“Why not?”Lou mumbled around a mouthful of food.
Jesse blinked.“What?”
She swallowed.“Why can’t you do anything about it?”
“We’re renovating her aunts’ restaurant,” Knox reminded her, but saying it out loud made it sound…
“That’s weak,” Lou scoffed.“Do we have any cheese to put on top of this?”
“I was going to grate some, but you got greedy.”
“I’ll live without it,” Lou decided.“Where was I?”
“Weak,” Sawyer supplied helpfully.
“Right.So what if you’re doing the aunts’ restaurant?What’s that got to do with Chloe?She’s not the one who hired you, is she?”
“No,” Jesse admitted.
Lou waved her spoon.“She in charge of you at all?Making any design decisions, cutting checks, anything?”
Knox shook his head.“No.”
“Then what the fuck’s stopping you?”
“I… It’s complicated,” Knox managed.
“So the fuck what?Life is complicated.”She gestured to Sawyer with her spoon, flinging a blob of chili that landed on his chest.“Look at this fuckin’ guy.”
Sawyer frowned down at his sweater.“That’s going to leave a stain.”
“He literally fucks other people for a living,” Lou went on, clearly unconcerned for the fate of her husband’s sweater.“You think that’s not complicated?”
“Well, no,” Jesse admitted.
“You’re damn right, no.It’s complicated and messy and sometimes it’s fucking hard, but I love him and he loves me and we make each other a priority, and we make it work because it’simportant.And this house.”
Since she didn’t pause for breath or a bite of chili, Knox assumed she didn’t actually want a response and wisely stayed silent.
“You think this house is uncomplicated?”Lou went on.“Plaster walls and fucked-up floors, plumbing and electrical that could kill us?We could’ve picked one of those new builds in some subdivision and saved ourselves the lead-paint abatement and foundation issues and new roof and plaster walls that aren’t square toanythingbut vibes and maybe ghosts, and we’d be thousands of dollars richer and fucking miserable.Because it’s not us.Because complicated doesn’t fuckingmatter.What matters is what you want, and need, and having the balls to go get it.”
She shoveled in a spoonful of chili, jabbed her spoon first at Knox, then at Jesse, glowering as she chewed.
“I don’t know what that means,” Knox confessed.
Jesse looked just as lost as Knox felt.“Me neither.”
“I think she’s telling you to find your balls,” Sawyer said with a grin.
Mouth full, Lou nodded, then grimaced and pointed at herself, then at Sawyer.
“What’s that mean?”Knox asked, fascinated.
“That means she’s eating too fast and needs something to drink.”Sawyer pulled a jug of milk out of the fridge.He got a glass, poured and handed it to her.
She took it with a grimace and downed half of it.“God, I hate milk.Milk sucks.”
“It’s good for you.”
