I Hear...Love (A Different Road #2) (10 page)

“Do you have any coffee cream?” she asks, opening the refrigerator.

“No, there’s milk in there, though. Help yourself,” I call from inside my bedroom.

I come back to the kitchen, buttoning the third to last button on my shirt and find Kate filling Sadie’s bowl with a scoop of her food. She sets it on the floor, then Sadie shoves her face in the bowl and happily chows down. Kate grabs her cup of coffee, then takes a sip.

“Did you find the milk? I’m pretty sure it’s still good,” I tell her.

“I did, thank you,” she replies, lifting her cup.

“I need to hit the grocery store,” I tell her, picking up my empty cup, then refilling it.

“Are you going to hire Joss and Nina to cook for you?” she asks, leaning against the counter.

“How’d you know about that?” I ask.

“Joss told me. They’re both phenomenal chefs, Maddy is too.”

“Who’s Maddy?” I ask.

“Their employee, she’s a good friend of mine,” she says with a proud smile.

“Do you cook?” I ask her.

I watch as her lips tip up into a smile, then she says, “Uh . . . yeah . . . that’d be a big, fat no. I’m excellent at making smoothies and ordering take out, though. I’ve been taking some cooking lessons from Joss in exchange for teaching her yoga.”

“You’re very talented at yoga,” I tell her. “I wouldn’t mind taking some lessons from you myself.”

She instantly blushes, then hides her smile behind her coffee cup.

“So, are you going to hire them?” she asks again.

“You know what. I think I will,” I tell her.

Sadie picks up her food bowl, then heads toward the dishwasher.

“What’s she doing?” Kate asks, pointing at Sadie.

“She puts her dish in the dishwasher when she’s done eating,” I tell her.

“Get out!” she says, as she watches me open the dishwasher.

I pull out the bottom rack, then Sadie gently sets it in and noses it to make sure it’s in there good.

“That’s incredible,” she says. “I should probably get going. I’m sure River is looking for me. I just wanted to bring Sadie back and say thank you. And thank you for the coffee,” she says, setting her empty cup in the sink.

“You’re welcome,” I reply.

“Bye, Sadie. I’ll see you later,” she says, heading toward the glass door.

“Will I?” I ask, walking up behind her.

Kate turns around, then takes a step backward when she realizes how close I am. Her hands reach for the second to last button on my shirt, then she buttons it with a smile.

“You will,” she says with another smile, then smooths her hand down my chest.

I expect the king-of-arms-folded-over-his-chest, standing like a statue on the top step to be waiting for me, but to my surprise, he’s not there. Maybe he’s slipping a little bit. I go to the pool house, grab my purse, shove my headphones inside, then head to the main house. Joss, River, Nina, and Josh, are all sitting at the table eating breakfast and all conversation stops when I walk in. I glance at Joss, she shakes her head no, then looks at the empty chair at the table. I guess that means I should take my seat. I set my purse in front of me, then look at everyone. At the same time everyone looks at me, then they look at River. I look at River, but his face is tipped downward toward his scrambled eggs.

“We should get going to work for our morning meeting, so you and Maddy can head out,” Nina says to Joss, then picks up her plate and heads toward the kitchen.

“Right, we have a full schedule of clients today,” Joss says, picks up her plate, kisses River on the temple, then turns to leave.

River gently grabs her by the elbow, then slides his hand down her arm until he reaches her hand. He wipes his mouth with a napkin, then stands. He runs the front of his fingers down Joss’s face until he touches her lips, then he kisses her on the lips.

“I’ll pull the car up,” Josh says, then takes his plate into the kitchen.

Joss reaches back in, kisses River again, then says, “Have a
nice
day.”

She emphasized the word
nice
and looked at me when she said it. She takes his plate, then goes into the kitchen with everyone else. River taps his finger on top of the table, runs his fingers along the corner, then leaves the table and walks down the hallway to his room.

It’s a little too stuffy in here, so I grab my purse and walk outside. Everyone was acting really weird. Josh pulls the car up, then gets out as Joss and Nina walk out of the house.

“Hey, I talked to Cooper and he said he’s going to hire California Chef,” I tell her, excited for them.

“That’s great! I’ll look when I get to the shop to see if he sent in all of his paperwork, then we’ll get him scheduled right away,” Nina says.

“Business has been so amazing that we’re quickly exceeding capacity. We’re going to have to hire another chef if we keep getting clients at this rate,” Joss says.

“You’re going to hire a new chef?” River says, as he comes out of the house.

“It looks like we might have to soon. Isn’t that exciting?” Joss tells him.

“Kate secured us a new client this morning,” Nina says, then Joss smacks her in the arm.

“Ow,” she whispers, rubs her arm, and gives Joss a dirty look. “What the hell was that for?” she asks.

River sighs loudly, then Joss makes big eyes at Nina. She looks from River to me, then they have this secret eye conversation back and forth. Nina looks pissed that Joss smacked her.

“Let’s get to the shop,” Joss says to Nina.

“Fine,” Nina replies, still rubbing her arm.

