Page 57 of Bringing Home the Bacon
“I loved your text,” she says, shocking the hell out of me.
“You did? When you didn’t respond, I assumed you thought it was weird.”
“Oh, it was hella weird. The weirdest!” she confirms. “But do you remember what I said all those months ago back in your apartment? I like my guys with a touch of weird.”
“That’s a singular guy now, right? Not to get nitpicky, but back then, you said you like your guys—plural—with a touch of weird.”
“There’s really only one guy I want these days,” she says, and I’ve never wished I could be in the same room with someone more.
“That’s good,” I say. “Because there’s only one woman I want and?—”
“I’m not ready to say ‘I love you’ yet, Bacon. You should know that.”
I nod in the dark even though she can’t see me.
“Totally understand. Colleen, that’s not why I said it?—”
“You said it because you were drunk,” she gently accuses.
“No,” I say firmly. “I said it because I meant it. Correction: I mean it. And I don’t expect anything back. I promise.”
“I like you so much it scares me.” She pauses. “That’s what I can say.”
“Works for me, Chef. I’m scared too.”
“You are?” Her voice pitches upward, like my admission delights her. “Wait, why did you call me Chef?”
“In restaurants, it’s customary for everyone working in the kitchen to call each other chef. Shows that we’re all on the same team.”
“Oh,” she breathes.
“You and I? We’re on the same team now.”
“I like the sound of that,” she says and lets out a yawn.
“So do I.” I curl up on my side, still staring at the wall, wishing we were face-to-face. “By the sounds of it, we should let you get some sleep.”
“Do you have plans in the morning?” she asks.
“Lady, my only plan is you.”
“Okay. Because I made myself an OB-GYN appointment tomorrow morning to confirm the pregnancy and have my first ultrasound.”
“Wow. That’s really?—”
“Will you come with me?” she asks.
“Colleen, nothing would make me happier.”
“Great,” she says, and I can hear the smile in her voice, even through this farmhouse wall. “Good night, Chef.”
“Good night, Chef.”
Chapter 19
Colleen
I’m sitting on a medical table, naked from the waist down, with only a thin paper sheet covering my lap and feeling equal parts anxious and excited.
