Just a Taste (31 page)

“Something wrong?” Rosa asked.

Carmen forced a smile. She couldn't be mad at Rosa. This was something she needed to take up with Liam. “Nope.”

They finished their coffee before Rosa stood and stretched. “You might want to consider getting a new couch. That one is horrible to sleep on.”

Rosa left the room, but then called over her shoulder, “What are your plans for today?”

“I don't know. I have some bookwork to do for the truck. Maybe I'll get some more painting done.”

“You should have plenty of time to finish up your projects here since you won't need to deal with the truck.”

Carmen nodded, not that Rosa was watching. Rosa came back through the kitchen holding a pile of clothes. She tugged at the shirt she wore. “I'll return this after I wash it. Thanks for the loan. Give me a call if you want to get together later.”

“Sure.”

Carmen walked through her house trying to decide what project she should do, but found she couldn't focus on anything. She put away the dishes from the party and then took a nap. Liam didn't call, but she'd hoped he'd be back so she could confront him. Even as she rested, she geared up for a fight.

She and Liam hadn't fought about much, but for some reason, she felt like this wasn't something she could ignore. Not if they were going to be partners.

When she opened her eyes again, she had no idea what time it was or how long she'd slept. She heard noise in the other room, so she knew Liam had returned. She got out of bed. From her door, she heard him laughing. Not his usual quiet chuckle, but an outright laugh.

It startled her enough that it caused a hitch in her step. Who made him laugh like that? She turned the corner and he smiled at her.

“Yeah, sounds good. I'll see you there tomorrow then.” He clicked his phone off. “Feeling better?”

“Fine. Who was that?”

“Rosa. We were making plans for Heavenly Buns.”

Rosa had made him laugh? She grit her teeth for a moment to stomp on the jealousy creeping up. “Speaking of Rosa. How could you just decide to hire her permanently without talking to me?”

His eyebrows came together and that deep ridge formed between them. “Why would I need to talk to you? You brought her on and you said yourself that she was doing a great job.”

“We're partners. We're supposed to make decisions together.”

“You hired Pete without talking to me. And you brought in Rosa without any mention.”

She waved her hand at him. “That was different. With Pete, I was trying to help you. He knows how to run the truck, and you had never done it before. I asked Rosa to help me
temporarily
because you needed time to be with your family. I didn't want us to lose out on having the truck on the street.”

“I'm sorry I didn't run it by you. I never thought it would be an issue. She's your cousin and she's doing a really good job.” He stood and came close to her.

She stepped back because if he touched her, she wouldn't be able to stay mad.

“You prepared me for running the truck. We talked about hiring someone once I got the hang of it.”

“You still should've talked to me about it. And now you're making plans for Heavenly Buns?” That too should've been a conversation between them. Not with Rosa.

“Being partners doesn't mean I have to run every move past you.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, really. Kind of like you didn't tell me you had a vacation planned.”

“I didn't tell you because I canceled it.”

“But you shouldn't have canceled on my account. And if I had known, that's exactly what I would've told you.”

“I canceled because you needed me here. I couldn't run off to the beach and leave you with your family emergency and no one to run the truck.” She was borderline yelling at this point, but Liam remained calm. At least he appeared calm.

“I don't expect you to give up everything in your life for me. That's no way to have a relationship.”

His words made sense, but didn't do anything to abate her anger. “I haven't given up my life for you.”

“Oh, no? Look around. You had plans for this house you haven't completed. When was the last time you even looked at the want ads or filled out an application?”

She had no answer. She hadn't even thought about another job for weeks.

He took another step. “This isn't the life you wanted, and I was too selfish to see that. I have the truck handled. Go get the life you want.”

What was he saying? That he didn't need her? Didn't want her? “I don't need you to tell me what I want in life, Liam. You barely know me.” He opened his mouth, but she put up her hand to stop him. “I think it's time for you to leave.”

“Carmen.”

“I want to be alone. I have a life I need to figure out.” She turned and went back to her bedroom. It wasn't until she heard the
click
of the front door that she felt like her life came crashing down on her.

Liam had no idea what the fuck had just happened. He'd thought Carmen would be thrilled to have her time back and not have to work on the truck. Although they'd had a lot of fun working together, she was supposed to find her real career, something away from her family and the life she was forced into.

Why couldn't she see that?

Her reaction hit him hard. Something about it felt like it was more than a simple fight over him hiring Rosa. Telling him to leave felt like she was breaking up with him, getting him out of her house and her life. While he drove away, he tried to convince himself he was reading too much into it.

