Page 28 of Best Laid Plans
The stall was small. And hot. So fucking hot. The plastic sides were drawn on the back and sides of their little slice of hell, which meant that any possibility for a draft was nothing more than a pipedream.
She knew that she looked like a mess, her ponytail askew from running back and forth so quickly to grab orders. It was very likely that she smelled like she, herself, had been dropped in the industrial frier they’d brought. And her pores… all she had to say to her exfoliator was good luck, babe.
“Two flights,” Cam said from behind her. He’d been cooking non-stop since ten a.m., finding time to assemble the dishes, too. It was hard not to be impressed with him, face focused inconcentration, his hands moving on auto-pilot between prepping, cooking, and plating.
Elle shot him a grateful smile. The food was all Cam, but the flights had been Elle’s idea. Making the small plates even smaller and billing them as a sampler. They could charge more for the variety, and it allowed customers to try more of what the restaurant had available.
“Two flights,” Elle said to the middle-aged woman with dark, wavy brown hair and a fanny pack around her waist.
“Is it true that the winner ofUltimate Chefis cooking at your booth today?” she asked, peeking around Elle and trying to get a good view of Cam on the grill.
“Sure is. Cam Devers, Boston-chef wunderkind that he is, got his start in the kitchen at Pierce’s Lobster Co. as a teenager. Seems like it’s the least he could do,” Elle said, grinning mischievously. She wasn’t above hamming it up to push as much word-of-mouth business as she could.
Her libido and Cam’s brush-off aside, Cam didn’t need to be here. It wasn’t his family’s business on the line. But he was showing up. For her parents. For her brother. And maybe, though she didn’t allow the thought to sit for too long, forher, too.
Or, she was just deluding herself, and if Cam had been able to pick, she would have been the last person he’d have agreed to pack himself into a fiery sardine tin with for the day.
Cam’s voice called from behind her as the woman walked away. “Scallops are eighty-sixed.”
Elle shot him a confused look. “What?”
He smiled broadly and made a slashing motion across his chest. “Sold out. Done. Finito. Nada mas.”
“Can we grab the ones for tomorrow?” Elle asked, looking at the line of half-a-dozen people waiting to order.
Cam laughed, surprisingly joyful about the situation. “Those were the ones for tomorrow. I’m going to see what your dad hasat the restaurant or head down to the docks and try to broker a deal.”
Elle grabbed the piece of chalk set on top of the long table that they were using as a counter. “That sounds like a later problem then.”
They had six small bites that could be purchased individually or in a flight where the customer selected four options. Elle quickly crossed off the scallops from their chalkboard menu, which elicited more than a few groans.
Elle shot Cam a grin. “You’re disappointing your fans.”
“Unless they’re fair weather fans, in which case–who needs ‘em–we’ll see them tomorrow.” With the brief lull of Elle taking orders, Cam lifted his shirt and wiped his face.
Ellewantedto look away, but she couldn’t help herself. His abs were on full display, glistening from the heat. She wanted to lick them. God, he looked good. The fire from the burners paled in comparison to the temperature ratcheting up inside her body, melting her from the inside out.
Sexyandcompetent. This so wasn’t her fault.
When she moved her focus up enough to meet Cam’s stare, she caught him looking at her. The hem of his t-shirt was fisted into his hand, and Elle wished desperately that it was her own. He lookedhungry, the way his eyes roamed across her face and chest, and she wondered what he saw. What he wanted to do about it. What he’d let himself do about it, if he stopped worrying about what could go wrong and focused, instead, on everything that could go right. Her body thrummed with awareness, most persistent between her thighs, and she pushed her legs together.
“Excuse me?” A voice called from behind her. The next person in line, Elle realized with a groan.
It was like whatever spell Cam had been caught up in was broken as she felt the moment between them dissipate. He looked back to the burners, very focused on anything exceptElle. She already missed the electricity in those green eyes. In the idea of possibility, and how much she wanted to know exactly what Cam felt like against her, slick with sweat.
But she’d promised that she wasn’t going to push things. So, instead, she turned back to the customer waiting to order and pasted on her best smile. “So sorry about that. What can I get you?”
CHAPTER TEN
CAM
Cam pulled the refrigerated van they were using for the weekend into the restaurant parking lot, the engine idling. He waited for Elle to hop out, but all she did was look at him with adorably confused eyes.
“I’ve got to make another stop,” he clarified, gesturing back down the street.
It was after ten p.m., and even though all he wanted to do was shower and crawl into bed, they needed more fresh seafood for tomorrow. Which, as far as Cam was concerned, was a great problem to have. By the time the festival had shut down after the first day, they only had half of their flight items left, and he’d had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to make it work.
“Where are you going? We both reek.” Elle was so matter-of-fact about it that Cam laughed.
