Page 34 of Twenty Years Later

"Oh, I'm fine," she said, her voice a little high. "Just a day of rest, laundry, and getting back to the routine, you know?"

Yeah, I did know. After that weekend that had rocked my whole world. "Mm-hmm. I get that."

"How about you?" she asked.

"Nothing too exciting here. Just worked today and then a quiet night with Gabby. Well, actually not such a quiet night. But we survived it." I glanced at the monitor and saw a peaceful sleeping baby, thank God.

"Ooh, that sounds rough," she said with empathy. "What happened?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, actually, it was pretty rough. She cried a lot and wouldn't eat a thing."

"Hmm. What'd you try to feed her?"

"Mac and cheese."

A sound came through the phone that resembled a smothered laugh. "Again?"

"What? It's her favorite," I defended myself.

This time she didn't try to hide her laughter. "Right. But she might appreciate a little variety sometimes."

I sighed, thinking about what else I could feed her besides the usual few foods I knew she liked.

"Sorry," Jayda said. "I don't mean to laugh. It's actually pretty cute."

"Cute, huh?" I'd take that.

"Yeah, cute," she said, her tone a little shy.

Man, I really wanted to see her face, see if she had that adorable blush that crept up from her chest to her cheeks. Next time, I'd definitely do video.

She cleared her throat. "So anyway, I can email you some food ideas, you know, some links if you'd like. Not that I'm an expert or anything."

"Yeah. That'd be great. Thanks. I appreciate that." There was a pause, and I tried to think of what else to say.

"But at this age, you can also just feed her a little of whatever you're eating too," Jayda said. "If I remember correctly."

"Hmm, I can try that. I mean, I usually just pick dinner up on the way home, like Greek, Cuban, or something like that."

"Ah, nice. Are you a guy that actually eats vegetables?" she teased.

"What are vegetables?" I joked back.

As we both laughed, I wished again that I could see her. Ah, hell, who was I kidding? I wished I could be thereright next to her. But I wasn't.

"Well, I'm one to talk," she said. "I'm probably the worst cook in the world."

"No way. I don't believe that." There was something Jayda was bad at?

"Oh, yes. I'm super impatient and burn everything," she admitted. "I even burned hard-boiled eggs once."

"You did not. How is that even possible?"

"I forgot to set the timer, and all the water boiled off. I heard this weird popping noise from the living room, and I came running in to see burnt eggshells that were exploding."

I couldn't hold in my laughter. "I had no idea."

"Well, now you know. But there's one thing I'm really good at."

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