Chapter 2 #2
Silence fell between us. I busied myself by checking the simmering sauce.
We'd never had to talk to each other outside the presence of her family. And then, we only exchanged sharp barbs. We hadn't had to make small talk. I wasn't sure what else we had to talk about besides Emery.
I finished the sauce and poured everything into a serving dish complete with a spoon. Then I plated the fish. "I almost forgot I bought bread."
I grabbed the loaf, cut it, and arranged the slices on a platter. Then I poured olive oil in a small bowl with rosemary. "I meant to do that so you could eat while I was cooking."
She picked up a chunk of bread and dragged it through the oil. "This is perfect." She ate a bite, and a drop of oil landed on her chin.
"You have something—"
She flushed. "Oh. Whoops. I'm a little clumsy when I eat."
I'd heard what her family said about her over the years. Had she internalized their comments? "Is that true though?"
She shrugged. "I guess so.”
I thought about that for a few seconds and then said, "I wonder if we're a product of our family dynamics. If we don't form our personalities based on them, and then we spend our whole lives living in them."
She raised a brow. "That was kind of deep."
"You seem surprised." The point of this dinner was to get to know each other and find some common ground. I needed to reveal a bit of myself for that to happen.
She looked away. "I didn't realize you have depth."
I chuckled. "Are you saying I'm shallow?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. You don't exactly share anything about your family life."
My shoulders tightened. "There's nothing to tell."
She sucked in a breath and then asked in a rush, "Then why did you spend your childhood at our house instead of your own?"
"It was fun at your house. There were always laughter and teasing.
My house was different." It was quiet and tense.
We worried our dad would show up and demand our mom give him money.
Money we needed for groceries. I found the Sterlings, and Emery had a group of friends, jumping from one house to another. We had our own methods of coping.
Aspen tilted her head to the side. "Your family’s a big part of who you are?"
"How would you relate that to your own family?" I heard what her family had said about her over the years. She was flighty and impulsive.
She chewed her lip. "My parents would say I'm rebelling from expectations. If they placed demands on me, I did the opposite. But I'm not sure how my birth order or my family would have caused that."
"Maybe it was a way to be seen in a large family. You had to be different to get attention."
"I guess it's possible."
At least she'd forgotten to ask more questions about my family.
No one wanted to hear about that. I'd gotten through it, and that's all that mattered.
Emery was living her dream life on campus, and she was safe.
If my dad tried to hit her up for money, he'd have me to deal with.
I'm bigger and stronger than I was back then.
"Are you’re parents happy now that you're working for Eve?" They'd always wanted her to settle on one job.
She pressed her lips together. "I don't talk to them about it."
"You don't think they'd want to know?" I set the food dishes on the table I almost never used.
"They'd have opinions I don't really want to hear." She folded napkins and set them under the silverware.
"You don't have to set the table."
She looked up at me and smiled. "I want to help. You went through the trouble of cooking dinner."
I pulled out her chair. "Sit."
She complied instead of arguing with me, and I refilled her glass of water.
She touched the petal of a yellow lily. "These flowers are lovely."
"I got them at the florist in town."
"It's a nice addition to your table. You always have flowers?"
"Just when I have guests." So far, that had only been Emery.
I passed Aspen the bowl of pasta, and she scooped some onto her plate.
"What are you working on for the next few months?" I asked, plating the fish.
Aspen's eyes widened. "Eve entrusted the holiday season to me. It's a little scary. And she wants me to work closely with you on the schedule of repairs and renovations."
"I usually keep her apprised of our plans."
"I think she wants me to be more involved since one of the shops flooded, and then there was a fire in another one."
My stomach twisted. "You don't think she's going to want to go with another contractor?"
She pursed her lips. "I don't know."
This was worse than I thought. I needed to ensure that nothing else happened on my watch. "I'll speed up the timeline of repairs. Hire extra crew."
She frowned. "She didn't say anything about that."
I cut a bite of fish, not feeling very hungry. "I don't want her to be concerned that we're not doing a good job."
Aspen covered my hand with hers. "I'm sure she doesn't think that."
My heart skipped a beat at her touch. "You can't know that."
She pulled her hand away and smoothed her napkin over her lap. "I didn't get the impression that Eve wanted to go with another contractor. She just wants someone to keep an eye on things while she's pregnant."
"Right." But that didn't alleviate my concerns. Eve wasn't happy with the way things had been going. I needed to step up, hire more men, and get the repairs completed on time. "She doesn't have anything to worry about," I said firmly.
"That's because we're going to handle everything for her,” Aspen agreed.
"That's our only option." We both had something to prove, and we needed to show Eve that we were good at our jobs. Our little disagreements had no place at work. Neither did this draw I felt toward her.
I'd have to be careful around her. Maybe even avoid any more one-on-one evenings like this one. I thought it would make things better, but it only heightened everything.