If The Shoe Fits (5 page)

She grabbed the dishtowel off the counter and
headed to an empty table—and refused to consider it a reflection of
her life.

Besides, Reese had enough people talking to
him. Every time Bella glanced over—not that she did so a lot (well,
okay, maybe more than she normally would if he were, say, Mr.
Fazio)—someone else would be standing by his table. She couldn’t
blame them; the guy did seem to have a magnetic personality. She
should be relieved that she wasn’t the only one affected by him so
she could put the whole attraction behind her.

Could, but didn’t…

“
Number seven’s up.” Giac clanked
a dish onto the counter.

Bella took a breath, rolled her shoulders
back, and retrieved Reese’s meal.

“
Go talk to him.” Giac smiled
through clenched teeth.

“
I will.” She raised her eyebrows
as she held up the plate she was about to deliver to said
him
.

“
No, I mean
really
talk to
him.” Giac added a curly-cue orange rind to the edge of the plate
with a heart-shaped strawberry beside it. Bella rolled her eyes.
Subtlety was not Giac’s forte. “Honestly, Bella, you have to move
forward with your life. You don’t want to spend your old age with
Gus and I, do you?”

That wasn’t why she headed to Reese’s table
with a smile on her face. Or so she tried to tell herself. But just
to prove it, she smiled at him, set the plate down, and then
left.

Or she would have if he hadn’t grabbed her
wrist again, sending a bolt of lightning shooting up her arm. Her
breath caught and Bella could swear she felt his touch with all
seven layers of skin.

Reese cleared his throat and released her arm.
“I was, ah…” He motioned to his booth. “Sit for a
moment?”

Uh oh. This was not good. That spark between
them—okay, bonfire—could
not
lead anywhere. But it didn’t
stop her from sliding onto the seat opposite him.

Reese stretched his long legs out of the
booth, crossed them at the ankles, and looked at her. Just
looked.

“
What did you want to talk about?”
Bella thrummed her fingertips on the table.

She’d probably be shocked at what
he wanted to talk about.

Reese shifted on the seat, his pants tighter
than when he’d walked in, which, if she knew, would probably have
her tossing the donuts into his lap and storming off, and that
would be the last he ever saw of her. A tragedy he didn’t want to
think about.

Business, Charmant.

Right. He told his hormones to take a chill
and glanced around, trying to will some control back into his
body.

The place was packed and they were still
coming in the door, testament to the restaurant’s reputation he’d
gathered with a dozen reference calls after his conversation with
Jake. Then there was Bella herself. Aside from the fact that she
was gorgeous, he’d watched her before he’d come in. She’d had a
smile for everyone who’s stopped her—and
every
one had
stopped her. Bella was obviously very well liked.

He completely understood why.

So, despite the sugar-coated, Popeye version
of haggis on his plate, and a libido that was crying with the
restrictions he was about to place on it, Reese took a deep breath
and a leap of faith. “I’m interested in hiring you.”

“
I beg your pardon?” flew out of
her mouth. Obviously, of all the words in the English language,
those five were not the ones she’d expected to hear.

They weren’t actually the ones he’d wanted to
say to her, but the auction was fast approaching and he was low on
options.

“
Let me rephrase that.” He leaned
forward and used his fork to cut a piece of the donut so he
wouldn’t be tempted to touch her. She even smelled good. Sugary
sweet and a hint of spice. Which he so should not care about. All
he
should
care about was if she could pull off the
job.

Reese straightened, leaning farther from
her—but her scent merely followed him.

Business, Charmant
.

He pulled his legs beneath the table and damn
if his foot didn’t graze hers, which sparked another layer of
awareness he didn’t need. “I know you bid on the hospital charity
dinner and I want to offer you the job.”

“
You…” Now it was her turn to sit
back. “Why? I thought that contract had already been
awarded?”

“
There’s been a problem with
it.”

She nodded then nibbled on her lip.

She had great lips.

Business, Charmant…

“
We’ve got some top names to
donate prizes and services for the hospital, and there are a lot of
big hitters on the invitee list. We’re looking for upscale fare and
white glove service, and I need a local caterer to handle both the
cocktail hour and the sit-down dinner.” Fastest pitch he’d ever
made, including the Hail Mary pass in the final game.

Yeah, that was it; think of football. He’d
always been able to think clearly on his feet in a game, and it’d
keep him from noticing how a tendril of blonde hair curled down her
neck to rest in the hollow of her collar bone.

Or not.

“
Any chance you’re interested in
me—uh, helping me?” Jeez. Talk about a fumble of epic proportions.
“Doing the catering it, I mean.”

He shoved the donut into his mouth—to prevent
anything else escaping.

The taste registered. And not in a good way.
He was about to grab a napkin, but Bella blinked those South
Pacific blues and he couldn’t look away to find one.

“
So I’m second best?”

Not in his book and if he’d seen her, there
was no way he would have given the contract to Marisa.

Okay, maybe he would have, if only so he could
ask Bella out. But it was just as well he hadn’t. Because he needed
her, and
not
in a way his libido was crying out
for.

“
No. It’s just that we’ve worked
with Conlon’s before and your bids were similar. So I went with
what I knew.” But what he knew right now was that he wanted to lick
the crumb of something from the corner of her mouth. “I’ve called
around and you have a great reputation. Any chance you’re
interested? I’d be willing to bump up your bid by two percent.”
Hell, he’d go with ten; he needed a caterer.

She tapped her lip with a finger and that
crumb fell away. Pity. “Make it three and you’ve got a
deal.”

“
Done.” Reese exhaled. She was
in.

And so was he—in a whole lotta
trouble.

