"If this is something we can't deal with, we'll try to find a way to let Getzoff know."
"Then we'll watch him," Cass said, pushing himself up from his chair and wrapping his arms around me.
"Definitely," I pressed my mouth to his, tasting the chocolate milkshake he must have just finished. "If he goes after them, we'll know he's doing the right thing. If not…"
Cass nodded slowly before leaning in to press his face into my red hair.
"You always smell so good," he whispered.
"Not always," I said with a small laugh.
Sometimes I smelled like death.
"Always," Cass insisted. "You smell like lavender and…something else." He sniffed. "I don't know, but it smells amazing." He nibbled on my earlobe, making me shiver.
"It might be garlic," I told him. I cooked with so much of it, I should buy shares in a garlic farm.
That might be my retirement plan. Move to the country and grow the bulb. Maybe have some pigs. They were good at disposing of unwanted meat, amongst other things.
"It's not garlic, but I can smell that too," Cass said.
"Of course you can, it wouldn't be an Italian restaurant if there wasn't garlic."
He laughed softly, his chest vibrating against mine.
"I suppose it wouldn't," he agreed.
"We should get to work," I said reluctantly. I'd happily let him sidetrack me, with an orgasm or two, but we had lunch to prepare for.
I should have closed Angel's Rest today too. Kayla might need me over at the other restaurant. Or I could be over there obsessing about tiny details. Did we have enough forks?
We had enough forks.
I took care of that a month ago. Maybe longer. Spoons then? No, we had enough of those too.
Everything over there was going to be fine. I knew that. A little bit of faith in myself wouldn't go astray at the best of times. On a day like today, I was justified in being a little nervous.
I took his hand and we walked together to the kitchen. We pulled out all the pots and pans we needed and started to prepare everything.
"I like working for you," he said, slicing quickly through a pile of tomatoes.
"Because it smells nice?" I teased.
He grinned. "That doesn't hurt. But I like being here with you and I like learning new things. You know what they say. If you stop learning, you might as well…"
He trailed off. We both knew he was about to say, 'die.'
"Right," I said quickly. "It's good to keep the brain active and fresh. And keep challenging ourselves." I frowned. "I sound like a motivational quote. Archer would be proud."
Cass laughed and tipped the cutting board up to slide the pieces of tomato into the pot. "Yeah, he would," he said. "But he always is."
I glanced over to him as a blush crept up his cheeks.
"He is or you are?" I asked knowingly.
He scraped the last of the seeds off the board. "Both. We're both proud of you and we both love you."
"I love you both too," I said as I finished browning the meat for the Bolognese sauce. And started to add the herbs he'd already sliced for me.