Carmen was upset, and while he was pretty sure that it was about more than him hiring Rosa, he knew she would calm down and then they could have a rational discussion.

By the time he got to his house, he realized he had nothing to do. He couldn't remember the last time he had a Saturday night off, and a holiday to boot. He'd spent all of his time with Carmen for the last month and prior to that, Jonathan had him working every weekend. Liam sat in his living room, unsure what to do with himself. He looked at the photo frame Carmen had given him for Christmas.

How could she accuse him of not knowing her? Her accusations drew up his anger. He didn't need this shit. He grabbed his phone and called Jimmy.

“Hey, Jimmy. You want to go out?”

“I don't know. Let me check with Moira.”

“I'm not looking to go out with my sister.”

“Okay. Sure. Where do you want to meet?”

They made plans to meet at O'Leary's because it would be halfway between their houses. Liam arrived first and sat at the bar to wait for Jimmy. Jenna was bartending.

“Hi, Liam. How are you?”

“Good. You?”

She nodded. Although he hadn't worked at the bar much over the years, he knew the staff who had been there a long time. Like the rest of the family, he always worked on Saint Patrick's Day. It was a family tradition. He'd have to figure out what to do about the truck that day. His family didn't ask much of him, so he didn't want to back out of the tradition.

He ordered a Guinness from Jenna. When she delivered it, she said, “Neither of your brothers are here tonight.”

“I'm meeting a friend.” He looked around the bar. Kind of a slow night, but not too surprising since it was New Year's Day. Most people were probably still trying to get over their hangovers from last night.

A thump on his shoulder told him Jimmy had arrived. He took the stool beside Liam. “I'll have you know Moira is pissed that she was expressly not invited to join us.”

Liam grinned. “Just like old times.” He waved Jenna over to get Jimmy's order.

“And just like when we were teenagers, she was about ready to stomp her foot and try coming anyway.”

“I knew you dating my sister was going to be a problem.”

“Afraid she's stealing me from you?”

“Shut up.”

Jenna delivered a beer for Jimmy and then he asked, “What's the occasion?”

“I have a Saturday night off.”

“And? Why aren't you with Carmen?”

Leave it to Jimmy to jump right at the problem. “She told me to leave.”

“That's not good. Never good when a fight ends with being told to get out.” He drank from his beer and waited for details.

“Fuck. I don't even know what the hell the fight was about.”

Jimmy chuckled. “Not surprising. You'll probably never understand. Just go apologize.”

“I'm not going to apologize when I didn't do anything wrong.”

“You'll regret that. Your bed will get mighty cold. Trust me on this.” Another sip of beer. “What'd you do?”

“I hired her cousin Rosa to work on the truck with me.”

Jimmy frowned. “And?”

“That's it. She got mad because I didn't run it by her first, but she brought Rosa in to work while I was dealing with everything with Mom. Rosa is a good employee. Hiring her means that Carmen doesn't have to work the truck.”

“Hmmm.”

“Not helpful.”

“I've found that with women, rarely is the problem with the thing they say it is. There's always some underlying factor. The one time Moira told me to leave, I thought she was mad because I was bugging her about getting information on the story she was doing. After I left, I realized I hadn't respected her job. I had to suck it up and apologize.”

Liam stared into his beer. What could Carmen's underlying reason be for being mad? “I have no idea what it might be. Things have been great between us.”

“Trust me. You did something. Just accept it's always your fault.” Jimmy slapped Liam's shoulder again.

That kind of logic would never work for Liam. He took responsibility for things he did. He refused to proffer fake apologies in an effort to create a phony sense of peace. No, he'd wait until Carmen was calm and then she'd tell him what was wrong. Plain and simple.

CHAPTER 18

F
or the rest of the night and through all of Sunday, Carmen worked on finishing all the painting jobs she'd started in the house. Her anger toward Liam hadn't dissipated. Part of her knew it wasn't right, but she couldn't help but feel mad.

She'd spent most of her life being told what to do, either explicitly or through implied expectations. Now that she no longer had her parents running her life, Liam seemed to want to step up and take over. How could he possibly know what she wanted in life?

She wasn't even sure.

But she'd been happy working on the truck. With him. That had been the key. She enjoyed the few days with Rosa, but working with Liam had made her happy.

