22. Something Funny
SOMETHING FUNNY
“ Y ou want me to go to your sister’s wedding,” Phoebe said.
She’d gotten to Elias’s house and was unloading the food she’d brought to make.
Though she loved fancy cuisine, she wasn’t into preparing it herself.
“Too soon?” he asked. “What kind of pan do you need?”
She had a package of steak on the counter and was pulling out broccoli and snow peas along with a jar of teriyaki sauce and a box of instant rice.
“A small pan for the rice, then some kind of wok.”
“A what?” he asked, frowning.
She laughed. “I’m sure you don’t have one. Can I see your pans?”
She walked closer to the cabinet he’d opened and pulled out the drawer full of pans. She picked out the biggest one.
“Making stir fry?” he asked
“I planned on it. Not the same as takeout.”
“Probably better for you,” he said, picking up the jar of sauce. “Or not.”
She shrugged. “It’s easy and the steaks didn’t look that great. It’s probably best for something like this.”
“You didn’t answer my question about moving too fast and my wedding invitation. You can be honest and say no. I understand.”
She turned and laughed. “Do you want to know something funny?”
“Sure,” he said, squinting at her.
“I know you think I’m playing all my attorney games or something, avoiding or redirecting. I can assure you I’m not.”
“If you say so,” he said.
The smirk on his face said he was thinking it and though he could get annoyed he wasn’t. More like he found humor in all of this.
“First off,” she said, “so you don’t think I’m yanking your chain, yes, I’ll go.
Or I want to go. I’m positive I can clear my schedule right now and be fine.
Nothing lined up that I’d be worried about.
Court would be the main thing and that’s not an issue just yet.
But if I have notice I can plan around it. ”
“Which is why I asked so early,” he said.
“I appreciate it. Do you have a nice sharp knife and I’ll tell you about my funny day and how your question is ironic after it.”
He pulled another drawer open and grabbed a knife in a case and handed it over. “Don’t cut yourself on it. It’s super sharp.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I need these strips thin.”
“Need help with anything?” he asked. “Cutting up the broccoli?”
“Sure,” she said. “Just wash it first.”
“I know what to do,” he said. “We’ve all had to help with dinner.”
“So my day. I get out of work early. I go to the store to figure out food for dinner. I’m picking out apples and someone says I’m your girlfriend.”
He laughed. “Are you?”
“Sounds silly to say that word at thirty, but yes.”
“You’re thirty?” he asked, his eyes wide.
She lifted her eyes and paused. “Yes. I’ll be thirty-one in a few months. How old are you?”
He laughed. “Just turned twenty-nine.”
Her lips were twisting. She’d never been the older one in a relationship. Not that less than two years was a big deal, but still.
“Then I’m the more mature one between us,” she said primly.
“Yep,” he said. “You are. Don’t be put out by it. West and Braylon are a lot older than their wives. Ten years or less, but still a bigger gap. Laken is a few years younger than Jami. Charlotte is a year older than Foster and he busts her ass about it all the time.”
“Are you going to do that to me?” she asked, angling her chin.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, putting his hands up and taking a step back. She had the knife pointed at him.
“Good man,” she said. “Back to my story. Boy, this is taking longer than I thought. So this woman mentions I’m dating you.”
“My girlfriend,” he said, smirking and cutting the broccoli now.
“Yes,” she said. “Then she tells me that her husband works for you. Tristian Blanchard.”
“I know Tristian,” he said. “Been with me since the beginning. Or just about. Good worker. His wife likes to talk though. Kind of a conspiracy theorist and always worried something bad is going on.”
“Then this all makes more sense,” she said.
She put oil in a pan that she’d taken out of his cabinet, then turned the burner on.
“What did she say?” he asked. “I’d ask how she knew about us, but my guess is she just saw us somewhere.”
“Yes,” she said. “That is what she said. Saw us out to dinner. She said her husband loves his job, but with the Fierce collaboration, he’s worried Fierce is going to buy you out. That billionaires do those things. Get a business set up running great and then sell for a bigger profit.”
