Lisa finally gave him a half smile that didn’t hold a hint of judgement. “I lived with her most of my life. Trust me. She’ll love it if you can get her to try it. It’s a leftover from our childhood. We never had a ton of food and she had to eat stuff she didn’t like. Now she almost always ends up ordering the same thing because in the back of her head she’s afraid she won’t like it and she’ll go hungry. She’ll eat steak and salad and chicken breasts and nothing else if you let her. I managed to talk her into jambalaya the other day. It was the blandest jambalaya ever, and I had to promise our chef that he could start having a chef’s special once a month to get him to actually make it. She’s now had it three times, and I’ve been gently pumping up the spice.”

“She did mention that the last batch she had was the best,” Remy admitted.

He couldn’t stand the thought that she’d been a hungry child. She was so put together as an adult it was hard to believe her childhood had been rough. Of course, sometimes the roughest places turned out to be the most beautiful. It took time and pressure to create a diamond.

Well, if she hated it, he could always make another pot. He couldn’t blame Lisa for easing her into the coffee. Wasn’t he trying to ease her into a relationship?

Lisa took over. “Why don’t you see if she’s got some bread for toast and I’ll make breakfast. That way you’ve got total deniability. Now give me an update.”

Lila’s sister was a force of nature. He backed off. He wouldn’t mind a little deniability, and he would like it if he didn’t have to make two pots of coffee every morning because they couldn’t stand to drink the same one. If he could get her to half and half, he would compromise. “Rene is coming home today. Janice will be in the hospital a couple of days. The baby is fine. None of them would have survived if your sister hadn’t been there.”

“Is she okay?” Lisa asked.

There was no question who she was talking about. “She had a rough day, but she’s all right.”

“She bottles things up. She won’t even acknowledge that anything is bothering her,” Lisa explained. “You have to push her to get her to talk about it, and even then, she might not tell you anything.”