And now he'd decided he didn't need her help to run the truck. He knew what he was doing, and he had Rosa to help.

That same prick of jealousy hit her.

She didn't like this side of her and she needed to get over it. She wasn't some sixteen-year-old upset over a crush. She loved Liam and she knew he wasn't interested in Rosa. What did it say about her then that she kept having these flashes of jealousy?

All of Liam's words echoed in her head while she worked. He'd been right about plenty. She had all of these projects she'd started and left unfinished. She hadn't thought about starting a new career. She'd been avoiding all of it and claiming she was too busy with the truck.

That's why it was important for her to finish the painting. To prove to herself that she could. It also allowed for a whole lot of time to think.

Her next focus would be on doing what she'd told Liam she was going to do: She was going to figure out her life.

And it was something she had to do on her own. Because part of her avoidance of everything was because she was afraid of being alone. From the moment her relationship with Liam started, she'd been reminding herself that he would leave, that she only had a year with him.

Instead, she enjoyed the great month they had, and she'd leave first. She needed to be on her own without distractions to know what would be right for her life.

Liam spent all of Sunday planning and scheming with Moira to get publicity for the truck while trying to irritate Heavenly Buns. He and Rosa decided that a competition was in order. What better way to drum up business during the nasty cold winter months than to force Heavenly Buns to compete with them? If they thought they were good enough to steal business from the Taco Taxi, they should do it honestly.

Moira convinced him that a little fun shaming and goading on social media would be enough to draw them out, so she began the campaign. Liam remembered how much Carmen's trash talk during their friendly competition drew customers in, so he had little doubt Moira's plan would work.

Unless the Heavenly Buns people were total assholes.

In the meantime, he planned to meet Rosa at the restaurant early to talk about adding the new menu items he'd mentioned to Carmen. Although they had originally discussed waiting until spring, offering good walking food during the competition made sense. It would also act as a bit of market research to help them decide if they would continue.

He glanced at the clock. She was late, but he tried not to get irritated. He had corn cooking on the stove so they could make elotes. Churros would be next week's experiment.

While he waited for Rosa and the corn, he drank his coffee and thought about Carmen. She still hadn't called. He'd known his sisters to hold on to their anger for days. He'd hoped Carmen wasn't like that and given her usual sunny disposition, he'd thought she'd be done by now. After work, he would go to her house and make dinner for them. If she wouldn't come to him to talk, he'd go to her. But they
would
talk.

Rosa burst through the back door, slamming the metal against the wall. “What the hell did you do to my cousin?”

Her sharp tone was much too loud for the morning. Carmen had obviously told her about the argument. “I didn't do anything. She got mad because I hired you without talking to her first.”

“You must've done something else because she asked me to come by this morning. She handed me her laptop and said you'd know how to handle the business stuff until she got back.” As she spoke, one hand waved wildly through the air and the other cradled Carmen's laptop.

He'd been so busy watching her body language that it took a moment for her words to hit home. “Back? Back from where?”

She set the laptop on the counter. “She said she's starting in Mexico, but she's not sure where after that.”

Liam took a slow breath. “So she's going on her vacation.” Without telling him.

“If it was only vacation, would she be getting rid of her computer and the work that goes along with it? Isn't that something that could just wait until she got back?”

“She probably wanted to make sure we had the information we needed. That's all.”

Rosa stomped closer to him. “You don't get it. She's leaving. She's not saying when or if she's coming back.” She punctuated each word slowly. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing. I did exactly what you told me to do. I told her to go get the life she really wanted.”

A slow, steady panic seeped into him. After yelling at him over making a decision without her input when it was simple business, what did it say that she would make a personal decision without even mentioning it to him? She wouldn't really leave and not come back. “You're overreacting.”

“Shit. I don't even know the meaning of that. I react the way I need to. And you need to fix this.”

He pulled out his phone and pointed at the corn. “Pull that off the stove. We're going to experiment with elotes today.” The phone rang in his ear. After four rings, Carmen's voice mail picked up. He moved away from Rosa. “Carmen, it's Liam. Rosa's here and she's really upset. She thinks you're taking off and not coming back.” He sighed. “I'm sorry we fought. Please call me.”

He disconnected and turned back to Rosa. “She didn't answer. Did she say when she was leaving?”

Rosa shook her head. “She was in the process of packing, though.”

He was torn. Part of him wanted to take off and go to her house and talk some sense into her in case Rosa was right. Mostly he wanted to kiss her and hold her and tell her to have a great vacation. But he needed to prep the truck and get out on the street.

