teagan’s sister-in-law, Mary.

“Oh, sorry,” I say. “Holly didn’t tell me you were coming tonight.”

“That’s pregnancy brain for you,” Teagan says.

Mary smiles. “It was a last-minute invite. Hope you don’t mind me crashing.”

“Not at all.”

As a social worker and longtime friend of Cal’s, Mary has been a continual source of support. After I was found hiding in an abandoned mall a few days after the attack, she accompanied me throughout the hospital and held my hand during the invasive medical exams. I’ll always be grateful for her reassuring presence, even if her presence reminds me of difficult times.

We find Joey in the kitchen with Hollywood watching the garlic knots bake through the oven window.

“Hey, hon,” Teagan says to Hollywood, pulling her into a hug. “My tits feel like boulders. Do I have time to feed Lucy before we sit down?”

“Absolutely.” Hollywood welcomes a hug from Mary, and the two of them share a few words I can’t hear from where I’m standing.

“Kenzie.” Joey taps on my arm and beckons me down to his level.

I pop a squat. “You got something to tell me, dude?”

He nods. Joey’s a sweetheart. It’s always a treat when Jonah brings him into the office, an event that never fails to pit Mike and Austin against each other over who gets to be the first to give him a piggyback ride.

I cup my hand around the shell of my ear, playing along.