Page 88 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“But that doesn’t mean…” He sat back. “You’re starting over in every other aspect of your life. Why not a new career?”

“You have a knack for asking probing questions.”

“So I’ve been told.” Though often the word hadn’t beenprobingbutirritatingornosy.He wasn’t nosy, though. He was interested. She didn’t have to answer if she didn’t want to.

“What if I’m not good at anything else?” she finally said.

“What if you are?”

She snatched another slice of pizza. Without looking at him, she said, “That’s not the plan.”

He glared at her purse on the counter behind her, knowing the ever-present notebook was inside it somewhere. If only that had been lost in the wreckage. “Sometimes, plans need to change.”

She bit into the pizza.

“What is it with you and plans, anyway?”

Only after she chewed and swallowed and sipped her drink did she meet his eyes. “The Bible says that all things should be done in an orderly way.”

“The Bible also says that a man makes his plans, but God directs his steps. Sometimes people’s plans need to change. Sometimes we don’t know what’s best for us.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Explain it to me then, your penchant for list-making. Why are you so…?”

“Obsessed?”

He’d been trying to find a kinder word.

“I didn’t always want to work for my father.” Pizza seemingly forgotten, she stared past Garrett for a long moment. “Don’t get me wrong. I loved him, and I loved being with him. But thework itself… Between managing the employees and dealing with the customers—mostly tourists—it was a constant battle. I love working with children. I hate working with adults who act like children.”

“One good thing about my job is that I get to choose the people I interact with on a daily basis. I choose the contractors, and if they do a lousy job, I find better ones.”

“Ah, but the clients…”

He smiled at her. “I’ve had some rough ones, but my current client, I have to say, is my favorite.”

She looked down, but not before he caught her smile. She separated a bite of pear from her slice and ate it before she spoke again. “I hired a lot of the employees myself, and theyseemedfine. Were fine, really. But nobody ever comes to an interview and says, ‘By the way, if I get a hangnail, I’ll need the day off.’”

“That would get old.”

“It’s just… I feel like some people figure out what they were born to do. Like you and fixing up houses. You’re so good at it, but it’s not just that. You love it. It’s fulfilling, right? Or am I making assumptions that aren’t accurate?”

“Your assumptions are spot on.” He loved that Aspen knew him so well.

“I wasn’t born to manage restaurants,” she said. “I was good at it, but not because it came naturally to me. I learned by watching my father, by doing what he did.”

He guessed she was going to tell him that lists had helped her become competent at her job. But as she often did, she surprised him.

“When I was in high school,” she said, “I wanted to be a teacher. I taught in children’s ministry at church for years, and I loved it.”

He could picture her in front of a classroom of children, telling the story of Jonah and the whale or Moses parting the Red Sea. “I bet you were really good.”

“The kids liked me. Dad told me he’d pay for college, but I didn’t think we had the money. I realize now that maybe that wasn’t the case, but at the time, I thought he’d have to take out a bunch of loans, and I didn’t want either one of us to be saddled with debt. So I worked really hard to earn a scholarship. I joined a bunch of clubs. I ran for student body president—and won.”

“Good for you.”

“I figured that, the more things I was involved in, the better my chances would be for scholarships. So I did all that, and I took all the honors courses. And I volunteered at church. Of course, I still worked for Dad, even though he told me he didn’t need me and I should slow down and concentrate on school. I thought I could handle it.

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