Shelet out a longing sigh. “Somewhere tropical. And warm. And doused in piñacoladas.” She paused so we could both take a minute to reflect on how nice itwould be to have Ezra’s money and Molly’s flexibility—she worked for Ezra,managing his PR and marketing. They were one of the most perfect couples I hadever known.
Iwas friends with Molly and I liked her a lot. I was mostly terrified of Ezra.But that was because he was legitimately terrifying. Together though? They weredisgustingly adorable.
“Anentire month somewhere tropical? I want to be them when I grow up.”
“Right?”Dillon laughed. “Ezra’s never taken a vacation before. Can you believe that?Never. Not once! So Molly is making him cram a lifetime of missed opportunitiesinto one big shebang. I’m house sitting for them while they’re gone. They’resupposed to show me everything I need to know.”
Anobnoxious pang of helpfulness punched through my gut. “You should go then. I’llcover your station.”
Herblue eyes bugged. “You can’t do that. It will take you forever to get out ofhere!”
Ishrugged, letting her know it didn’t matter. “Put in a good word for me withEzra, yeah? Tell him how amazing I am. And how competent. And that I couldtotally run this kitchen by myself.”
Dillon’sgaze slid sideways toward Wyatt. “You totally could.”
“Yeah,no kidding.” I refused to look at him, knowing it would only make me angry. “Prettyplease tell your brother?”
Hersmile was bright and grateful. “I will. I promise.” She leaned over and kissedmy cheek. I’d gotten used to her ways. And I endured the flashy display ofaffection because it was Dillon and I loved her. Before she all but fled thekitchen, she paused and asked one last time. “You’re sure? I mean, super surethis is okay?”
Irolled my eyes. “Yes. Go!”
“You’rethe best!” she called over her shoulder as she made a beeline for the exit.
“Iknow!” I hollered at the big metal door that was anything but quiet when shepushed on the handle.
Thekitchen was always hot, sweltering. But when Wyatt realized Dillon was in theprocess of abandoning her post for the night, the temperature dropped at leastthirty degrees. A chill crept down my spine as I watched his sharp gaze snapfrom me to her.
“Wheredo you think you’re going?” he growled as the door closed. He jerked around toface me. “Where is she going?”
Momentof honesty? Sometimes Wyatt scared the living hell out of me. We grew up inthis kitchen together. It was the first job either of us had in any kitchen. Hebeat me by four years, but he was hardly farther along in his career by thetime I arrived. We’d both started right out of culinary school. It wasn’t fairthat he was four years older than me.
We’dbeen working side by side for five years now and we’d been through a lottogether. But that didn’t mean we’d bonded over our struggles. Or that we evenknew each other at all. Even as head chef and sous chef our relationship wasdecidedly strained.
Iwould love to say that since we’d worked together for so long I knew everythingabout him. But the truth was, Wyatt had always kept to himself. He’d alwaysbeen private and mysterious and a bit of an asshole. Sure, before he was myboss, we were friendly-ish. But he was the kind ofguy that kept his cards close to his vest. It made sense, because it would suckto be forced to make friends only to end up stabbing that person in the back onhis way up the ladder.
Andwith me, he was totally standoffish to avoid hurting our friendship. Or atleast that was what I liked to believe. I was the only one in the kitchen thatcould compete with him. I was his major competition. That was why he kept hisdistance, why he always went out of his way to avoid or ignore me. Or bark atme over text.
Competitionor no, he had a few things I didn’t that catapulted his career ahead of mine.Mostly they appeared in the form of industry connections. And he had no issuecashing in on them.
Ithad paid off for him. Killian Quinn, the Michelin decorated, James Beardaward-winning, and former executive chef of Lilou, had named Wyatt hissuccessor. That pushed Wyatt even farther from my orbit.
Now,he was way, way up there. And I was still on the ground fixing his mistakes andmaking sure he got all the credit.
Theculinary world had been downright apoplectic overLilou’sfate after Killian left. And Wyatt was more than happy to step into shoes thatwere way too big for him and claim the glory for himself.
Mostof the time, I found him irritating. And difficult. And rude. Honestly, I wasthe same. Especially to him. But when he was like this—a sudden thunderstorm,lashing out, lightning flashing and thunder rolling— even my knees trembled.
“Shehas a thing with Ezra,” I answered, purposefully name-dropping our boss. “Itold her I’d cover for her.”
“You’renot responsible for her station,” he snarled. “Now it’s going to take you twiceas long to finish and get out of here. That means I’ll have to stay here twiceas long to make sure you do a good job. And Benny will have to stay here twiceas long waiting on me to make the nightly deposit at the bank. And Endo willhave to stay twice as long because he can’t do his work until you finish yours.Next time you want to do your friend a favor, why don’t you try thinking aboutthe rest of us.”
See?Irritating. Difficult. And definitely rude. “Or you could clean her station forme. Then nobody has to stay late. Win-win.”
Hetook a step toward me, and I knew it was a subconscious, slightly murderousresponse to my taunt. He wanted to strangle me. He wouldn’t obviously—at leastnot with so many witnesses present. But he wanted to. “Excuse me?”
“Beforethe pay raise, that was your job, Shaw. Or don’t you remember?” I refused tocall Wyatt chef. It was his rightful title, earned and owned by the position heoccupied. But I could not bring myself to say the word. And that pissed him offmore than anything else I said or did.
Hisjaw ticked once, and I savored that visible angry flex that always gave himaway. I loved pissing him off. But he also had a ridiculously attractivejawline, and it looked best when he was furious.
