“You sure?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Yes. I can boil some water and pour in the noodles. I know I've never been a culinary great, but I can do some stuff.” I laughed.
“That’s not what Ethan says.” She reached out and lightly punched my shoulder.
“Go before I put you to sleep.” She held up her tiny fist at me. Hugging her quickly I ran up the stairs before the dogs could hear me and follow. Once I was in my room I quickly undressed and hopped in the shower.
I turned the heat up and let my body soak up the warmth. I started thinking about the last few hours. It was crazy how much had changed. I was at rehearsal and then dropped everything and ran to Mark. Suddenly I felt dirty, thinking about what I had been doing when he hurt himself. I took the loofah and started scrubbing yesterday off of me.
Once I was out of the shower, I put lotion on and slipped on some pjs. Feeling relaxed, I fell asleep almost instantly.
I woke up naturally about four hours later, feeling refreshed and ready to deal with my husband. Grabbing some jeans and a shirt out of the closet I headed downstairs and was immediately met with hushed shouting from the kitchen.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“No! I’ve never made pudding on the stove. Is that what it’s supposed to look like?”
“I don’t think so. It smells gross. Dude, Renee’s gonna kill you.”
Reaching the ground floor, the smell of burning chocolate hit me like a wall. I ran into the kitchen and my jaw dropped.
Cleo and Derek spun around quickly, both looking extremely guilty. The room was a mess. I didn’t know where to look first. Why was it so hot in here? I rushed over to the stove and pushed past the two kitchen idiots and turned the burner off quickly, removing the disastrous mess from the hot spot. Turning back to them I slowly looked around.
The table had a casserole pan in the center with some chicken breasts in it. Someone had opened a can of cream of something and poured it on top of the meat. Only they didn’t spread it, so it sat wiggling like some weird yellow gelatin on top. I noticed a bag of stuffing next to the pan. It had been opened, no, ripped open. Bread crumbs were everywhere. The table, the floor, some did land in the pan.
The floor was covered in what looked like chocolate powder. The counters were covered with every ingredient these two felt like they needed to do whatever the hell they were thinking. The sink was filled with pans and plates, like they had fed a dozen people. I didn’t know how to react. I blinked a few times, took a few long, deep, breaths, and then looked back at the two guilty parties.
“What happened?” I said as calmly as I could.
“We were hungry and Cleo said not to wake you up,” Derek pointed at his partner in crime. She shot him a nasty glare.
“It’s almost dinner time. Derek didn’t want me to cook so he was in charge of the main dish. That was all him,” she motioned to the table.
“Yeah, well she was in charge of the dessert and look how that turned out.”
I put my fingers to my temples and rubbed them, closing my eyes. I really didn’t know how to talk to these two right now.
“Have you ever cooked food in your life Derek?”
“No, not really. Mark was the one who told me what to make. He said it was easy. Chicken, a can of soup, stuffing.”
“Have you ever opened a bag like a normal human being?” I shouted. He flinched.
“It was an accident. I was excited. I’ll clean it up. I can fix my mess. You’ll probably have to throw out the pudding pan,” he looked back at Cleo. I sighed deeply, trying to calm myself. I was not used to this kind of mess in my kitchen.
“Why were you making pudding?”
“Mark wanted some. He said you bought some and that’s all I could find. I must have not added enough milk or something. I’ll buy you a new pan. I promise,” she said, her big brown eyes turning to mournful puppy dog eyes. I gulped, nodded, and then went to the kitchen table. Looking at the casserole dish, I decided that this was still able to be fixed.
“Okay, both of you start cleaning. I’ll work on dinner.” Grabbing some green beans from the crisper in the fridge I set to work making dinner. Both of them apologized repeatedly, but I stayed focused on the task at hand.
I heard the front door open and after putting the casserole in the oven I went out to see who was there. Adrian was walking in with Rocky on his hip. Behind him Ethan came in with Blue as the twins followed behind. They saw me and lit up. The stress from the kitchen melted off me and I smiled genuinely for the first time since I woke up.
“Hey twins, what’s going on?” They hurried over to me.
“We’re here for dinner. My Dad said Uncle Mark is hurt, so we gotta be quiet and leave him alone,” Dallas said.
