Page 12 of Recipe for Romance

Slightly perturbed by his continued needling of her failed breakfast, Nicole balled up her hands and placed them on her hips. “I stand by my decision to add the chips. It’s not my fault your palate is so unsophisticated,” she said haughtily.

Aiden barked a laugh, but it morphed into him coughing into his fist. The fact that she’d kind of made him laugh erased any irritation she had been feeling towards him, pride taking up residence in its place. “Let’s just get this cleaned up. I need to walk the restaurant space and take a few pictures for the investors. I can drop you off on my way.” He picked up the garbage can and swept balled up paper towels and egg shells into it. “How did you get here anyway, and how did you know where I live for that matter?”

Nicole felt her cheeks heat with a blush. “About that.” She had already looked up his coffee order, something she’d found in an old interview, but what she told him next would put her in another category of crazy altogether. “When I went down to Grind and Shine to get your coffee, I started talking to the barista about how I was working with you, and this older couple overheard me and mentioned that they’d been big fans of yours for a long time and how proud the whole town was of you.” The impatience in his expression went up tenfold and she tried to focus on getting to the point. “Anyway, I started talking to them and they said that they’d seen you coming from the rental that used to be owned by their daughter’s ex-husband. I asked where that was and when they told me, the barista, her name is Jenny by the way, and she was awesome, she told me that her boyfriend who was sitting at the counter was heading out this way for work and that he could drop me off on his way there.”

Nicole watched as the wheels of his mind turned to try and process her word vomit. Finally, Aiden sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That was a lot of information.”

“Yeah,” she breathed out. People sometimes seemed overwhelmed by the info dumps that tended to happen when she was around, but it was nothing compared to living in the brain that created them. “Sorry.”

Aiden’s eyes shot to hers. “Don’t apologize.” It was a gruff command, the low timber of his voice sending a shiver up her spine. His cobalt eyes burned into hers, seeing deeper than anyone had even bothered to try looking in a long time. Finally, he broke their little staring contest and went about cleaning again. “Let’s get this cleaned up and then I’ll take you to the motel.”

Nicole’s automatic nod at anything he had to say stopped when the words finally made sense. “Wait!” she shouted. Aiden peered over at her as he continued to clean. “Take me with you. You’re not going to be able to do everything on your own. I might not be as small as a banana, but you can use me for scale in your pictures.” She posed like she was showing off the future waiting area of his restaurant or whatever he would snap pictures of.

Aiden’s expression was nothing but confusion. “Banana?”

Nicole’s posture slumped and she waved away his question. “It’s an Internet thing, trust me.” Clearly he needed to spend more time on social media if the phrasebanana for scaledidn’t ring any bells.

“If you say so,” he remarked. “At least let me take you by the motel to change.” His eyes traveled up and down her body, not completely disapprovingly but also a bit like he was assessing for damages. “Unless of course you want to walk around looking like you’re covered in baby spit-up.”

Nicole glanced down at her clothes. Grease stains and glops of some unidentified substance covered her t-shirt and shorts. “That would definitely be a choice,” she muttered. Knowing that however she looked reflected on the man in front of her, Nicole nodded. “Okay. We’ll clean up, then change, then we’ll look at your new restaurant.” She clapped excitedly. The ghostly smile on Aiden’s face was back and gone again, but this time Nicole didn’t question her seeing it. If anything, she was more determined than ever to make it come back.

****

Opening the door toAiden’s white SUV, Nicole slid inside, sighing at the feel of the buttery beige leather against the bare skin of her legs. After ditching her dirty clothes, she slipped into a sundress to try and enjoy the last of the summer weather. When she turned to look at Aiden, two deep lines were etched on his forehead. “What took you so long?” he fumed.

Nicole rolled her eyes at his growling, something that hadn’t gone unnoticed by him. The lines on his forehead deepened, so she smiled as brightly as possible. “I was only gone for a minute,” she protested. If she didn’t know any better she would think he hadn’t actually consumed one ounce of the coffee she’d gotten, he wasthatcranky.

Aiden tapped the clock on the dash. “Twenty,” he corrected her. “You were gone for twenty minutes. I could have jogged around the building half a dozen times by now.”

