Nice & Naughty (18 page)

Gordy raised a brow. “You were named for her.”

Zoey nodded. “She never married or had kids, so I was pretty special to her. She’s the one who taught me to cook. She had a little business baking cookies and cakes in a small town in Connecticut. I loved visiting her old farmhouse when I was a kid. She used to have chickens for fresh eggs for her baking…”

Gordy watched the tears fill her eyes and spill over. He handed her a paper napkin from the dispenser on the table.

She took it and wiped her eyes. “I haven’t been to visit her in the two years since I opened this business. I should have taken the time… Now it’s too late.”

Reaching into his pocket, Gordy pulled out cash for the bill, slid it under his mug and stood. “Come on. I’m taking you home.”

She rose without an argument and let him lead the way to her apartment. When they reached her door, she turned. “I’m going to have to drive out to Connecticut. The lawyer says I need to be there for the reading of the will. She’s got close girlfriends who are making the arrangements, but I feel like I need to be there to help. I’m the only blood relative.” Her voice cracked on the word arrangements. It was a lovely euphemism but they both new what she meant. There was a coffin to choose, a wake and a funeral to plan.

He reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. “If there is anything I can do…”

She grabbed his hand and held it tightly. “There is. You can come inside.”

“Okay.” Poor thing needed a shoulder to cry on. It had been a rough week for her with the concussion, thinking she was having a heart attack and now the death of her closest relative. If he could help her just by being there, it was the least he could do.

As Zoey unlocked the door and led him in, he spared a brief regret that they couldn’t have met at a happy time in her life. A time when her business wasn’t floundering and she wasn’t on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He liked her, more than he wanted to admit at the moment because as far as timing went, this, right now, was just plain bad. No way around it. Gordy didn’t have any more time to think about it though, because the moment he shut the door behind them, her arms were around his neck and her mouth covered his.

Raw instinct had him wrapping his hands around her waist. He kissed her back, angling his head and enjoying the feel of her mouth against his. He lost himself in the kiss until he realized what he was doing and pulled away.

He shook his head and held her away from him. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. “Zoey.”

“Gordy, I need you—” Her gaze captured his, pleading.

“No, sweetie. You only think you do.” He let out a breath filled with frustration because he’d like nothing more than to believe she really did want to be with him. “I’ve seen it happen before. Women will fall for a fireman or a paramedic just because he saved her but none of it’s real.”

“That’s not it. I want to be with you. I need to feel alive and forget about all the bad stuff for a little while.” She leaned toward him again, looking so sad and vulnerable and yes so sexy he nearly gave in and kissed her.

Dammit, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t take advantage of her while she was in this state. “Zoey. You’ve been through a lot lately. You’re in shock and don’t know what you’re doing.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “You can just say it. It’s all right. You don’t find me attractive. I understand.” She pulled away and went to stare out the window.

Gordy crossed the room in a few long strides, spun her around by the shoulders and kissed her, hard and deep. Zoey’s breath caught in her throat as he bent her backward over his arm, plunging his tongue into her warm, welcoming mouth. He tangled one hand in her hair, angled her head and kissed her deeper.

Barely lifting his head from hers, he spoke close to her mouth. “Don’t you ever think I don’t find you attractive. I always have, since the first time I saw you through the shop window. And when this hell you’re in has passed, if you still want me in your bed—and God, I hope you do—I swear to you I will come running, but not now, sweetie. Not now.”

She placed two trembling hands on his face and planted a soft and very brief tear-filled kiss on his lips. Leaning her forehead against his, she nodded.

With a deep breath, Gordy held her tighter to him, knowing this was as close as he’d be getting to her for the near future and it had been his own choice. When exactly had he become such a saint? More importantly, he wondered how much longer his newfound piousness was going to last, because he really liked the feel of Zoey in his arms.

He rubbed her back. “Come on. I’ll make you some tea while you start packing for Connecticut. Make sure you bring warm clothes. A cold front is supposed to be moving in.”

