Page 51 of Ruin
“Just close the trunk,” he says, grabbing the last bags. He heads toward his house, and I shut the trunk, then go in after him.
“This is ridiculous,” he comments as he puts the bags down.
“It’s necessary.”
“This food is going to go bad.”
“You’ve never lived with a pregnant person,” I say with a laugh, reaching down to grab the bags with perishable food in it, so I can put it away. “When Beth was pregnant—“ I snap my mouth shut but quickly add, “Never mind.”
It was a stupid thing to say. Talking to him about her is stupid. He used to say he didn’t mind, and I took him at his word, but when he exploded, the truth came out.
I don’t know if he was trying to make himself okay with it or if he just lied to me to impress me. Either way, I wish he had been honest about how it made him feel. Maybe knowing that he wasn’t okay with it the entire time would have lit a fire undermy ass to move faster with a divorce. Or maybe I should have known all along.
“It’s fine,” he says, but I hear the bitterness in his voice. “How is she?”
“She’s… fine.”
“Does she know you’re here?”
“Yes,” I say carefully.
“Why isn’t she with you?” he asks.
I see the anxiety written all over his face. I open my mouth to tell him the truth, even though I didn’t want to do it so soon. I needed us to be in a better place before I explained everything, but he needs to hear this. He needs to know.
“We—”
“Sorry to bother you—” Our heads turn toward the stairs. Anastacia is standing there, wearing Kolton’s clothes that are much too big for her. She looks comfortable, though. Her hand protectively rests on her belly. “Could I have something to eat?”
“Of course,” I say. “I was just going to make dinner.”
“Were you?” Kolton asks, whipping his head toward me.
I flash him a grin. “I was.” I bring my attention back to her. “But I bought a ton of snacks if you want something to hold you over until then?”
“Yes, please.” She comes over, looking down at all the food in the bags and the stuff I’ve already laid out on the counter. “Wow, this is a lot of food.”
It’s sad that she thinks this is a lot of food. It’s not.
“Take anything you’d like,” I tell her.
Though I focused on healthy stuff because it’s better for her and the baby, I did grab some junk food as well because what is life without a little splurge every now and then? Especially for a soon-to-be-mom. She reaches for a container of Greek yogurt and grabs the tray of premade brownies. I chuckle as I pull open a couple drawers to find her a spoon.
“Are you sure this is okay?” she asks as I hand her the spoon.
“It’s fine.”
“Just sit at the table, please. I don’t like crumbs on the furniture,” Kolton says with a sigh.
She nods, her eyes going a little wide. Then she goes over to the table to eat her snack.
I chuckle to myself as I think about Kolton with a baby and how he would handle that. Maybe not so much the baby, but a toddler who gets into everything.
We put the groceries away, and he carries her things upstairs while I work on dinner. When she finishes her snack, she goes to her room to put it all away.
It’s odd how comfortable she is here. It’s like the part of her brain that recognizes dangerous situations is defective. If you’re in an unknown house with strangers and people after you, there should be a sense of fear. But she’s comfortable. It’s not necessarily a bad thing because I know Kolton will take care of her, but if she had come across someone else…
“How do you want your steak cooked?” I ask Kolton.
