“Oh, so much better,” I moaned out as the heat from the kitchen smacked into us. I peeked out into the crazy rush that was going on as a chef and his helper hustled around between the two industrial gas stoves, the large wood-topped stone island, and the larger than usual oven set into the wall.
“Get your gear off or you’ll overheat,” Aspen said, tugging on my coat to pull me back from my distraction with the activity inside. Nodding, I did as he said, and we left our muddy shoes near the door as well, walking onto the clean black kitchen tiles in our socks. His aunt Lisa, an older lady with silver hair and the same round cheeks and freckles as Aspen, hustled into the kitchen in a black dress that hugged her friendly curves. She immediately swatted at us.
“Out! You’ll get in the way. Chef hates that.”
“Yes, he does!” the chef boomed, a large man with a round belly that made me think he cooked good food, though he didn’t glance away from the stove where he was stirring something. She shoved a box of silverware at Aspen, then picked up a crate of glassware from the island and handed it to me.
“Set the table,” she said as she rushed farther into the kitchen to the large wall oven in the corner. I stared at the dishes until Aspen huffed out a sigh and set down the silverware. A few seconds later he’d taken the dishes from me, and I snatched up the box.
“Seemed safer to trade,” he said, with a note of apology in his voice.
Groaning, I nodded. “Let’s go.”
I followed Aspen along a hallway from the kitchen to a dining room that had decorative ceilings with ship anchors in the white molding and expansive bay windows giving a view of the ocean. The sunset had faded to dusk in the short time we’d been in the house. In another room people laughed, startling me.
“Auntie Lisa serves drinks before dinner,” he said when I craned my head to peek into the room near us with antique blue velvet furniture that matched the rest of the décor perfectly. It was crowded.
“Come on,” Aspen said with a grin. “Let’s finish this work.”
He quickly set sixteen places so that all of the dinnerware, silverware, wineglasses, mugs, and other odds and ends were precisely where they were supposed to be, neat as soldiers marching around the table. Mostly I just followed him and handed him items when he asked for them, trying not to get in his way. When we were done, Lisa came hustling back into the room and swatted at us again.
“You boys go change for dinner. You cannot come to the table like that. Behave yourselves. My word.” The Caribbean was strong in her words, and Aspen’s eyes laughed even though he was sober as a judge when he nodded. I still hadn’t quite figured her out yet, so my stomach flipped. “Sorry, Auntie Lisa!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Aspen said. “I know. No jeans at the table.” He linked his fingers with mine and his aunt stared at our joined hands as he tugged me toward the doorway that led out to the central staircase. In true Aspen fashion he hadn’t introduced me to his aunt as anything in particular when we’d arrived yesterday. He’d simply slung his arm around me and presented me to her like I was some interesting tidbit he’d found and brought back with him.
“This is Vail.”
She hadn’t smiled, but she’d hugged me and whispered, “Welcome to our home. Call me Auntie,” and that had been that.
“Does she hate me?” I whispered as I followed quickly after Aspen up the gleaming walnut staircase.
He chuckled. “No, I think she likes you.”
“She’s very talkative with the other guests,” I said, stomach twisting up in worry.
“That’s how you know she likes you. She rambles when she’s nervous. Like me.” The small smile curving his lips had me relaxing.
“You’ve never rambled in your life.” I squeezed his hand.
“You don’t know.” He stopped to kiss the corner of my mouth, but then rushed on.
As we arrived at the top of the third landing, he opened the door to our room. I took a moment, the same way I had this morning, to appreciate the amazing view when we went up another, shorter set of stairs. There were port windows in each crisp white wall. I felt like I could see all the way to the middle of the ocean on one side and out to the center of a primordial forest from the other. I snapped out of my reverie when Aspen tossed my tweed suit coat at my face and laughed.
I shoved him back lightly and our wrestling led to a few minutes of kissing that had me wanting to ignore dinner, but he gently pushed me away and hustled off to grab a pair of nice wool pants from his bag.
“Does this go with my sweater?” he asked, as serious as anything, and I held in a laugh as I nodded.
“Your aunt is particular about manners and clothes and things?”
“She’s had to be aware of other people’s opinions,” he said simply, and I mulled that over as I dressed. We arrived in the dining room in the nick of time. There were only three seats left and the first course had been brought out from the kitchen. We sat down beside Auntie Lisa, and she laid her hand on Aspen’s arm in greeting without stopping a conversation with a woman from Idaho about the lady’s dog-breeding business, which she was talking about loudly enough for me to hear all the details.
“What do you do, son?” I hadn’t noticed Aspen’s uncle Samuel sneaking in to sit on my left. He had on a suit coat, and a shirt tucked into khaki shorts. He winked at me when I shot a wide-eyed look at Auntie Lisa, and his laughter invited her to shoot narrow-eyed glances our way.
“I’m going to get into trouble, I can tell.”
“Nah. She’ll be mad at me, not you. Tell me, what’s your business? You’re here with Aspen, what do you do?” He grinned, clearly easier to amuse than his wife, and I found myself wanting to talk to him.
“I teach.”