Zoey pulled away and gazed up at him with a look that nearly had him scooping her up and carrying her to the bed. He managed to restrain himself as she nodded and walked toward her bedroom.

He watched her go but not without picturing her naked, wrapped in his arms as they snuggled under a down comforter during a snowstorm. Gordy shook his head to clear the image and turned toward the kitchen. Damn conscience. More trouble than it was worth, if you asked him.

Instead of making love to a beautiful woman, Gordy searched the cabinets for tea. Then he helped Zoey drag her suitcase out of the storage room in the basement of her apartment building and watched her pack it full so she could go far away from him. For how long he didn’t know.

He considered how he was possibly the most foolish man on earth as he hoisted the giant bag she’d packed into the back of her car. He didn’t like that she’d packed so much. It only meant she planned on staying away for a long time and that just plain sucked.

Before the slammed the back, Gordy noted that Zoey’s station wagon smelled a bit like garlic. It made sense. She must use the car for food deliveries, but it was still sad she couldn’t get away from her work even in her car. Though maybe the odor was a good thing. It would remind her during her time in Connecticut of the business she’d left behind and maybe bring her back to New York, and to him.

He slammed the back and walked around the car. Zoey was standing next to the open driver’s side door. He stepped closer and ran his hands up and down the arms of her coat. “Drive safely, okay? Don’t go too fast.”

She nodded. Her lips even twitched with a small smile. “Yes, sir.”

Gordy shook his head. “Sorry, I’m a worrier.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s nice to be worried about once in a while.”

He leaned down, intending to only give her a casual peck goodbye. It didn’t exactly turn out that way. Once his lips made contact with hers, the kiss was anything but casual. It left him breathless and wanting more. He was ready to throw away his earlier convictions about waiting for her to get back before letting anything happen between them.

Gordy finally broke away. “All right, then. You have my cell phone number in case you need anything?”

She nodded, looking a little flushed from the kiss herself.

“Good. And I have yours too. So…” The pointless chatter took his mind off wanting to drag her back up to the apartment, but just barely.

“So…” she repeated.

He ran a thumb over her lower lip, and then dropped his hand reluctantly and took one step back. “Bye.”

“Bye.” She got behind the wheel and he closed the door for her.

Zoey was already pulling away from the curb when he added softly, “Don’t be gone too long.”

He waited for the car to be completely out of view before he turned and made his way to the firehouse. He was going to be early for a long, frustrating shift filled with regret and thoughts of Zoey, but what the hell else did he have to do?

~ * ~

A few days later Gordy stepped into The Lamplight. Determined, he went directly to the bar, but it wasn’t a drink he was after, it was Zoey. She’d be back eventually, hopefully in a few days or less, and when she returned he vowed to relieve her of some of the pressure she was under. It wasn’t totally selfless. The sooner Zoey got her life on track, the sooner Gordy could be a bigger, more intimate part of it.

Luck was on his side. Ralph stood behind the bar wiping glasses. The young chef was probably his best bet for gathering information that Gordy could use to help Zoey.

“Hey. What can I get for you?” Ralph greeted him with a smile.

“Uh, plain cranberry juice. Thanks.” Gordy needed his wits about him so he ordered something non-alcoholic.

Ralph nodded and set about pouring the drink while Gordy took the opportunity for some fact finding. “How are things going over at Zoey’s?”

Putting the tall glass on the bar in front of Gordy, Ralph shook his head. “That woman, I swear. She has a schedule of events put together for this week that no single human being could possibly handle alone and she was intending on doing it all by herself.”

“Hence the panic attack.” It all made perfect sense to Gordy.

“Exactly.” Ralph nodded.

Gordy frowned. “Then how are you handling it alone and still keeping your shifts here?”

“I called in a favor and got my roommate, who graduated from cooking school with me, to help. Then I called the school and got myself two interns for rock bottom wage. They need a lot of supervision, but they’re cheap.”

