Page 61 of Knocked Up by my Rival

Rory nodded, satisfied by my answer, but a lump rose in my throat. Rachel would fight tooth and nail to get back to her kids, but what if something went wrong and she didn’t make it through? What if this thing was bigger than she was and she just couldn’t make it?

Terror clutched my heart with icy fingers, and I shivered.

Be positive, I told myself.It’s going to be okay.

I just wished I knew that for a fact rather than hoping for the best without knowing for sure that it would work out right.

“I’m hungry,” Benjamin proclaimed when the sun sank lower in the sky.

“Let’s get a snack,” I suggested. “And then we’ll have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. How does that sound?”

“I like spaghetti and meatballs,” Troy said. “It’s my favorite.”

“It’s not better than pizza,” Benjamin stated.

“I don’t know, a good meatball can change lives, you know,” Troy said solemnly, and I laughed.

Benjamin crinkled his nose, but Tammy walked to Troy and took his hand.

“I liked spaghetti and meatballs best, too.”

Troy grinned at her. “We’ll have to stick together, you and I. Convince the rest.”

Tammy nodded in determined agreement, and I stood, putting Rory down. Her lip quivered, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but she didn’t start crying again.

In the kitchen, I put out cookies and milk for the kids the way Rachel always did it. They sat at the kitchen table on their usual seats and ate and chatted and played. I watched them, leaning my hip against the counter.

“How are you doing?” Troy asked.

“I’m okay,” I said. “I’ll be better once I know the facts, but I’m okay for now.”

Troy nodded, hesitating before he spoke again.

“Can I talk to you later?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Their TV time is in a minute, then I’ll get the food going and we can chat.”

Troy nodded, and my stomach twisted. What did he want to talk about? He’d asked me in such a weird way, making a thing of it.

When the kids were done with their cookies and milk, I sent them to the TV room where Tammy knew how to put on a show for them. I wiped Rory’s hands with a wet cloth before she ran away, and we were left alone in the kitchen.

I sighed and rinsed the cloth, hanging it over the sink before I took spaghetti out of the pantry and put the kettle on to boil.

I found meatballs in the freezer, marinara sauce in the pantry, and Rachel’s fridge was stocked with salad ingredients.

“What can I do?” Troy asked.

“If you’ll put a salad together… I don’t know how long I’ll be here with the kids, so best get the idea of healthy food in their heads right off the bat.” I tried to offer a smile but it was a wan one, my emotions getting the better of me again when I talked about how long I was going to be here.

“On it,” Troy said, and he took lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, feta and avocado out of the fridge. I found a chopping board for him, and he sat down at the table to do his thing while I poured boiling water over the spaghetti to soften it.

“What did you want to talk about?” I asked, focusing on the way the pasta got softer, bending in the hot water until I could submerge all of it.

“The project for Johnson and Toussaint,” Troy said.

“Did he come back with a date for the presentation?” I asked, alarmed. I wasn’t ready to present right now. I had it all worked out but my head wasn’t in the game. “I don’t know if I can do it right now, I—”

“No, no,” Troy said, cutting me off in the middle of my panic. “It’s not that. There’s no date yet, and I think it will be a while still. You don’t have to worry.”

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