Chapter 11
Eleven
Peter
I don’t understand this woman. She’s always hot and cold with me. How am I supposed to know where I stand with her? One minute she refuses my help, the next she wants to hang out with me. She makes zero sense.
The only thing I can think to do is go to the kitchen and cook. Unlike her, I don’t mind being alone. It’s being around people that makes me nervous. Being around her…I can’t even think straight.
Every word she says throws me off kilter. She probably doesn’t know she has this effect on me. The feeling was there when we were kids, if only a small acknowledgement, but being near her now is a whole different story.
Opening the fridge, I pull out the meat to make chili before setting it on the counter. Thank goodness for my generator, or all the food would have spoiled. One of these days I’m going to look into a generator for the whole house.
Hopefully they aren’t picky. Chili is my comfort food when it’s cold, even if I did just have it with my sister. Besides, it’s not like I was planning on having company for dinner. If either of them object, I’m sure I can find something for them to eat.
Now, I only need the pot, a skillet, and the seasonings. I’m glad I paid attention when Mom was showing us how to make it. Nobody else in my family can do it the way she does.
“Are you okay?” Callie’s voice scares me and I drop the pot on my foot.
“Shit.” I don’t mean to yell it, but it hit my foot and I’m not wearing my work boots.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” Callie bends down to get the pot and places it on the counter. “Do you need me to get you anything? Hopefully it doesn’t bruise your foot or anything.”
“I’ll be fine.” It’s not a lie. The number of ways I’ve hurt myself working at the winery over the years is wild. Mostly because I refused help from anyone else. Huh, maybe Callie and I do have something in common as adults.
“Would you stop being a baby and let me look at your foot?”
“You can’t see much in here.”
She grabs my hand and pulls me into the living room, pushing me onto the couch. Damn, she knows how to manhandle me. It shouldn’t be attractive, but it is.
“Now, let me take a look.”
“I didn’t know you were a nurse.”
She glares at me when I laugh.
“I’m not, but you learn a thing or two when you have a kid. Not everything requires a doctor’s visit.”
She’s not lying. I don’t think my parents took us to the doctor, outside of our annual exams, unless we were really sick. Mom used a bunch of homeopathic remedies on the family. I can’t really blame her.
“That’s a valid point.”
Her finger brushes the bottom of my foot and I jerk back, almost kneeing her in the face.
“Oh my gosh, are you ticklish?” She giggles, and sounds so much like the girl I once knew before she left town and acted like she didn’t care about any of us. “I can’t believe I went all this time not knowing that.”
“I guess it’s a good thing your brother never told you.” I just know she’d be at the end of the bed with a feather tickling my feet. Now, that thought wouldn’t be such a horrible idea. Minus the tickling of course.
“I would have tortured you.” Her grasp is firm as she holds the bottom of my foot this time, doing her best not to make me flinch. She presses the top where the pan fell, and I wince. “It’s probably going to bruise, but I don’t think you broke anything. Can you move your foot around?”
“Not when you’re holding it.”
She immediately lets go, and I wish I could pull the words back. For once she was acting like she used to. Like being around me, wasn’t a big deal.
“Try it now.”
I do as I’m told and move my foot around. it’s tight where the pot landed, but nothing else hurts.
“Looks like I’m all good.” I stand and she takes a step back. “Thank you for checking on me.”
“Um, yeah, no problem.” Her eyes bounce around the room, looking everywhere but at me. “Do you need my help with dinner?”
“I don’t think so.” Her face falls, and I have a feeling she needs to help with something. Not because I asked for it, but because she wants to repay my kindness. Though I would do the same for anybody. Well, maybe not. She doesn’t know that though. “Actually, you can chop some onions.”
“I can definitely do that.”
She follows me into the kitchen, and I grab an onion from the fridge. I hand it to her and she stares around my kitchen.
“Where’s the cutting board?” Oh, right. She doesn’t know where anything is. This is her first time here. Miles goes through my cabinets like he lives here.
“Second cabinet on the left.” I say as I dump the meat into the skillet. “I forget you’ve never been here.”
“I love your house. The whole log cabin aesthetic is definitely your style.”
“Thanks.”
“And it’s smart that your kitchen appliances aren’t electric.”
It’s probably one of my favorite things about my house, outside of the fireplaces. “Most of the other siblings opted for electric. Want to guess where they come if the power goes out?”
“I bet,” she laughs. “I mean, I can’t say much because I’m here now.”
“That’s different, though.” I grab a spoon from the canister and stir the meat.
“How so?” Callie doesn’t look up from her cutting.
“I invited you to stay with me. They show up unannounced and expect me to take care of them.”
“That’s weird.”
“Why is that weird?” She knows how close we’ve always been.
“I don’t know.” I glance over at her and see her shrug. “It’s just, I thought they might go to Pierce for that since he’s the eldest sibling.”
