Page 19 of Jason
“From my kitchen,” Pam said proudly.She turned her smile to Mallory.
“Oh, sorry,” Jason said with a shake of his head.“Pam, this is Mallory Price, my assistant.”To Mallory he said, “Pam O’Reilly.She and her husband Joe are the caretakers here.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Mallory said like a woman who had been sent to finishing school, and then she marched forward to extend her hand like a woman who’d been raised in a sales force.
Pam smiled with delight.“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, too, Mallory.”She put down the dish and shook Mallory’s hand enthusiastically.
“Thanks for this, Pam,” Jason said.“But you shouldn’t have gone to any trouble.I meant order out.”
“This is nothing,” she said with a flick of her wrist.“And it’s a lot easier than getting something from a restaurant.They make you wait so long these days.Now, this is warm, but you can heat it up a little if necessary.It should be all right in this insulated cover for a bit.Very nice to meet you, Mallory,” she said again.She turned her attention to Jason.“I’m going to check in on Fiona.Would you like me to come back and clean the kitchen?”
“God, no,” Jason said quickly.They may have grown up with a host of staff to do whatever the family needed, but as an adult, he didn’t care for it.He was a single man and he didn’t need anyone to clean his kitchen.“You can correct whatever I did wrong tomorrow.”He winked at Pam and said to Mallory, “Pam likes the kitchen to be a certain way.”
Pam laughed.“That’s not true at all.But there are too many men who come through here and throw things into drawers without even trying to put them back where they should obviously go.Oh, look at the time!I better go.It’s going to storm soon.Have a good evening!”she said cheerfully, and hurried out the way she’d come.
“She’s an excellent cook,” Jason said.
“I have no doubt,” Mallory said.“I can smell it from here and I am about to pass out from hunger.Should we make a salad?I’m very good at that sort of thing,” she said, glancing at her watch.
“I can make a salad.”
“I can whip one out in no time—”
“We’re not in a race, Mal,” Jason said.“I can make a salad.Will you relax?”
She eyed him suspiciously.“You don’t seem like a kitchen guy to me.I figured you’d have people to do that.”
She didn’t think he was the type to give massages, she didn’t think he could make a salad.What did she think of him, then?“I know my way around the kitchen,” he said, a little defensively.She was right—there always had been “people to do that,” but when his parents had died, and they’d moved in with their cousins, he’d had to learn.There were just so many boys and so many needs.At times, it had felt like he was living in a boarding house—every man for himself.How many times had he come in from baseball practice only to find the meal over and nothing left for him, because no one had noticed him missing?Or had noticed too late.He’d had to learn to fend for himself.
He didn’t like to think about that time in his life.It brought back painful memories of loss.
“Well…okay, if you insist.But I’m happy to help,” Mallory said, and glanced at her watch again.
Mallory liked her schedule.It was usually one of the things Jason appreciated about her most, and God knew he dreaded telling her what he’d done to the production schedule.But tonight she was annoying him with it.He glanced out the windows as he walked around the kitchen bar.The wind had picked up and the sea was beginning to cap.“We have time,” Jason said.“And we’ve got a lot of work to do, too.But right now, I am hungry.Want a drink?If you like whisky, Blackthorne is the best.”
“No thank you,” Mallory said primly.“I have a rule about working and drinking.The two don’t mix.”
“Interesting new rule,” he drawled, because they both knew she hadn’t had a problem drinking that night in his office.
Mallory’s cheeks colored slightly.“I didn’t say I’m very good about following my rules, but, you know, it’s getting late.”
“Is it?”He picked up the drink he’d poured for himself and sipped.
Mallory looked at his drink, then at the window.“I think I should find some place soon if it’s really going to storm.I’m just going to have a look if that’s okay.”She leaned over her backpack and pulled out an iPad as Jason started to gather the ingredients for a salad.She slipped onto a seat at the bar and typed something into her iPad.“Here is the King Harbor Arms,” she said.
“Flop house,” Jason said.
“Oh.”She leaned a little closer to her device.“A Holiday Inn—”
“On the highway,” Jason said.“Closed for renovations.They’ll reopen in a couple of weeks.”
“Huh.”She kept scrolling.“What about the Pirate’s Cove Inn?”
“Sure, if you don’t mind the smell of fish.It’s next to the pier.”He glanced up and smiled a little lopsidedly.“And that’s where Cass is staying.”
“Ugh,” Mallory said with a cute wrinkle of her nose.“So does this mean all of the hotels in King Harbor are undesirable?”
He stuck a head of lettuce under the faucet.“It means the best place for you to stay is right here.”
