Page 4 of Always Be My Baby

“Where is this coming from?” she asked at the same time we heard loud bursts of laughter coming from the kitchen in both Serena’s and Girard’s voices. Lena turned her head to the kitchen, then back to me. “I get it. Honey, he’s crazy about you, you know that.”

“This has nothing to do with him.” I had no interest in getting into the fact that he’d kept his training of Sawyer from me or that I was getting paranoid about him leaving us. “Ready to learn more of the ropes?” I asked to change the subject.

“Absolutely.”

I pushed through thoughts of Girard, pushed them straight out of my head. Whatever Girard decided to do concerning me or the restaurant, he decided to do. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.

Work.ThatI had control over.

Girard

Before the end of dinner service, I let Sawyer take the lead as part of his training, not that he required any help in that department. But he needed to handle both lunch and dinner services in conjunction with my other tasks to learn how to prioritize yet not let himself become singularly focused on say, the cooking over the more mundane tasks.

Since he and the other cooks kept a handle on the kitchen, I left them to it in order to put together a dinner for two.

Pan-seared rainbow trout in a beurre blanc sauce, haricots verts, and a wild rice pilaf made with dried white currants and almond slivers—even going as far as making Lee’s favorite bread pudding with extra crème anglaise to drizzle over the top.

I actually got Lee to agree to leave closing down the restaurant to Lena and of course, I handed the reins over to Sawyer. It wasn’t like Lee never asked Lena to close before on the fly, but I sensed her reluctance this morning considering what Lena closing meant. The woman seriously hated giving up control, period, but especially control of her baby, and make no mistake, this bistro was her baby.

Now me, I couldn’t wait to get home, or more importantly, getherhome. Getting comfortable, eating dinner, then maybe eating something better afterward. A stupid smile spread across my face, one that I couldn’t help if I tried, not with these thoughts ofeatinginfiltrating my mind. Floyd loved getting his walks in earlier in the day before the cold turned arctic. I loved getting to spend more time with Lee outside of the restaurant.

If I thought she’d actually sayyes, I’d ask her to marry me tomorrow. That first morning, waking up with Lee in my arms, I was sure about her and our life together. Now, even more so. But with Lee, I needed to go in slowly and try not to spook her. She was so used to being let down by the people who were supposed to love her that somewhere along the line, she’d become skeptical concerning matters of the heart.

It still surprised me that I got in there in the first place. Of course, I refused to give her a whole lot of choice, digging myself in there like a rash she couldn’t get rid of. Once I decided to make her mine, I’d gone all in.

“Hey, sweetheart.” I greeted Lee as I stepped into her office holding the bagged foods. “Ready to head out?”

Startled, she lifted her gaze from her deep concentration of the computer screen, as if she didn’t expect me. How could she not expect me? I looked down at my watch—seven o’clock, our exact agreed upon time to head home. Something had to really have captured her attention for her to neglect noticing the time. Still, the smile on her face, the one she aimed only at me, said better than words how happy she was to see me.

“Is it time to go already?” she asked, pushing the bangs that had fallen in front of one eye off to the side. Those little moves—she never looked more beautiful than when she didn’t realize she was being beautiful and it hit me square in the chest.

“Yeah,” I answered, my voice coming out hoarse enough to force me to clear it before covering like a lovesick idiot. “It’s time for dinner. We need to let them go through the entire nighttime closing.”

She sighed. “I know. I trust Len, obviously. It’s just hard giving up control. One could almost say my butt-cheeks are still a bit clenched,” she said, but threw in a chuckle at the end to show she was joking. That’d been a cruel thing I’d once said to her, something I didn’t mean. Pissed people sometimes said things they in no way meant. But showing up the next morning to her apartment to apologize, well, that morning started us, like reallystartedus. Where she’d spent the night, waking up in my arms. No sex. Although I wasn’t planning on giving up the sex anytime soon, or ever, so long as she was game for it, the woman belonged in my home, in my bed, in my arms.

My eyes narrowed in on her scrumptious mouth as I ached to kiss her and see if she was in the mood to use that mouth onotherplaces. Oh, hell… we couldn’t get home fast enough. “You’ll be fine, sweetheart,” I assured her.

Biting her bottom lip, she leveled me with the longing in those big, beautiful hazel eyes as she pushed up from her chair, dropping her gaze briefly from the hold she had on mine to the computer screen.

I knew the thoughts going through her head.No way.“Sheneeds to do it all,” I reminded her. “Without you.”

“Right.” She sighed, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear probably, if I knew my Lee, simply just to give her hands something to do. “I know.” Her shoulders slumped. Then, as if resigned to the situation, she straightened and turned for me to help her with her coat, which I offered after setting the food down on her desk.

“This’ll be great, you know,” I said, willing her to believe it. “Having backup when necessary. I promise, sweetheart.”

Food bags back in hand, I offered her my arm, which she took, then together we left the office, calling out our goodbyes to any employee we passed. Which, admittedly, weren’t many, considering we slipped out the back door. No walking through the dining room when not on duty. That rule had been in play since the first day the doors opened so many years ago, or so I’m told. I wasn’t working here then, but she wouldn’t have any reason to lie.

The Bell Jar was too classy to allow off-duty employees who weren’t dining with company to disturb the vibe of the paying customers. Employees inevitably wanted to chew the fat with their friends who happened to be their coworkers. No matter their intentions, that’d absolutely disturb the customers.

It took us a little longer to get to my truck having to walk around the exterior of the building. Knowing we’d be taking off early, we parked closer to the rear of the building, which, with it being a balmy twelve degrees out tonight, our frozen faces appreciated.

I pressed the remote start to get the truck heating while we walked. As I opened the door for her, she caught me off guard with a quick peck to the cheek and a, “What’s got you so geeked about this training? You weren’t even this excited back when I hired Sawyer.”

“Well, there’s only room for one hotshot chef with a big head at this bistro. I had a reputation to protect,” I teased because that wasn’t the case at all. Sawyer had been a longtime friend and aside from learning the menu, which he and I had gone over prior to him applying for the sous chef position, there really wasn’t much to train him on. Sawyer arrived at the bistro as a competent chef who knew his way around a kitchen.

“To put your eager mind at ease, Lena’s first day of training went famously.” There was a great deal to get done during the day—thus, a great deal to remember. “She’s more than capable.”

After shutting her door, I ran around to my own. Big mistake, considering I slipped on a patch of ice and would’ve cracked my head on the pavement if not for catching the door handle at the last second.

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