Page 42 of Her Billionaire Boss
“Sorry it’s not coming out in courses,” I apologized, placing the huge bowl of Caesar salad on the table.“Or elegantly plated.This is my first time.”
“Well, it smells amazing,” Holly said, raising her glass.
“Charlotte taught me everything I know.”I got a weird sense of pride out of doing something people did every day.“To be honest, I feel like cooking is such a basic skill, I’m like a four-year-old showing you the drawing I made in preschool.”
“I’ll hang it on the refrigerator,” Charlotte said with a laugh.“Until it gets moldy.”
Never in my life had anyone hung one of my pictures on the refrigerator.No one would have seen them, except for the staff.I doubted my mother even knew where the kitchenwas.
“Charlotte is cooking?When you have someone to do it for you?”Bill blinked in surprise.
She bristled.“I cooked for myself at home.”
“I know you did, sport.But I also know that if there’s an amenity available, you’ll take advantage of it.”
Sport?I set that aside for a later conversation and brought the main course to the table in its huge serving dish.
“Is that fettucine vongole?”Holly asked with a gasp.
“It is… is there a problem with that?Charlotte said you didn’t have allergies—”
“That was our first dinner together on our honeymoon in Venice,” Holly said, beaming.“Charlotte, did you tell him to make this?”
She shook her head.“No.I had no idea what you ate on your honeymoon.I wasn’t there.”
“Scott was.Technically,” Bill joked, and Holly made an exclamation of shocked horror.
“Hey, I’m not here to judge your family history, okay?”I laughed nervously.“I’m here to hopefully win you over as the parents of my girlfriend.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Bill said, in an earnest dad-voice that was impossible not to believe.“We vetted you as Scott’s friend and didn’t find you wanting.”
“And you got Charlotte out of our pool house,” Holly added.
“Hey!”
I recognized the hurt Charlotte disguised with her laugh.Another thing to address later, although I wanted to say something about it right now.Something like,do you have any idea how fragile your daughter is?Do you have any idea how a single comment like that could make her bolt, not from my life, but from yours?
Then again, they probably already knew.The Holmeses weren’t uncaring.That seemed to be the crux of the problem; they cared about Charlotte’s happiness too much for her own good.
Bill swirled the wine in his glass absently.“We didn’t come here to decide whether or not Charlotte is allowed to live with you.She’s her own person.We would never forbid her from anything.You’re not on a job interview.”
“Well, thank god for that, because I didn’t prepare my resume.”But my chuckle was still forced.If they thought I wasn’t going to over-analyze my every word and deed while they were in my home, they were naive.Or they’d never met someone’s parents before, which I highly doubted.
We served ourselves from bowls we passed around the table, and I thought to myself,this must be what family dinners are like when servants aren’t involved.I didn’t voice that, though I did ache to ask.
“We could have gone out for dinner,” I said, almost apologetic as I struggled to put some pasta on my plate one-handed.“You’re only here for a few days.I feel like this is a missed opportunity when there are so many restaurants in the city.”
“We’ll be back, I’m sure.”Holly twirled her fork through some noodles.
“Can’t see everything in one trip,” Bill added as he took a bite.
“I’ve lived here for twenty years, and I haven’t seen everything,” I said with a laugh, then immediately regretted it.Twenty years ago, Charlotte would have been starting elementary school.That was a deeply uncomfortable thought.
Judging from Holly’s grimace, the age difference wasn’t her favorite topic, either.I knew that brief flicker of discomfort wasn’t from my cooking, because she hadn’t tasted anything yet.
It wasn’t something Bill seemed eager to discuss, either.“Matt, this is delicious.I don’t believe you cooked it yourself.You secretly ordered take-out, didn’t you?”
“No, but that would have been a lot easier.I wish I would have thought of that.”I took a bite, and damned if it wasn’t truly amazing.