If only they would. Not that I blame them. He’s not exactly the easiest person to get along with, but it’d be nice if they leaned on him at times.
“He can be an ass at the best of times. Most of us don’t want to rock the boat. Especially if we don’t know what kind of mood he’s in.”
That’s usually where I come into play. Always the one to ease the tension even though everyone knows I loathe confrontation. But they’ve always seen me as Pierce’s lapdog, and the one he relies on the most. Up until recently that’s the way it was.
“I figured he’d grow out of that.”
“What?” I’m lost in my thoughts and forgot what we were talking about.
“The moodiness.”
“I wish. If anything, he’s worse since Dad retired. I never know where any of us stand. And he’s pulled some shady shit in the last year when it comes to Piper, so we’ve been keeping him at a distance.”
“That sucks.” She doesn’t add anything else. I mean, what can she say? She hasn’t been here in years. She doesn’t know the family dynamics. Not like she used to.
“Yep. I guess that’s what happens when all the power goes to your head.”
“I know a few people like that.” There’s derision in her voice, and I want to know who put it there. It’s not my place to ask, though.
“Folks really should learn to treat people how they want to be treated.” I drain the grease from the pan and add the meat to the pot.
I wait for her to finish chopping the onions and also add it to the pot.
She moves around me and hands me the other ingredients I need without asking. “What are you doing?”
She grins and shakes her head. “I’ve seen your mom make chili more times than I can count. I remember what’s needed.”
“It’s good to know you remembered something from Asheville.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Her smile falters and I want to pull them back inside. It’s too late for that now.
“I didn’t forget anything.” Even though her voice is a whisper, it’s booming in the silence of the house. “I have my reasons for not coming back until now.”
“Okay.” It’s the only thing I can say. She clearly doesn’t want to talk about it, and I’m not going to push it. When the time comes for her to divulge, I’ll listen. “And sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“It’s fine.” Her tone says otherwise, but again I’m not pressing the issue. “That’s in the past, and I’d rather not focus on it, if that’s okay with you.”
She continues to help make dinner despite the fact that I’ve upset her.
It wasn’t my intention, but I can never say the right thing around her.
It’s like her presence makes all the ridiculous words come out.
She stays quiet throughout the process of adding everything to the pot.
The silence is deafening and I don’t know how to interact with her like this.
A few moments later, Alexandra comes into the kitchen. “Are y’all okay in here?” She lifts her eyebrow.
“Yep, why wouldn’t it be?” Callie backs away from me because clearly, we’re too close.
“Well, I heard something crash and raised voices.” Alexandra looks me up and down. “Did something happen?”
I should feel offended by her insinuation, but I’m not. She’s being protective of her mom, and that’s something I can admire. What in the world did she see and hear before they came to Asheville? Was her dad abusive toward Callie? Miles really needs to fill me in because Callie clearly isn’t.
“Peter decided to drop a pot on his foot.” Callie is grinning again. At least, she can laugh at my pain.
“Why would you do that?”
I glare at for Callie making it seem as if she didn’t just scare the crap out of me when she walked in here.
“I didn’t do it for my own good. That’s for sure. Someone needs to wear a bell anytime they’re coming into a room.”
Alexandra looks between me and her mom and rolls her eyes. “Y’all are weird.”
Seeing as it’s coming from a 16 year-old, I’m going to take that as a compliment.
“So, what are we having for dinner?” She looks toward the pot sitting on the stove.
“Chili made with—”
Calli cuts me off before I can tell her that I use venison in my chili.
Instead she says, “With cornbread. One of your favorites.”
I turn my focus to her and scrunch my eyebrows. I don’t even know if I have all the stuff for cornbread. “What do you mean we’re making cornbread?”
“The only acceptable way to eat chili is with cornbread, so we have to make it.”
She’s acting weird. I can’t help but wonder if her daughter won’t eat the chili if she knows what is used to make it.
I remember the first time Piper ate it, and her reaction when we told her it was venison.
It was a whole thing. The fact she watched that cartoon with deer right before probably didn’t help.
If only Parker would have kept his mouth shut about it. It would have saved our ears.
“Okay, let me dig through the pantry and see if I can find a box of mix.” I grab one of the lights that is have hanging above the stove and move across the kitchen to the pantry.
If push comes to shove, I can ask one of my siblings if they have any.
Though I’m not sure how to explain why I have guests.
My baby sister would read too much into it, and I’d like to avoid that at all costs.
Alexandra is whispering something to her mom and I would love to know what they are talking about, but it’s not my place.
I’m only here to offer them a little bit of safety and comfort with the power being out.
I’m not here to get attached. Maybe repeating that over and over again will get it through my thick skull.
It’s too bad Callie’s making it so damn hard for me to stay away. Especially when she keeps showing up at every turn.