Meadow wore lime green today, with a matching band around her head to keep her hair in place. She looked like a stick of celery.
“It won’t be eating straight out of the womb, surely?” Blue protested. “I’m sure there is other stuff I should learn first.”
She really needed to decide on where she was going to live because staying in this household with her mother and brothers would not work.
Blue had lived alone for many years now and enjoyed her privacy but there was none of that here in the McAllister household. Her family were not quiet people. There was always music playing and people yelling over it. They were a family of strong opinions, and their wills clashed often.
Yes, her brothers were leaving soon, but Blue knew she couldn’t live with her parents long-term either. Well-meaning though the lectures were, she knew that by the time the baby arrived, she would be on her last nerve.
She grabbed one of the vegan crackers her mother had made her for nausea and bit into it. The nausea seemed to come in waves and mainly in the morning. Basil and Sage appeared, and she threw them two bits.
“There are, but this is where we are starting. Too many new mothers just go to the store to buy their baby food. You’re not doing that,” Meadow declared, brandishing a wooden spoon with the wordsEat beans, not beingsetched along the handle.
“Where are the boys?” Blue asked suddenly, realizing how quiet it was in the house.
“I hear voices, so I’m guessing they’re coming in for food.”
“But where have they been?” Blue pressed, her body going cold.
Had they slipped out, and she hadn’t noticed? She’d told them over and over not to talk to Jay, and they’d agreed—but had they agreed too readily?
Finch arrived first and smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Lynx was behind him.
“Hey, we’re hungry, Mom. Got anything we can eat while Blue makes coffee?” Finch asked, dropping into a chair at the table.
Lynx joined him. This brother wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Blue moved to the opposite side of the table and braced her hands on it. “Where have you two been?”
“Out.”
“Out where?”
“We have to tell you what we’re doing if we leave the house now?” Finch asked.
Blue narrowed her eyes as Lynx reached for the plate his mother handed him. She noted the red, swollen knuckles on his right hand.
“Why are your knuckles damaged, Lynx? Did you track down Jay?” Blue demanded.
“We ran into him. No big deal,” Finch said quickly.
“Calm down, Blue. It’s not good for the baby to get all worked up,” Lynx said, adding more fuel to the fire that had started raging inside her.
“Don’t you tell me to calm down, you Neanderthal.”
“Blue—”
“Did you just punch Jay Haddon, Lynx?” she demanded. “Tell me,” she added, bringing her fist down on the table hard.
The action made her brothers flinch.
“He had it coming,” Lynx muttered.
Blue straightened, breathing hard. She then walked across the kitchen and back again, hoping it would cool her down. It didn’t. “We had sex. Sex that I wanted?—”
“Stop.” Finch had his hands over his ears now.
“You need to both grow the fuck up and understand that! I don’t go after every woman you f—sleepwith,” she snapped. “How do I know you don’t have kids out there?”