“So what are you gonna do?”

“We're going to work, and I'll talk to Carmen when we're done. She wouldn't just leave.” Not without saying good-bye. Not without making sure they were okay after their fight. Not without telling him she loved him.

Rosa shot him a disbelieving look, but didn't comment.

He focused on the task at hand. While they sampled different mixtures of cheese, mayo, butter, and chili powder, Liam filled Rosa in on his plans with Moira.

“We'll set it up as a dare. Ask them to go face-to-face with us.”

“Like the food truck TV show. Whoever makes the most money wins. I love it.”

“You watch cooking shows?” Why that was the first thing that came to mind, he didn't know.

Rosa shook her head again. “Nope. My dad does. All the time with the Cooking Channel or Food Network. He thinks he's going to discover the next big thing to expand into.”

“He owns this place, right? Why does he want to expand?”

“He's like Uncle Gus. It's all about the American Dream, you know? They grew up with nothing and want to make sure they do as much as they can.”

Her news made Liam revisit the idea of catering. If it was a joint venture, it might make it less risky for both of them. While he tasted another ear of corn, he made mental note to do some more research about catering and what it would take. When he saw Carmen, he'd ask her what she thought. She might know the business end, and she would definitely know whether it would be a good idea to approach her uncle.

Half-eaten ears of corn lay scattered on the table. He and Rosa couldn't agree on how best to prepare the elotes. Every time he slathered on the ingredients, she wanted to dump more chili powder on it.

“You're killing the taste of everything with that. It's just supposed to give a hint of spice, a little kick. You should still be able to taste the other flavors.”

She ran her tongue along the corn. “I taste it all just fine.”

“How about we make it my way, and if someone asks for extra chili powder, we add more? Doesn't that make more sense than overdoing it and having people complain? It's easier to add more than make a whole new ear.” He began to gather the ingredients they'd need to make it on the truck.

Rosa disappeared into the storage closet. “Here,” she said, shoving some Styrofoam bowls at him. “We can cut it off the cob and serve it in a bowl. It'll make it easier for people to eat.”

“We have the ones we use for rice and beans.”

“These are bigger, so they'll be easier to mix the stuff in.”

“We can't steal bowls and lids from the restaurant.”

“It's my dad's restaurant. We'll pay him back. It's not like he doesn't know where to find us. Besides, it's just a few bowls. He won't even notice them missing. If it works, we'll order our own.”

She made another excellent point. He hadn't thought about serving in bowls, but it would make it easier for customers to transport the elotes. Once again, Rosa was proving she was an excellent choice as an employee.

As Carmen finished packing, she felt better about her decision to go. Liam had been right. While she hadn't given up her life for him, she had put everything on hold. For the first time, she had the freedom to do whatever she wanted. Before zipping her last bag, she tucked in the letter from her dad, the one she'd ignored for too long.

She checked the time. Liam and Rosa would be done on the truck by now. She'd expected the call from Liam this morning after Rosa came by. She ignored the phone to at least have the day to think about it. The problem was, she still didn't know what to say. Her packed bags sat by the door, ready for her flight in the morning. She'd cleaned out her refrigerator and put her mail on hold. She was ready.

When Liam pulled up, she'd been watching for him. She met him at the door. He already had his key out, but she had the door open enough to fit her body in the space. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

“Hey,” he said with a smile.

“Hi. I'm sure Rosa told you I'm leaving.” Her grip on the doorknob tightened.

“Yeah. Can I come in? It's fucking cold out here.”

“I'd prefer if you didn't.”

The smile slipped from his face. “Why?”

Her throat tightened and she swallowed hard. “Because if I let you in, I won't be able to do this. You'll talk me out of it.” She sucked in a halting breath. “You were right. I need to figure out my life. So I'm going.”

“Is this because of our fight?”

“No. Yes. You made me think about a lot of things.”

“Can't you think here?”

“That hasn't worked out well so far. I'm hoping distance might give me clarity.”

“What about us?”

That was the question she feared most. She didn't have an answer for him. “I don't know,” she mumbled.

His hands shook and she didn't know if it was the cold or his emotions. “Can I please come in? I'm freezing my balls off.”

“You should go.”

Instead of backing down the steps, he came forward and touched his cold hand to her cheek. “I love you, Carmen. I'll be here.” Then he brushed a featherlight kiss to her lips before turning away.