Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

SLATE

B ack at the farmhouse, Jeanie showed me to a guest room on the second floor after bulldozing all my arguments to stay in a hotel in town. I'd figured that while I hadn't seen one on the drive over, there had to be some kind of accommodation available there.

Jeanie wouldn't have any of it, though. "There's only one motel in Firefly Grove and it's a dump, sweetheart. Well, technically, it's a historical landmark, but I'm sorry to say it's a dump nonetheless. Besides, it would be our pleasure to host you."

That had been the end the of it. Without any way to refute her statements about the motel and definitely not wanting to offend her, I nodded and followed her into what was now, officially, my bedroom.

For at least a month.

I looked around, taking it all in and hoping my face was behaving itself. Even my expressions tended to be asshole-ish sometimes, but what I saw wasn't so bad. The room was nicely appointed in a very traditional farmhouse style, with a queen bed covered in plaid bedding, an old pine dresser and furniture, and a rug that looked like it was about thirty years old on the floor.

Not exactly five-star accommodation, but I'd lived in worse conditions on the rigs.

"The bathroom is just down the hall on the right," Jeanie said with a friendly smile. "Towels are in the linen closet behind the door."

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

While it wasn't the Ritz, it also wasn't bad or off-putting. On the other hand, I was living in Mira's friend's parents' house. Which was weird.

Jeanie headed out into the hall before pausing to smile at me again. "You get some rest. We know you've had a long day. Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes downstairs."

She left and I shut the door, glancing around my room again before moving to the window to look out at the farm. From up here, I could see for miles and miles, but there wasn't a sign of civilization in sight. It was one thing to be in the middle of nowhere on the ocean, but it felt strange to be in the middle of nowhere on land.

I groaned when I realized this would be my life for at least a month. I didn't dare crack a window to spare myself the foul smells on the property, but even with them closed I could hear cows mooing and chickens clucking.

"I'm in hell," I muttered under my breath, shoving both hands into my hair and dragging them slowly back. "Please, God. Just don't let there be a screaming rooster waking me up at the crack of dawn every morning. I'm definitely going to need my rest."

The sun was still high in the sky when I went downstairs for dinner precisely twenty-nine minutes later. It seemed dinner was early around here, but I was just trying not to think about how awkward it was going to be, alone with Jess's parents.

On my way down, I tried to distract myself by taking a closer look at the house I would be staying in. It was even more sprawling than I'd realized before. Broken up into multiple rooms, it actually turned out to be a pretty impressive place, even if it was a little worn.

To my surprise, when I followed the voices in the direction of the kitchen, I realized Jess was there for dinner as well, clean as a whistle after an apparent recent shower. Looks like I won't be alone with her parents after all.

As the relief about that fact sank in, I let myself take her in for a quick moment. Her curls were almost black when they were wet, still leaving little droplets of water on the back of a plain emerald green T-shirt. She wore little pink shorts with it, her face glowing after its wash.

With her feet bare, it didn't look like she'd gone someplace else to shower—nor did it seem like she would be leaving after this. In fact, she looked like she was at home .

But the girl was thirty years old.

There was no way she could still live here, but on the other hand, I knew nothing about country life. Perhaps she was expected to live in her parents' house until she was married.

Or something like that.

It was a foreign concept to me, but I took it in stride, deciding I'd find out her deal when I found out about it. For now, I was just relieved she'd be here for dinner.

Jeanie waved me over to join the family at the dining-room table. Not the kitchen table but a real dining-room table that looked as well used as everything else in this house. I blinked a few times, surprised by just about everything about this scene.

As I sat down, Jeanie served a massive dinner with enough food to feed an army. She brought out a pot roast with potatoes, carrots, gravy, peas, and homemade bread. My stomach grumbled at the mere sight of it, but thankfully, Jess was chattering to her parents and I doubted anyone had heard it.

Seriously, though, it looked like I was about to have the best meal I'd had in ages and I wasn't shy to tell Jeanie so. I figured it was the least I could do, considering their hospitality. She chuckled and handed over a serving spoon.

"You better dig in then, sweetheart. Before Doug demolishes it all." She winked at me playfully, letting me know who her daughter had inherited the trait from. "The way he eats, you'd swear I fed the man once a day."

I frowned. "Wait. Does that mean you guys eat like this for every meal?"

