“What do you mean?”
Gunner leaned closer and kissed her forehead. “When she was pregnant with you.”
Zary finished her banana and then took another spoonful of cereal.
“No reaction?”
“To what?” she asked.
“Bananas making her feel better when she was pregnant.”
“I don’t understand.” What kind of reaction was he looking for?
Gunner set a small box on the tray next to her bowl.
“What is that?” she asked. When she read what the box said, her eyes opened wide.
“You figured it out,” he said, still smiling from ear-to-ear.
“No, Gunner. I’m not pregnant.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I can’t have children.” It was something she knew they’d have to talk about sooner or later, but with as hectic as things had been for them in the last couple of months, it hadn’t seemed urgent.
“Why do you think you can’t have children?” he asked. His scowl still hadn’t returned, as much as she’d expected it to.
“The Russian doctor…”
“They’ve been known to lie.” Gunner scrubbed his face with his hand. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, though.”
“Go ahead.”
“The first time…did I…did we…use a condom?”
She nodded. “Condoms. Plural.”
“I’m sorry I had to ask, Zary.”
“It’s okay.”
“So…take the test,” he said, opening the box and handing her a plastic stick.
She studied it. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Pee on it.”
“No!” she gasped, grabbing the box from Gunner to read the directions for herself. “I can’t believe it,” she said, setting the box down.
“It wasn’t just your mother who said bananas and cereal made her feel better. Ava said so too.”
She looked at the small box a second time. “I didn’t think…”
“Go do it, Zary,” he murmured.
She was slowly getting used to Gunner calling her by the name only her mother had called her both when she was little, and now too.
“What if…”