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“Do you normally date older women than me?”
“I don’t date at all,” he said.
“Oh yeah. I forgot. But like the salad that I’m going to put together, you’re making an exception.”
Ivy moved past him into the fridge again and started to pull out the ingredients he had. He grabbed a bowl for her and set it on the counter.
“Not sure this is an exception as much as I’m trying something different. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m not making promises.”
“So noted,” she said. “The truth is, I haven’t been with too many men that can keep a promise so it’s best if I don’t get any.”
He didn’t like to hear that. “Have you been cheated on?”
“No,” she said. “Not that I know of. I don’t tolerate that. I mean I guess I hang on longer than I should at times hoping for something, but that is a big no way in my book.”
“Good to know,” he said. “The same.”
“Have you been cheated on?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“And you don’t want to talk about it?”
“Not much to say,” he said. “I was younger. I was a security officer. River was living with me, as it was closer to college for him. I was working a lot and she didn’t like it.”
“I bet you were working a lot because you were supporting River but not letting him know that.”
He snorted. She had the lettuce in the bowl with the tomato and was now cutting carrots. He put the strainer in the sink and dumped the pasta in there. He didn’t have spaghetti and used what he had. A box of the curly kind. He didn’t pay attention to the name. It all tasted the same.
“River didn’t have time to work. He was in med school and had loans. He took more out to help with living expenses, but I wouldn’t let him pay rent. I’d been paying it on my own anyway. He just moved into the small room. He picked up food at times but had enough of his own expenses.”
Brooks always tried to have food in the house before River could pick it up. He’d borrow River’s car now and again and fill it with gas. It’s not like he needed the car, but he’d say it was blocking his and he didn’t want to move them so just took his brother’s instead.
River never said a word about it. He knew his brother noticed but why embarrass them both? When River started to work, his brother made up for it. They’d go out to eat and River would pay. River put a lot of sweat equity into this house. More than Brooks put into River’s.
When they chipped in for things for their parents, River half the time paid more than the rest of them.
It all equaled out in the end.
Wasn’t that what siblings did?
He’d bet Ivy’s did by the sound of things too.
“Jasmine let me move in with her. She didn’t charge me rent at first. I came here without a job.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah. I just needed to take that step to be on my own, but all I did was move from my grandparents to my sister’s. Jasmine was dating Wesley and she wasn’t around much. She felt bad, but it pushed me to learn to do things on my own. I had money that I’d put away and offered, but she’d said no.”
“Did Jasmine get you your job?” he asked.
“No. I mean, I’d met Lily, Poppy and Rose through her. Poppy was taken with me. She and I are a lot alike. Or she was like me more when she was younger. But they knew about my experience and with all the sisters having babies or pregnant, Lily needed an assistant. They asked Jasmine if I’d be interested.”
“She didn’t want you working there?” he asked.
He put the pasta in a bowl and they both made their plates, then took a seat at the island.
“I think she was hesitant. She told me that she’d told Lily that she couldn’t give me a work reference. She didn’t know how I was as an employee only as a sister. And I’m the irresponsible sister at that.”