Nicole’s smile widened. “Why didn’t you?” she asked. His look was thunderous and she held up her hands, wondering if she should just keep them there any time she spoke with him. “Sorry. I got stopped by Mrs. Howard on my way up to my room. She wanted to know if she could set me up with her son, and I told her that while I was flattered by the offer, I should probably focus on my training.” Nicole kept the fact that the number one reason she turned the woman down was currently staring daggers at her to herself. Given the intense look in Aiden’s eyes, she was right to do so.

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel. “This isn’t going to work,” he huffed, exiting the vehicle.

Nicole watched his door shut, scrambling out of her own side to follow him as he stomped toward the motel entrance. “Wait!” she screamed in a panic. She couldn’t lose this opportunity already. She knew her tendency to turn even the simplest task into a complicated mess would come back to bite her, but she thought she would at least make it past day one. “I won’t take too long again, I promise.”

“Where’s your room?” His blue eyes were a bizarre mixture of confusion and frustration. Ignoring that as best she could, she pointed silently to a door just off the main hallway. When Aiden nodded at the door, she pulled out her card and scanned the lock. Nicole’s mind whirred with all the ways she could beg and plead for another shot, but he looked so resolute that she wasn’t sure he would even entertain the words at this point. “Pack your things.”

Nicole plodded over to her bags and started shoving her clothes inside, stopping when the anger at being dismissed so easily rose up and boiled over. Tossing her shirt to the side, she stomped back over to him. She had to crane her head back,way back, to look him in the eye, but when she did she tried to express all the frustration she was feeling.

Poking him in the chest, Nicole tried to ignore not only the swirl of emotions inside her, but also the confirmation that the muscles beneath his shirt were as firm as she thought they would be. “You told me you were a perfectionist. I knew you had a reputation for being impossible to work for, but I didn’t think you’d be this big of an asshole. I can’t believe you’re giving up on me already.”

The fury that burned in his eyes turned to shock as his head reared back. “Giving up?” he huffed. Wiping her finger away with his hand and closing the mere inches that lay between them, Aiden leaned down, his eyes boring into hers. “I don’t give up so easily, but I also can’t do my jobs, training you and opening my restaurant, if I’m constantly woken up too early and waiting on you to finish your conversations with Mrs. Henry.”

“Howard,” Nicole corrected. Aiden closed his eyes and his lips moved lightly, probably praying for patience or deliverance from her brand of evil annoyance. Whatever he was saying was lost on her because all she could focus on was the pair of lips she wanted to taste.

“Fine, Howard,” he bit out. Stepping aside, he picked up the shirt she’d tossed and handed it to her. “If this has any chance of working, you’re staying at my place.” Nicole’s jaw dropped open, but before she could make a sound, Aiden shook his head. “It’s the only way this is happening. Take it or leave it.”

Silly man. He thought she was going to protest living with him? If anything, he’d just made this whole adventure a lot more fun. Was it wise for her to move in with the object of her affection, especially knowing how cantankerous he was when she was around? Doubtful. Did she care? Not one bit. Still, she couldn’t leave him holding all the cards.

“Fine,” she agreed. “But you have to give me lessons daily and take me with you to do all your restaurant stuff.”

He narrowed his eyes but his head bobbed curtly. “Deal. Now get your stuff. I’ll go settle up at the front desk and then we’re hitting the restaurant.”

“Great,” Nicole beamed. “I can’t wait to see it.” Fifteen minutes later, she was almost wishing she could reel the words she’d uttered earlier back into her mouth. They had pulled up to a large building that looked like a charred marshmallow and she couldn’t imagine that anyone would want to drive past it let alone eat inside of it. When Aiden opened his car door, Nicole stared at him bug-eyed. “Thisis your restaurant?”

Aiden’s brow furrowed as he exited the vehicle. Like the lost little puppy she seemed to be around him, Nicole quickly followed despite his merely glaring at her in response. He gazed at her over his shoulder. “Right now it’s little more than a burnt out shell of a building, but when I’m done with it, it will be.”

Nicole eyed the building dubiously but followed him inside. “Are you sure it’s safe to be in here?” It looked like one stiff breeze could collapse the whole thing, and while she was always up for an adventure, dying young wasn’t one of them.

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