She put her knife down. She thought this was part of the problem, too. She normally wore jeans and a T-shirt. The dress was a simple sundress that tied at the back of her neck. The skirt fell to her knee and wasn’t full or flowy, something which would have made her petite frame seem shorter. He’d chosen well, she thought. But now that he was standing there waiting to see how she looked she was nervous.
To heck with it, she thought. She’d never been a nervous Nelly why was she behaving like one now?
She turned toward him and put her hands on her hips, staring up at him in challenge. “What do you think?”
He tipped his head to the side and peered at her for what seemed like an eternity. “Exquisite. But why are you angry?”
“I don’t know. This isn’t me. I’m jeans not fancy dresses. And this place is nice but it’s outside my comfort zone.”
“I’m sorry. I thought you’d enjoy a vacation from everything.”
“The house in Malibu is that as well. I feel like this is just one more illusion,” she said. Knowing she meant her feelings. There was something inside of her that was so scared and unsure. And every move that Remy made just reinforced how out of control she really was.
“This is real,” he said. “Even though I’m out of work right now I have money.”
That knocked her back. Yet it made perfect sense. He was totally at ease in any situation. It was something that she’d noticed in wealthy friends before. “Oh, okay.”
“Staci, we are getting to know each other in carefully measured steps. You and I are creating a new dish and every time we get something right and try to move onto the next ingredient we have to readjust.”
She agreed. “I’m not wealthy, but the cupcake business has been good to me and Alysse. We have an investor interested in expanding Sweet Dreams into a chain of stores. If that happens, we’ll both be millionaires.”
“Good to know. Are you going to do it?”
Staci shrugged. “I’m not sure. I have been considering doing other things, but we’re both just so used to bakery...what would we do without Sweet Dreams.”
“I’m sure any new investor would love it if you both stayed on and worked there,” he said, coming over next to her and taking over chopping the vegetables.
“But we would be working for someone else. That doesn’t seem right.”
He laughed at her and she smiled back. “I know I’m bossy, what can I say?”
They worked together making a seafood gumbo that she’d been dying to try and with his input she thought it tasted very nice. When the cupcakes had cooled she set them on the countertop next to the icing she’d prepared.
“So we can decorate our own or decorate one for each other,” she said.
“I vote for each other. What do you have here?”
“Buttercream frosting, fondant, colored sugar...the usual suspects,” she said. Handing him an offset spatula.
“Is there a theme?” he asked.
“I think you’ve been aPremier Cheftoo long. It’s a dinner date, southern man. You make whatever you want,” she said.
“You’re right. Okay, prepare to be amazed,” he said.
“I’ve been amazed all day,” she admitted. “I think I was so grumpy earlier because I’d thought I’d figured you out, but once again you’ve made me re-evaluate you.”
“Good,” he said. “You’re still a big ol’ mystery to me,ma chère.No matter how much I think I know you I keep realizing I don’t.”
She was glad. She didn’t want to think that Remy had uncovered too many of her secrets. There were parts of her that even she didn’t want to know. They each took a cupcake to the galley table and sat down at opposite ends. She worked with food coloring and the different frostings to do an image of Remy on top of her cupcake. She’d won several awards for her artistic designs and she thought he’d be impressed. She used an upside down bowl to hide the cupcake, so he couldn’t see the finished product until dessert time.
He took another bowl and put his cupcake in it. It had been hard but she’d resisted the temptation to look over at himseveral times while he’d been working. Finally they cleaned up the galley. Remy’s watch pinged and he glanced down at it.
“It’s almost time. I’ll get the crew to finish prepping our dinner and bring it up to the deck while we have a cocktail and watch the sun set.”
“Sounds good,” she said. And it did. Everything Remy said sounded just right. Soon they were on deck French martinis in hand, the Chambord flavored cocktail just right as a light breeze stirred around them.
She shivered and Remy wrapped an arm around her shoulder. They sipped their drinks as the sun slowly drifted down and disappeared beyond the horizon. The deck wasn’t dark for a second as twinkle lights came on and she heard the footsteps of the crew bringing their dinner up on deck.
