She holds out her arms to take in the subs, the soup containers, the packs of chips, and a small tray of fruits and veggies. I wasn’t sure what she’d be in the mood for. “I bet you eat better than this in Denver.”
“I order in there too—usually for the whole office. One of my assistants does it. They have standing orders all over town, and my assistant makes sure dinner is delivered, since I’m usually in the office. I have a chef come in twice a month to stock my fridge, freezers, and breakfasts when I’m home.”
“Apersonal chef? The benefits of city life and a career that actually pays well.” She stirs her soup. “I wouldn’t have to eat dinner at two in the morning if I could get orders delivered.”
She’d go broke after a week of ordering food delivery. “There are a few perks of a big population.”
“Like what?” she asks before taking the first taste of her soup. Her eyelids drift shut, and she moans. The sound goes right to my dick. I’ll have to add “Meredith moaning over soup” to my spank bank.
I wouldn’t need one if I were around more.
I’m not following that thought. “Some perks are definitely the food delivery and extended business hours. I guess sometimes it’s nice not to have to do any plowing and shoveling.”
“You don’t have a house?”
“I’m not around enough to take care of one.”
She grimaces and tries to cover it, but I chuckle.
“Tell me how you really feel.”
She shrugs and takes a bite of her sub. I do the same and fail to come up with another benefit of living in the city. Meredith lived in Williston, but in the grand scheme of towns, it’s still small and sprawling, with a population one-tenth of a Denver suburb. With my hours, I miss the worst of commuter traffic, but I hate it all the same. A packed interstate is more annoying than getting stuck behind a combine on my way to a date in high school.
“It’s just,” she says after swallowing, “I know I’m not home as much as I’d like to be, but I can’t imagine being so disconnected.”
My condo is nothing but a place to crash between workdays, because even I know it’s unhealthy to sleep at work. Not that I haven’t done it. The world no longer shuts off, so I don’t either. I’ve amassed a fortune, but it’s only me. Yet I’m driven to burn the midnight oil.
My gaze strays out the window. The great outdoors is accessible right on the other side of the wall. “We should eat outside.”
“Let’s do it.” She starts covering her food. “I often want to, but I usually eat while standing at the bar.”
“Seize the day.”
Her smile is everything, and I’m struck, frozen in awe at this simple moment. We’re not intimate. We’re not working. We’re having a lunch that cost me a fraction of an entrée I’d order for the office.
She juggles her soup and her beer, and I jump in, tossing what won’t spill into the bag.
Outside, the pergola shades us from the sun, and the building blocks the strong breeze.
“Someone wiped these down for tonight.” She unloads our food, and we seat ourselves at the picnic table.
“Bowen did when Molly told him the patio was opening this week.”
The patio’s been closed until after the funeral. I dance my fingers over the finish of the table. The build is solid, and it survived the winter without needing to be re-stained. Six picnic tables are lined up in two rows.
“Where did you get these?”
“Aren’t they amazing? Sawyer found a guy in Montana who makes them, and then we stained them one weekend. Ransom would try to haul them to the shop every fall, but that was a lot of work, and he tweaked his back once. So we got covers for them, and that helps.”
“Is the patio a popular draw?”
She nods. “Usually, we’ll open as soon as possible, but with Ransom rushing around being distracted, and then the accident, I couldn’t deal with it.”
What was Dad so distracted about? The financials? From the looks of the books, he should’ve been used to the pressure. “Do you think whatever was on his mind led to the accident?”
Going still, she focuses on the distance. “I don’t know. I know accidents are just that, but at the same time, something caused it, and it bothers me we don’t know what it is.”
We.A vine of warmth curls around my heart when she says that.
