Page 3 of Burning Love (Looking For Love #7)

TYPICAL OF YOU

“ T he house stinks. What did you burn?”

Talia swirled around to look at her mother when she walked into the kitchen. “Nothing. You burned something.”

“I did no such thing,” her mother argued. “Ohhh, cookies. If I knew you had a sweet tooth for some, I would have made them for you.”

Her mother walked over and picked up a chocolate chip cookie that she’d had delivered. Jace, the sexy fireman, had the right idea. DoorDash it was.

“It might have saved the fire department from showing up if I had told you,” she said. There was enough sarcasm in her voice to trigger the alarms again.

“Fire department?” her mother screeched. “Are you okay?” Her mother was frantically looking around the kitchen. “What happened?”

Talia marched over to the sink and picked up the scorched package of chicken, then dropped it down on the counter with a thunk a rock would carry. More like lava because that was what it looked like.

“Dinner that you were thawing in the oven. I had no idea. I came in from a long miserable flight dying for gooey melted chocolate chip cookies and turned the oven on to preheat it while I went downstairs to shower.”

“Oh,” her mother said. “Well, Talia. That’s on you for not checking the oven first.”

Her lips twisted in frustration at being told the same thing Jace had said. He was Jace in her eyes. Hot, you know, like a fireman had to be. Tall, over six feet easily. Clean-shaven, which he most likely had to be for his job. Everything else was covered by his fire gear.

That was fine. She’d dream up the rest in her mind later tonight.

As long as she didn’t have nightmares over her mortification to rush into a room full of strange men wearing only a towel.

What could she have been thinking?!

“Whatever.” She waved her hand and dropped the ruined package of chicken in the trash. She’d only held onto it so she could show her mother proof of what happened. “I was downstairs showering, the music is blaring.”

“Like you always do when you’re home alone,” her mother interrupted.

“I learned not to do it when you’re home.

” Or she put headsets on. “I must have lost track of time in the shower, I don’t know.

I’ve been dying for a long hot shower with decent water pressure.

The next thing I know, I’m drying off and the music sounded odd to me.

At first I thought the sirens were part of the song. ”

Her mother’s bugged out eyes and tight lips said more than words could. “Really, Talia? How can you be that na?ve?”

She hated when her mother talked to her as if she were fourteen instead of twenty-four. “We don’t listen to the same music. Once I realized it was the smoke alarms, I wrapped a towel around me and ran up the stairs. I knew the oven was on.”

“You tried to take care of it yourself?” her mother asked, throwing her hands in the air. “There was a fire in the oven and you pulled that out?”

“No. I ran into a room full of firemen. Which was even stupider. The alarms had been going long enough while I was in the shower that the fire department arrived, the security company unlocked the door for them, and they were in the house looking for the flames.”

“In your towel only?” her mother asked, her eyebrows damn close to her hairline.

“Don’t you dare laugh.” She pointed her finger at her mother. Too late. Her mother and her warped sense of humor let loose. “It’s not funny.”

“It kind of is,” her mother said. “Typical Talia scenario.”

It always fell this way. She rarely got taken seriously, even though she’d proven herself in the past several months with her family.

She’d like to think she’d been doing it for the past year.

“That’s not nice, Mom.”

“Don’t get defensive,” her mother said. “You always did. But it is typical of you. You come in the house and have a one-track mind. You thought of cookies and decided to use my oven over yours. I’ve been putting meat in the oven your entire life to thaw. Correct?”

There the twisting of her lips went in frustration again. “Yes.”

“It falls on you to open the oven to check before you turn it on. Why use my oven over yours?”

“Because you’ve got two and they are bigger. I could have cooked the whole batch at the same time.”

“It looks to me as if you still managed to do it,” her mother said. Her mother’s eyes landed on the remaining cookies on the counter.

“Nope. The sexy fireman that stayed to help me open all the windows in the house and turn the fans on suggested that I get DoorDash. That’s what I did.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “You told him you wanted cookies?”

“I didn’t want him to think I was stupid enough to cook chicken in the plastic wrap. I think they thought that.”

Her mother snorted. “I’m not sure what is worse. Thinking you’d do that or turning an oven on without looking inside of it first.”

She marched over and picked up another cookie. She’d had two already, might as well have a third.

“It’s going to be pick on Talia day, isn’t it?”