“
I quit!” The cook stormed from
the kitchen, crumpling his hat and tossing it to the
counter.

“
Guiseppe Sorcio! You get back
here right now!” The thin guy came running after him, but Guiseppe
shrugged away from his touch.

“
You think you can do it better?
Fine. Do it!” Guisepee’s tail wind whisked a stack of paper napkins
to the floor as he stormed past, and the bells jangled angrily when
he wrenched open the door to head out to the sidewalk.

“
Bella, I’m sorry.” The thin guy
held shrugged as he followed Guiseppe. “I have to go after him. I
shouldn’t have said—” He shook his head miserably.

Once the bells settled down the silence was
deafening.

“
Well.” Bella exhaled and pushed
herself upright out of the booth. “I guess I’m on kitchen
duty.”

“
Need some help?” Reese was as
surprised as she was at his offer. He didn’t have time to help out.
Not that that was going to stop him.

“
Oh, you don’t have
to—”

“
Hey, I offered. Might as well
take me up on it.” He looked out the front window. The men were
nowhere to be seen. “Doesn’t look like they’re going to be back any
time soon.”

Bella looked at him, nibbling her lip. She was
sexy as hell when she did that.

“
No, really, that’s okay. I can
handle it.”

“
But why should you?” He stood up
and swept his hand toward the kitchen. “If we’re going to be
working together, there’s no time like the present to start, so
lead on, MacDuff.”

Allowing her to lead the way had a lot to
recommend it; the view was spectacular.

The kitchen however… wasn’t.

“
Oh lord.” Bella grabbed the
toppled stainless steel mixing bowls on the prep table and righted
them. The green goo beneath them had congealed into a lump. Just
like it was doing in his gut. He’d never eat spinach
again.

He grabbed a trash can and slid the mess into
it. “Guess it was a limited-time special.”

“
Thanks,” she said.

“
No problem. What’s on the lunch
menu? Please tell me it has nothing to do with spinach.”

“
No, thank goodness. Gus was
planning on lasagna.”

“
Sadly, not one of my
fortes.”

“
But it is one of mine.” She
picked up a carton of eggs. “How are you at mixing?”

He flexed his biceps and waggled his eyebrows.
“I think I can manage.”

She rolled her eyes, then smacked his left arm
with a wooden spatula. “Great. First, start with the eggs. Think
you can crack them without any shells?”

“
You know, I do have some skills
in the kitchen.” And ones in other rooms he wouldn’t mind showing
her.

She pointed at the industrial-sized mixer.
“Then here you go, Rachel Ray.”

Rachel
? She wasn’t thinking along the
same lines he was. Which was a good thing. He just had to keep
reminding himself of that.

While he was trying to figure out how to turn
the machine on, Bella wrestled a large container from the
refrigerator. When it landed on the table hard enough to slosh some
of its contents over the rim, Reese gave up on the mixer and
grabbed the next container from her. “I didn’t get these muscles
from cracking eggs, you know. Let me do the heavy
lifting.”

“
I can handle it.”

“
I know, but, again, why should
you have to?” He set that container down. “What else?”

She pointed to a measuring cup on top of the
cabinet. “I could use that.”

He followed her orders as she pointed out
other items they needed, then volunteered to grate the mozzarella.
After five minutes, he was sorry he’d mentioned his muscles.
Grating cheese was definitely not on his Bucket List and there was
still the Parmesan to deal with.

“
Are you planning for Armageddon?”
he asked as he picked up one of five remaining mozzarella balls
left to be mixed in with the vat of ricotta cheese.

“
Our lasagna sells. I’m just glad
Gus cooked the ground beef and made the pasta before he stormed
out.” She set several trays of the pasta beside each
industrial-sized baking dish. “Now we get to put it all
together.”

They layered the cheese mixture with the pasta
and ground beef in each dish, then slathered each with homemade
sauce and more mozzarella and parmesan, their assembly line flowing
smoothly as they worked together.

He could think of a few other ways they could
work together smoothly…

By the time the last dish went into the ovens,
Reese felt as if
he
was being cooked. Working so closely
with her, their hands and arms accidentally touching as he slowed
down or she sped up the process, the close confines of the space
between the table and the cabinets ensuring they’d brush up against
each other, the way she managed to open the wall ovens and fit
beneath his arms… Reese wasn’t sure that hiring her had been the
best idea. Not when business was the last thing on his mind. No, he
was all for saying “screw the lasagna,” and just lick the ricotta
off several interesting body parts.

Reason enough to move away from her. He did,
leaning against the sink and swiping his arm across his forehead.
“I can’t believe you were going to do all of that yourself. And
there’s still the clean up to do.”

She shrugged and cleaned the spilled ricotta
off the prep table. “There’s no one else to do it and I’m not
afraid of hard work.”

“
Good thing because the auction is
going to require a lot of it.” Reese picked up a jar of odd looking
yellow-ish beans he’d removed from the fridge when he’d gotten that
last tub of ricotta. “Lupini beans? Never heard of
them.”

She took the jar. “Oh, they’re good. And great
for target practice, too.”

“
Target practice?”

Bella got a funny look on her face. “Uh, never
mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

A blushing Bella was even more gorgeous. And
call him an idiot, but he was enjoying it. “Oh no. What did you
mean by that?”

She rolled her eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes
that he could spend way too much time looking into if he weren’t
careful.

“
Fine. Here.” She popped one of
the beans into her mouth and motioned to the giant pot drying on
the counter behind him. “Watch.”

She did an odd twist-thing with her
mouth—which made him focus on her lips, something he needed no help
doing—then puckered up, and launched the bean.