Chapter 6 Family Secrets
FAMILY SECRETS
Rowan didn’t know the last time he volunteered to talk about his family.
Maybe it had more to do with the fact that Saylor wouldn’t have cared if it never came up.
“We can if you want,” she said. “But don’t feel as if I’m being nosy. I think my job has taught me to do what I need to, keep neutral conversations, and move on.”
“Hmm. So no attachments for you?”
She laughed. “How did you go from what I’m used to doing with strangers and my job to having no attachments in life?”
“The fact you are a traveling nurse tells me you’re probably single. It’s got to be hard to build any kind of relationship with men or women if you’re moving every six to twelve months.”
Her lips twisted to the side adorably. “Caught.”
“You’re admitting it?” That shocked him, his lower lip dropping some.
“Why lie when it’s so obvious?” she asked. “Like you, I wanted to be away from my family. Not because of the size, but the drama.”
“Ohhhhh, I love drama. If I share mine, you’ve got to share yours.”
“You know, you’re kind of cute with your facial expressions. Your tongue just stuck out of your mouth to the side.”
He laughed. “I always do that shit without thinking. Some of the drama as a kid. My siblings busted my ass over it.”
“I highly doubt you’re going to give me anything crazy dramatic about your family. You don’t know me well enough.”
Fuck. What was wrong with him? She was right. He’d never tell family secrets.
“You’re right. Just going to give you the players involved. Are you going to share?”
“I can share the players.” She winked at him. He had to admit after his initial meeting with her in the airport, he didn’t expect her to have this great of a personality.
She was calm, funny, and fast on her feet.
Flirting with him at the same level also. He knew, it wasn’t just wishful thinking on his part.
“I expect you to,” he said. “You need the strainer, huh?”
She had already put the pasta into the boiling water, and he was sure it would be ready soon.
“I need one,” she said. She opened the jar of sauce and poured it over the cooked meat. It smelled fabulous.
He grabbed the strainer out of the pantry and put it in the sink, then opened the cabinet for plates and set everything up for them.
Once dinner was complete and they were sitting to eat, he said, “So, my father was in the service and died when West was eighteen. He was a senior in high school and stepped up to be the father to us all, while going to college, then building his empire. When I say we had little more than family love, I mean it. Eight kids, and an army pension, plus some other help my mother got. We lived in a three-bedroom ranch that had one and a half baths.”
“Damn,” she said. “I didn’t know that. Not that I would, but you always think that people with a lot of money were just born with it.”
“Nope. I’ll admit the last of us got a much more spoiled life than the first few. I won’t bore you with West’s accomplishments. It’s all online if you’re interested.”
“Not really,” she said, twirling pasta on a fork.
He couldn’t explain the relief he felt hearing that. “Next is Braylon, he runs the legal team for West. He’s married to Lily who works for Laken. That’s the third kid and my sister. Oh and West’s wife worked for Laken too before Samuel was born.”
“They met on a vacation. I read that,” she said.
“Yep. Abby won the trip and West was there after my mother manipulated him into taking a vacation for being a dick to everyone.”
Her lips spread back. “Yikes.”
“He has his moments. It was more like working himself to the bone and ignoring everyone.” He waved his hand and slurped up some pasta to get her to laugh. “This is awesome.”
“Thanks. It’s an easy meal.”
“Easy and great on a cold night like this.” He chewed some more. “Laken is married to Jamie Wilde.”
“I know him,” she said. “Hard not to.”
“Unless you’re not a football fan.”
“I am one,” she said.
“Laken has her hands in every pie of every business that West has. Kind of like she was as a kid. Always nosy. Gets it from my mother.”
“That had to be annoying.”
“Not horribly. Still an age gap so I wasn’t around much. Or they weren’t around me much. After Laken is Foster, who oversees all things tech wise.” No reason to give fancy titles, Saylor probably didn’t care. “Foster is engaged to Charlotte. Elias is next, Fifth Kid Brewing.”
“He went out on his own?”
“He did. The same with me. Not everyone has to work for West—we could if we want— but everyone has to work. Elias is engaged to Phoebe. Everyone so far lives in New York. Elias is in North Carolina an hour from Fayetteville where I’m from and my mother still lives.”
“So that’s five, you’re six and in California. How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. Ten years younger than West. So I was eight when my father died.”
“A rough age to lose a parent,” she said. “But any age is rough.”
“It is. How old are you?”
“Twenty-six,” she said.
“Good age.”
She laughed. “I guess since it’s the age I am.”
He realized now it had been a stupid comment, but he was used to throwing out silly things. “Nelson, who works with West, is after me. He’s single. The last is Talia; she just got married to Jace. Talia lives in North Carolina and works for West too, but remotely.”
“Got it,” she said. “That’s a lot to remember.”
“That’s nothing. My mother’s brother has nine kids and my father’s brother has four.”
“Does your family not know what birth control is?”
He choked on his next bite of food. “We bust on my mother about that all the time. What about your family?”
“Not much to say. My mother is a district manager for a chain of convenience stores. She works a lot because they are open every day of the year. My father is a truck driver. A regional one, so gone for several days at once and then back home a few days. I’ve got a sister, Sandy.”
“Sandy Beach,” he said, snickering.
“Yeah. Glad it’s not my name. She’s two years younger than me and has three kids from three different daddies and lives with my parents.”
“Oh shit,” he said. “That’s your drama and why you’re not at home, huh?”
“Pretty much,” she said.
There had to be more to it with the way she didn’t even make eye contact with him. Her head was down to eat.
She picked up a little kit that she’d pulled out of her bag and had brought down from upstairs. He could see test strips and the device that controlled her pump come out.
“Can’t you do it on your phone?” he asked.
“Yes, but I don’t. I always worry if the signal is down, or there is a glitch with the app. Just my personal paranoia that I do it on the PDM.”
“PDM?” he asked.
“Personal diabetes management. I think. Maybe. I just know it was always called a PDM. Just like CGM. Continuous glucose monitoring.”
“I knew what a CGM was but not what it stood for.”
“Damon,” she said.
“Yep. That’s him. You can see that on your phone, right?”
“I watch it there but have the extra device when traveling and my phone is off or the service is out.”
“Got it.”
“So what happened to good old Damon?”
“I haven’t talked to him in a few years. Last I knew he moved back to Seattle. I’m not even sure what he does. He was a business major I think. I didn’t pay too much attention back then unless someone was in my classes. It was more about having fun.”
“I kept to myself in college,” she said.
“Why? You seem pretty outgoing to me.”
“Because not everyone understood my life or what I was going through with the diabetes. The constant need to explain myself or endure stares was annoying. Questions about the devices, the scars on my skin from the needles in those devices.”
He reached for her hand and turned it over. There were scars on her fingertips from needle pricks too.
“Fuck those people,” he said.
Her head snapped up. She smiled. A slow one that gradually reached her eyes. “You’re absolutely right. Fuck those people.”