“Come here,” her mother said gently. “Do you need a hug?”

Her bottom lip came out. “I wouldn’t mind one. I had a horrible flight and I’m PMSing. Thankfully my cramps were under control before the plane took off. Two hours late.”

Her mother stepped back. “I know you get bad cramps. And you’re not a fan of traveling.”

“I don’t mind traveling,” she argued. “When it’s not running around and catching last-minute flights.”

She didn’t know how her sister, Laken, did this all the time. The last-minute flights seemed to be the ones having the issues.

“Two of your last three flights had delays, didn’t they?”

“Yes.” She sat down and sulked for a second.

Might as well get it out of her system, since her mother would be the only witness.

“They overbooked my flight a few weeks ago and we couldn’t leave until enough people were off.

No one volunteers. I sure the heck wasn’t.

I was lucky my name wasn’t drawn. This time we had to switch planes for some mechanical issue. I wish I could use West’s jet.”

Her mother burst out laughing. “Now I know you’re having a pity party. He doesn’t offer his jet to anyone other than me or if he’s going somewhere. Otherwise the family only uses it in large groups. It’s not like borrowing a car. Besides, it’s housed in New York.”

“I know,” she whined. “But there wouldn’t be any of these problems and he’s the one sending me on these trips.”

Three months ago, she’d sat down with her billionaire oldest brother and pitched her business plan. More like her career plan.

She didn’t want to run a business like some of her other siblings. She didn’t know if she wanted to manage staff either.

It took her two years to figure out what she finally enjoyed doing.

Helping people.

West had been impressed with her passion for charitable donations. She’d rather just hand the money out but was told it didn’t work that way. She had to gather it too.

Since she’d had enough marketing and business classes, and she did enjoy people and the fund-raising events she’d worked at in a few of her temporary jobs the past year, she agreed.

Of course it didn’t matter if she agreed or not. It came with the job.

But she’d spent a month in New York City, staying at West’s Manhattan penthouse. Her brother was only there half the time, splitting his time between the city and the Hamptons.

She had to spend a month working with the staff he had that handled donation requests.

It was all hers now. A department of one.

But she had to know where the money was coming from, how to build it, and create criteria for who received it.

Nothing at all like she’d thought when she just assumed she’d be reading applications and handing out big cardboard checks and getting her picture taken.

Yeah, maybe she was na?ve. But West set her straight and, other than some botched travel plans, she was loving her new job.

“Talia, grow up.”

She blew out a breath. “I am. I have been.”

Her mother reached her hand over and laid it on hers. “I know you have been. I’m so proud of you. I never thought this would be your passion.”

“I love helping people. I didn’t think I would either. Everyone wanted to rush me to pick a career. I’m not like everyone else. I’m glad I had an opportunity to really find what I like.”

“Me too,” her mother said. “But it’s not going to be as simple or easy as you want. I’ll be honest, I’m surprised West didn’t push for you to move there.”

Talia had thought that would happen also.

“He said I can work anywhere as long as I travel when needed. I have to be willing to go there for events. Or anywhere for events. Thankfully I’m spending more time building money and getting the Carlisle Foundation name out there.

I can do a lot of that remotely most times. ”

West had sent her to one of his businesses in Colorado for a charity event to meet with the coordinators and get a feel for what and why they were raising money and for her to decide if the foundation she ran could be a part of it.

She was on the fence after talking to them and would have to explain her reasons why to West.

Though she decided who got money and why, West had the final say to veto it.

Bummer, but understandable.

It wasn’t about trust. It was about learning. She knew that.

“You’re young and have nothing holding you anywhere. You’ll get the hang of things. I don’t think you’ll be traveling like Laken. Maybe just in the beginning.”

“I hope not,” she said. “But I do know we’ve got to get more eyes on the foundation and that means raising money too.”

“You’ll figure it all out,” her mother said. “Until then, why don’t I treat you to dinner since you ruined what I was going to make.”

She closed one eye at her mother. There was no reason to argue about who ruined what.

“You can do that. I’ll go change first.”

Her mother looked at her black athletic shorts and red T-shirt she’d thrown on to replace the towel she’d been wearing.

“Good. Because your shirt is inside out.”

She dropped her head back and closed her eyes. Could this day have gotten any more embarrassing?

“Urgh!”