“You don’t mind eating in here?” he asked.
“Not at all or I wouldn’t have asked.” She scooted a chair over to the desk and sat down. Her plate was resting half on the surface and half on a legal pad, so she carefully pulled the paper out from under her supper and set it on the corner of the desk. The lamplight was soft, creating a cozy atmosphere, but it did make her wonder how he could get any work done with so little light. It was enough, though, to show off the blue of his eyes and the serious expression on his face.
“So,” he said, clearly trying to fill the silence. Carrie couldn’t help but be annoyed with herself. She’d been the one to press him to eat so that she could have a good chat with him about things, but she’d worried herself so much that she couldn’t get a word out. “Tell me about Olivia wanting me to take her ice skating. Did she really ask for me to take her?”
“Yes. She said she wanted you in particular. And Snow White,” she smiled.
“Snow White?”
Carrie nodded. “At this age, it’s perfectly feasible to Olivia for her daddy and Snow White to take her skating. And it’s important to make her feel like her requests are valid even when they aren’t because one day she’ll come to you with something serious. And if you listened to her as a child and took her seriously, she’ll trust you with the major stuff.”
He sat for a long time without talking, but Carrie could tell he was taking it all in. “It’s hard for me to figure out what they like, sometimes,” he admitted. “When my ex-wife, Gwen, and I divorced, honestly, I allowed her to have whatever she asked for, including custody of the kids, because I just wanted it all to be over quickly, with as little disruption as possible. Now, it’s…” His last word trailed off, a hush settling between them. His admission was so honest and so unexpected that Carrie let the quiet linger so that he could be alone with his thoughts.
Then, after a long while, when the silence was finally wearing out its welcome, he said, “You seem to be getting along well with my family. They treating you okay?”
Here it comes, she thought. She’d orchestrated this little supper, thought she was getting somewhere, and it was about to backfire. She picked up her glass of tea and took a swallow to alleviate her drying mouth. As much as she was hoping that Adam was just making friendly conversation, the fear that he would spin it into a reprimand kept creeping in. When she thought about it, the situation was quite ridiculous. Why was she even here? Then panic shot through her. Would he let her go, tell her she wasn’t needed? Different scenarios were playing in her head so much that she’d almost forgotten to answer his question. “They’re wonderful,” she said finally.
Adam nodded. “My family wants the best for everyone, but they don’t always know what’s best.” He pushed around some casserole on his plate. “They don’t understand me.”
Carrie couldn’t believe it. In his usual quiet way, Adam hadn’t said much, but he’d just admitted yet another very personal thing to her. She hadn’t expected him to be so honest right off the bat. Truthfully, she’d expected a bit more small talk before he jumped into such a serious conversation, but then again, he hadn’t been the small talk type. The fact that he told her what he was feeling caused a tiny flicker of hope. She set down her fork and looked him straight in the eye. He was opening up, and she wanted to ask him a hundred questions all at once, but instead she asked gently, “What don’t they understand?”
“They don’t know how hard it is to run a business. They think they do, but they don’t. If something has to get done, it’s me who has to do it—no one else can. They don’t get that.”
“I think they get it.”
His mouth opened as if he were going to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, the skin between his eyes wrinkled, and he looked at her with utter confusion on his face.
“They know how hard you work and what you have to do, I think. What they don’t understand is how you can let it get in the way of your family. Think about when we painted your hands. You got your work done, but you got something else done too—you had a bonding moment with your children. You shouldn’t miss those moments because, once they’re gone, you can’t get them back. That’s what your parents don’t understand.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’m building a business here. It takes a lot of work. I don’t want to screw it up by messing around.”