Page 53 of My Little Doe
“You’re always welcome,” I said, cutting her off.
“Thanks, but I have evening church to get to, plus he’s outside brooding back and forth, like he ain’t listening, anyway,” she said.
As I stood up from the chair, she was already there, pulling me into a hug. I froze for a moment, unsure what to do with it. My mom wasn’t a super affectionate person, and hugging anyone but the few people I did hug felt awkward. Actually, now that I think about it, Aspen and Brenden were the only ones I hugged regularly. Brenden was more than a hug. It was more like I’d run and jump into his arms.
Once she let go, I walked her to the door. Quinnlyn pulled her into a hug before she got into her truck and left. I headed back inside, grabbed my plate, and headed for the sink. Moments later, he was standing next to me, reaching for the plate in my hand.
“No, I got it,” I said.
“Let me at least do everything until Friday, okay?” He moved closer, our sides nearly touching.
I made a grumble sound at him and let him have the plate. He flashed me a smile before it quickly faded. I went to one of the chairs and sat down. The rocking chair still sat there, but neither of us sat in it. One of the wing-backed chairs was light blue, and the other light green. I always found myself in the blue, and he in the green one.
“Can we get rid of the rocking chair?” I asked him.
He froze. I tilted my head.
“Or not?” I said.
“I’m… umm… I’d prefer not,” he said.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it meant anything to you,” I said.
“Why don’t you like it?” he said.
“It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that when I look at it, it reminds me of Izayuh. Like it was put here for me to rock him, but he’s not here to rock,” I said.
“I’ll take it to my Titi’s house,” he said.
“No, it’s okay. It means something to you, it can stay. It’s not always about me,” I said.
“It was about you—”
“Huh?” I said.
“Nothing, it’s not important. It doesn’t mean enough to stay here, but no, we can’t just destroy it either,” he said.
“What did you mean?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“Just say it… I’m not that damn fragile,” I said, annoyed.
“It’s not always about you, remember,” he said.
“Yeah…” I said.
Chapter 17
Two weeks and two days since Izayuh was born. The moon was expected to be a complete new moon this evening, which meant tomorrow would be the first night Quinnlyn would have to shift since we’d been here. We hadn’t really talked about what he would do or what I’d do.
I felt back to myself, except for the emotional waves that hit me. Physically, it hadn’t felt like I even gave birth. All the milk had dried up. I hadn’t spotted in days. The pendant around my neck was a reminder that I indeed gave birth. I’d agreed to let him wait on hand and foot until today. I decided that I’d start making meals and doing some of the house chores. There wasn’t much to do. We didn’t have a lot there anyway.
I opened the door slowly, heading for the kitchen. We went to one of the small grocery stores a couple of days ago, and we’d picked up everything for biscuits and gravy. It was something I was really good at making. Quinnlyn was lying on the floor on top of a sleeping bag. As I looked at him and then looked at the kitchen, there was no way I was gonna be able to cook without waking him up. I tried anyway. As soon as the sausage started sizzling in the pan, he rolled over and twisted his head up at me.
“I would have made you breakfast,” he mumbled.
“Yes, I could have let you, but I like to do for myself. You said that you would let me help as of today,” I said.
