He smacked me with the notebook. "Are you feeling the Sterling pressure?"
"I'm not a Sterling." I was happy to separate myself from the family when it came to relationships. I wasn't a good bet. Not with the way I was raised.
He lifted a brow. "I hate to break it to you, but Mom thinks of you as a Sterling. It's just you and Aspen who are still single."
"Please don't put us in the same sentence." I was careful to respond how I would have before our dinner the other night.
Hudson's lip curled. "How are you going to work together if you can't get along?"
"We met yesterday to discuss it. We decided we could put it behind us for the sake of our jobs."
Hudson raised a brow. "Is this important to Aspen? I can never tell with her. She switches jobs so often."
I nodded, irritation creeping in. "She's determined to make this job permanent."
He leaned against the last sink, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why this one, and not the others?"
"She usually works as the front-counter person or an assistant. The job title might be assistant for this one, but she's essentially taking over Eve's job. Maybe she enjoys the independence and responsibility."
Hudson's brow furrowed. "Aspen drove my parents crazy growing up. She was never interested in anything longer than a few weeks."
"Maybe she's changed."
Hudson chuckled. "We thought Aspen would go to college, become a teacher or something. But she came home halfway through a semester and wouldn't talk about it."
"It's not like I have any insight into your sister." We'd talked last night, but she hadn't revealed any more than I had.
He straightened, tucking his pencil behind his ear. "I wasn't saying that you did."
"I don't need to understand her to work with her."
"Let me know if you do. We've been trying to figure her out for years." Hudson shook his head as he pushed open the last stall door.
Aspen either didn't want her brothers to know who she really was, or she didn't know herself. And I shouldn't care. I didn't need to know what she was passionate about to do our jobs.
There was something about having her in my kitchen last night, eating a meal I prepared. It was nice. Domestic. I could get used to having the company. But then I'd have to share a little about myself, and that wasn't something I was capable of doing.
I never talked about my family to anyone besides Emery. But I'd protected her as much as I could from my dad's visits and the fighting. I made sure she did her homework and had food to eat. I'd distracted her when our parents were fighting.
I saw how Aspen and her brothers grew up. No matter how much they complained about each other, they were loved and had plenty of money. They didn't have to worry about if there would be food on the table, or if someone would steal the grocery money.
"Let me know if she's dating anyone?—"
That jolted me out of my thoughts. "Is she?"
"I never know with her." He shuddered. "Not that I want to give it much thought. But I'd like to know that she's with a good guy. You know?"
My chest tightened at the idea of Aspen dating. "I got you. I worry about Emery too."
"At least your sister's on the right track. Going to college."
"First one in the family." I gave her money to pay for food and tuition. It didn't cover everything, but I helped out when I could. I didn't want her to end up with a ton of loans.
"You could have gone."
I laughed. "What would I major in? Construction?"
He punched me in the arm. "Business, you idiot."