Page 96 of The Promise Of You

“Brendan!” Aunt Dawn chastises him.

“We didn’t tell you anything. This stays between us,” Brendan adds.

“Did he say why?” People start coming out of the ox pull, which means Justin is going to need my help, but I need to know.

Aunt Dawn clears her throat. “Your name came up.”

Of course.

Mom gasps. “I can’t believe this man is-is-is questioning Chloe’s abilities. It’s preposterous! No offense, but Chloe is doing you a favor. She’s overqualified here.” Wow, Mom is defending me? I wonder why she can’t do that in front of Dad.

“Mom, it’s okay. I’m fine helping out family.” I give Brendan and Aunt Dawn a sweet, genuine smile. “And I’ll be sure to be more mindful of Chef Samuel. I’ll leave my corporate habits at the door.”

“That’d be lovely, honey,” Aunt Dawn says, clearly unphased by her sister-in-law’s haughtiness.

“Dad always said the restaurant would be nothing without him,” Brendan says. “He nearly lost it when the other guy left to go work next door.”

Aunt Dawn wraps me in a goodbye hug. “That King man hurt your uncle a lot, Chloe. I warned you about him. Be careful.”

Brendan gives me a quick hug. “We should head back.”

Mom lets Aunt Dawn and Brendan leave before giving me her air kisses. “It breaks my heart to see you here, honey. This is not your place,” she murmurs.

“I like it here, Mom. It’s not that bad.”

“Oh, stop it!” She laughs her airy laughter like I’ve cracked the funniest joke ever, then her laughter dies, and she says, “Daddy was very upset to hear you were going to work here. We even got into a fight about it, if you can imagine. Both agreeing, actually. Daddy… your father always had something against Kevin, never understood it, but anyhoo.” She takes a deep breath and looks at me straight in the eye, no BS. “He’s agreeing to take you on at the office, if that means you won’t be working in this village.”

“I really have to get back to the tent, Mom, but… is this why you came? To tell me that?”

She does a little tip of the hip, a dip in her knees, that’s meant to look cute but is just annoying. “I told Daddy I’d talk to you. He hates knowing you’re here even more than me.”

Seriously. What is wrong with them? “Tell Dad it’s a temporary job. Just a few weeks, couple months tops. He has nothing to worry about.” This is not a lie.

Her features relax. “Okay, dahling, I have to run. Your aunt Dawn and her shepherd son are waiting,” she says, thinking she’s amusing. “Ladi-da!”

I walk quickly back to the tent.

“Sorry,” I mutter as I take my place behind the register, smiling at strangers while trying to read Justin.

We fall back into our teamwork, saying nothing, occupied with the constant orders.

“Cooler’s almost empty,” I inform Justin at some point.

“We’ll be sold out of food soon,” he answers.

“Oh.”

He shrugs. “Getting late anyway.” Then, with a wink, he adds, “We’ll just send them to town.”

We close the tent fifteen minutes later.

“Sorry I dropped the ball on you,” I say when we’re alone.

“Figured something happened, and then Alex said she saw you talking to a guy?” he tells me as we’re cleaning the space. Not exactly angry but not exactly happy either.

“My cousin.”

His features relax. “Everything all right?”

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