Authors: Cat Johnson
Scott smiled. “Okay. I’ll show you the first one, then you can do the next.”
She tried not to totally lose all mental capacity as his smile set her heart to fluttering. Lexi managed to nod and watched as he deftly deseeded the pepper and diced it into tiny uniform squares. She’d always wondered how the chef at the television studio cut the ingredients so evenly. Scott made it look easy. She hoped it actually was easy, because much too soon it was her turn and the giant knife, worthy of any horror movie, was in her hand.
Taking a deep breath, she made one slice and then another.
She managed to not cut her fingers off, but the results of her efforts were nowhere near as pretty as his. Big, small, square, oblong, her pepper pieces were everything except uniform.
“I’m sorry.” Lexi sighed.
It would have been at this point that Chef Frederick would have thrown it all in the garbage, if not actually at her, and made her start again. She glanced at Scott. He was smiling.
“Don’t be sorry. You did fine. It just takes practice. Here, let me show you.” He took the weapon-sized knife from her, rocked it back and forth across the pieces a few times until they were all smaller and fairly even, and then scooped it all into a bowl. “There, all fixed. Nothing to worry about. Next, onions. Take the peel off, then cut it in half…”
He made short work of his onion, describing what he was doing as he did. When it was her turn again, she struggled a bit. Again, it wasn’t as perfect as his. There was one big piece that she’d somehow managed to miss, while the other slices were all different widths and sizes.
Lexi glanced up and cringed. “Sorry.”
Scott put one hand on each of her shoulders. “Alexis, if we’re going to do this, I have one rule.”
“Okay.” She swallowed hard and waited. Meanwhile, she wiped at her watery eyes with the back of one hand as the onion aroma started to get to her.
“No more apologizing. I’m serious.” His blue gaze bore into her.
“That’s the rule?”
He nodded with a smile. “Yup. And I’m assuming these tears are from the onion.”
“Yes.” She laughed and wiped at them again.
“Okay. That’s allowed.” Grinning, he handed her a roll of paper towels. “Remember, cooking is supposed to be fun.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “That hasn’t been my experience so far.”
His dark brows shot up. “Then you’re doing it with the wrong person.”
Her insides twisted with need as she imagined what other activities with Scott would be enjoyable. “I think you’re right.”
They moved on to chop ham and tomatoes and then they were done with the sharp blade portion of the program. Thank God, because Lexi was having a hell of a time concentrating with Scott so near.
“Now, this next part might be a little tricky. I can handle four frying pans at a time, but you may want to work up to that.”
“Four.” Her brow rose. “Wow. Impressive.”
Lexi liked a man who could multi-task and was good with his hands. Skill in the kitchen would most likely transfer to skill in the bedroom. She’d love to find out if that were true.
Scott sprinkled a handful of vegetables and ham into each pan, along with an overly generous-looking ladle of melted butter. Finally her mind was ripped away from thinking about sex.
Lexi eyed the pan swimming in melted butter. “Is all of that butter necessary?”
“If you want to get the omelet out of the pan in one piece, yeah, it is.” He glanced at her. “And remember what I said last night, these guys aren’t exactly the low-fat diet type. They work out too hard. Between lifting weights and playing basketball in our downtime, not to mention the crazy hours we’re on the job running up stairs while hauling equipment, we need sustenance. Something good and solid in our bellies.”
The picture Scott painted of a bunch of hunky firemen running around sweaty—and maybe even shirtless—had her mouth watering. She wrestled her attention back to the task at hand and watched him flipping the sizzling ingredients in each of the four frying pans.
She frowned. “Why do you use four small frying pans instead of one large one?”
“I’m making four omelets.” He glanced at her.
“Can’t you make one giant omelet and cut it into four pieces.” She thought it sounded like a pretty good, not to mention time saving idea.
“No.” Scott cocked one brow. “That wouldn’t be an omelet, now would it?”
“Guess not.” She bit her tongue and fought the urge to apologize.
“Besides, some of the guys don’t like onions and mushrooms, so I make half without.”
“Oh...” Since he was continuing on with the lesson, she brought her attention back to the frying pans on the burners.
The onions had taken on a translucent appearance, which she’d spoken about on her own show while reading from the script so she knew that meant they were cooking. Scott poured a ladle full of egg into each one of the four pans.
“See what I’m doing here?” He glanced at her. “I let the egg cook a bit and then when it starts to look firm, I lift the firm edges with the rubber spatula so the loose egg mixture slides beneath the cooked.”
She nodded and tried to watch closer in case there was a trick she was missing or a test later. Meanwhile, her attention kept straying to how his biceps flexed beneath the edge of his short-sleeved T-shirt as he cooked.
“Come here.”
Her eyes opened wide as he surprised her. “Um, okay.”
Had it been Chef Frederick, a summons like that would have made Lexi fear for her life, but this was Scott and he wasn’t scary. Cooking however, and being called upon to do it herself rather than simply watch him, was pretty frightening.
He guided her between him and stove. She felt the warmth of his body behind her as strongly as the heat radiating off the stove in front of her. It was suddenly hard to breathe.
Lexi glanced over her shoulder at him. “What do I do?”
“Watch me first. See how I loosen the edges? You have to make sure the whole thing slips around freely in the pan and then you…flip.” Pressed up closely behind Lexi, Scott demonstrated each action as he spoke.
The yellow egg discus did an acrobatic flip and landed uncooked side down inside the frying pan. He moved to the next pan and repeated the process. “Wanna try one?”
“No.”
He laughed. “Come on. I’ll help you. Grab hold of the handle.”
“Okay.” Still convinced she was going to mess up his beautiful creation, she did as he asked and took hold of the panhandle.
