Role Playing(54)

She smiled. “You are a good listener. You remembered that I had assignments coming up when you told Deb why me having internet was important, and you remembered my grandmother’s name. That’s impressive. Not a lot of people pay attention when other people are talking.”

“Thanks,” he said easily. “Although with a name like Nana Birdie, it wasn’t as hard. I was definitely curious.”

“She was from Tennessee,” she said. “Big Memphis family. She moved to California to be with my grandfather, who moved there after World War II. He was in charge of a farm there . . . was from a family of farmers. They made a decent living.”

“What about your parents?”

“Died. Car accident.” She saw the sympathy on his expressive face, and she shook her head. “I was two. I have no memory of them.”

“Still hard.”

She nodded, acknowledging it. The tomato paste had browned nicely, and the whole thing smelled good. She added red wine and beef broth, as well as peas, then set the whole thing to simmer as she peeled potatoes.

“So your grandparents knew your ex’s family?”

“It was sort of like the Falls, now that I think about it,” she said. “They went to the same church, and they were just tight. After my grandfather died, they basically absorbed my grandmother and me. We went over there for holidays and birthdays and things, all the time. I’d see Trev when he was in town. He didn’t like hanging out, because his parents kept bugging him about not getting married and not settling down nearby. He was four years older than me, so I didn’t really get to know him until after I dropped out of college.” She bit her lip. “Anyway, my grandmother decided to move to Tennessee to be with family, younger cousins and her sister, I think. I didn’t feel like I’d fit in there, so I stayed behind. I told Trev I wanted to move out of state, and he did, too, so we moved to Washington. It took a while for us to get settled—he got a bunch of different jobs, and we tried a bunch of cities, but he hated the west side. So we finally found property in Fool’s Falls, and he got a job, and we moved Kit . . .”

Shut up. Shut up. Why are you telling him all this?

It was like she’d been alone for so long, she was willing to unload all of her shit at once, on any ears that were even halfway friendly.

No. That wasn’t it. It was the fact that it was Aiden. She felt like she could trust him. So she did.

“Anyway, I hope you’re okay with cottage pie,” she said, cutting the potatoes and putting them in a pot of water to boil. “I’m making a full batch, so you’ll be able to bring home half if you like it. It’ll be one less meal for you to pull together.”

“I dropped out of college too,” he said. “Well, that’s not entirely true. I dropped out of Washington State, and moved to the west side and changed majors and graduated from Bellevue College. I was premed, but I decided to go into nursing.” He looked rueful. “The decision didn’t go over too well with my family, needless to say.”

“Nursing is tough,” she protested.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “But apparently it isn’t all that manly. And they . . .” He cleared his throat. “Me being manly was kind of a big deal.”

She made a pbblt noise in rebuttal. “Fuck manly,” she said. “I haven’t met a single self-proclaimed ‘manly man’ that wasn’t an asshole, I swear to God.”

He burst out in surprised laughter. “Well, that’s a first.”

“Trev bought into that bullshit,” she added, since the rage was still simmering, much like the cottage pie filling. “He was the stereotype. Fixed cars, drank beer. Got his six-point buck every season. Fished. Watched football with the guys down at the Trick Shot. He certainly didn’t understand having a sensitive son who seemed the opposite of all that.”

“Not into sports or cars, or hunting?”

“Decided to become vegetarian for a year when he was eleven,” she said, with a small, sad smile at the memory. “Part of it was because he was really freaked out by hunting, but I also think part of it was to piss off his dad, who couldn’t give a shit about video games or anime.”

“Sounds like Kit takes after you.”

“Couldn’t be more like me if I designed him in a lab,” she agreed with a nod.

Aiden smiled. “I’d like to meet him, then.”

She startled. It had never occurred to her to introduce Kit to any of her friends. Probably because she hadn’t had any friends.

“I’m doing all the talking,” she said, suddenly flustered. “What about you? Surely you’ve made some disastrous romantic decisions in your past. I’m gun shy because I made the most massive of all unforced errors with my previous marriage. What happened to you?”

He blinked slowly. Then he turned red.

“I . . .”

“Oh, God,” she said. “I am being a total Deb right now, aren’t I? Pushy as hell?” She was aghast. “Never mind. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“No, that’s all right,” he said, even though his tone was tentative. “I just . . . I don’t really talk about it much? To anyone?”

“That’s okay . . .”