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“I don’t want you to lift a finger.” Shane picked up a salad bowl and guided her back to the dining room. He placed the bowl on the table before pulling out her chair. “I’ll get the rest of the food.”
They didn’t speak much while they ate. Shane’s spaghetti was to die for. “Where did you learn to cook?”
Shane smiled. “I didn’t really learn to cook anywhere. I picked up a few things here and there from my grandparents and then from Ingrid.”
“Ingrid? Is that your housekeeper?”
He nodded. “She was the last person my grandfather hired before he passed. I took her on after that.”
Eloise’s brows shot up. “She still works for you?”
“Yes. Is that so strange?”
“She moved here. To work for you?”
He laughed. “I think I answered that question already.”
“I just can’t believe it. Why would someone—” She snapped her mouth shut and shook her head. “Never mind. It’s none of my business.”
“I find it… hard to trust people.”
Eloise stilled. She hadn’t gotten that from the way he was around other people, but the more she thought about it, the more she had to accept that his words made sense. He’d hired someone from his previous life to be the chef. His housekeeper and probably his security guy were people he knew before he moved out to Copper Creek.
According to Dianna and Grace, there wasn’t much in the way of turnover in his staff. Even the woman Eloise was covering for hadn’t quit. She was on maternity leave for the next couple of weeks.
A twinge shot through her heart. She thought she’d gotten to know Shane at least a decent amount, but she was still learning things about him that surprised her—like the modest way he lived his life. This home didn’t look like the home of a billionaire.
She twisted her fork into her pasta and then lifted it to her mouth. “Well, I think people following you out here to work for you says a lot more about you than it does about them.”
“How do you figure?” Shane bit off a piece of his garlic bread, but his gaze didn’t leave her face.
“Well, it shows that you’re the kind of guy that people would follow anywhere. You must resonate with people in a way you don’t even realize.” She placed her fork beside her plate, then clasped her hands in her lap. “I know you did with me.” Already she could feel the warmth seep into her face. She didn’t even know why she felt embarrassed over telling him this. They were more intimate than anyone she had dated before.
Stuff like that should be shared, right?
When she looked up at him, she found him staring at her with that strange expression again—the one that almost appeared as though he felt guilty over something.
The second she frowned, he schooled his features and looked away.
So much for ignoring that gut instinct. She’d always been right on the money when it came to stuff like that. Maybe it was time to talk to Brielle about what she was feeling.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.” Shane put his silverware down and leaned forward.
Maybe this was it. The reason he was acting so shady. Immediately, her heart went haywire. She held her breath, waiting for him to drop whatever bomb it was that he was hiding from her. Eloise’s hands tightened around each other until her fingertips turned white. “Okay.” She finally let out a breath.Let’s just get this over with.
“You mentioned earlier that you didn’t need the job at the restaurant.”
Not where she thought this would go, but okay.
“My employee who was on maternity leave has asked to come back early, but I didn’t want you to think that we didn’t needyou.”
She blinked a few times. Definitely not where she thought this was going to go.
Shane shifted in his seat. “I wanted to make it clear that you have a permanent position with me—at the restaurant—for however long you would like to. We were short-staffed when you started, and it would be nice if you… stayed.”
Something strange and a little bit warm flooded her stomach. In a family with seven sisters, she always thought she was the one that was the most forgettable. She was born second to last, and as such, it was easy to overlook her accomplishments and even the things she did wrong.
For all intents and purposes, Shane had been the first one to see her for what she could offer.
