Page 44 of The Artist

She let out a short breath.“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Would you like some late lunch?I can have Veronica make us something.”

Alexis leaned against the Gallery island.“Who’s Veronica?”

“That would be me.”

A small woman with black hair and the palest skin Alexis had ever seen, came into the kitchen.

She held her hand out to Alexis.“Veronica Chase.He,” she jutted her chin toward Peter, “has some fancy name for me, but I’m the cook and housekeeper.Nothing less, and way more.”Veronica laughed at her own joke.

Alexis took her hand and shook it.“Alexis Armstrong, art gallery owner.Well, at least, I was.My gallery burned to the ground two days ago.”

Veronica frowned and clasped Alexis’s hand with both of hers.“Oh, you poor thing.Let me fix you some lunch.I have some wonderful chicken salad, if I do say so myself, that I can make sandwiches with.”

“I can vouch for the chicken salad.It is the best I’ve ever eaten, though if you tell my mother, I’ll deny I said it.”He chuckled.

Alexis laughed.

So did Veronica.“Well, you two sit at the table, and I’ll get you each a glass of iced tea and those sandwiches.Go on now, sit.”She made shooing movements with her hands.

Peter headed to the nook and sat at an oval-shaped, oak table.

Alexis followed and sat across from him on the padded, ladder-back oak chair.

Bustling in with a glass of iced tea in each hand, Veronica set them on the table.“Do you take sugar or lemon, Alexis?”

“Neither, but thank you.”

“Of course.”She hurried back into the kitchen.

“Does she ever slow down?”Chuckling, she watched Veronica go.

“Not that I’ve ever seen, and she’s worked for us, my family and myself, for more than twenty years.She’s only been with me for about three months.Before that, she was with Cole for a couple of years, and before that, she was with Mom and Dad.She has always taken care of us, even as children.When Cole married, he had no need for a cook and a housekeeper any longer.His wife loves to cook and they hired a cleaning crew to come in once a week.I immediately made my wishes to have her at my home, known.Here she has her own house out in the woods for privacy.In the warm months she drives a golf cart back and forth.The rest of the year she drives a Jeep Wrangler, or she stays here at night.”

“She must love working for you.”

“I hope so.I don’t know how I would manage without her.”

“Not well, I can tell you.Peter and all his siblings are so messy, it looks like they were raised in a den of wolves.”Veronica set a plate with a thick chicken salad sandwich, a scoop of potato salad, and a scoop of macaroni salad in front of Alexis.

“This looks amazing.”She took a bite of the potato salad and closed her eyes in delight.It was creamy, with chunks of potato, and a touch of horse radish.Then she took a spoonful of the macaroni salad and sighed in ecstasy.It had a touch of mustard that gave it a little bite.I don’t suppose you’d tell me where you got the salads?And if you tell me, you made them, I just might scream.”

The housekeeper grinned.“You better start screaming.”

“I knew it,” Alexis said before she took another bite of the potato salad.“I couldn’t get that lucky.”

Veronica patted her arm.“I’ll give you the recipe.It’s one of Peter’s favorites and I have a feeling you’ll be making it quite often for him.”

Alexis’s cheeks heated when she thought of her and Peter together.She liked the idea and that surprised her.She ducked her head with a smile.“Perhaps.”She really didn’t want to get ahead of herself ,or of Peter, but billionaire or not, he surely didn’t go around buying clothes for just anyone…did he?