“Do you not believe in eating?”
“It’s a practice I support. I just haven’t had time.”
“Unacceptable.”
I bit back a cry of regret as Lachlan removed those wondrous hands and walked to the refrigerator. Hungry as I was, I would’ve forsaken food for days if he’d continued his spa-worthy massage.
“Do you want some help?” I asked as Lachlan pulled out a stainless skillet and set it on the stove.
“No,” he said. “I’ve had a long day working on permits for the new office, and I need the break.
I rubbed my aching head. “Don’t you have an assistant?”
“Yes.” He set a carton of eggs on the counter. “But some things are easier to do myself. The permits are something my CFO Maxwell usually hands off to our legal department, but I wanted to look at them.”
“But that pulls you away from the creative side of your work.”
“I haven’t done much creative in the last year. Things exploded, and it was more efficient to hire designers to do what I’d previously done. I’m still executive designer, but the rest, the really fun stuff, is up to a very talented team.”
Weighted with fatigue, I rested my chin in my hand as if my neck could no longer be trusted to hold up my head. “I’m sorry.”
Lachlan cracked two eggs with finesse into a bowl. “It’s the price of success, I guess.” He sliced off two pats of butter into a waiting skillet. “Minus a near-concussion, how was work?”
Here we were, discussing our day like a married couple. “I had to take over Celeste’s morning carpool, but other than that, it was kind of fun. Morgan tripped over a hay bale, so that was a highlight. How about you?”
From his position at the stove, Lachlan glanced over his shoulder. “Red tape with the permits, talks with a Hollywood producer, hit a few balls with the groundskeeper, and finalized some details for TechieCon.”
I thought of what Hattie had said about Lachlan’s childhood. How remarkable it was that he’d made it this far. “I bet Ozark University regrets kicking us out.”
“The president probably cries in his pillow every night he can’t call us alumni.”
Lachlan chopped bacon and some veggies, then added them to the pan. His large hands moved with precision and efficiency. I rather liked his hands. They were strong and capable, like Lachlan himself.
“Did I mention I’m flying out tomorrow morning?” Lachlan asked.
Disappointment fell like a snowflake, a faint, delicate thing that melted upon examination. I quickly put on mythat doesn’t bother me at allface. “Going to check in with your parole officer?”
“Paid him off years ago.” The frying pan sizzled and snapped. “No, I’m headed to San Francisco for a licensing meeting.”
“That sounds very grown-up,” I said.
“Way too adulty.” Lachlan added a dash of salt, then three shakes of pepper. “I’ll be gone for a week.”
“I’ll use that time to throw wild parties in your pool house.” I watched him toss in another handful of bacon, good man that he was. “You know, if this gaming empire doesn’t work out, you can definitely find work as a chef.”
He added some onion that sizzled in butter. “My mom was a waitress, so I’d hang out at the restaurant a lot. When I was nine, she worked at Champ’s All-Night Café. There was a cook there named Bud who helped me with my math homework and taught me some basics in the kitchen. By the time I was ten, I stayed home alone a lot while Mom worked double shifts. I’d cook for us both.”
“When we were in college you lived with your dad, though, right?” I thought he’d gone home to Houston every holiday.
Lachlan’s large knife sliced down on spinach. “Tried to. I got kicked out at the end of my junior year.”
“Then you moved back with your mom?”
“No, she’d passed away by then.”
Didn’t that feel like a fist to the gut. “I’m sorry.” It felt wrong to discuss it from so far away, so I climbed off the stool and stood next to him. “That must’ve been incredibly hard.” My PR antennae began to ping as his underdog story unfolded. “Where did you live after you got kicked out?”
“College was my home,” Lachlan said. “My dad took me in for a bit after high school, but I was an unwelcome guest. I was too wild, and I was the kid he and my half-brothers had never asked for. Things were pretty miserable, and as you can attest, finding trouble was my way to cope.”
