Page 48 of Don't Remind Me
I’d seen them. The ones on her arms, anyway. She had others she’d told me about, but her chef clothes hid them. The ones on her arms, at least, were breathtaking.
“You’re hired.” I tilted my head. “I mean, I can’t pay you. But I’d welcome your input.”
“I have some time right now. We could get started?”
“Sure.” I dipped my chin to the stool beside me and slipped my laptop his way as he sat.
“Evan, hey.”
Jase stood at the end of the bar nearest us, probably on his way back to the kitchen.
“Hey, man,” Evan said. “How’s it been?”
Jase glanced from Evan to my laptop to me. “What are you…?”
“Evan volunteered to help me with some design stuff for the symposium,” I explained.
Jase’s brows drew together. “I thought you did most of that already?”
“There are a few things I haven’t gotten to yet. Plus, only the invites have been printed, so there’s still time to incorporate his suggestions for everything else.”
A muscle flexed in Jase’s jaw. He opened his mouth to say something, but Luis stuck his head out of the kitchen.
“Hey, Chef, your timer’s going off.”
Jase’s gaze locked with mine, holding it for a long moment before he broke contact and retreated to the back.
For a second, I thought I saw something like regret in his eyes, and my pulse kicked up at the possibility. I quickly shook it away. It had probably been nothing. And even if it had been something, regret wasn’t it. That would be the opposite of simple, and simple was what we were keeping things.
Chapter Twenty
Jase
I washedmy hands in the small sink inside the door to the kitchen, stare fixed on Dani and Evan where they sat at the end of the bar. He pointed at the laptop screen between them and said something that made her burst into laughter, her face lighting up the same way it had the other dozen times he’d made her laugh in the past hour.
My stomach churned with acid as if I’d chugged a bottle of vinegar. I wanted to punch something. Or tear it apart.
“You’re not allowed to dismember my best friend,” Aubrey said as she came up beside me.
I raised my brows.
“You’re glaring,” she explained. “Also, you’ve been washing your hands for a full five minutes. I think they’re clean.”
I smacked the faucet off and snatched a paper towel from the dispenser. “I’m not glaring.” I might have been glaring. “I just don’t want him messing with her.”
“He’s not going to mess with her.”
I shot her a look. “I’ve seen him pick up a different girl six nights in a row.”
“And? They’re consenting adults. They have a nice night; sometimes he sees them again, and sometimes they agree to part ways. Just because you don’t have a sex life doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“I know that you’re jealous.”
“I’m not,” I said, dismissing the punch the word landed to my gut. “She deserves more than to be some fling.”
Aubrey let out a derisive snort. “She can decide for herself what she deserves. You’re the one who seems to be having trouble making decisions.”
