Mid Life Love (Mid Life Love #1)(94)

“Thank you.” She smiled. “I don’t think the hundred I receive in my office every morning are enough.”

“I’ll be sure to increase the amount. Do you need any help with dinner?”

“No, thank you. It’s already done.” She set down a stack of napkins. “Ashley! Caroline! Dinner’s ready!”

The next few minutes that unfolded were like a scene out of a fifties television sitcom: Ashley and Caroline rushed into the room and took their places at the table. They passed around the plates and bowls, laughing at nothing at all. Then Claire set down a huge bowl of pasta and the girls took turns spooning out huge helpings.

They talked excitedly about their day at school—a second successful bake sale with the cheerleading team, an A they both received in Physics class, and some “lame loser” who liked Ashley but couldn’t tell her apart from Caroline.

I’d only seen this type of behavior in movies or on TV. I didn’t know this actually happened in real life.

“So Jonathan—wait, we can call you Jonathan right?” Caroline passed me the breadstick basket.

“That’s perfectly fine.”

“Great! So, what’s it like being a flower salesman? Do you get good tips? Do you cut your own stems?”

I laughed. “I’m not a flower salesman.” I wondered why Claire hadn’t told them that. “I’m the CEO of Statham Industries.”

“What!” She gasped. “You’re the CEO of mom’s company?” She pulled out her phone and scrolled across the screen. She raised her eyebrow and hit Ashley on the shoulder. “Ashley, he has his own Wikipedia page...Wait, why isn’t his picture on here?”

“Maybe he has low self-esteem...” Ashley shrugged.

WHAT? “No, I just prefer to keep a low profile.”

“Weird...” Ashley tapped her phone’s screen and looked at me. “So...you’re a billionaire? You’re like filthy rich?”

I smiled. “You could say that.”

“You didn’t tell us he was rich, mom! You should’ve said that first! In that case...Caroline and I are trying to get my mom to make a certain decision for us and we need your rich opinion.”

Oh god...

“What is it?” I noticed Claire glaring at her from across the table.

“We think we each deserve to have our own car. We do everything right in school, we work part-time at the airport, and we hardly get in any trouble. If you had a twin brother, would you want to share everything? We just got our own rooms a few years ago, and we think it’s way past time for a car. What do you think?”

I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle this. I didn’t have any experience with teenage angst.

“Um...” I cleared my throat. “Are either of you trying to buy your own car?”

“Is he serious?” “Did he really just say that?” “Ask him again. Maybe we heard that wrong...”

“We didn’t.” Ashley rolled her eyes. “If you’ll excuse us—mother, Jonathan...We have some work to finish...”

They both stood up and narrowed their eyes at me before disappearing into another room.

What did I say?

“Thank you for telling them that.” Claire walked over and brushed her lips against mine. “We didn’t bore you too much tonight, did we?”

“No, not at all. It was just different.”

“What do you mean, different?”

“Having a family dinner. I’ve never had that before.”

“Your foster fam—”

“They always made me eat alone in my room.” I shook my head at the ugly memories. “The dinner table was for their real children.”

“Your biological parents never cooked dinner when you were little? Not once?”

“Not that I recall...Although there was this onetime when my mom promised to cook a Christmas dinner...She hyped it up all week, saying that we were finally going to have a real holiday meal together. She even made me and Hayley write out a list of everything we wanted her to make. She and my dad took the lists with them to the grocery store on Christmas Eve...”

“What happened?”

“They didn’t come back until New Year’s.”

“Oh,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry...”

“Jonathan?” Ashley—I think, peeked around the corner. “Do you have a steady hand?”

“I think so. Why?”

“Me and Caroline need someone to trace the blueprint of our model Boeing 707 while we go over the coding. My mom’s hands aren’t steady at all.”

I kissed Claire on her cheek. “Okay.”

I followed Ashley into a large room that was painted light blue with fluffy white clouds. There were model planes everywhere—hanging from the ceiling, sitting in glass cases, and standing on the wall.

“So, putting model planes together is your hobby?” I sat down and began tracing a blueprint in white chalk. “Is this what you two—”

“Our hobby?” Caroline scoffed. “You are sitting with two of our nation’s future top pilots. This is our career we’re talking about.”

“Yeah.” Ashley held up a chart of code. “There aren’t that many women in the skies, and me and my sister are going to change that.”