EMILY
Saturday night, after a whole day of mind-blowing sex, had me feeling very mellow.
It helped that the kitchen smelled like garlic and butter, which was probably my favorite smell in the entire world. Well, second favorite. First place currently went to whatever soap Cam used, but I wasn’t examining that too closely.
“Hand me that oregano?” He nodded toward the spice rack.
I grabbed it and moved closer, watching as he added a pinch to the pot. “You’re very serious about this sauce.”
“It’s my mom’s recipe. If I mess it up, she’ll know.”
“She’s recovering from knee surgery two towns over. How would she possibly know?”
“Trust me. She’d know.” He tasted it off the spoon, made a satisfied sound. “Okay, that’s good.”
I returned to my cutting board, smiling. The silence that followed was comfortable, broken only by the sound of my knife on the board and the gentle bubble of sauce on the stove.
It gave my mind the chance to roam and where it landed led to, “Can I ask you something that’s been bugging me for a while?”
He flicked me a cautious look, then went back to stirring the sauce. “Sure.”
“How does the owner of one of the biggest franchise companies in the state end up in Esperance?” I scraped the tomatoes into a bowl. “Seems like a pretty specific choice.”
Tension edged his shoulders. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. You’ve got the business, you could live anywhere. But you picked this neighborhood. This house.” I rinsed the knife under the tap. “It’s just got me curious.”
He was quiet for a moment, his attention back on the sauce. When he finally spoke, his voice was measured. “I wanted something different for the girls.”
“Different from what?”
He turned the heat down under the pot, then leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms. “It’s a long and boring story, so I’ll give you the TLDR.”
“Okay.”
“When Nat and I first met, we were perfect on paper. We both wanted the status and the money, the luxury cars and the big house. We spent our twenties working towards that. Me with the moving business, Natascha with her influencer brand. She turned it into a money machine so damn quick. She was amazing at it. Is amazing.”
“Yeah, over three hundred thousand followers is phenomenal.”
“It is. So it was great for a while. We were happy.”
“What changed?”
“The girls.”
“Oh, of course.” Stupid me for not realizing that.
“Fatherhood just hit me differently than I’d expected.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Suddenly I’m holding this tiny person and all I can think about is how I want to be there. Not atwork fourteen hours a day. Not traveling for franchise openings. Just there.”
“And Natascha?”
He picked up his wine, took a sip. “She struggled with being a mom at first, but once Audrey got old enough to be in photos, everything shifted. Because now motherhood wasn’t taking away from her career. It was enhancing it.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. The mommy influencer thing isn’t just a hobby for her. It started out fine. A few cute pictures. But then the brand deals started coming in.”
He stirred the sauce again, buying time.
