13.

Even though thousands of people pass away in them every year, you never really hear about a haunted old folks’ home.

C YDNEY

“Do you remember that time I fell off the roof onto the fence and broke every bone in my body?” I asked Gracy and Amethyst as I psyched myself up to turn over so I could get out of bed. “This is what that feels like.”

“If I remember correctly, you bruised your ribs,” Amethyst corrected.

“And, I could be wrong here, but didn’t she push you off the roof?” Gracy asked.

“Not that time.” I had just sat up in bed and was letting my feet dangle over the edge when I glanced over at Dice and saw him staring at the three of us in confusion and what looked like a little disbelief. “When she pushed me off the roof, I landed on the trampoline.”

“I pushed you because you were too big of a baby to jump without some encouragement.”

“She pushed you off the roof?” Dice asked in shock.

“Just that one time,” I explained as I stretched my foot to see if I could touch the ground. Dice jumped up from his chair and rushed over to help me, and I smiled up at him as I grasped his forearms and scooted slowly toward the edge of the bed. “Honestly, I’ll take this pain over the nausea I’ve been feeling for the last fourteen years.”

“It was like a week, Squid,” Gracy scoffed.

I shot a glare at my sister and mumbled, “Shut up.”

“I’ve got you, babe,” Dice murmured as I slid off the bed and put my feet on the floor. He held me steady as I caught my breath, and when I smiled up at him, he leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. “Are you okay? Want me to carry you?”

“You can’t carry me everywhere.”

“Bet me.”

“I thought you didn’t like to gamble.” Dice raised one eyebrow and made me laugh, but then I moaned when the muscles in my abdomen started to protest again. “I feel like someone kicked my ass. Shit, this sucks.”

“Are we just going to gloss over the fact that your supposed best friend pushed you off a roof?” Dice asked incredulously.

“It was more of a gentle nudge,” Amethyst argued.

“Do not make me laugh,” I ordered as I bit my lip to hold my laughter back at the look of shock on his face. “In my defense, I may have done a little damage to her over the years.”

“She knocked out my front tooth with a bat!” I glanced over and found Amethyst pointing at her mouth and smiled when Gracy laughed. “I was maimed horribly and had to deal with that for years, and you’re laughing at me?”

“You hit her with a bat?” Tiny asked, just as shocked as Dice.

“You act like I busted out your tooth six months ago! It was a baby tooth, drama queen.”

“And in every one of my pictures until I was . . . I don’t know . . . fourteen or something, I looked like a gap-toothed hillbilly.”

“I would have guessed a pediatrician would know that most kids get their permanent front teeth by the time they’re eight,” I said sarcastically as I started shuffling toward the bathroom. “Did you skip that class in med school?”

“It’s my story, Squid. You can see yourself out of it.”

“Mom just sent a text asking what you want to eat,” Gracy told me as she looked up from her phone.

“Pizza! No, I want chicken. Spicy wings with a side of ranch dressing and all the fries she can carry.”

“Not a good idea, Squid,” Amethyst warned. “Remember what the doctor said? Stay away from fried or spicy foods for a while.”

“Then what am I supposed to eat?” I asked incredulously. “This is Texas. I can’t think of anything that’s not spicy, fried, covered in cheese, or all of the above at one time! I’m going to starve to death!”

“I think it’s funny that the woman with the world’s biggest sweet tooth can’t have sugar,” my sister said gleefully.

“I can’t have sugar?” I yelled without thinking. The muscles in my stomach complained, and I took a deep breath in through my nose as I waited for the pain to subside. When it eased a little, I said, “I must have missed that part. Go ahead and kill me now.”

“Just for a little while until your body adjusts to its new normal,” Dice said placatingly. “I’m sure you can get back to whatever diet you used to have soon.”

“I wouldn’t consider anything the woman put in her mouth part of a balanced diet,” Amethyst scoffed. “Have you ever looked in her pantry?”

“I eat a balanced diet!” I argued as I let go of Dice’s hand and turned to shut the door.

“Yes, a balance of carbs, icing, pastry, and whipped cream,” Amethyst called out.

Dice ignored her, and as I stepped back, he reminded me, “Call out if you need help, and don’t forget to use the bars in there to help you.”

Once the door was shut, I tried to take a deep breath but was hindered by the pain in my shoulder. Apparently, I was filled with bubbles like some sort of kids’ toy, and they were all making their way to the top where they’d stay until my body absorbed them or I lost my shit and started poking holes in my skin to let them escape. It was a toss-up as to which would be less painful at this point.

It took some effort, but I finally got my sweatpants down and sat on the toilet to relieve myself. Once I was finished, I used the handicap bars to pull myself up to a standing position and then shuffled over to the sink to wash my hands.

I had just gotten the water temperature set to something barely warmer than an icy mountain stream when I happened to catch my reflection in the mirror.

“Holy shit!” I yelled without thinking.

The bathroom door flew open so hard that it banged against the stopper and bounced back, hitting Dice as he rushed into the room.

“What’s wrong?” he barked as he pushed it out of his way so he could get to me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I hissed in exasperation, realizing that he’d probably been listening at the door. “Why didn’t anyone tell me that I look like something that just crawled out of the swamp?”

“You look fine, sweetheart,” Dice said as he stared at me in the mirror.

“You don’t look any different than you always do,” my sister called out from my room. “Since when have you had a problem looking like a swamp witch?”

“Fuck off,” I called out as I glared at my reflection. “You said you’re an only child, right? Be thankful.”

“I am an only child, although I always wished I had a brother or sister so I hadn’t been alone.”

