10. Rules Of Yours
RULES OF YOURS
“ T hat has to be our food,” Emma said, jumping up. She opened the door and laughed.
“Are you going to let me know what is going on?” he heard from another woman.
The door opened wider, and he saw a small woman in a chef’s uniform standing there.
“Grace Stone, meet Warren Showers.”
“Oh shit,” Grace said, moving forward and shaking his hand. “I know you. My fiancé is a fan.”
“I just found out who that was and met him last weekend,” he said.
“Phew,” Grace said. “Now I can say I know. I heard. Enjoy your dinner and, Emma, I expect a call soon if you don’t lose your phone.”
“Bring me over some food and we can visit,” she said, grinning.
“Even better,” Grace said. “I’ll be in touch. Enjoy.”
Emma moved the rolling tray holding the food into the room and pushed it to the small table off to the side.
Warren helped her set the plates up and then moved the cart back by the door.
“I guess it is a thing in your family about losing your phone,” he said. “Sit, eat. You need it.”
“Thanks,” she said, sitting down and diving in. “I’m going for the lobster first. Grace even took it out of the tail for me. I love her.”
He picked up his fork and sliced it into his salmon, popping it in his mouth. “This is even better than my private chef. The food here has been some of the best I’ve had.”
“I’ll make sure Grace knows. She doesn’t cook it all, but she did this for us. She is very particular about who works for her.”
“And it shows,” he said. “You asked about my father. I apologize for what I said.”
“Don’t apologize,” she said. “You have every right to feel the way you do about people in your life. I might have pulled up some videos of you on the field.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “You’ve got some moves on you.”
“I have them off the field too,” he said, holding her stare.
Her face flushed some, then she cut off another piece of her lobster tail, and dunked it in the butter.
His arteries were rioting and they weren’t even consuming that oily slick that was now dribbling on Emma’s chin.
She picked up a napkin and wiped it off and laughed, then went for another bite.
“I’m sure you have a lot of moves in plenty of places,” she said. “Whether or not we get to them is yet to be determined.”
“Those rules of yours?” he asked.
“Rules might be a harsh word, but kind of the same thing. It’s more like information about my lifestyle. Tell me about yourself a little if you want while we eat. Or we can just eat and then we’ll get to the rest.”
“I’ll talk,” he said. “You eat. It’s like you haven’t seen food in days.”
“I kind of haven’t,” she said. “I told you all I had today was a protein bar. Yesterday, yeah, I’m not sure I even remember.
I ran out of anything fresh almost two weeks ago.
Even my freezer is getting low on things.
I might have made mac and cheese out of a box yesterday and had chicken strips with it.
Could be the day before. I can’t remember. ”
He held back the gag on her diet regimen.
“Please,” he said. “My heart can’t take it. I know I’m a little over the top with my health.”
“You do it to be in tip-top condition for your career,” she said. “I know. I get it. I wonder if you are even stricter when you’re playing.”
“Yes and no,” he said. “I burn more once training camp and the season starts. I eat a lot of calories and I have to make sure they are the right ones, but I do put more into me like pasta and rice, bread. Things like that. I’m not afraid to have sweets, but I don’t indulge often.”
“Are you going to have some of whatever chocolate concoction is in that container with me? I don’t want to look because then I’d dive into that first, and you’ll be even more appalled.
“I might be tempted,” he said. “As for my father, he left my mother when Stacy was a toddler. He’s a drunk and never stepped up as a father, leaving my mother working extra shifts to keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs.”
“I’m sorry about that,” she said.
“Don’t be. It taught me everything not to be in a man,” he said.
“Do you know how refreshing that is to hear? There are so many who just live in that cycle again and again. My Aunt Melanie has a large not-for-profit where she serves women in situations like that. All situations, but that is some of it.”
“My mother used some services like that when we were younger. She has always worked. She’s an LPN. She went to BOCES in high school for that and it was a good thing since she got pregnant at the end of her senior year. When I say I come from a humble background, I’m not lying. Nothing like you.”
