Page 25 of The Charming Checklist
“I guess it goes back to my nanny, Lucia. She practically raised me.”
“Your mother didn’t—”
“Take time off to raise us? No, but I don’t blame her for that. She needed her career to keep her satisfied with life. And she found me the best substitute mom in the world.”
“That’s high praise.”
He felt as if an anvil had been lifted from his chest. As Ava went on about the woman who’d raised her and her brothers, Max understood that at least one person had loved her without conditions. And apparently, that woman loved coffee enough to have shared the passion with Ava.
“It’s the smell of coffee that I love most.” She lowered the paper on one side of her cupcake. “That dark, rich, intense flavor when its brewed. It fills the kitchen with aroma. Reminds me of love.”
Max devoured his cupcake in two bites. “And where is she now? Does she offer advice on coffee beans?”
“Of course, but I haven’t seen her for a few years. She moved back to Colombia when I went to college. After college, I was able to take a year off and went to stay with her and her family. I’ve never had a better time. We ate, we danced, we had parties that sometimes lasted all night long. I even had a short love affair with a young coffee bean farmer.” She tipped her head and sent him a sly smile.
He quirked a brow. “Should I be worried?”
“Yes, fake boyfriend, you should bereallyworried. We had a great love affair. I didn’t speak much Spanish and he spoke no English, so we never talked. Possibly my most successful relationship to date.”
That made him laugh. “How could you go wrong?”
“For all I know, he’s still waiting for me to come back.” She finally took a bite of cupcake and wound up wiping some frosting off her nose.
They were joking, all in good fun, so it made no sense that a ripple of jealousy spiked through him. It was an unproductive emotion, not to mention nonsensical in his case, so he slammed it back.
“She sounds like my mother. My family has a large party for everyone’s birthday, from the oldest family member to the youngest infant. Huge trays of arroz con pollo, dancing in the outdoor patio and, lord help me, karaoke.”
“Oh, I love karaoke!” She clapped her hands.
“Why am I not surprised.”
“Does your family ever ask you to sing?”
“Not if they prefer to live.”
Her tongue flicked out to lick a bit of frosting from her pinky finger and he flashed on the memory of the time they’d kissed. It wasn’t his custom to kiss a woman like that and then never talk about it again. But she hadn’t brought it up, either. She’d challenged him, and that’s the only reason he’d kissed her. To prove a point. The fact that he was thinking about kissing her again, well, that was another problem entirely.
“What I want to know,” she said, fixating him with those clear emerald eyes. “Is what happened toyou? You wanted to know how I wound up the way I am coming from the family that I did. Now you know. But it sounds like you should have been born into my family, and maybe I should have been born into yours.”
Max struggled with how he could put into words something that might cause Ava to feel guilty. She’d lived a privileged life, and he hadn’t. Not even close. He wanted her to realize that because of that privilege the advantages afforded her were ones she’d maybe taken for granted.
But Ava wasn’t like any of the other privileged people he’d met. She’d clearly walked away from all of it, including the pleasure of driving a superior car. He wasn’t surehecould have done that. Her life in Charming was quiet, and unassuming, and clearly most people had little to no idea of where she’d come from and what she’d given up.
No. Ava was down-to-earth, honest and kind.
She reminded him of home.
“My first job was picking strawberries, right alongside my parents and younger sisters. Sure, it was a family activity too, because my parents tried to make it one. We all did it together, just like we lived. But the work was backbreaking. I promised myself that my children would never have to work that hard.”
These days, he often relaxed by working in his backyard garden, a small connection to his past. It wasn’t the hard work of the picking fields but for him, still steeped in memories of home, family, love.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She leaned forward and covered his hand with hers.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s made me appreciate everything I have much more. But along the way, I guess I got really serious about everything. Starting with my grades, of course. I wasn’t satisfied with a B. My parents didn’t push me. I pushed myself. I always wanted more. Better. The navy was my ticket to an education and from there I kept excelling. It got to where I couldn’t stop. Like a drug.”
Damn, it was the first time he’d admitted it to himself.
“I admire you for that. And I also admire your parents for supporting you, while not pushing you.”
