Page 18 of Recipe for Romance

Chapter Nine

~Aiden~

The galley kitchen in his parents’ house was seriously lacking in space on the best of days, but it felt infinitely smaller with Nicole standing nearby, looking up at him expectantly as he stared into the refrigerator blankly. Normally Aiden’s mind was filled with ideas of what to make, and a simple lunch for his family shouldn’t have proven as difficult as it was in that moment. As Nicole drifted closer, her shoulder brushing his arm and her springtime scent filling his brain with thoughts of rolling around together in the wildflowers out back, he continued to struggle for ideas. Turning to the woman next to him, he decided that now was as good a time as any to get her input.

Aiden cleared his throat and put on his best teacher voice. “What do you think we should make?” Nicole would likely think the question was just all a part of the instruction he was supposed to be giving her, and he was grateful for it. If she knew how many lustful thoughts he’d had about her over the last few days, she would likely go screaming back to LA.

Peering around him, Nicole took one minute to scan the fridge before pulling out a thick slab of bacon, cheddar cheese, and butter. After dumping those on the nearby wood counter, she grabbed a few honey crisp apples from a nearby crate on the ground and a loaf of whole grain bread. “How about bacon apple grilled cheese?” She smiled as she wiggled the items in her hands, one of the apples dislodging and tumbling to the floor. “I know it’s not as glamorous as other dishes you probably had in mind, but it could be good for a family meal.”

Aiden tried not to smile at her, something that was getting increasingly difficult to do. “Could be a good lunch or is a good lunch?” He could be a nitpicky, demanding motherfucker, but in addition to wanting everything to be perfect, he also wanted those working with him to be sure and decisive.

Nicole blinked at him, her expression slightly confused. “Is a good lunch?” Her voice trailed up at the end and he squashed another urge to smile. With anyone else, he would have gotten prickly and bitten their head off already. While the urge to do that was still there, he wanted to do better for her.

Still, he needed her to be more confident in her decisions. Raising a brow at her, Aiden crossed his arms over his chest. “Is that a question?”

“No?” Her eyes were wide and she considered him for another moment before clearing her throat. “I mean, no. No, chef, it isn’t a question. We’re making grilled cheese for lunch with...” she trailed off, scanning the area for another few seconds before pointing to a bowl holding beefsteak tomatoes. “Tomato soup.” Her eyes were bright and the happiness on her face was so damned contagious that Aiden had to turn away for fear of getting burned by her sunny disposition.

Once he’d collected himself, he turned back to Nicole and nodded. “Very good. Now, what are we going to do first?” The answer should have been obvious as it was the first thing anyone learned in culinary school and was repeatedly harped on in every reality cooking show known to man, but instead of saying that as the silence lingered, Aiden gave her the time she needed to come to it herself.

Nicole thought for a moment before dumping the rest of the ingredients onto the counter and pulling her tiny notebook out of her jeans pocket. Aiden watched as she skimmed her notes, a few strands of her hair falling in front of her face again. Not wanting to make the same mistake he did earlier, he shoved his hand into his pocket.

Out in the orchard, Aiden had given into the temptation to touch the silky looking strands, reveling in the feel of them as they slipped through his fingers. It had made him want to feel those same strands trailing over the skin of his bare thighs as she sucked him off. Even just thinking about it again had him getting half-hard, a state he absolutely did not need to be in while cooking in his parents’ kitchen.

“Mise en place,” Nicole finally exclaimed. The captivating sound of her voice stunned him momentarily before he realized that she’d spoken actual words and not a siren song to lure him into her arms.

“Right,” he replied, his voice a little too husky. Coughing, he gestured toward the largest workspace and gathered cutting boards, pans, and knives while Nicole shuffled around behind him. “Grab the mayonnaise. We’ll use that instead of butter.”

Her nose scrunched adorably as she weighed the options, her expression growing increasingly perplexed, but ultimately did as he asked. “Why not butter?”

“Well, what can you tell me about this cheese?” The question might seem patronizing to some, but Nicole really did have worryingly little knowledge about food for someone who grew up with a world class chef. Aiden wondered if her ADHD was partially to blame, but he had the feeling there was more to it than that.

Nicole took the large block of cheddar from his hand, inspecting it as she turned it over and looked at it from all sides. After another minute, her shoulder slumped slightly and she sighed. “I don’t know. It’s orange and pairs well with crackers.” She passed the cheddar back to him with a shrug. “That’s all I got.”

Aiden huffed, trying his best to be patient with her. Patience did not come easily to him, but it was something he needed to get better at. Not just for her, but in general. His impatience had cost him his job, he didn’t want it to cost him something more than that in the future, something like Nicole. Aiden would ask himself what made her so special, so different from anyone else, but he already knew.

Most people looked at him already intimidated and fearful of what he would say, even his own brothers at times, but she hadn’t. Nicole looked at him with nothing but kindness and a desire to learn, unless he was pissing her off. Then she was feisty, but even that fire came from a desire to improve herself. The way she looked at Aiden was as refreshing as it was intoxicating, and even if he couldn’t pursue her romantically, he could at least not be an asshole to her.

“Okay, but why does it pair well with crackers? Because it’s a rich, sharp cheese and most crackers are lighter in flavor, balancing it out.” He grabbed the mayonnaise jar and opened it up, barely dipping a spoon inside before holding it out to her. “Now taste this and tell me why you think we’re using it instead of butter.”

Nicole took the spoon from his hands, their fingers brushing lightly as she did. The brief touch sent a little jolt of awareness to the rest of him, something Aiden tried to ignore but was having a hard time of. Watching Nicole’s pink tongue dart out to lick up the small dab of mayo had him more than half-hard and when she licked her lips to clear off the oily substance, he quickly grabbed an apron and tied it around his waist to cover that fact.

“Hmm,” she hummed. The sound went straight to his dick and if he wasn’t careful, Aiden was going to have to rush upstairs to his old bathroom and jerk off like he had as a teen just to get through the rest of this lesson. “It’s kind of tangy, not as rich as butter.” Seconds later her eyes brightened and she smiled at him. “Butter would add too much fat on top of the cheese and bacon. The mayonnaise makes it cleaner.”

“Well done,” he told her. It was a simple lesson, but an important one. Too many chefs had come to him not really knowing what ingredients to pair together and ended up creating a disastrous plate of food not unlike the one Nicole had presented him with the other day. Handing her an apple peeler, he directed her toward the honey crisps on the counter. “Why don’t you have a go at the apples while I prep the bacon?”

Nicole nodded, taking her ingredients to the sink and ridding the apple of its skin. Aiden pulled his gaze away from her delicate fingers and over to the uncooked pork on the cutting board. Unsheathing the chef’s knife, he proceeded to slice the bacon into long strips before placing them onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Frying bacon was one way to go, but he enjoyed the crispiness that came from cooking it in the oven. It also made for less mess which was something Aiden knew his mother would appreciate.

After showing the two of them inside, his mom had made her excuses to leave them alone while they worked and disappeared into her office to go over the farm’s finances. Of course she shot him a knowing look before making a lot of noise about not coming back into the kitchen until lunch was ready. Luckily, Nicole hadn’t picked up on his mother’s unsubtle nudges for him to make a move. The last thing Aiden needed was anyone in his family meddling in his love life, or lack thereof. His focus was on one thing and one thing only, his restaurant.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Nicole cried. Aiden shoved the sheet into the oven and walked over to where a thin line of blood trickled down Nicole’s fingers and into the sink.

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