“Don’t compare,” she said. “I’m not like that and never will be. I never care where a person comes from. They can’t control those things. They can control what they make of themselves, and I’m not even talking about money. Those things don’t concern me.”
“Because you’ve never worried if the power would be shut off or not,” he said.
“No,” she said. “I haven’t. I will not apologize for that either. I like to think that I do good things with what I’ve got, the same as my family does.”
He nodded. “I don’t mean to get into it with you. I think I’m still processing this. All the money in the world doesn’t buy bloodlines. Women want me now for who I am or what I’ve got, but those with old money or class wouldn’t give me the time of day because of my background.”
She laughed. “Good thing I’m not like those women. Do you think people see me and think or know where I come from? I don’t want them to. It doesn’t define me. And I sure the hell worked hard to make sure that people don’t think I got where I am in my career because of any family name.”
It was the first she spoke with such conviction.
There was no smile on her lips.
No humor in her eyes.
She was dead serious and it reminded him that money comes with many burdens in life.
“I doubt many people believe that,” he said. “Maybe they buy one book to check it out, but if you aren’t good, they won’t buy another. Good authors have large fan bases that don’t always care what goes on behind the scenes. Right?”
“I think that,” she said. “But my readers and fans always want to know things about me. I’m very private about my life. Or as much as I can be. I interact with them once a week. I go on social media live and we talk about my books and my thought process. Even some of the research I’m doing.”
“I bet your fans love that you slide into the roles so that you can experience it firsthand.”
“They do,” she said. “I could research online all I wanted. Even talk to people who work in those positions, but it’s not the same as making the bed in a hotel myself. Or cleaning a toilet after a stranger has spent a week here.”
He lifted his head. “You really did that?”
“I did,” she said. “I spent one day shadowing a housekeeper here. I watched what she did and did some of the work for her. I didn’t do a great job and she had to go over it, but I got the gist. The Retreat isn’t the only hotel or resort in our family.
We have several hotels in Boston and on Cape Cod.
I spent time there too. It’s a different kind of guest.”
“I know,” he said. “And I bet the wealthier are dirtier.”
She pointed her fork at him. She was halfway through her filet now. “You’re right. They are so entitled. How dare they be?”
She was laughing as she said it.
“Well, we know you don’t have a private chef,” he said.
“No. I should get one, but then that would be someone I have to talk to or see. I’ll take a hard pass.”
He frowned. “I guess this goes into things I should know about you. Or if you’re interested in another date?”
“Sure,” she said. “We can talk about that.” She twirled some butter and cheese-coated spaghetti on her fork and took a mouthful.
He moved over to his vegetables to counter what she’d put in her mouth.
“I’m not good with going out and being around people.
Just letting you know that. I get lost in my work and my worlds and it’s hard to come up for air. ”
“Your worlds?”
“I have to live and breathe what I’m writing for it to be the best. If it’s not, then why should I bother? That means if my characters wake me up at two in the morning because they need to find some clues for a mystery, then I have to jump up and give them my attention.”
“I live my life much more structured,” he said. “You should know that.”
“I would have never guessed,” she said, smirking and eating more pasta. “I don’t have a problem with it if you don’t have a problem with the way I live my life.”
If it didn’t make her want to run screaming in the other direction that he was OCD about certain aspects of his life, then he shouldn’t feel that about her.
But he’d never had the luxury to be that laid back.
He could be now, but he wouldn’t.
There was too much at stake.
In two years, he’d be more relaxed.
They brought him in to win championships. He had two years to do it or at least give it his all and know that he did everything that was asked of him.
“I can compromise if you can,” he said.
“We’ll see about that,” she said.
He reached for the container of her dessert. Her eyes popped open while he flipped the lid.
Inside was a four-layer chocolate cake.
He took his fork and went right down through the thick frosting and put it in his mouth. “Mmm,” he said.
He went for another bite, and she pulled it away from him.
“You made your point. Don’t eat it all. I’m not ready for it yet and you’re teasing me.”
“The teasing has only just begun.”