Hesmiled. “You’re good, Kaya. In this place, you could be fucking great. But you’vegot to get your temper under control.” He pointed a finger at me. “And yourfish.”
Afterwhat he said about me in Sarita, his criticism was easier to swallow. “I canhandle those things.”
“Hellyes, you can.”
“Thanks,chef.”
“Noprob—” He cut himself off, realizing something. “Does Wyatt know?”
Healready knew the answer. “Please don’t tell him.”
“Kaya…”
“Please,Killian. I want to tell him myself. And so far, I’m only playing at this job.Ezra isn’t even back yet. I have no idea if he’ll hire me or if he wants toopen it up or recruit someone or what. I’ll break it to Wyatt… slowly… I needmore time.”
Hefrowned, and it made my stomach flutter, remembering what he was like as myboss. “If he asks…”
“Specifically,”I quickly cut in. “If he asks you specifically about me and Sarita, I know youcan’t lie to him. I’m only asking that you don’t bring it up?”
Hishead bobbed back and forth. “All right, yeah. I won’t bring it up.”
“ToEzra either.” His eyes narrowed and I added a fast, “Please?”
Hissigh was long suffering and pained. “Fine. Yeah, okay, I can respect that. Iwill have words with my bride to be, however. She should have said something.”
“Shewas doing me a favor,” I insisted.
Hemade a sound in the back of his throat and I thought for a moment he was goingto argue with me, but a man stepped up beside him and clapped him on theshoulder. “Hey, man. Sorry, I was waiting out front for you.”
Mygaze turned to the new guy and I had to put a hand on my chin to keep my jawfrom dragging the ground. Holy hotness, he was gorgeous. All tan skin and wavy auburnhair, rich and full and the kind of red that made you wish you were a gingertoo. He had tattoos, but only on his forearms, not like Wyatt’s that reachedall the way to his ears.
Tobe honest, now that I’d brought up the comparison, I preferred Wyatt. I likedthe full body of artwork on Wyatt. I liked that his tattoos covered almostevery inch of him. And this guy had a boyish face complete with dimples full ofmischief and a tousled-just-out-of-bed look.
Wyatt’sappearance was less mischievous and more straight sin. His face wasn’t cute orboyish or adorable. Wyatt looked pissed all the time, his smiles were rare and madethemselves present only after a hard fight. This guy was attractive. Wyatt wassexy as hell.
Myinner comparison finished, I now wanted to slap my hand over my eyes because Icouldn’t seem to stop comparing everything to Wyatt.Get a grip, Kaya.
“Oh,no worries,” Killian assured, turning his body so the two of them could shakehands. “I was catching up with an old friend.” He took a step back to includeme in the conversation. “Will, this is Kaya Swift. She’s Wyatt’s sous chef atLilou.” Will glanced down at the dishes still in my hand and the white dressshirt I wore instead of my chef coat. Before he could comment, Killiancontinued, “Kaya this is Will English. He’s the owner of Craft.”
I’dnever heard of Craft before. That meant it was either new or on the verge ofbankruptcy. It was good business to know what else was in Durham. And untilthis moment, I had not heard one person, blog, or critic reference Craft. Ididn’t say any of that though. I reached out to shake his hand and said, “Niceto meet you.”
Hesmiled, his dimples striking in full force. If I was a lesser woman I wouldhave swooned. Good lord, he was pretty. “Nice to meet you too.” He continued toshake my hand until it got slightly awkward. His eyebrows drew down inconfusion and finally he spit out the question I could see tumbling through hishead. “Is this like a side job? Or…?”
“Yep.”I cleared my throat and avoided Killian’s hard glare. “For now. I, uh, like ithere.”
Thatwas better than claiming a weird dirty dish fetish.
“Cool,”Will said.
“IsCraft new? What kind of cuisine do you serve?”
His deep,raspy laugh filled the air around us. He laughed often. He had to. He was goodat it. Again, I thought of Wyatt and how serious he was all the time.
Exceptwith me.
Moresmiles.
Morelaughs.