Jeanie nodded happily, a sense of peace emanating from her as she sat down and watched us all pile food onto our plates. "They work hard out there. I work hard in here. It's an outdated idea, I suppose, for the woman to be in the kitchen all day long, but I genuinely enjoy it. I'm blessed to have a life where it's possible for me."

"It is outdated, but that doesn't matter, Mom," Jess said with a wide smile on her face. "The only thing that matters is doing what you love, right? You taught me that."

As she said it, she snuck a peek at me and I caught her looking, raising a questioning eyebrow when our gazes clashed. She'd sounded a little defensive just there, and I wasn't sure if she thought she had to justify her mother's choices to me or if something else was going on, but that statement hadn't been random.

If she wanted to know something, she could just ask, but instead, she let her mother take the lead on the conversation. She sat back, eating and listening, but not really saying much.

"What about you, Slate? If you work in the family business with Mira, that means you probably work on the rigs too. Am I right?"

"I used to," I said. "Not so much anymore, though. Maybe if they served food like this out there, I'd have gone back without a second thought, but our cafeteria doesn't come anywhere near this."

"Is the food awful?" Jeanie asked, her nose scrunching in concern. "You'd think the companies would make sure their workers eat well, what with all that dangerous work they do."

"They try," I acknowledged. "The food is better than you might think and there's a lot of consideration that goes into every menu to ensure that the guys consume enough calories, but it's still not this."

Doug guffawed, patting his meaty belly as he pushed another bite of potato onto his plate. "There are calories, and then there are calories . I wouldn't look like this if my Jeanie's food didn't contain the right kind of calories."

I chuckled. "Well, maybe if I'm lucky, I'll look more like you by the time I go home."

"We'll make sure of it," Doug promised with a twinkle in his eye, mercifully not offended and having taken the statement as the compliment I'd intended it to be for his wife. Just in case Jeanie thought I'd judged her for dedicating her life to feeding her family.

I was honestly in awe of all this food, but I was also impressed by how much of it this family packed away. I'd always known that farmers worked hard, rising early for chores and spending their days out in the fields, but I'd never given much thought to how much fuel they needed for that kind of work.

The guys on the rig ate like they were competing for a gold medal, but the Merricks gave them a run for their money and I heartily joined in. I hadn't had a family meal in the longest time, and with food as delicious as Jeanie's, it was a privilege to be a guest at their table.

Even if I definitely didn't belong there.

Regardless of how much Jeanie appreciated the gusto with which I ate and how much Doug seemed to enjoy my company, I was wildly out of my depth. It made every minute drag on and feel awkward.

Jeanie smiled as I swallowed another bite of her juicy roast. "So, Slate. I'd love to hear more about what it's like on the rigs. I've always thought it was quite an extreme career, but Mira told me once that it can get quite boring."

I chuckled. "That sounds like her. To be honest, it can be extreme, but it can also be pretty boring. It depends on the crew and the weather, the rig and about a hundred other little factors that can turn a boring day extreme in no time."

As I chatted to them, I felt like we were all hitting it off even through the awkwardness, but Jess had gone silent, none of the playfulness or teasing I'd gotten used to from her present now. She sat across the table, analyzing me intently and I wondered why.

On the other hand, she and I had one wild night together. Maybe she was worried it would influence the way I approached this job or perhaps she thought I might blurt out the truth to her parents over coffee in the morning.

She didn't have to worry about either of those things with me. No one would ever hear about us from me and I was a professional. I could separate business from pleasure. Plus, the process for this sort of thing was pretty standard.

At least until all the facts were in.

The fights, if there were even any coming our way, however, could be dirty. I happened to be quite good at them though, and I'd already promised Mira I would see this thing through to the end. Jess really didn't have anything to worry about.

But I supposed she didn't know that.

Yeah, she and I are going to have to have a little talk later. If I was going to be staying here, we didn't need to make things weirder than they already were. There didn't have to be an atmosphere in the room whenever we were together.

I had to make sure she knew that this was business and that I was entirely capable of separating it from what had happened between us before. While that had undoubtedly been fun, this was my job and her family's future we were talking about.

There was no way I was going to let something like a single hookup stand in the way of what had to be done here. Now I just needed to convince her that I could be trusted with it.