Page 28 of Consume
As we walked through the swinging doors, Randolph waved from in front of the open pantry door. I blew him a kiss which he caught and held to his chest. Pop turned from the stove and then dropped the empty pot he’d been holding.
“Eli—” He made a sound like all the air had vanished from his lungs while he took in the state of her from head to toe. It had been two months since he’d last seen her aboard theNebulous, and from her drastic change in appearance, it might as well have been a lifetime.
The next second, the three of us clung to each other, careful of Ellison’s arm, all our worries momentarily forgotten now that our little family was back together again.
When I didn’t think I could cry anymore, I pulled away and heaved a breath. “All I want to do is watch a bad movie with you two and eat river beans until I pop.”
They chuckled and nodded, wiping their eyes.
“Your arm, Ellie.” Pop gingerly touched her shoulder. “What happened?”
“It’s fine. Where’s Josh?” Ellison asked. “Is he here too?”
“He—” I had no idea where he was. He’d been with the captain outside the Byrian mansion, and then... What had happened? The captain had said if we weren’t out in thirty, they’d come in and get us, but they hadn’t. “I don’t know.”
“From what the captain said earlier,” Pop began, “it sounds like we’ll have a full ship for dinner.”
“It’s a good night for sandwiches, buffet style, and vegetable soup,” I said, my stomach growling in agreement. Suddenly I was famished.
Randolph beamed as though I were a culinary genius. Which I was.
“Brilliant.” Pop grinned and kissed me on the forehead. “I like the way you think.”
“I learn from the best.” I winked at Randolph who now glowed brighter than the blue pantry light behind him.
“I’ll help,” Ellison said. “We can catch up, Pop.”
Ah, right. Then she could tell Pop she was pregnant, too. He’d also be meeting Mase for the first time, witness his lack of a filter and zero-fucks-given policy for who saw our public displays of affection. This was exactly what I wished my life was and the extent of my worries. What Pop would think of the man who’d knocked me up, not how to save two planets filled with people who would rather see me hanged. Normal girl stuff, or at least what I perceived as normal inside my haunted head.
“You first,” Ellison said to Pop. “How could theNebulouslet you go after working for them for years?”
Randolph and I didn’t let them help prepare dinner as they caught up, but Randolph was subtle about it. I could tell he didn’t want to startle Ellison by yanking drawers out. Best to ease into the fact he was still here.
She stalled by asking more and more questions of Pop, and I got the feeling she needed privacy or a nudge or some liquid courage even though she couldn’t have any.
“I’ll go tell the others dinner’s ready.” I squeezed Ellison’s hand, and she squeezed back just as hard. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Sure you don’t want to stay?” she asked.
“I need to go talk to a man about a baby anyway.” Exactly like what she needed to do, by herself, like a big girl. I started out the door.
“Good luck,” she whispered after me.
“You too.” As soon as I said it, Pop stopped stirring the bubbling soup on the stove and whipped his head toward Ellison. I turned, my tongue poised to take that back and replace it with something else, but the double doors swung shut and smacked me in the nose. Point taken, doors. Well, maybe I’d paved the way for her.
Now, it was my turn.
Out in the hallway, I turned right, trying to sort out everything I needed to say to Mase before I even brought up the baby. There was so much, but all I really wanted was for him to hold me. I’d missed his warmth and his musky scent, how we used to spend our nights talking about random, unimportant things when we weren’t making babies. I realized we didn’t have time for any of that now, that I needed to be semi-quick and to the point, but I’d missed him. I’d missed the man who’d stolen my heart and had helped to teach me self-acceptance.
It didn’t take long to find him. From the hallway to my left, voices carried from the infirmary, and not the happy kind. Mase and Poh from the sound of it.
“Look. All I’m saying is that maybe you should’ve mentioned you got shot back there,” Mase said as I pushed open the door. He stood on the opposite side of the room near the counter of medical supplies, still dressed in the light blue pants and shirt. Poh stood near the gurney with a wad of bandages pressed to her stomach. “I’m only trying to help.”
“Your pretty boy makes a terrible doctor.” Poh pointed at Mase but spoke to me without looking anywhere near me.
Mase glanced over his shoulder and smiled, the irritation etched across his forehead fading. Even though I’d just seen him minutes ago, the sight of that smile, the sight of himhere, weakened my knees and spiked my pulse.
I shrugged, but all my questions and doubts about Poh stiffened my shoulders. “He’s pretty good at other things, though.”