His big, warm hand covered hers as he gripped the handle too. She swallowed hard and tried to listen. “Loosen the edges with the spatula, slide it around and flip.”
She watched the egg pirouette and land perfectly in the pan. “Wow.”
“Next one is all yours.” He took a step back.
Lexi panicked. “What if I mess it up?”
“We put the pieces back together on a plate, cover it with cheese and no one will know.” Scott shrugged.
She took a deep breath and ran through the steps in her mind before she attempted them in real life. She loosened the eggs, made sure they slid around and then gripped the panhandle with two hands that felt slightly shaky and launched the omelet into the air. It rose in what appeared to her slow motion until it finally came to rest, a bit lopsided, but safe. Given that the egg stayed mostly in the pan and landed on the correct side, she was more than happy. She was ecstatic.
There was definitely a stupid looking grin on her face when she spun around to find Scott smiling back at her. “See. You did great, but there’s no time now to gloat about it. We have to get them off the heat before they overcook. Watch me. Shredded cheese on half of each omelet, fold it over, then slide it on to the sheet pan I have waiting. These four go in the oven to keep warm while we make the rest.”
Scott was about to start the entire process all over again when a deafening noise filled the firehouse.
“What is that?” she yelled. Lexi covered her ears before they ruptured.
“Fire,” he shouted back over the din. Scott shut off all four burners and the oven. “Shit, I gotta go. I’m sorry.”
He was grabbing all the ingredients off the counter and shoving them into the fridge as he spoke.
She touched his arm to get his attention. “I’ll put the stuff away. You go. Save some lives.”
“Thanks.” He was half out the door when he looked back. “Another lesson soon?”
“Sure.” She smiled.
As if he could keep her away.
Chapter Five
“Getting called out before breakfast sucks. I could smell the bacon as we were driving away.” Troy sat next to Scott in the fire truck looking cranky. Troy’s stomach let out a big rumble to reinforce the point.
Antonio, the eternal optimist, shrugged. “Hey, it wasn’t so bad. At least it was a false alarm or we’d still be at the call now.”
As the driver pulled the truck up to the open garage bay, Scott had to admit he agreed with Troy. He was pretty hungry and annoyed himself. He was happy to be back at the firehouse knowing breakfast was on the horizon, but his lesson with Alexis was ruined. And he’d been making such progress too. Damn, he could picture her nestled in nicely between him and the stove. Her cute little heart-shaped ass right there in front of him.
Scott yanked his mind off that image before he embarrassed himself and moved into safer territory. “Don’t worry, boys. Give me ten minutes and it’s omelets and bacon for everyone.”
Or maybe not... Scott looked up at the second story of the firehouse and saw smoke billowing out of the open kitchen window.
Troy followed his gaze. “What the hell?”
“Holy shit. Did you leave the stove on?” Antonio was getting out of his seat even before the truck came to a stop.
“No, of course not.” But he had left an unsupervised, unauthorized woman who didn’t know how to cook alone with a six-burner, double-oven, propane stove.
Scott leapt out of the truck just as the driver parked. He barreled up the stairs to the kitchen. The sound of tramping boots told him the rest of the crew was right behind him. They hadn’t taken the time to remove their equipment, which was good, because after seeing that smoke, Scott figured they’d need it.
He reached the kitchen doorway and skidded to a stop.
Alexis stood with the fire extinguisher in her hand and quite a mess of eggs and extinguisher foam on the stove. She turned toward them and her face crumbled. “I’m so sorry.”
She looked like she wanted to flee, but since a mass of hungry firemen blocked the only exit she stood like a deer in headlights.
“Who does she belong to?” Antonio asked.
No way around it. Scott had to fess up. “Um, that would be me.”
“Really?” Antonio sounded impressed. He raised a brow and looked from Alexis, back to Scott.
“Does this mean there’s no breakfast?” Troy asked the question that Scott figured must be on everyone’s mind and that’s when Alexis started to cry.
Oh, boy.
Scott stepped forward and took the fire extinguisher canister out of her hands. It was heavy. He was impressed with her strength and quick thinking, but he decided to save the compliments for later. He put it on the floor in the corner, about to tell her everything was all right when she turned to him with her eyes brimming.
“I thought I could finish making the omelets for you. I made eight more, just like you showed me except one at a time. There was some egg left over and I didn’t think it would keep so I was making a thirteenth one, but I must have put too much butter because I figured I’d just use it all up rather than throw it away. But there was a lot in the pan and when I flipped the omelet, it splashed and the stove went on fire and there was all this smoke and flames shooting in the air…” She looked up at him from under the brim of her baseball cap, tears streaking her face.
It was a pretty amazing story. She’d actually finished making the breakfast all on her own. Scott opened the oven and sure enough, there was the sheet pan filled with omelets. Some were thinner, others fatter, a few a little browner, and one was broken in the middle, but all in all, they didn’t look too bad. He was impressed.
“I’ll take care of getting those on the table, Scotty. Since you’ve got your hands full here.” Troy tilted his head toward Alexis with a smirk and then grabbed two potholders from the hook on the wall. “Everybody to the table. Bacon and eggs on the way.”
Scott was more than happy when the crowd followed Troy and the food to the dining table in the adjoining room, leaving him alone with Alexis in the kitchen.
He stepped closer, hoping to convince her it was really all right, when she blurted out again that she was sorry, dodged around him and took off through the door. He followed her down the stairs, barely getting hold of her arm before she got out to the street. Damn, she was fast for a little thing. Good thing he was well practiced at running in his boots.
“Wait. Alexis, this is nothing to be upset about.”
She finally stopped and spun to look up at him. “Nothing to be upset about? I almost burnt down your firehouse.”