“You helping her with that?”
“No, I help out your mom.” I jabbed and scraped at the hard ice cream with the metal scoop.
“You don’t go over there?”
Here we go again.
I squared my shoulders. “I’ve brought my car there for a tune-up and to have my tires replaced. Another time, I dropped off a couple of things for Tania that she’d forgotten at home, and I hung out with Grace in her office and helped her answer a few phone calls before going to a doctor’s appointment.”
Fuck.
I still hadn’t told him I was a gestational surrogate for Grace and Lock. I was almost four months along now, and I needed to tell him. It shouldn’t be a big deal. It wasn’t like I had met someone else and was getting married and moving to the Philippines and taking Becca with me. But everything having to do with Catch made me anxious. His temper was mercurial, his reactions unexpected. A real Gemini.
His brow creased. “Doctor’s appointment for Becca? She okay?”
I got the dish out of the microwave and topped the warm cobbler with the ice cream.
“At her age, there are regular visits, vaccinations—that sort of thing.”
“Right.”
Great, and the lying begins.
I handed him the dessert. “Here you go.”
Catch dragged his spoon through the mound of sweet, creamy homemade goodness. He gouged out a heaping spoonful and shoveled it into his mouth. His brown eyes rested on me while he ate.
“It’s good, right? You like it?”
He nodded. “So”—he swallowed—“you like it here?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Yeah, Jill.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Why?”
“I really like your mom. She and Becca are great together, and it’s the best thing for your mom to have that kind of happy distraction right now. Becca has her grandmother in her life. She’ll never know my parents, of course.” I took in a tiny breath. It was still hard, still hard to talk about, to say out loud. “Now that Tania has come back to stay, it’s been fun.”
“Fun, huh?”
“Yeah, we all get along, enjoy each other’s company. It’s nice.”
One of his eyebrows rose as he shoveled in the last spoonful. “A real family.” His plum-smeared dish clattered on the counter at his side.
The same spot on the counter where Boner had fingered me to heaven a few days ago.
I cleared my throat. “We’re all a family, right? Becca misses you. If you had called us, we could’ve planned—”
“Been real busy lately. Hard to get away.”
“Things are good then?”
“Yeah, Finger gave me a few more responsibilities. It’s all good.”
“That’s great. I know that’s what you’ve been wanting.”
“Yeah.” He shifted his weight, staring at me, studying me.
I took his dish and brought it to the sink. “Rae is doing her exercises, and she actually feels better more often. She learned how to inject herself with her—”
“What are you talking about, inject herself?”
I rinsed his dish and tucked it in the dishwasher. “It’s one of the medications for MS, Catch. It’s really expensive, too, but luckily, her insurance is covering it—for now at least.”
“It took her a while to come to the door and open it. She was using a cane.”
“She uses a cane now and a walker.”
“It’s strange, seeing her have a difficult time moving. She was always a really active, independent person.”
“That’s what Tania said. We weren’t expecting you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken Becca out and left Rae to answer the door on her own. If she falls again—”
“We’re finished!” Rae called out.
I grabbed the microfiber dishcloth and went and picked up the empty bowl, wiping down the high chair’s table top.
“You want me to take the high chair back to the kitchen?” Catch asked at my side.
“Yes, please.” I unfastened Becca from the seat, and Catch took the chair.
“Someone was very hungry!” Rae laughed.
“You ate everything, didn’t you?” I said to my daughter.
She murmured something to me, her fingers in her mouth.
“Rae, I need to take a shower, and I can get that done before she needs a diaper change, which should be pretty soon. Is that okay?”
“Yes. You go on. Take your shower.” Rae shooed me with a hand.
“I got her,” Catch muttered, taking Becca in his lap.
I tossed her lilac and pink ponies onto the sofa next to him. Becca grabbed on to the lilac one right away, brandishing it in her dad’s face.
“I’ll be back in a bit.” I charged down the hallway toward the bathroom.
“Take your time, honey,” said Rae.
I closed the door behind me and took in a deep breath. Okay, so far, so good.