He made his way back out of the kitchen, several servers and kitchen staff moving out of his way, eyes lowered to the floor. He’d made an example out of Nolan earlier, reminding the staff that though they were all valued and important, theft would not be tolerated, period. It had made for a very subdued pre-dinner call, which was normally filled with laughter and excitement before the dinner shift began.
Pushing back through the doors, he took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly, straightening his shoulders as he mentally prepared for the next several hours of interactions with customers. Stopping at a table nearest him, he said hello, greeted them by name, and asked how their meal was. Small talk followed, and then he excused himself to move on to the next table.
He had made it halfway through the tables when he glanced over toward the center of the room, and his heart did an awful beat skip in his chest, before hammering so hard it made his breath ragged.
Because there she was, sitting at a table in the center of the room, blonde hair tossed over her shoulder and a glass of wine at her smiling lips.
Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and he wondered how many glasses of wine she’d consumed. He noticed several of the women had already finished their meals, their plates having been cleared away. How long had she been sitting here? In his restaurant? And he’d had no idea?
He swallowed hard past the lump in his throat as he stared at her in profile. It had been six hellish weeks since he’d seen her after only spending a very short amount of time together, but he knew it was her. Knew it without a second of doubt. She smiled at something one of the other women said and it made his chest ache. She looked the same. And so fucking beautiful it hurt.
Fury so potent it made his ears ring crashed through him then. She washere.In his fucking restaurant. After running out of that hotel room in the middle of the night, leaving him with a hole in his chest that he hadn’t even thought was possible after such a short amount of time. Something inside him had broken that morning, waking to find her gone. And now she was here.
And he was sogoddamn angry. His body fairly shook with the rage simmering beneath his skin, through his chest. Hisfingers tingled and he shoved his hands into his pockets to hide the shaking.
Stalking over to the table and coming up behind her, he forced his fury down and he attempted to steel his features into a mask of pleasant aloofness. He just prayed his face didn’t reveal just how close to losing it he was.
“Hello, ladies. How is everything this evening?” he asked, kicking himself for the uneven gruffness in his voice. He held his breath when he saw her go completely still.
That’s right. Found you, butterfly.
Chapter Nine
Oh God.
That voice.Hisvoice. She would know it anywhere. It still featured heavily in her dreams every night.
Grant.
Her mouth popped open in shock. She felt the blood rush from her face and the sensation of a rug being yanked out from beneath her feet made her sway in her seat. He’s here! Why was he here?His voice was so even and cordial, absolutely no hint of recognition.Did he not know it was her, even though she would know his voice from anywhere? Was she the only one having a major life crisis sitting here in this restaurant?Anxiety made her feel panicky.
Barely daring to breathe, she swallowed the knot that had lodged in her throat, and she raised her eyes to his face from beneath her lashes. Her heart hammered in her chest so hard she was sure she was going to faint. The blood rushing through her head was so loud she couldn’t tell if he was speaking, if Jade had answered his question… maybe she was having a stroke?
When her eyes finally landed on his face, her heart lurched painfully. He looked remarkedly the same; same dark hair and thick beard threaded through heavily with silver, same beautiful,kissable mouth and straight, aristocratic nose. Same well-fitted, dark button-down shirt that did little to hide the thick, heavy muscles that filled out his body. Same dark slacks fitted to tree trunk thighs. And when she finally had the courage to raise her eyes to his…oh.
If his facial expression and tone of voice were cordial… his eyes were decidedlynot.
For the second time in as many minutes, she felt the blood drain from her face. He lookedpissed. And those dark, coffee brown eyes were staring directly at her.So, he does recognize me,she thought weakly.Great.
“Everything is wonderful,” her sister said, and Hope could hear the smile in her voice. The other girls at the table agreed, greeting him with appreciative smiles.
She was unable to look away from his face, his dark eyes so intense and angry as he stared down at her. Tears stung her nose for no other reason than she didn’t like confrontation, and the way he was staring at her as though he hated her… it felt like a knife digging into her stomach and being twisted sharply.
Hope had regretted leaving the hotel room the second the door had closed, but she’d refused to knock to be let back in or go down to the desk to claim she’d lost her keycard to get a new one to let herself back into the room… to climb back into the wide bed between the two of them, to never leave. She had thought of him, of Van, of that weekend, for weeks. Shestillthought about them, constantly. How could she have known they were from her very own hometown? A home she hadn’t visited for longer than a single weekend in years… Certainly she hadn’t been home enough to warrant a dinner out to a fancy restaurant. All this time… and they’d been right here.
She’d had no idea where they lived, where they ran their restaurant. They could have been from anywhere in the US for heaven’s sake. They could have lied about the whole thing, forall she knew. Her life had been turned upside down the week before she met them… and there was still the very real possibility that they were both married, or had families that they had kept hidden, or or or…
That’s what she’d told herself anyway, in the days and weeks that had turned into nearly two months after leaving that hotel room. After walking away from the best weekend of her entire life. She’d told herself she would never see them again, that they wouldn’t have been able to make it work. What kind of woman thinks about ‘making it work’ with thetwo menshe had an impossibly sexy one night—er,two night—stand with anyway?
But oh god, seeing him now… the sting of tears in her nose overflowed into her eyes and she blinked rapidly to dispel them. She’d missed him. Even if he was angry to see her.
She lowered her gaze from his face to the glass of wine in front of her which began to waver slightly as the tears she unsuccessfully tried to hold in blurred her vision. Jade thanked him, and after a second longer, she saw out of her peripheral vision when he walked away from their table, disappearing through the kitchen door that swished shut behind him.
Dropping her napkin onto the table, she jumped to her feet, startling Jade so badly she sloshed her wine over the rim of her glass. “Whoa! Hope, are you okay? What’s wrong?”
Snatching her purse up, she shook her head, unable to speak past the tears seizing her throat. Fingers fumbling, she opened her purse and pulled out cash, handing it shakily to her sister, who took it more out of shock than anything. She needed to run. Now.
She’d spent so many nights missing them. Missing him. Wishing she knew how to find them. And now she had, and it was a total disaster.
