ANISHA'S POV
Mrs Silva, the housekeeper at Dylan's house, was preparing breakfast when I entered the kitchen. I dismissed her and told her that I would finish off the preparation. She was reluctant but I insisted. I felt it was still too early for her to be up and about. She hesitantly walked out of the kitchen and off to her room.
It was the morning when I was flying off to Hallowcave to visit Ms Meyerton and Valentina. If I could have had it my way, I would have gone there sooner, but I needed to sort out something at my new job. I set the pan on the stove and started to prepare the food. I wanted to make some soup; I had always been a serious soup lover since childhood.
I was opening a can of tomato paste when I heard a sound from the next room. Since I thought I was alone, I got seriously terrified and I asked:
"Mrs Silva? Are you here?"
There was no response, and I fumbled in my pocket for my phone. My idea was to call Dylan, when he appeared in front of me.
"Good morning beautiful." He smiled.
"You scared me so much! I got the fright of my life!"
"I'm sorry," he embraced me, and immediately Pete walked in. I quickly pulled myself out of Dylan's embrace, and greeted Pete.
"Enough with your PDA, guys!" Pete responded to my greeting and walked to sit on the kitchen island.
I looked at him and felt very sorry for him, considering what Raelynn had done to destroy their relationship.
"I hope I didn't disturb anything. Were you done with the hugs and kisses?", Pete looked at Dylan.
"There were no hugs and kisses!" I said in utter embarrassment, and both men laughed.
"Don't worry, Pete! You're good! This is home!" Dylan patted him on the back. Pete just smiled and stood up to leave the room.
"Where is Mrs Silva? Why are you cooking?" the handsome man asked, placing his hands on my shoulders.
"I thought it was too early for her to be here, and I told her to go back and sleep. I will cook."
"Oh? You love cooking?" he smiled.
"I do. Why do you look so surprised to see me cooking, anyway?" I could not help but ask.
"I'm not used to seeing anyone else but the house help cooking. I have chefs, you know that. Mrs Silva also cooks just because she wants to, but she too should not be cooking for us."
I was surprised to hear what the man was saying. Oh, so these wealthy people; they never cooked a day in their lives?
"Do cooks have to cook every day?" I inquired.
"They have to. It's their job. They can take days off, but when one is off, there's always another chef to hold fort."
"Oh," I lowered my eyes. "So your sisters never cook?"
"What! Ciera and Arianna?" he laughed. "They don't. I don't ever recall seeing them cooking."
I turned around to attend to my pan. In my mind I recalled the days when Ms Meyerton used to tell us that it was necessary for a woman to be able to prepare decent meals. She said it as if it was a requisite for all women; and I believed her. Looking back, I realised that how we are raised and what we believe is strongly controlled by our status in life.
"I need to take a nap. Wake me up when we're ready to go!" It was Pete talking, as he peeped from the door. With that, he immediately left.
"Will he be ok?" I asked in whisper.
"I guess it's never easy to call off a wedding. Worse with how social media slaughtered him!" Dylan responded.
"He shouldn't read anything on social media", I said in a low voice. "Can't you find a way to make sure that he stays off social media?"
Dylan nodded. "He doesn't read that staff much, buy some of it always find a way to him. The seriously bad ones. He's coming with us to Hallowcave. As I had told you before, the two of us won't stay for long. We will just drop you off and come back here. I can't afford a long leave now, since the children's hospital has just been handed over to me, I really need to be present."
"I understand" I smiled.
I resumed cooking and Dylan helped me. I could not tell if he was helping or making the job worse. I could swear, the man had never done as much as slicing a tomato. His work area was a complete mess. It looked as if a toddler was working on it. I laughed at him a lot, but I also taught him a few things.
We both laughed as we carried on with the work. In no time, the breakfast table was neatly laid.
"Please go call Pete! We need to be fast now, remember we need time to go pick Liam at the Woodruffs." I told him.
"Ummm", Dylan answered as he stuffed his mouth with some food.
