Page 59 of Sunkissed Colorado

He was smiling. “I happen to like having roommates. I’d hate living alone. We’re all volunteers for Silver Ridge Fire. Dare’s a mechanic, Connor’s a personal trainer, and our other roommate Niko…he’s the baby. Out with his girlfriend right now.”

“I’m guessing you’re the oldest of the group?” I teased.

Callum made an exaggeratedly shocked face. “Dare and Connor are barely younger than me. We all played football together in high school. And if I’m old, so are you,” he added.

“Maybe.” I sliced into an onion, knowing my eyes would start stinging any minute from the fumes. “I didn’t expect to be single, broke, and starting over back in Silver Ridge in my mid-thirties.”

“Who says your life has to follow some pre-planned track record?”

“My parents,” I said without thinking.

“You care about their opinions?”

My knife paused. “I don’t want to care. But it’s hard not to.”

After Callum finished dicing the chicken breasts and Ihad a bowl of chopped veggies, we started the pot pie filling. “Don’t turn the burner up too high,” he said. “Once the vegetables are sweating, we’ll add the chicken.”

“Veggies sweat?”

“When you treat them right.”

I shook my head, because Callum could turn just about any topic into something that sounded sexual.

While I stirred the contents of the skillet and Callum scooped flour into another bowl, I said, “Connor mentioned military speak. You were in the Army, right?”

“Yeah, in my twenties. Like my brothers.”

“Hard to imagine you marching around all serious and following every order. Sir, yes sir.”

He aimed his lopsided grin my way. “There was alittlemore to it than that. But you’re partly right. Loved the people I served with, didn’t love following arbitrary orders and being shuffled around with no control.”

“And then you started at Hearthstone after you left active duty?”

“You got it. Started as a bartender. Didn’t have much experience with that, but I talked Manny’s ear off and convinced him to give me a shot.”

“I can imagine.”

“What about you? What were you doing in Chicago before you came back?”

Ugh. My mood instantly wobbled. This wasn’t a fun topic.

Yet I found myself talking.

“I had an idea to help food manufacturers track their ingredients more effectively, all the way from sourcing to production to delivery. To make it even easier to prevent cross-contamination.”

“For people with food allergies like you?” He came over to dump the chicken into the skillet.

I nodded. “My ex Ian had all these contacts in the business world. He said he’d landed a huge client for us. A major food manufacturer.” I grimaced. “We touted that client to investors toget them to back our company. But Ian didn’t tell me when the big client pulled out.”

“That sounds bad.”

“Very bad. He lied to me, and I had no idea I was giving false information to our investors.” I focused on stirring, not wanting to see pity in his eyes. “Long story short, once the truth came out, our investors panicked. Everything fell apart. We worked out a settlement, and I walked away with nothing. My savings and reputation were destroyed. Had to keep living with Ian for months because I couldn’t find a new job and had no money for my own place. I guess I’m lucky he didn’t kick me out, but I was the one paying for groceries and keeping the place clean.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. Damn is right. So…now I’m here. You know the rest.”

We worked in comfortable silence for a while. I had to admit, there was something soothing about the rhythm of cooking together. Callum would give me advice or show me a technique, then watch patiently as I tried to copy him. Before long, we had the pot-pie filling off the heat. It already smelled incredible, and was thick and creamy from the non-dairy creamer we’d used.