Beatrice was none of that. And, Asher never expected her to be. It wasn’t her and he didn’t want her to be something she wasn’t. He understood that, and thought he’d accepted it, but with Jessika…
Jessika was something else entirely, and he couldn’t deal with her. Despite everything, no matter what he felt or thought, he had obligations. It was morning now and he needed to attend to business matters, but he would write up a letter of apology and send her a gift sometime later, then be done with her. Jeremy would drive her home after he left, and Asher would never see her again.#p#分页标题#e#
It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was what he needed to do.
…
I sat at the two-person island table by the kitchenette in Asher Landseer’s guest house, watching Jeremy cook. He’d said he wasn’t anything special in the kitchen, but after watching him for awhile I disagreed.
“The thing is,” Jeremy said while constantly stirring a pan of eggs, “Asher probably doesn’t know what he wants half the time. You should see his library in the main house. It’s full of every kind of book you could imagine, and whenever I see him in there he’s reading something entirely different. Epic fantasy novels, classic science fiction, historical romance, mystery thrillers, action and adventure, and whatever else. He probably reads more than that, too. Who knows what’s on his Kindle, Nook, Kobo eReader, and his iPad? Why’s he need all of those? I have no idea.”
“Maybe he uses them to categorize his books?” I offered. “Like, he puts different genres on each? Fantasy and science fiction on the Kindle, and Romance on the Nook, then literary fiction on the Kobo, and everything else on the iPad?”
“Huh.” Jeremy chuckled and tossed me a smile over his shoulder. “Maybe. I never would have thought of that. That’s not a bad idea, though. Seems like something Asher would do.”
I smiled; back at Jeremy and to myself. It wasn’t the same, but I felt like I was getting to know Asher in some sense. Through secondhand sources, alternate information, but I liked it. I wanted to know more about him and I hoped maybe this would give me a way to reconcile with him.
All of a sudden, everything happened at once. The toaster popped, perfectly browned toast waiting to be plucked out. A timer on the miniature rotisserie oven started beeping, soft but sure. And Jeremy nodded and said, “Yup,” while glancing at the scrambled eggs in his pan. He scooped half the eggs onto a waiting plate, dashed for the fridge, grabbed a container, then a spoon from a drawer nearby, this, that, and the next thing.
When all was said and done, I had a plate in front of me consisting of scrambled eggs mixed with a dollop of some kind of thick cream, a pair of sausages, and two pieces of buttered toast.
“Wow,” I said, staring at the food. “Looks good.”
“Pft!” Despite his assumed modesty, Jeremy grinned, cocksure. “Nothing too fancy.”
“What’s this in the eggs?” I asked.
“Ah, a trade secret. I can teach you sometime…” He paused, frowning. “Well, I can’t actually teach you it sometime, I guess, but it’s crème fraiche. You can buy it most anywhere, but you have to know where to look.”
I nibbled on the eggs, using my fork to scoop a bit of them into my mouth. “What did you mean?” I asked.
Between a heaping mouthful of his own scrambled eggs, he managed to say, “Wha?”
“What did you mean you can’t actually teach me it?”
“Ah, well…” Jeremy stuffed some toast into his mouth, chewing loudly. Not, I thought, because he did this usually, but because he didn’t know what to say. Honestly? It was something I probably would have done, too.
“The thing is,” Jeremy said. “I don’t know exactly what went on between you two. Business, whatever, who knows? I can guess, but why bother? Anyways, Asher told me to drive you home this morning. He’s off doing business things right now, whatever that is, and he told me to make sure I bring you home once he’s gone. Also, he said to ask about things you like, since he wants to send you a gift basket. But, and this sounds like a nice thing at first even if it’s not, Asher doesn’t typically send gift baskets to people. He only does it when he plans to cut ties with someone, as he says. He didn’t say that to me about you, but that’s what he does.”
I paused mid-chew, then swallowed the rest of the toast in my mouth without thinking. It scraped down my throat, choking me, until I swallowed harder and drank some of the water from my glass, too. Eyes watering slightly, I looked at Jeremy, my expression blank.