Page 2 of I Could Never

I swallowed. I wasn’t the greatest cook to begin with, let alone making chicken from scratch for a picky eater.Lord, help me. This was going to be a disaster. I’d been counting on the idea of being able to order takeout, at least for the first few days until I got my crap together.Guess that won’t be happening.“He doesn’t eatanythingelse?”

“Only eats that chicken for dinner. And his dessert needs to be lined up just so.” She lifted a photo. “I printed this so you can see how it’s done and also wrote it down on this sticky.”

She handed me the image of a napkin with cookies and other treats arranged in a linear pattern.

“What happens if things aren’t lined up correctly?”

“He gets upset, tosses everything on the floor.”

“Okay.” I gulped. “Well...if the chicken is his dinner, what does he eat during the day?”

“Either more of the same chicken or just crackers and pretzels. His main meal is dinner.”

“That doesn’t sound very healthy.” I frowned. “No vegetables?”

“You could try, but I’ve never had any luck. He spits them out.”

I sighed, turning to where Scottie was sitting on the couch, rocking back and forth as he blasted something on YouTube. At least he was content for the time being.

“Anyway, like I said, I’m late for my appointment. First time I’ve had a chance to go since I’ve been staying with Scottie. I’m sure you noticed my roots. You good?”

This woman could not flee the premises fast enough.

“I think so, but can I call you if I have any questions?”

“Of course, sweetheart. Don’t hesitate. I’ll always be around. I live just a few miles down the road.”

I blew out a breath. “Okay.”

Before I could say another thing, Lorraine was gone. It felt like a boulder had been placed on my chest.

Feeling lost, I stood in the middle of the house and looked around as jumbled sounds rang out from Scottie’s electronics. He must have had three different things playing on as many devices.

The décor in here was dark, from the paneling on the walls to the wrinkled, brown leather furniture. There were only two bedrooms in the one-level, log-cabin-style home. I peeked into one of them and immediately recognized it as Scottie’s. There were picture schedules hung up and tons of stickers of cartoon characters I didn’t recognize littering the walls, along with one framed picture of Elton John.Odd.

I smiled at a photo up on the bureau of Scottie with his brother, Brad.My Brad.Looking up at the ceiling, I spoke to my dead fiancé. “I know you would do the same for me. I love you, and I promise to keep him safe until I can find him a good home.”

As if someone up above wanted to challenge me on that, I looked through the doorway into the living room and saw Scottie standing on top of the end table by the couch. The table was dainty, and I doubted it could sustain his weight for very long.

I ran out into the living room. “Whoa! You might want to get down from there, buddy!”

He ignored me. Because he didn’t talk, I couldn’t ask him why he’d decided to do that.

About a minute later, he finally jumped down onto the floor, which caused the entire house to shake. Thankfully, he appeared unscathed. If he’d broken his ankle or something, that would have absolutely sucked. I wiped the sweat off my forehead.

Once Scottie had settled into his seat on the couch again, I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There wasn’t much inside: the Tupperware that contained the chicken and a few large jugs of cranberry juice. I had to assume that was Scottie’s favorite drink.

I still had so many questions. Would I take him with me to the grocery store, or was it easier to have groceries delivered? What time did he go to bed? Does he need anything to get to sleep at night? Lorraine was going to be getting a ton of questions from me later, whether she liked it or not.

Somehow, I managed to get through the rest of that afternoon. I mainly sat next to Scottie while he watched his videos or while he played with an app that featured a talking cat that spoke back to you. Since Scottie mainly grunted and hummed into the screen, the cat did the same. I tried to interact with it, but Scottie frowned whenever I joined in—he didn’t seem to appreciate my efforts. Pretty sure if he could talk, he’d ask why this dumb bitch had suddenly come to invade his space.

When it was finally time to sit him down to dinner, I tried a few different things to encourage him to leave the couch. Nothing worked until I held up one of the dessert items: an Oreo cookie. He seemed to get the idea and got up to sit at the table in the kitchen.

Scottie immediately picked up one of the pieces of chicken and took a bite. The dessert was lined up just as Lorraine had instructed me to in her note.

Put down one square napkin. At the bottom place two gummy vitamins. Above that, add a cheddar cheese stick. Above that, place four Junior Mints. Then at the very top of the napkin, place two Oreos. His favorite are the double-stuffed.

Thankfully, she’d also left me a shopping list of must-have items.

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