“You disappear for five minutes,” he says, “and Matteo starts asking if you’re plotting a coup. I told him you were probably just stalking the sous chef again.”
My jaw tightens. “I wasn’t stalking her.”
Valerio raises an eyebrow. “No? Because from where I’m sitting, the pattern is pretty solid. Next thing I know, you’ll disappear with her in your arms, like Luca just did with that waitress he’s obsessed with.”
That Luca finally managed to make a move on that girl is news to me. Something must have happened to push him that far. But whatever it was, it’s none of my business.
“I’m keeping an eye on the restaurant,” I say evenly.
He snorts. “Right. The same restaurant with seventy other employees you never look at twice.”
There’s no point responding to that. Valerio always reads between lines that don’t exist, but this time he isn’t wrong.
She’s different. I saw it the first night I came here, months ago. The way she held the kitchen together. The way she didn’t bend under pressure. The way she laughed with the other girls even when she was dead on her feet.
Something about her stuck.
Now, when I close my eyes, she’s who I see. Her wild black curls, her rich caramel skin. Her deep brown eyes, almost black in the low light.
Valerio bumps his shoulder against mine. “So? How bad was it?”
“She was upset.”
“That much I gathered,” he mutters. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
His grin widens. “What did you say, then?”
I let out a slow breath. “I offered to handle her boss.”
Valerio whistles low. “In the alley? Bold move. What was her response?”
“She ran.”
He laughs. “Yeah, that checks out.”
I turn away from him and stare at the back door again, though I don’t let myself open it. She needs space. Even I know I pushed too hard.
Savannah doesn’t seem to be used to men like me.
Or maybe she does,my mind whispers,and that’s the problem.
“I shouldn’t have said it,” I admit quietly.
Valerio tilts his head, watching me with curiosity instead of humor now. “I have to say, out of all the icebreakers out there, I never thought you’d go straight forI’ll kill your boss if you ask nicely.”
“I didn’t put it like that.”
“You didn’t have to. Your reputation precedes you.”
And fuck me, he’s right on that.
For a moment, neither of us talks. The hum of traffic from the main street reaches the alley, slow and distant. Somewhere inside, a pan hits the stove, followed by Gerard’s voice. Loud. Sharp.
I glance at the door again. My hand makes a fist at my side.
Valerio follows my gaze. “You really want to interfere that badly?”
