Thingshad only gotten worse from there. He’d stopped by an hour ago to help me minceonions and chop herbs. And then ten minutes ago, he’d brought me a cold bottleof water and set it down next to me without saying a word or asking if I evenwanted the damn thing. Apparently, he was very concerned with my hydration.
Idid want the water. I was always hot in the kitchen and subsequently alwaysthirsty. Maybe I was thirstier than usual today. Fine. I could admit that.Anyone would be thirsty with Wyatt walking around, being nice, not yelling…
Also,the kitchen was very hot today. Did I already say that? The point was, heshould have at least asked if I wanted water.
Ilet out a slow breath and decided banging my head against the wall wasn’t goingto solve any of my problems.
“Thereyou are.” Wyatt rounded the corner, another one of those secret smilesappearing as soon as our eyes met. “Can I go over a few things with you abouttonight?”
Mybreath caught in my throat, but I wrestled it into a shaky exhale. “About thekitchen?”
Onehalf of his mouth kicked up in a smirk. “Yes. About the kitchen.” He tilted hishead toward his office. “Come on.”
“Inthere? Are you sure?” I spoke softly as to not alert the few people in thekitchen.
Buthe’d already walked ahead of me and didn’t hear my pathetic reservations.
“Strong,independent woman,” I whispered to myself. “Tough as nails. Remember that.”
Ireluctantly followed Wyatt into the office and immediately felt an embarrassingblush creep up my neck and tiptoe across my cheeks. The corner of his desk wasa particular place I needed to ignore if I wanted to avoid spontaneouslycombusting in a ball of nerves.
Takinga seat in the chair across from his desk that was squished between a bookshelfneatly organized with trophies, awards, notebooks, business manuals, and afiling cabinet, I intentionally left the door wide open. Hopefully Wyatt wouldtake that as a sign I had moved on. And also, that I didn’t trust him.
Eventhough I hadn’t moved on and I did trust him.
Heread the truth all over my face as he sat down in his chair, his smirk becomingmore and more wicked with every passing second. “You look a little tired today,Kaya. Did you sleep okay last night?”
“Ididn’t if you must know,” I told him in clipped tones. “I barely slept at all.”
Heleaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Therewas something hidden in his voice, some kind of clue that he wanted me to catchand I was curious enough to take the bait. His body seemed relaxed, and Icouldn’t help but notice that the black bags beneath his eyes were slightlyless pronounced. The redness to his pupils had all but disappeared. “You lookbetter rested though.”
Hisgrin came out in full force, stopping my heart and tap dancing all over myfresh resolutions to stay away from him. “I slept better than I have in months lastnight. Like a baby. I woke up this morning and I have to tell you, I felt great.”
Mylip curled over my teeth for a nanosecond before I was able to smooth out myreaction. “How nice for you.”
Hemade a sound in the back of his throat that sounded like a laugh. Only I knewit couldn’t be a laugh because Wyatt didn’t laugh. “I think I have you to thankfor it.”
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Weweren’t doing this. Not now. Not here. Not ever.
Thething was, I was great at denial. The best if truth be known. But if he openedthe conversation I thought he was leading to, especially right before dinnerservice, I was going to melt into a humiliated pile of goo. As a result, dinnerservice was going to be a disaster and then Ezra was going to fly home fromvacation to fire me. I was never going to get Sarita and I’d have to move backhome with my parents. And, oh my god, I’d have to marry Nolan.
Hell,no.
Insteadof letting Wyatt watch me freak out, I swallowed my laundry list of fears,neutralized my expression and asked, “Did you say you wanted to go overtonight’s service?”
“Thereare important reservations tonight that I wanted to make you aware of.”
Ipulled a notebook from my apron and got ready to take notes. We were back infamiliar territory and it felt good. All I needed now was for him to yell at melater tonight and reduce me to near tears—we would be one hundred percent backto normal.
Wyattrattled off the VIPs coming in tonight—mostly people with money or localpoliticians or both. There were also people that were vaguely friends with Ezraand he had promised them a tour. Unfortunately, we would have to dance aroundthat during service and whichever careless waiter was put in charge of thebehind the scenes look. Never a super enjoyable experience because it wasobnoxious to have people in your kitchen that had little regard for health andsafety, and food inspectors, but it was something we accepted. We went over afew more notes about staff and topics he wanted to talk about in our meeting. Wewrapped it up with a brief discussion of a new dish he wanted to introduce onthe summer menu.