The knife went down hard on the table and sliced through the broccoli.
“No one should be talking about the collaboration right now,” he said.
“It’s not completed yet. I was on the phone with West and Braylon before I left.
I’m getting the contract tonight or tomorrow.
Not only that, it’s my business. Not West’s.
And I’m not selling it. Hell, between us, I plan on expanding once I get a business plan in place. ”
She smiled. “Just like me. I think she was feeling me out for information and even if I knew something I wouldn’t say a word.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” he said. “I have to decide if I want to talk to Tristian or not.”
“It will get back to his wife,” she said. “I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble.”
“I know,” he said. “The fact he told his wife is fine, but his wife needs to keep quiet. He needs to know she is talking.”
“I understand,” she said. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. That was just the first of the three people that stopped me.”
“Talking about my business?” he asked.
“Not directly,” she said. “The next person I ran into was Chief Morrison. He said nothing more than he liked I was shopping local and that he appreciated the growth of the community and hoped it continued.”
Elias snorted. “I’m sure he does.”
“I heard the underlying message. I made a comment that I did too since I’m part of that growth and it would help my business too.”
“Good for you,” he said. “Who was the third person?”
“The cashier. I saw her name was Dottie. I didn’t even bother to ask how she knew I was dating you. She started by saying that she appreciated the help you gave her daughter at Christmas.”
He laughed. “It’s a small town thing.”
“I’m learning that.” She tossed the thinly sliced strips of meat into the pan to the sound of the sizzle, then stirred them around with a wooden spoon. The water was boiling for the rice, so she’d dumped that in too.
“Does it bother you that people are putting us together?”
“No,” she said. “Just something to get used to. I want to be known in the area, but not the way it’s happening. Talk is good. Gossip, hearsay, and rumors not so much.”
“Being with me is going to increase your exposure,” he said sarcastically.
She spun. “You don’t think I’m with you for that reason, do you?”
“Since you didn’t know who I was at first, the answer is no,” he said. “But I never thought it anyway.”
She wanted to believe it. She gave no reason for him to feel that way other than it was in her head now mixed with the narrow minds of the community.
“Good,” she said. “So I go home after to put everything away and call my mother.”
“Because you needed to tell her about your grocery trip?” he asked.
She smiled. “She’d find humor in it. Can you hand me the broccoli and snow peas?”
“Just dump them in?” he asked of the broccoli on the cutting board.
She nodded while he did that and she added the snow peas and stirred it all around. “When I was talking to my mother, she asked if I was going to invite you to Ben’s wedding.”
He laughed. “Really?”
“Yes. That is the ironic part of all of this and it took a long time to get there.”
“Are you going to invite me?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.
His bright blue eyes were assessing her, one eyebrow raised higher than the other, a smirk on his handsome face. He had a close-cut beard she found extremely attractive when she wasn’t used to dating men with facial hair.
Her heart was thumping, her palms were dewy, and there was a fluttering going in her belly like a mini storm brewing.
What she’d been missing for so long in her life!
“You’re cute when you do that.”
“And you’re avoiding again.”
“Legal 101,” she said. “And it’s called redirecting.”
“A pretty word for not answering a question,” he said, laughing. “This rice is done. Do you want me to take it off the burner?”
“Yes, please. If you could turn this burner off too. It’s done and I’m going to pour the sauce on it and let it sit and thicken for a few minutes.”
“Smells good. Am I invited to Ben’s wedding?”
She laughed. “Boy, you’re like a Great Dane with a bone. No one is taking it away from you.”
“Nope,” he said. “I have to be this way with so many siblings. Not to mention my mother. Man, my mother is the worst.”
“Speaking of mothers,” she said. “And yes, you’re invited. Oh my God, you’re hilarious. But my mother wants to meet you.”
“My mother doesn’t even know about you yet,” he said. “But when she finds out, she’ll be here knocking on my door, uninvited, to meet you.”
The hurt over his mother not knowing had to be pushed aside.
It’d only been a month or less. No reason to feel as if he was hiding her from his family.
Yet she felt it anyway.