Well, he had me there. I didn’t knowwhat to say to that, so I stayed silent, hoping he would get to the point.
“Except you.”
Ezra’s words caught me so off guardI took a physical step back. “W-what?”
“Except you,” Ezra repeated, slower.“He can’t stop talking about you, in fact.”
I attempted a coherent sentence.“Uh, yeah, we, uh… yeah.” And failed.
He stood up taller, squaring hisshoulders, his expression shifting from serious to very, very grave. Oh, God,this man was going to make me cry.
Not in an emotional way. But in thevisceral, slice me apart professionally way. I could feel it coming, likeelectricity in the air before a big storm.
“Be careful with Killian.”
What???“What?”
“He doesn’t care for things easily.It’s even harder for him to care about people.”
My mouth dried out and my chestburned with the need to defend myself from what I was realizing was a warning.Not wanting to jump to conclusions, I said, “I don’t understand what you’retrying to say.”
In a moment of what I could tell wasrare weakness, he ran his hand through his hair, messing it up. On a bitterchuckle, he explained. “I trust too easily. My restaurants can attest to that.But Killian is the opposite. He doesn’t trust people. He doesn’t let them in.Work is his life and, until you, that’s always been enough for him. I just… I worryfor him. I’m asking that you’re careful with him. Don’t break him.”
Fire burned through me, engulfing myesophagus with angry flames that spilled out of my mouth. “I won’t. I wouldnever.” What I didn’t say was that I had been broken by someone else. I wouldnever hurt another person in the same way.
Especially not Killian. The personthat had healed big parts of my shattered heart. The man that had pushed hisway into my life uninvited and demanded that I ask for more, do more… be more.
He stared at me, taking in myfurious eyes and firm frown. Seeing something he approved of, he nodded. “Thankyou.”
“I’m not doing it for you.” Istruggled to explain. “I… what you don’t know is… Just know that I won’t hurthim. I care about him too much.”
He jerked his chin in concession onemore time, his shoulders relaxing just barely. “There’s one more thing.”
I resisted the urge to turn my backand end the conversation. Ezra barely knew my name, let alone anything about myrelationship with Killian. His warning didn’t endear me to him at all. But allof Killian’s comments about Ezra finally made sense.
Reminding myself that this wasKillian’s friend and the owner of three highly successful restaurants, I bit mytongue and waited.
He held my gaze, unflinching. “I’dlike you to apply for a job.”
I blinked at him, trying to decideif this was real or if I had started hallucinating. “What?” When I’d firsthanded Ezra his order of food, I’d hoped to impress him. In reality, I’dbasically just said “What?” for fifteen minutes straight.
Because that always made a lastingimpression.Good job, Vera.
“Are you familiar with Bianca?”
Oh,my God.
Oh,my God.
Oh,my God.
Thisisn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. HOW WAS THIS HAPPENING???
“I am,” I croaked.
“I recently let the head chef go,and I’m having trouble replacing him. I’m wondering if you would like toaudition for the position? Killian only has good things to say about you. Hisopinion is important to me. And he knows food. That said, I’d still need to seewhat you’re capable of myself. I’d like to see how you are with mealprogression, so a five-course would be appropriate. Although, we do have apastry chef at Bianca, so you wouldn’t need to worry about dessert long term.I’d just like to see your range, what you’re capable of. I’d also like to see afew variants of appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, sides, etc. You could useBianca’s kitchen and pantry. I’m sure you’ll find that it has whatever youneed. If not, just let me know what you’re missing, and I’ll make sure it’savailable. I can email you the details, and we can go from there.”
He stopped talking, and I juststared at him. I didn’t know how to respond. He was offering me… everything.Honestly, everything I had ever wanted.
