Page 30 of Hard Knock Hero

“Mind if I stay up and read my phone for a bit?” he asked.

“Not at all. I’m pretty wired. It’ll take me a few minutes to settle down.” That was an understatement. My vital signs were surging like I’d just run all the way up Refuge Mountain, my favorite local trail.

“You’re okay?” he asked.

“I will be. Never had a brick thrown into my window before. But if they think they can intimidate me, they’re wrong.”

I could see him in the window’s reflection, watching me. I hadn’t moved.

And then Aiden started talking.

“My parents own the catering company I work for. Mom is the business brains of the family, and Dad does the bookkeeping. We specialize in big events, weddings. We’re always overbooked. This is a quieter time of year, after the rush of the holidays, so I like it. January is a perfect time to get away. Technically I have the event in Steamboat to cook for next weekend, but I was sick of all that California sunshine anyway, so a vacation in the Colorado mountains sounded ideal.”

I turned to face him, leaning my weight against the windowsill. He had his hands clasped between his knees, his gaze down at them.

“I know what you’re doing,” I said.

“And what is that?”

“Sharing things to try to make me feel better.”

“I thought you wanted to know about me. I did warn you. I’m not that interesting.” He sat back against the couch, eyes gentle. “Should I keep going?”

I shrugged. Yep, I was determined to be difficult. I felt too confused and mixed up inside to do anything else. And I’d already opened up to him multiple times. If he chose to do the same, it would be because he wanted to. No more and no less.

He looked at me with his eyes glinting. Like he was issuing a challenge. I looked back at him.

And dammit, I gave in.

“Did you always know you wanted to be a chef?” I asked.

“To understand that, you need to know more about my family.”

So he told me about growing up one of five kids. Aiden was the second oldest, and he’d felt like the polar opposite from his siblings. The only introvert. And unlike his golden-boy older brother, Aiden was a loner and a contrarian at heart. If somebody told him he had to do something, automatically he felt the urge to do the opposite.

“My brother Jake always knew he wanted to join the Army. He went to an ROTC program for college. But nobody ever asked ifIhad a big plan like that. And that pissed me off. So I thought, what the hell. After high school, I enlisted. I actually beat Jake to the Army, since he was still getting his degree. I was such a shit.” Aiden laughed softly, and I went over to the couch. I sank onto the cushion beside him, keeping a narrow line of space separating us. “I didn’t mind the structure. But I didn’t like not being able to determine things for myself, especially when I thought my orders were bullshit. I chose not to reenlist after my four years of active duty were up.”

“Do you regret enlisting?”

He looked confused. “Not at all. I met a lot of great people. I was proud to serve with them. Learned a lot. I don’t do regrets.”

“What did you do after that? Culinary school?”

“Isn’t it your turn to answer a question?”

“Hardly. I’ve answered way too many. You have a backlog.”

He smiled, broad and brilliant, and I felt a physical tug behind my belly button. His smile was a weapon. It was probably a good thing he didn’t unleash it too often. “I started culinary school after I left the Army, when I was twenty-three. Seven years ago.”

He told me what culinary school had been like. Long days of watching his chef-instructors prepare dishes, then having to replicate them. Memorizing recipes and techniques. Having to pay his dues and work his way up in the first restaurants where he worked.

“Then my mother offered me the job as head chef of her catering company. I thought hard about it. My mother is opinionated as hell, and we clash constantly. But I got to be the boss of my own kitchen far earlier than I could have in a restaurant.”

“And maybe you wanted to be closer to your family too.”

“Why would I want that?”

“Admit it. You like them.”

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