“Yes, surprisingly, considering everything going on, but, Jay, if you need your space, you have to tell me, okay?”
“I already said it last night,” he reminded her, “but I’m saying it again: You can stay as long as you need. Now what do you want to eat?”
“Toast,” she said without hesitation. “I want to give you money for living here until I sort out what I’m doing, Jay.”
“Okay, we can work it out.” He didn’t need her money, but he wasn’t telling her that.
“Jay—”
“Blue, let’s take this a day at a time. We’re going to be parents, and that in itself is enough to rock anyone back on their heels. Plus, you left your job and aren’t sure where you want to land or raise the child. Am I right?”
She nodded.
“Okay, so let’s just do this, live here together until we can work out what we want to do.”
She smiled. “I like to have a plan.”
“Me too. Spontaneous is a swear word as far as I’m concerned.”
“Jay.”
“Blue.” He looked at her.
“Have you looked at your DNA results?”
“No,” Jay said.
“Right, then, get your laptop, and let’s read them.”
“We’re having breakfast,” Jay protested, scrambling for any excuse he could come up with.
“I can butter toast, Jay,” she drawled.
“I like the butter to go on when it’s hot.”
Her nose wrinkled, which looked way too cute. “I like cold toast.”
“No one really likes cold toast,” Jay protested.
“Stop changing the subject and go get your laptop.”
“How about if I just say no.”
“We’re going to be parents. We need to learn to live outside our comfort zones, or so my mother told me—although when she’s ever done that, I have no idea.”
He didn’t want to, and since he was an adult, he didn’t have to, but Jay found himself moving. When he returned, his freshly buttered toast was on a plate, and a jar of peanut butter sat beside it.
“What if I don’t like peanut butter?”
She reared back, shock on her face. “Then I can’t live here, and you will not get to see this child when it is born.”
Snorting, he reached for the jar and slathered a big dollop of peanut butter on his toast. He then licked the knife.
“You know, in my house, for all my parents run a loose ship, that is considered the height of bad manners.”
“Ah, but this is my house,” Jay said licking the other side before putting it in the dishwasher.
They crunched in silence while he stared at his laptop.
