Page 23 of Good Sisters

I tried not to let his horror upset me. ‘You can set the table instead,’ I said.

Looking relieved, he took the plates from the counter and began placing them on the table.

‘Smells good.’ Leo came into the kitchen.

‘Boeuf bourguignon,’ Christelle told him.

‘Is there lots of beef in it? I need to load up on protein,’ Leo reminded me. ‘Mr Long said I need to bulk up for the season.’

‘Yeah, me too. We need chicken for breakfast from now on, Mum,’ Liam added.

‘And five meals a day, not three. You need to give us extra lunches, Mum,’ Luke said.

‘We need to load up on six-egg omelettes too.’

‘And tuna and oats and veggies and brown rice and bananas as well,’ Leo told me.

I stared at my sons, open-mouthed. ‘Brown rice and tuna and vegetables? Are you serious? I’ve been trying to get youto eat those foods for years but all you’d bloody eat was white pasta, toast and cereal.’

Luke, who was doing some kind of push-ups against the countertop, said, ‘It’s different now. We have a reason to eat better.’

‘Yeah, and no offence, Mum, but our lunches are crap. We need proper meals. No more manky ham and cheese rolls.’

‘The other lads have serious lunches in these, like, massive Thermos flasks and loads of healthy snacks too.’

‘Seriously, Mum, you need to up your game this year. We have to bulk up,’ Luke said.

‘Especially you, Leo.’ Liam pinched his brother’s arm. ‘Toothpick.’

‘Piss off, you’re not much bigger.’ Leo shoved him away.

‘You’re the smallest on the team,’ Luke told him.

‘Not for long, I’m gonna eat four hundred grams of protein a day from now on,’ Leo shouted.

‘How much is that?’ I asked.

‘Forty grams is half a chicken,’ Leo said.

What? If forty grams was half a chicken … Maths wasn’t my strong point but that meant four hundred was, like, ten times that, which was … five whole chickens!

‘Leo, you cannot eat five chickens a day. That’s insane and completely unhealthy.’

‘Relax, Mum, Leo’s exaggerating. The coach said we only need two hundred and fifty to three hundred grams of protein a day,’ Liam reassured me.

‘That’s still three or four chickens per kid! I am not buying and cooking twelve chickens a day for you lot. There’ll be no feckin’ chickens left in the entire country if I do that.’

I imagined my shopping trolley. My weekly shop would be … eighty-four chickens … and about a thousand euro.

‘Jeez, relax, it doesn’t have to be all chicken. You can do eggs instead, or turkey, or, like, lean meat.’

‘Yeah, chill out, Mum, it’s not that big of a deal.’

Christelle rapped the countertop loudly with her spoon. ‘Hey! It is a big deal. There are three of you, so it’s three times the organizing, shopping and cooking. If you want to put on muscle, get off your lazy bottoms, do the shopping and make your own lunches. Your mum is still grieving and she does so much for you. Give her a break.’ Pointing at the triplets, she added, ‘This Saturday, before I go, I’m going to take you shopping. We’ll buy all the food you need for one week’s meals and then I’ll teach you how to make great omelettes. French people make the best omelettes. My American mother was a terrible cook, but my French nanny was fantastic. I won’t be around to help you for the next while, so you need to be more independent. Now, leave your mother alone and help finish setting the table.’

I threw my arms around Christelle and held her tight. ‘I love you.’

She laughed.

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