He managed to make me picture him in slim fit pants and a button up short sleeve top—his uniform—with two words.
“Is Vann around?” I had to ask the question. If I admitted I knew it was him just by the sound of his voice, I would sound like a creeper.
“This is Vann,” he answered easily.
“This is Dillon,” I told him. And then realized I didn’t have a game plan. Or even a vague idea why I’d called this man. “Er, Dillon Baptiste.”
“Hi, Dillon.”
Ignoring the confusion in his tone, I pushed valiantly forward. “I was just calling to…” Good grief, what was I calling to do? “To…” Make something up, Dillon! “To…” It’s now or never, say something! “Thank you for your advice. I took it.”
His confusion evolved into disbelief. “You took it? You mean already? You already fired someone?”
I licked dry lips and questioned my decision all over again. “You did say the next time someone talked back.”
He laughed, the sound of it rumbling across the distance separating us. “I underestimated you, Baptiste.”
I bit my bottom lip and then bolted forward in my seat, boldness filling my body. “Twice.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve underestimated me twice now,” I told him. “First with the job. Now with this.”
There was a heavy beat of silence before he admitted, “You’re right.”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Although it didn’t sound like a compliment, it somehow was. Coming from this man that was so arrogant and so full of himself and so usually… right, it was high praise.
“Anyway, thank you,” I repeated, needing him to know I really did appreciate his guidance. And the time he took to talk me off the ledge. “It was truth I needed to hear.”
“Your problems are over then? Smooth sailing from here on out?”
A bark of a laugh escaped me. “Hardly. But I’m hoping firing that one will at least make things a little better.”
“It will,” he assured me. “Especially if you keep listening to me.”
I found myself smiling at my desk, looking like a total loon. “Is that right?” Where had that throaty voice come from? Was I flirting? With Vann Delane? “Guess, I better ask you for more advice then.”
His voice did the same thing as mine—took on that smooth, sexy quality, dropping low and husky. “Guess you better.”
Blaze knocked again, sticking his head in my office before I had a chance to hang up with Vann. I shot out of my chair, standing, fumbling with the cell at my ear.
Get it together, Dillon. You’re a grown woman. Talking to a grown man. Be an adult.
“We need you, Chef,” Blaze said.
It was the first time he had addressed me as Chef and I was immediately floored by the weightiness of hearing that one word.
Oh, my god, I was the boss.
This was my restaurant.
And damn did it feel good to hear someone call me Chef.
“I’ll be right there,” I told Blaze. To Vann, I said, “Duty calls.”
“Let me know if you fire anyone else today,” he teased.
I laughed, unable to help myself. Who was this guy? “You’ll be the first to know.”
