“We can do this some other time,” I suggest as I start to back up.
“No, come on. I just put a pizza in.”
Shutting the door behind me, I follow him down the stairs. When we reach the small kitchen, music is playing softly in the background.
“Let me take your coat.” I pull off my jacket and hand it to him, watching as he hangs it on a hook near the stairs, and then, not knowing what to do, I stand there awkwardly, looking around. The cabin is small, with a short hallway that leads to a closed door, which I’m sure holds a bedroom. There is a small bench seat, with a wooden table between the cushions, all black, along with the curtains covering one of the windows. The stove has two burners, and the oven below looks more like a microwave.
“Do you want a beer?”
“Sure,” I mutter, taking a seat, watching as the muscles in his arms flex as twists open a beer from the fridge before handing it to me.
“Thanks,” I say, taking the bottle from his hand, his eyes meet mine, and I see something flash through them before he turns away, not giving me a chance to read the look.
“Rhonda was saying you do accounting.” He says grabbing a beer and sitting down across from me.
Small talk. I can do small talk with him. It’s the talking about the past that makes me feel uneasy.
“I am—well, I was. I left my firm when my mom told me she needed me here with her.” Lucky for me, I had been saving money for years, so I had a nice nest egg I could use to keep my head above water for a while until I figured out what I was doing.
“You always did like numbers.” He looks at me over his shoulder, and I see a small smile on his lips, one that causes my belly to flutter.
“I still do. They never change,” I reply, then once again want to kick myself when his smile disappears. “What about you? I know you’re still fishing, but why are you living on your boat?”
“My house is being renovated right now.”
“Oh.”
“Do you remember the Manderville house?” he asks, taking a seat across from me, so I turn to face him, nodding my head. The Manderville house is a large log cabin that sits near the water. The entire front view of the house is all large windows, with a huge wraparound porch that looks out at the sound. I loved that house and used to dream that it one day would be mine.
“I bought it three years ago, and have been slowly remodeling it.”
“Wow,” I whisper. That house was priced at over a million dollars when I left home, so I can only imagine what it would cost now.
“It needed a lot of work, but everything should be done this summer, so hopefully I can get settled there over the winter,” he says, and Anna comes to mind. She would be living there with him.
“I’m happy for you,” I lie as jealousy rears its ugly head. “How are your mom, dad, and Bre?” I change the subject.
“Good. Mom and Dad moved to Anchorage a year ago, to be closer to Bre and her husband.”
“Bre got married?” I ask, surprised. Bre was always wild. She was three years older than Austin, and had never really settled. She was always on the move, wanting a new adventure.
“Yeah, she and Sean are expecting their second baby any time now.”
“My mom hasn’t told me anything,” I say then watch as annoyance enters his eyes before he looks away, toward the oven that begins to beep.
“I hope you still like pepperoni.”
“I do.” My stomach flutters that he remembers.
He stands, shuts off the oven, pulls out the pizza, and then fumbles around in a drawer until he finds a pizza cutter. He begins to cut up slices before placing them on paper plates, setting one in front of me.
“Thank you.” When I smile, his eyes drop to my mouth and he grunts before taking a seat across from me, making me smile bigger. He was never really a talker when we were younger. He would always grunt when he got his way or proved a point, and that sound coming from him now somehow settles inside of me.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do after?” he asks, taking a bite of his pizza.
I know he means after my mom passes away, so I shake my head then continue with, “My mom wants me to ask Larry if he would be willing to sell me his office space.”
“You would stay in town?” he asks, sounding annoyed again, making me wish I never said anything. Of course we were sitting here now, but that doesn’t mean he wants me to move back.
“I don’t know,” I mutter. “I haven’t thought much about it.”
“What about your husband?” There is no mistaking the anger in his voice while asking that question, so I sit up a little taller.
“Ex-husband.”
“Okay, what about you’re ex-husband?”
“What do you mean?” I ask shortly.
“How’s he feel about you moving away?”
“Obviously, he’s my ex, so he doesn’t have a say in what I do, and I doubt Courtney would be pleased if he did care.”
“Who’s Courtney?” he frowns.
“His girlfriend, my replacement.”
“What?” he growls, sending tingles through my body.
“He was having an affair the last three years we were married.”
“Seriously.”
“Yeah, and just to make it sound all the more cliché, it was with his assistant, who is ten years younger than me.” I roll my eyes, not even upset about it anymore, which is surprising.