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“No, but I wouldn’t complain if you did. Ready to go?”
She put her bag over her shoulder and nodded.
I waited until we were inside my truck to tell her what I’d wanted to say for several days.
“There’s nothing between me and my ex-wife. I need you to know that.”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Holt.”
I clenched the steering wheel as I drove, frustration making it hard to stay measured.
“I’m explaining because I want to. I like you. Andrea has been trying to get in touch with me for weeks, and she’s not supposed to call unless it’s important. The kids got to decide for themselves if they wanted to have phone calls with her and right now, they don’t.”
“I know it’s not my business, but”
I couldn’t stop myself from interrupting her. “It is your business, though. I trust you, and I’m an open book. Ask me anything you want.”
“What did she want?”
I exhaled heavily. “She had a falling-out with the new guy. My accountant told me about a month ago that he got a call from the police in California about Andrea’s new boyfriend taking off with pretty much all her money. The divorce settlement. He left her with their new baby and no one knows where he is.”
“Oh my God.”
“I only know about it because she kept using my accountant for her money after the divorce. But it doesn’t affect me and the kids, so I don’t really care.”
“She wants you back, doesn’t she?”
I pulled up to a red light and looked over at her, taking her hand. “I’d never even consider getting back with her. Never. We’ve been over for a long time.”
“I like you, too. You know I do. But didn’t we decide we can’t date?”
I shook my head, a war raging inside of me. How was staying away from her the right thing when she made me feel so damn good?
“I know we talked about it, but”
“Keller offered me a job.”
I glanced at her and then back at the road, my pulse kicking up. I didn’t like the indecisive tone in her voice. It sounded like she was equating the job offer with our feelings for each other somehow.
“That’s why I was with him at 3Bs,” she said.
“A job as his personal chef? The one you’ve already turned him down for?”
“Yeah.”
I parked at Taco Train, processing what she’d just told me as I walked around to open her door. She’d already stepped out when I got there.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know...maybe?”
We walked into the restaurant, Shea nodding and waving at people she knew. It wasn’t possible to continue our conversation until we were seated at a booth, a basket of chips and a bowl of salsa between us.
“What would that mean?” I asked her. “You’d work in his home all the time?”
“Don’t tell anyone about this, okay? You’re the only one I’ve told.”
“I won’t.”