“I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me.” I reached up and tried to tame my hair, but it was no use. I let my hand drop down to my side as I sighed in resignation. “I look horrible.”

“You look beautiful,” Dice argued. He winced before he said, “You don’t exactly look like you did when I met you, but this is a different circumstance.”

“You do realize that I’m probably never going to look exactly like I did when we met, right?”

“And I don’t care at all,” Dice insisted as he walked up behind me and settled his hand on my hips before he leaned down to rest his chin on my shoulder. “What’s going on inside you right now is perfectly natural, and whatever changes it creates in your body will be because you’ve done something I’ll never be able to, and I’ll forever appreciate and be in awe of that.”

“Holy shit, I think my ovaries just did a backflip,” I heard my sister mutter from outside the bathroom.

“Do you mean that?” I asked.

“Absolutely,” Dice assured me with a smile before he kissed my cheek. “And you don’t look like a swamp witch, Cyd. You look like a woman who has been through the ringer for the last week or so and is finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Just so you know, this conversation bodes well for our future together.”

“The fact that you just admitted we might have a future together makes me a very happy man.”

“You know that me and this baby aren’t a package deal, right? You can have one without the other.”

“But why would I want the gift and not the wrapping it comes in?” Dice asked.

“Oh, he’s really good,” I heard my mom whisper from somewhere outside the door.

“Are you saying this because my family is out there listening or . . .”

“I don’t give a whistling fuck about your family, Cyd. That will come with time. Right now, I care about you and how you’re feeling.”

“I feel better than I have in a while.”

“That’s all that matters to me.”

◆◆◆

“You’ll call if you need me, right?” Mom asked. She looked over at Dice and said, “She won’t, but you will.”

“I promise that you’ll be the first person I call if something comes up I can’t handle,” Dice said with a grin. He looked over at me and winked as Mom hugged him, but when she pulled back, he smiled at her and said, “I’ll take good care of her.”

“She gets cranky when she’s sick or hungry. If she starts to freak out, just remind her to breathe because she forgets sometimes.”

“I figured that out before she went in for surgery.”

“Someone should have warned you.”

“I'm sitting right here,” I reminded them. “You can see me, right? Over thirty and been living on my own for a long time? This girl right here?”

Dad snorted, and I knew he was trying to cover up a laugh, so I glared at him until he looked down at his boots.

“Don’t look at your father with that tone,” Mom warned. I saw Dice raise his eyebrows in question, and Mom explained, “Squid has never had a problem expressing herself, but even when she tries to reign it in, her face still throws out insults.”

“I look exactly like you!”

Mom slowly turned her head until she was looking at me over her shoulder with an expression that would terrify a grown man. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t work on me because I saw the same expression every time I looked in a mirror.

“Squid, honey, don’t start none, won’t be none, remember?”

Taking a page out of Mom’s book, I sat completely still as I glanced over at my father before I looked back at Mom and said, “I love you, and I’ll be fine.”

“Feed the girl before she burns down half the town and traumatizes the other half,” my dad ordered. “Remember - no food after midnight and don’t let her have any water.”

“Har har har,” I said sarcastically.

“Love you, Squid,” Dad called out over his shoulder as he escorted Mom to the door. “Be nice!”

“I’m always nice!”

“Just so you know, she lies. A lot,” Mom snarked before she walked past my dad. She turned and winked at me before she flipped me off and said, “I love you, sweetheart.”

“Love you, too, Mom,” I said as I tried to bite back a grin at the look of shock on Kenny’s face.

“Your family has the craziest dynamic of any I’ve ever seen.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like a mix of the old Roseanne show with some Malcolm in the Middle, a sprinkle of Modern Family, and a dash of Whose Line Is It Anyway? ”

“You cook?” I asked.

Kenny squinted at me and asked, “I’m talking about television shows, and all you heard was sprinkle and dash?”

“Is that a yes or no?”

“I can cook.” Dice looked down at my stomach when it growled loudly and then asked, “When was the last time you ate a decent meal?”

“Yester-Tuesday-ago.”

“Oh. That makes complete sense. Just last tomor-Wednesday-ago, I was on my way here.”

“What can you cook?”

“Generally, food, but one time, I was in the sun too long without any sunscreen and cooked myself.”

“The only reason I haven’t jumped up and started gnawing on your arm to protest your vague and sarcastic answers is because I’m faint from hunger and in a great deal of pain.”

“I’m not sure human sacrifice is on your newly prescribed diet,” Kenny retorted.

“I’m willing to risk it. Are you?”

“Do you often get this hangry, or is it just the pregnancy?”

“If I had a dog, I would train him to bite you.”

Kenny chuckled before he asked, “How about some chicken soup? I hear it’s good for the soul.”

“So is prayer. I suggest you start soon because you’re quickly running out of time.”

Kenny laughed again before he asked, “Yes or no to the soup?”

“Will there be bread or do I have to eat freakin’ crackers again?”

“I have the perfect solution for our dilemma.”

“What’s that?” I asked as I watched him walk over to his backpack which was now sitting on the end of my couch next to a pile of neatly folded clothes that I recognized as the ones he’d been wearing yesterday.

He pulled something out and then ripped a bag open with his teeth before he thrust it my way. “Low sugar, a decent amount of protein, and some carbs to tide you over until that kicks in.”

“It looks like cardboard that got left out in the rain and then sat in the sun too long.” I looked down at the bar and grimaced. “Just throw a box at me, and I’ll gnaw my way around the shipping label.”

“I’m going to look through your freezer and see what’s available, and then I’ll let you know what’s on the menu.” I took a bite of the protein bar and chewed as I stared him dead in the eye. “And there will be bread. I promise.”

“Good call.”