Page 29 of Wife By Accident

“I do. But what about you personally? Do you have siblings? What are your hobbies? Where did you grow up? That kind of thing.”

“I have an older sister,” Olivia said. “She has two kids and lives in a small town in Idaho, which is where I grew up. My biggest hobby is photography, but I haven’t been doing as much photography as I would have liked lately, like I said. I also like to hike and read. What about you? I still don’t know much about you, either.”

“Well, I grew up in LA. After college, I moved to New York and started a company with my older brother. Now I run the company. As for hobbies, work doesn’t leave me a lot of free time, so I’d say working is my hobby.” He laughed self-deprecatingly. “I also like traveling and being outside. Oh, and I’m kind of a history buff.”

“Are you?” Olivia leaned forward, intrigued. This felt like a personal detail, the kind she’d like to know. “What kind of history do you like?”

“All of it,” Leo smiled. “I know — that, along with the programming, makes me a real nerd, but I can’t help it.”

“So, tell me a history fact,” Olivia suggested.

“Are you really interested?” Leo tilted his head as if to look at her from a new angle.

“Sure.”

“Okay.” Leo seemed to consider, his brows drawing together and his blue eyes narrowing in thought. “Did you know the shortest war in history was only thirty-eight minutes long? It was the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896.”

“I did not know that. But I did know that Cleopatra lived closer to our time than to when the pyramids were built.”

Leo’s eyes sparkled as he smiled. “That is a really good one. I remember when I first learned that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The length of Egyptian civilization really puts the problems we face in our lifetime into perspective.”

“Have you been to Egypt?”

“Uh-huh,” Leo nodded. “For business, as well, and a few days of looking at the sights. I thought the pyramids were amazing, the tombs were fascinating, and the heat was intense. But I actually learned that fact from a documentary. I love history documentaries, the more obscure the better. My brother used to tease me no end.”

“Used to?”

Leo looked away, then took a big bite of his dosa. He gestured apologetically to his mouth, which was enough of a hint for Olivia to know that he didn’t want to talk about his brother. Maybe they didn’t have a good relationship. Something tickled at the back of her mind, like there was something she should know that was just out of reach, but Olivia let it go.

“I’m kind of a nerd, too,” Olivia admitted. “Out of college, I tried to take a job as an event photographer. You know, weddings and baby showers and that kind of thing. But my photos were always too artsy, and I didn’t enjoy trying to make them mainstream. I love studying composition and color theory and trying to make my photos look like works of art, which I think makes me pretty nerdy.”

“Do you take artsy black-and-white photos of open manhole covers and shoes on telephone wires and stuff like that?” Leo asked. His eyes were back to sparkling, and Olivia was relieved.

“No, nothing like that. I did more close-ups of flowers or birds in motion or a falling leaf against a blue sky.”

“So, you’re a nature photographer.”

“I would like to be.”

“Will you show me some of your pictures?”

Olivia flushed and looked down at her food. “You’d laugh.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Well… maybe. Sometime.”

“I’ll have to accept that for now.” Leo tilted his head again, “I am curious… do you know much about my company?”

Olivia’s blush deepened. “I kind of looked you up this afternoon. I do know that you’re the CEO of Palasa, but I promise I didn’t snoop too much.”

“You didn’t know before we got married?”

Olivia frowned. “No. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious, like I said. I’m still trying to piece last night together.”

“So am I,” Olivia agreed.