Page 26 of Enchanting the CEO

It felt as if someone pressed down on my shoulders. I cleared my throat. "She passed away many years ago."

She turned to look at me, her expression sad. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"You don't have to apologize."

"Celia and I have never talked about your family. Honestly, the only thing I know about you is that you're a great boss, and the part where you helped us with Mom. Didn't want to bring up bad memories or anything."

"No worries. Her death was unexpected," I said.

She bit her lip and took the meat off the stove, arranging it in the dish where she'd already put the lasagna. "Was it an accident?"

"No, she got sick. It just felt unexpected because it happened soon after we all found out that our father had another family."

A loud clank startled both of us. Diane had dropped the pan on the stove. "That sounds horrifying. I totally understand if you want to change the subject."

"There's not much to say. Dad had two families. He abandoned them both. Mom was devastated. Shortly after, the doctors discovered she had melanoma. She passed away quickly. Needless to say, it was a challenging time for the family. Our grandparents didn’t miss a beat, though. I always thought the bright side was finding out we had three additional brothers."

"Are you on good terms with them?"

"They're my best friends. I don't differentiate between my actual brothers and my half brothers, even though we didn't grow up together."

"That's honestly amazing. I don't know many people who would take that in stride."

"Some of my older brothers definitely didn't. But we all have a good relationship now.”

We fell silent after that as she poured the meat and the sauce in between lasagna sheets. Then she shoved everything into the oven.

"It only needs twenty minutes. I’ll use that time to set the table."

"I’ll do it, since you're cooking."

She looked at me playfully. "But you're the one who put in all those muscles to help me today."

She wasn't averting her gaze because she was uncomfortable with me; she felt this inexplicable attraction just as much as I did. What the hell had I been thinking, asking her to move in? I’d noticed from our first interaction that there were sparks between us. But we were adults, and I was certain we'd be able to handle it.

I opened the overhead cabinet at the same time as her. Diane turned slightly to me, pressing her soft breast against my chest. She wasn't wearing a bra.

Fuck, I was wrong. I definitely can't handle this.

"I've got the plates," I said, fighting to keep my voice even. It was low and gruff, which was completely ridiculous. No one had ever had an impact like this on me.

"O-Okay," she stuttered. "I'll check on the lasagna." She glanced inside the oven. “Looks good.”

I noticed a slight change in her voice too. She was just as rattled as I was.

I brought the plates to the table, as well as forks and knives. "Want a bottle of wine?"

"No. But I won’t say no to a Coke."

"One Coke it is." I took a bottle from the fridge and opened it for her.

I liked that Diane didn't know much about me and my family. Usually the Whitley name preceded me. Most people had already made up their mind about me before we even met, women included. More than once I'd had the impression that a woman had read every article available about my family history before we even went on a first date. They knew where I'd lived growing up and where I’d gone to school.

It put me off completely. For whatever reason, they thought I was some fixer-upper they needed to put together.

Nothing was further from the truth.

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