“Why didn’t Zoey do that herself?”

“Because she has a martyr complex? And she says she doesn’t have the money in the company to pay any extra hands.”

“But she’s going to have to pay the two you got.”

Ralph shook his head. “I have a plan for that. She’s got too much work for one person, but not enough business to support two or three chefs. However, I figure with taking on the extra help I can also take on more jobs, therefore making more money, which will pay for the extra help. It’s the holidays, man. Her phone is ringing off the hook with business. I can only guess she was turning jobs down because she couldn’t do it all alone.”

The plan sounded good in theory. Gordy could cook some killer hot wings—the guys at the firehouse loved them—but he knew anything about the catering business. He frowned. “It just seems odd Zoey didn’t realize that more help and more jobs would make more money.”

“I gotta tell you, man, Zoey’s creative and hardworking. She’s got vision and talent that you can’t learn in school, but she’s got no head for business. I finally went through the pile of invoices on her desk. She’s got no filing system. She was paying frigging twenty-one percent interest on her credit card balance. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I spent last night organizing it all. She’d left me a stack of signed checks so I paid off what I could and I moved her outstanding credit card balance to her other card, which has zero percent interest on transfers for six months. With the money she saves on that alone, she will be able to pay the rent for the month.”

 
Gordy considered the revelation carefully. “Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good head for business yourself, Ralph.”

Ralph nodded. “I got a two year degree in business before I went to cooking school. I wanna open my own place and I need to be able to handle all aspects myself. Problem is, I don’t have what Zoey has. I can cook all right, but the whole ability to design an event, right down to the details… nope, she’s the man when it comes to that stuff.”

A plan began to form in Gordy’s brain. A plan that would help both Zoey, Ralph, the business and him too, since once Zoey’s business life was back on track, he fully intended on being the sum total of her romantic life. “You know, Ralph, it sounds to me like if we put you with your business sense and Zoey with her creativity together, we’d have the perfect caterer.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” Ralph nodded and laughed. Gordy waited a beat as Ralph absorbed what he’d hinted at. “Wait. You’re suggesting a partnership?”

Gordy nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

Ralph looked at him a bit closer. “And what exactly are
you
after when it comes to Zoey?”

Gordy smiled. “A different kind of partnership between Zoey and I.”

“Zoey means a lot to me.” Ralph’s voice was low with warning.

“In what way?” Gordy wasn’t too worried. Zoey wouldn’t have been inviting him to her bed if she felt anything romantic for her assistant chef. Of that, Gordy was sure. A crush on Ralph’s part would complicate things though, and cost him an ally in the quest to relieve Zoey of some of the pressure in her life so he could crawl into her bed with a clear conscience.

Leaning across the bar, Ralph said, “In the ‘she’s my friend and if you hurt her I’ll hurt you’ kind of way.”

Gordy smiled at the young man’s devotion. “Then we have no problem between us. We both want the same things for Zoey—a successful business that doesn’t kill her in the process.”

“And leaves her enough free time for a serious boyfriend perhaps?” Ralph suggested.

Gordy nodded. “That would be very nice.”

The cell phone clipped to Ralph’s belt began emitting a lively tune. He held up a finger to Gordy. “Hold that thought.”

While Ralph answered the call, Gordy sipped at his cranberry juice. Idle fantasies of a relaxed, carefree, no longer overworked Zoey filled his head, until Ralph walked closer to him.

“Don’t worry about a thing, Zoey. I’ve got it handled… What do you mean, how? You were planning on doing it all yourself. Why don’t you think I can handle it by myself? And on top of getting all the jobs done on time, I also organized your invoices, paid the overdue ones and created an expense and income spreadsheet in your computer… Apology accepted.” Ralph grinned at Gordy. “Hey, when you get back, I want to talk to you about something… No, it can wait until you’re in town again.” Ralph hesitated and opened his eyes wide. “Have I seen Gordy around lately? Um…”