On the way to their van, Joss softly elbows Nina with their secret
I love you
elbow nudge, but Nina doesn’t elbow her back. The two of them are extremely cute together. They’ve known each other since they were little girls, and they have this secret elbow nudge thing they do that secretly, without words, tells the other that they love them. Joss always says that sometimes you may not be able to say it, but you want the other person to know, so that’s what they came up with. Oh my gosh, one day River did it to Joss in front of Nina, and I seriously thought she was going to pop her eyeballs out of her head, she was so jealous. I’ve never seen River do it to Joss again.

Josh gets out of the driver’s seat and opens River’s door. Joss kisses him one last time, before he gets in the car. Josh opens my door and I get in. He closes my door as Joss and Nina get in their catering van, then they head out of the driveway.

River sighs loudly, as Josh walks around the vehicle to the driver door. River, again, sighs and it irritates the crap out of me. All of his loud sighing all the time is enough to drive me crazy.

“What? If you have something to say, just say it,” I tell him, looking at the back of his head.

“Was the new client you secured for Joss and Nina, Cooper?” he asks, as Josh opens the door. “Where were you this morning? Did you sleep at Cooper’s?” he has the nerve to ask.

Josh hears the conversation and immediately closes the door without getting in the car. He turns his back and leans against the driver’s door.

Smart move, Josh.

“Did I sleep at Cooper’s?” I repeat back to him. “Are you sure you didn’t want to go for the win and ask if I
slept
with Cooper last night?” I fire at the back of his head.

“Don’t be crass,” he returns, turning his head to the side.

“Crass! You need to look up the definition. You’re the exact definition of crass.”

I lean over and tap on the window, then say loud enough so Josh can hear, “Josh, I need you to look up the word crass on your phone, then tell River what it says. When you get to the word,
stupid,
make sure you say it slowly so he can understand.”

Josh scratches his eyebrow, but completely ignores me, so I sit back in my seat with a plop.

“Kate, you’re not to see him again. Do I make myself clear?” he asks.

My mouth hangs open with words unable to come out. I’m not to see him again! Who the hell does he think he is?

“That’s it! I’m taking the necessary steps to remove you as conservator. Then, as soon as I can, I’m moving out. I’ve been bending over backward, jumping through every freaking hoop you toss at me, to prove to you that I’m better. I’ve been to every counseling session, I take my medication religiously, I’ve eaten everything they tell me to eat and don’t eat the things they say I shouldn’t. I’ve allowed strangers into the pool house, where I live, on a regular basis to come in and tear my belongings apart looking for suicidal paraphernalia. I’ve been running around like a crazy person to make sure I do
everything
to your high levels of satisfaction, so I don’t ever let you down again. I second, sometimes third, and fourth guess, every move I make, every word I say around you to make sure I’m good enough for you. But this, this time you’ve stepped over the line. I’m an adult. Yes, I’ve screwed up my life before, but you can’t hold that over my head for the rest of my life and keep me your little prisoner in your pool house. Not that I need to tell you, but no, I haven’t slept with Cooper, and I didn’t sleep over his house last night, either. I slept in my bed with Sadie. I returned her to him this morning. We’re friends. Are you seriously going to sit there in good conscious and tell me who I can and can’t be friends with?”

“You slept with a dog?” he asks.

Out of everything I said, he chooses to dwell on Sadie. He leans over, taps on the driver side window with his finger, then Josh opens the door and gets in. I cross my arms over my chest and sit in the back seat like a petulant child. Josh starts the car and proceeds to drive to work. Again, I find myself staring at the back of River’s head, wishing I could slap him upside his crazy ass head.

Not another word is said the entire drive to the office and the elevator ride to our floor is suffocating. I head to the receptionist desk, put my purse in the filing cabinet, then get to work ignoring both River and Josh’s stare.

Just before lunch, a flower delivery man gets off the elevator. It’s not uncommon for women in the office to get flowers. It’s bittersweet. Part of me loves how beautiful they are and the sentiment behind them, but the other part is extremely jealous that someone out there is thinking of this person so much that they go out of their way to do something so nice as to send them flowers to their place of work.

I stand as he places them on my desk, then I take the clipboard from him and sign for them.

“Thank you,” I say, as he turns around and leaves.

“Have a nice day,” he replies.

Yeah. Real nice day so far.

I remove the card from the little plastic fork, so I can read the name and buzz the lucky lady. I remove it, flip it over, and read the name on the card.

Kate Mason.

Wait. That’s me!

That’s my name!

I take a seat, bring the card to my chest, then look at the beautiful flowers again and smile. Wait just one minute. These better not be from River. He has more to apologize for, and he’s not getting off that easy by sending me flowers. Flowers can’t smooth over what he’s been doing and what he said to me.

I slam the unopened card on my desk, then grab my purse and leave the building to go to lunch. I’m sure as hell not going to sit in River’s office and eat lunch with him today. I know I’m being a huge pain in the ass, immature child right now, but seriously, I’m done proving myself to him. The only person I need to prove anything to is my own damn self.