Page 11 of Duty and Desire

“Ken. Your parents’ chef, Ken?” she asks, and I know Aiden must have mentioned him to her at some point.

“Yep.”

“You used to bake with him?” she asks, sounding surprised.

“Yeah, I was always in the kitchen annoying him when I was little. Really, I bothered him even when I was in high school.”

“Did your brother ever hang with him?”

“No, he was always gone with Noah and wasn’t really around very much,” I say. She looks thoughtful as she studies me closely. Needing to get out from under her scrutiny, I take the dough to the fridge and set it inside, asking, “Do you think I need tochange?” I glance down at the jeans and sweater I put on when I got home from work this evening.

“I’m wearing what I wore to work today, so you’re good.”

“Cool.” I place a layer of foil over the cookies that are already done and then grab my bag off the counter.

“Do you want me to drive?” I pick up my jacket from where it’s lying on the edge of the couch and put it on.

“I can drive us.” She opens the door, and I follow her out of the house and stop to lock up. “Which one is your new car?” she asks, and I turn around to face the parking lot.

“The white Toyota.”

“Nice.” She walks over to check it out. “Do you love it?”

“Yes.” I feel oddly proud of my new car. It’s not the nicest one I’ve ever owned, but it’s mine. I paid for it—orampaying for it—all by myself, which is huge.

“I’m glad you found something.” She clicks the alarm for her vehicle, and I get in on the passenger side while she gets behind the wheel.

The drive to the wine bar takes less than twenty minutes, and when we get inside, I’m surprised by how modern and hip the space is. The backlit bar, dim lighting, concrete floors, and well-spaced tables make it feel like a place you’d find in a big city somewhere.

“Hey.” A handsome guy with the whole hipster thing going on greets us at the door. “Are you two looking for a table or wanting to sit at the bar?”

“I think a table.” May looks over at me, and I nod.

“Cool, follow me.” He heads toward the back of the room and shows us to a small table with two chairs. “You can pull up the drink menu using the QR code on this.” He points to a stand in the middle of the table. “Or you can get a wine card from me and use it at that wall there.” He points to a wall lined with fancymachines and wine bottles behind glass. “I’ll give you a couple of minutes to decide.”

“Thanks,” May and I reply at the same time, and he smiles at the two of us before taking off.

“Are you having wine?” I grab my phone so I can scan the code.

“I don’t know. I’m not really in the mood for wine.” She scans the code herself. “Oh, they have a raspberry martini.”

“That sounds good.” I look over what they have to eat since I’m actually starving. “Do you want to share a cheese board with me?”

“Yes, I’m so hungry. I didn’t really have a chance to eat lunch today.”

“Is everything okay?” I focus on her, feeling concerned. A few weeks ago, a senior in her school tried to shoot Aiden and actually ended up hitting another teacher. Apparently, the kid was secretly in love with her and wanted my brother out of the way. I had no idea until I heard about the shooting on the news.

Not that I was surprised my brother never mentioned anything. He might be letting me stay at his place, but our relationship hasn’t changed at all.

“Oh, yeah, we have the school book fair this week, so it’s been really busy.”

“I used to love going to the book fair. I didn’t know that was still a thing.”

“It is, and the high school hosts it twice a year for the smaller schools. It’s a lot of fun.”

“I bet.” I smile, then look up at our waiter when he stops next to our table.

“Are you ladies ready to order?”