Page 68 of Until He Confesses

"Wow, you're a snob," she said.

Chuckling, I unpacked our meal, and we began to eat. We didn’t say a word at first, but we didn't have to because I was so surprised at how good the food was that I focused completely on eating. Until I looked up and saw her watching me. There was a lightness in her demeanor that wasn’t there just a few hours earlier and it severely struck me just how much of a difference her change in mood could make.

She looked more approachable, warmer, and generally more beautiful, even though her hair was a mess. I loved it, the soft curls had always been one of my favorite things about her as they softened her more than anything else could.

"What is it?" she asked, becoming self-conscious as she noticed my stare.

I shook my head and returned to my meal.

“C’mon,” she said. “I never know what you’re thinking.”

I kept eating.

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” she said, and my attention was slightly piqued. So, I looked up, considered the offer, and agreed.

"I was thinking about how messy your hair is," I said, and her mouth stopped chewing.

She was in so much shock that the chopsticks fell from her hands onto the plate, and this amused me.

“Wow, Lucas. Just... wow.”

“You wanted to know,” I said as she tried to put her hair in order. But then she stopped, frowned, and pulled her hair tie all the way out.

"You know what, I don't apologize for my messy hair," she said. "It's been a rough day and night, and I deserve to have messy hair." She let it all drop down, and it was a frizzy mess, but I loved it even more, even though I didn't say a word.

“I'll tell you what I was thinking about you,” she said as she picked up her plate. “I was thinking that sitting there eating with a plastic fork you didn’t look anything like a billionaire. In fact, you don’t seem much different from when you didn’t have any money years ago.”

“I’m bigger,” I pointed out and she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Of course, you are. I wasn't referring to your physical appearance. I was referring to your demeanor," she said.

I didn’t think that was true either, but I let that go since her intention was obviously to have a jab at me.

There was something that I had been thinking of regarding her and given that her current mood was good, I decided to bring it up.

"Your dad," I began but watched her movements to ensure I wouldn't go too far.

"Does it make you uncomfortable to talk about him?" I asked.

She smiled and then resumed eating.

"No, not anymore. At first, it was, especially with Anna, but now that the pain has subsided, I like to think of him often and fondly."

I nodded as this made perfect sense.

"Can I ask you how it happened?" I asked and she nodded.

"Yeah. It wasn't sudden, like what happened to my mom yesterday. We'd known about his condition for about a year prior. He’d hurt himself about a year prior when he was working in the garage, and when they took him to the hospital, they found he had pancreatic cancer.”

“It was as though the moment they diagnosed it, it consumed his body. They said he was going to last for at least a few years, but before we knew it, he worsened rapidly. I think it escalated quickly because it was always on his mind. He expected it, so it was all he talked about and thought of constantly. Anyway, it really hurt then, but I was glad he was no longer in pain."

I stared at her as she spoke, and I could feel the hurt in my own heart, especially because I knew her father. I had gotten familiar with him, even more so than her mom, when I started dating Callie. Although he was always stern, I knew him as a happy man.

And it took me a little while to process his loss because I hadn't been informed until recently when I ran into a mutual friend from high school who mentioned his funeral.

It had made me think of Callie, despite how hard I tried not to. I sighed and tried to dispel the sadness from my heart but at least remembered him fondly, just as Callie had mentioned.

"What about you?" she asked, and I returned my attention to her.