She added a bowl of mushrooms and a plate of grilled tomatoes to the table and sat down.
“How do you take your coffee?” he asked.
“Black, one sugar.”
He joined her at the table and grinned when he saw the spread she had laid out. “This looks amazing.”
“I’ve been wondering what triggered your sudden aversion toward boiled eggs.”
“I’ve had the same thing for breakfast for fourteen years,” he muttered, spearing his fork into the fluffy eggs. “I didn’t see the point in having anything different. I’m a creature of habit. Some would call me boring, I suppose.”
“Some?” she repeated. “Like who?”
“Vicki has called me stuffy a few times. Hugh has accused me of lacking imagination. One of my…uh, intimate acquaintances flat out told me the sex was great, but the conversation abysmal. Those are all fair comments.”
“No, they’re not.” He quite enjoyed how affronted she appeared on his behalf. “They’re totally wrong. Well, in Vicki’s case, you’re her big brother, you raised her, I’m afraid being called stuffy comes with the territory. And why would Hugh accuse you of lacking imagination when you love fantasy novels so much? It seems like a complete contradiction.”
“Well, nobody else actually knows about the fantasy novels. They all think I’m listening to economic podcasts. I’ve never seen fit to correct them.”
“That’s a big chunk of yourself to withhold from your family, Miles.”
“It’s personal,” he felt compelled to defend himself.
“It’s your family.” Considering the huge secrets she was keeping from her family, she should be the last to criticize. She seemed to grasp the innate hypocrisy of her words at the same time he did and went bright red before continuing. “And as for that intimate acquaintance…wait, you mean lover, right? Why would you call her a mere acquaintance?”
“The word lover implies more than just sex, it indicates a depth of feeling that has never been present in my interactions with my sexual partners.”
She stared at him silently for a long, awkward moment, and he nearly gave in to the urge to tell her that she would be different. Not a mere acquaintance but so much more than that.
Fortunately, she spoke before he could say something truly cringeworthy. “Well, this acquaintance sounds like a dumbass.”
“She holds a doctorate in nuclear physics,” he said, keeping his voice grave, even though he felt like grinning like an idiot at her vehement defense of him.
“Nuclear physics? Okay, a brainy dumbass then. I may not be a nuclear physicist or anything, so maybe it won’t mean much, but I don’t find your conversation abysmal at all. I think you’re a very interesting man.”
He coughed to cover up a chuckle and stared hard at his plate, before nodding gravely. “It means a hell of a lot, thank you. Anyway, as I was saying…I’m a creature of habit. I don’t have a very adventurous palate. I know what I like, so I stick with it. No chance of disappointment that way. I take very few personal risks. And even less risks in business.
“I think that’s why Hugh accused me of lacking imagination. He’s been pushing me to make riskier moves, gamble as it were. But I hate making reckless decisions with my business. Yes, taking a gamble can pay off in spades. But we don’t have to take stupid risks, we’re doing fine. I dislike the notion of failure, of losing money. That’s not how I’m made. My acquisitions may be boring and safe…but they keep my company in the black. If something works for me, I stick with it.”
“If that’s the case, why the sudden change in diet?”
He shoveled down another forkful of eggs and washed it down with coffee.
“I don’t know,” he admitted ruefully. “I looked at my breakfast that day and decided that I wanted something different. I’ve considered the fact that it may be because of the near-death thing.”
“Could all of this be because of the near-death thing?” The question disconcerted him and he stared at her troubled expression for a long moment as he tried to figure out exactly what she meant by it.
“All of what?”
“Stormy. Your sudden interest in me. It all seems uncharacteristic.”
“Charity, you know as much about my character as I do about yours. Which is to say, not much.”
Charity considered that gentle rebuke and assessed the unperturbed expression on that very attractive face.
“I fell for Stormy the second I saw her standing in that doorway. Bedraggled, wet, shivering and so terrified.”
Charity watched him slant an affectionate look at his napping