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“Easy, baby,” he said soothingly. “Would you like me to order for you?”
“Um. Yes. Or maybe I will just have a coffee. Yes, coffee would be safe.”
“You’re not just having a coffee,” he said firmly.
“But what if I don’t like what you order? That’s a waste.”
“It won’t go to waste. I promise.” He pulled up and started ordering some food.
Once he’d collected the food, including two strawberry milkshakes, he drove into a parking space and turned off the truck.
Then he undid both of their seatbelts.
“Um, what are we doing?”
“Eating.”
“Where?” Cate glanced around as though a dining table and chairs were going to suddenly appear out of thin air. His lips twitched and she eyed him. “Am I being cute?”
“Yes.”
Cate huffed out a sigh. “I wish I knew when I was being cute.”
“Pretty much all the time. When you’re not being sassy.” Which reminded Ethan that he hadn’t actually gotten to the bottom of why she didn’t like the word brat.
“I am not sassy. I’m still not convinced that I’m cute either.”
“Sometimes we can’t see things in ourselves that others can.” He started opening bags and containers, pulling food out.
Then he handed her a burger.
“This is for me?”
“Yep.”
She pulled up her handbag and drew out some hand sanitizer.
He held out his hand and she squirted some on.
“You don’t have to use it,” she said. “I just like to wash my hands before eating.”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
“Are there utensils? I don’t . . . I don’t think I can eat with my hands.”
He reached into the bag and drew out a fork and knife. Then he grabbed her briefcase, placing it on her lap. He put two napkins on the hard black case and then set down the utensils.
“There you are.”
She put the container holding the burger down slowly. “I’m sorry for being so weird.”
“Cate,” he said in a low, firm voice.
She looked over at him without him having to tell her. That was progress.
“I don’t like the way you say that. I don’t think ‘weird’ is necessarily a bad thing, but the way you say it tells me that you think it is. And that’s a problem.”
Cate glanced out the window. “How can it not be? Being different is bad. It makes you strange, a burden, annoying.”