"Dylan! Bad table manners! You can't eat before Pete comes!" I pretended to be angry.
"Sorry!" he laughed as he ran upstairs and in no time he was back. "He's coming!"
We waited a long time, and Pete didn't come.
"Do you think he is too stressed to eat?," I asked, my voice a tiny whisper.
"He will be fine. Once we land in Hallowcave, we will all go visit Ms Meyerton, then I want to take Pete to some beautiful places. I will support him in any and all ways possible." Dylan said with sincerity.
"You're a good friend to him," I commented.
"He's a better friend to me, trust me," the handsome man answered.
I wanted to ask why he thought so, but somehow I found myself changing the subject, "Have you been to Hallowcave before?"
"Yes, but mainly for business. Pete and I once worked at White Silva Rays for a week. It was explained by my dad as some type of training. Tough training, is you ask me." he laughed.
"How so? What was happening?"
"He was just very tough on us. If it wasn't for my mum, we would have stayed there for two whole months. That was what my dad as well as Pete's dad wanted. They were together in it, can you imagine! After only a week, since Pete and I were complaining to mum daily, mum flew to bring us back. My dad, and Pete's dad were not happy with that." He laughed gracefully while reminiscing on the good old days.
Oh my goodness; why would he not continue to laugh? Never in my life had I seen a man with such a beautiful smile. Did his smile have to be that enticing? And did I always have to get so lost in it? Why did that smile always have to appear to me as if I was seeing it for the very first time, yet I had known it for a while. And the more I saw it, the more attractive it became. Oh, what a man!
Oh! I was mesmerized again! I had to say something quickly:
"You and Pete …." I stopped mid-sentence. I would have proceeded to say "you and Pete are very close", but Pete cut me halfway as he called out,
"Stop talking about me, you lovebirds! Talk about yourselves instead!!"
I felt a bit shy at him mentioning us as lovebirds. Quickly I stared at Dylan to see how his reaction would be, but he just laughed.
Pete sat down with a loud sigh, took a few bites of his food before he pushed it away. He told us that he was ready to go.
Dylan and I ate our food. It was a bit impossible to talk a lot while Pete was there, wallowing in his misery. I understood him, but I had no idea what I could have done to help him. Praying that the visit to Hallowcave was going to help him, I stood up, headed to my room and did the final touches for our trip.
Chris was driving us to the private jet. Private jet…those words refused to settle in my mind. Huh? Me? Anisha Meyerton? Talking about a private jet? Never in my life would I have ever thought that such a day was coming.
We passed by the woodruffs' house, and Liam, as usual, was very happy to see us. While Mrs Woodruff held him in her arms, he seemed like he wanted to jump out of her embrace, and he stretched out his hands. Dylan took him, and immediately he said, "Dylan!"
"He called my name!" Dylan was more than surprised.
"Oh Liam! Did you just say Dylan?" I kissed the little one all over.
"Water, water," Liam stretched his hand towards Mr woodruff, who immediately passed over his sipping cup that was filled with water.
"Oh my! He can ask for water now? Which other words can he say?" I asked in shock.
"Well, he says Nisha a lot. He also calls me Nisha. I think to him, every woman's name is Nisha", Mrs Woodruff smiled.
The husband added, "and he can say a few more words. Water, cup, book, ball and also bunny. Bunny is his way of saying butternut." We all burst out laughing.
For the millionth time, I thanked the Woodruffs for allowing us to take Liam with us to Hallowcave. Bidding them goodbye, Pete sat in the front of the car with Chris, and immediately said, "close the centre compartment, Chris let's give the lovebirds some privacy!"
Chris smiled as the huge tinted glass rose, casting Pete and Chris in their own world, separate from Dylan, Liam and myself.
For the second time that morning, Pete had referred to us as lovebirds. I did not know what to make of it; although I was certain I did not hate it. Seating comfortably next to Liam's car seat, I closed the door and did my best to avoid Dylan's stare. "Maybe this is how it feels like to be a family," I said to myself.