Almost Fired by the Cowboy - Natalie Dean Page 0,46
garden. I took some pictures of my black beauty peppers, by the way. They’re really starting to blush towards their final color.”
“Already! That’s two weeks sooner than I expected!”
“Yeah, the anthocyanins in these ones are crazy!”
There were a few more sentences between the two that Sal knew were in English, but he didn’t understand them, nonetheless. A few more moments later and the pair were gone entirely, leaving him and Nova in the kitchen.
Alone.
…sometimes he really needed to think his plans through better.
Nova spoke up first. “I’m going to grab a glass of water, and then how about after that we move onto the white chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies?”
“Sounds good to me,” Sal said, proud of how he sounded almost normal.
“You know, I was kinda surprised to see these on the list. Didn’t know they were popular down here in Texas.”
“They’re not really, but they’re Simon’s favorite cookie, so I think Mom makes them out of habit.”
“Simon? Which one is he? I don’t remember… wait… he’s the young one, right? At college or something?”
“Try or something. He announced at his graduation party that he was going backpacking around the world for six months.” Sal paused for a moment, thinking. “Huh, in fact, that should be over real soon now. I wonder why he hasn’t phoned in with plans to come home.”
“Maybe he’s not.”
Now Sal stopped what he was doing for real, giving Nova his full attention. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, could be nothing, but when I first came to the continental United States, I was just doing a summer abroad to connect with my American roots. Then I extended it until the holidays. Then it was a year abroad. And now I’ve just never left.”
“You like the States that much?” he said, aiming for levity because the thought of losing another one of his brothers to somewhere else was too much. He liked Simon, even as flighty as the guy was.
“I like parts of the States. I love the rich blend of cultures. I love how small communities come together. The openness, the warmth. I know a lot of people complain about how loud or talkative Americans can be, but I love that I can go somewhere new and leave with three good conversations and one new friend. It’s wonderful.
“But I’m not a fan of the obsession with money and the weird warping of what Jesus stood for.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Um… I’m not sure this is a discussion I should have with my boss. Ignore me.”
He didn’t like that, how she shut him out quickly. And he understood why. Technically sharing religion or politics wasn’t always the best idea, but he wanted to know more.
“I’d like to hear it, please.” He said it softer than he would have with anyone else. He didn’t want her to feel pressured or manipulated. It was just that if he understood more of what made the woman tick, maybe he would be able to finally figure out why she always threw him for such a loop.
“Okay, um… it’s just that the second most important commandment in the Bible is to love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus literally said that, but sometimes I see a whole lot of not loving when I turn on the TV. Sometimes I just have to turn it off for a while because the drama is too much.”
“Come on,” Sal said skeptically. “Most of the States isn’t overly dramatic.”
“Maybe,” Nova said. “But it’s hard to believe that when I see the stories of people harming each other with words and actions every single day. It’s scary, and that’s a part of the States I’m not overly fond of.”
Sal felt himself getting defensive. He loved the States, and it was hard to hear someone say something negative about his home country. “Those are outlier cases.”
“Are they?”
“I’m sure.”
“But how do you know that?”
“Because I’m sure I would have seen at least one of these things happen if they were so common.”
“You think so?” she asked.
Her tone was light, casual, but he could hear the determination under it. He wondered if he had really made a mistake in having her go on, but he was too caught up in the conversation to go back.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I can see how you might think that. But I’d like to propose an idea,” Nova said.
“An idea?”
“Yeah. So, do you think that perhaps you, a multi-millionaire—”
“Billionaire.”
“Right. Do you think that you, a billionaire who is presumably white and who lives on