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The server delivered their beverages and asked if they were ready to order.
Kaylee asked for crawfish étouffée and then looked at him. “Do you want to share a platter of deep-fried okra as an appetizer?”
“Sure.” As he nodded, Frost was certain his arteries were clogging.
“For you, sir?”
At least he was no longer being called a jerk.
“Gumbo.”
“Seafood? Or chicken and sausage?”
“Seafood.” Was there any other choice this close to the Gulf of Mexico?
When they were alone once more, he picked up the golden-orange colored brew with its frothy head. The first sip made him glad he’d skipped having wine. This ale was every bit as crisp and citrusy as he hoped—an excellent surprise. “Please, go on with your story.”
“Nothing much to add.”
“Do you always put yourself last?”
A puzzled frown burying itself between her delicately shaped eyebrows, she looked at him. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You made sure everyone else is going.”
“Family matters,” she said simply.
To honorable people, it did.
“At any rate, it means a lot that I get to be there as well. She wants me to be her maid of honor. So thank you.”
No matter what cost she had to pay?
“Since I’ll be meeting your grandmother, I want to know all about her.” She tipped her head to one side. “Especially why you need to lie to her.”
It was the second time she’d used that word to describe his actions. And it annoyed the fuck out of him now too. But since his gran would no doubt ensure no details of his life were left unexplored, he figured he’d give Kaylee a heads-up. “I was engaged once.”
Though she blinked, she said nothing.
“Greta. From a good family. My parents were friends with another couple, and she was their daughter. We grew up together. Everyone assumed we’d get married, including us. After college, I proposed. She accepted.”
Focused on him, Kaylee stirred her straw in her drink.
“You haven’t done a web search on my life?”
“Why would I? When I get off work, I try not to think about it again.”
“Then you don’t know about the scandal?”
“Scandal?”she echoed.
For a time, he believed it was the only thing people talked about. But maybe she wasn’t as obsessively focused on gossip rags.
Because he still didn’t like to talk about the event, he kept the details vague. “Dad lost his company and the family fortune.”
“Oh my God.”
“The stress of having her home foreclosed on and having their vehicles taken away—not to mention artwork and heirlooms—destroyed my mother, and she had a heart attack.”
