Pushed

Chapter 21

Talk about rotten timing.Had the phone not rang at that precise moment, we’d have been kissing. I’d have bet the farm on it.

And this time it wouldn’t have been me initiating it or springing it on her. She’d leaned in so close I could feel her warm breath on my skin, and she’d definitely been looking at my lips. She’d wanted to kiss me as much as I’d wanted to kiss her.

I wouldn’t have answered that call no matter how important, but the ring seemed to snap her to attention, breaking the spell that had held us tight.

All that after the prank she pulled on me at Floyd’s—even though that was an experience I’d like to scrub from my memory with a steel brush and never ever speak of again. I chuckled, recalling the joy on AJ’s face when I walked into the kitchen today. She thought she’d gotten the best of me. Maybe she had, but not for long.

Who knew that serious, ultra-focused chef had such an unexpected fun side? She was full of surprises. That was for sure. And I intended to uncover every last one of them. With pleasure.

I’d never met anyone who captivated me like she did. It wasn’t just her beauty. It was everything about her. She was talented and competitive. A perfectionist with a bit of awkward clumsiness. And a fiery temper hid her caring, tender side. Every little bit she revealed made me want to know more.

I went home to shower and had supper with my parents and Junie. When I told them about my afternoon, they all burst out laughing.

“I can’t believe you let them bully you into that. But I guess you could say they had you by the balls.” June giggled and covered her hand over her mouth.

I had just taken a big gulp of iced tea, and it sprayed out my mouth at her unexpected comment. Such an outburst was typical of my older siblings, but not of my sweet little sister. Apparently, their sarcasm had worn off on her.

“Wait until the rest of the crew hears about this.” Junie started texting our siblings.

Great. I sighed and rolled my eyes. My phone would be blowing up any minute.

Dad dished up a serving of spaghetti squash and passed the bowl to me. “I can’t believe Floyd actually got you to help with the castration? I’d have paid good money to have seen how that went down. Can’t wait to hear his side of it.”

I took the bowl and filled my plate. “I’m sure you will. I’ll probably be the butt of all jokes around town the rest of the week.”

“Oh, this will last a lot longer than a week. This is pure gold.” Junie said, still giggling to herself as she dished up her food and passed the dish to Mom.

“Hey.” I scolded my little sister. “You’re the nice one of the family. The peacemaker. You should be on my side.”

“I am nice. I’m not saying anything bad about you, just passing on some important news they’ll all want to hear. Wouldn’t you rather they hear it from me than through the grapevine?” She spooned sauce onto her squash and added a piece of garlic bread to the side. “Besides, you can’t talk after all the stunts you pulled on me my entire life.”

She had me there.

“I can’t believe Chef AJ was the one to arrange it.” Mom shook her head in disbelief, then smiled at me. “I think you might have met your match with this woman, Jasper.”

The thought brought a smile to my face. “Yeah, you might be right about that.”

“We should have her over for a family dinner. She is your fiancée, after all.” She winked as she took a sip of water. “What night is the restaurant closed? We’ll plan it so she doesn’t have to miss work. And she doesn’t have to cook.”

“My fake fiancée,” I reminded her. My entire family knew of our charade, but that detail didn’t matter to Mom. And if I didn’t go along with her plan, she’d just invite AJ on her own. “The Moonstruck is closed on Mondays. But I’d bet she’ll still want to bring something if she comes here. That’s the way she is.”

“You know that about her already, do you?”

“Or we could have it at the restaurant and you could try her new menu items. I bet she’d love to show off her new creations.”

“Hmm… both would be equally good. I’d prefer to have her over here so I could cook for her, and we could get to know her better, but I’d also love to try her new menu. If we did it at the restaurant, could we still have her sit and eat with us? Because that’s the most important part. She’s not just our chef. She’s one of the family.”

“I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself there, Mom. This is just a temporary arrangement until we can buy the restaurant. Don’t go getting all attached or start planning our wedding. It’s not going to happen.”

“Pshaaw.” Mom flicked her hand my way. “You can’t tell me what I can and can’t get excited about. And I won’t let you rain on my parade. It has a no-clouds policy.”

My phone buzzed with incoming messages. “And so it begins.”

Rowan

Word on the farm is, you’ve got a new skill—bull castrating extraordinaire! They say you’ve got the ‘cajones’ for it!

Storm

I think that’s a bunch of BULL!

Skye

Hey! I hear you’re the new bull whisperer. Did you play some calming moo-sic during the procedure?

Very funny. I was tricked into this. Where’s your compassion? I’m the victim here.

Skye

I think the bull would disagree.

AJ turned my prank back on me

Raven

Would you say she’s driving you NUTS?

Storm

I gotta say, that’s pretty ballsy of her!!

Raven

HAHA!! I need to meet this woman. She ROCKS!

You guys are hilarious. Don’t you care that I was traumatized?

Skye

We’re just kidding. Don’t have a COW!

Raven

Jeez Jas, getting kind of TESTY, aren’t you?

Rowan

I don’t know about you guys, but anyone else covering their goods?

Storm

I will when I’m around Jasper, that’s for sure.

I couldn’t take anymore of their abuse. With my phone silenced and tucked safely in my pocket, I finished my dinner in peace and then headed back to the Moonstruck office armed with a full thermos of coffee. There was so much I needed to get done since AJ’s prank had wasted my afternoon. The dinner rush was still going on, so I didn’t get so much as a glimpse of AJ, which was fine. I wouldn’t have gotten anything done around her.

I got in a zone, pouring through the financials and spreadsheets. When I stopped to stretch and look at the clock, it was nearing midnight. I walked out to get a bottle of water, since my coffee was long gone, and saw lights still on in the kitchen.

We’d closed quite a while ago. Who was still here? I peeked my head into the kitchen and saw AJ by the sink, dancing to the music playing from the speakers, her hips swaying to the beat.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

She screamed, turned, and sprayed me with water from the sink sprayer.

“Aaaah! You’ll pay for that!” I grabbed a glass of water from the counter and tossed it in her face.

She sputtered and sprayed me again. To her right, I spotted a full water pitcher amid the dirty dishes. I lunged for it and emptied the entire thing over her head. She shrieked and fired the sprayer at me full force. A water fight ensued, drenching us both from head to toe. When I was out of ammunition, I grasped her hand and wrenched away the sprayer, allowing it to fall back in the sink.

We laughed so hard we were breathless.

Holding her arms to keep her from picking up the sprayer again, we stood only inches apart. Electricity arced between us as, chests heaving, we tried to catch our breath. I should have been cold, standing there soaking wet, but the cold water didn’t come close to cooling the fire coursing through my veins.

I wiped her dripping hair from her face, and her green eyes met mine. My fingers lingered on the side of her head as I pushed the hair behind her ear. Then I ran my thumb across her cheek. She sucked in a breath. My gaze traced a line to her lips. She licked her them, and my heart thumped so loudly I thought it might explode. If I didn’t kiss her, it just might.

I leaned forward, and she giggled nervously and pushed away from me, turning back to her sink full of dishes. “What are you doing here, Jasper?”

“I believe I already asked you that. Why are you doing dishes this late?”

She sighed loudly. “There’s this dishwasher, Adam. He’s a terrible worker. Always late, and then spends more time on his phone than working. I told Mr. Quince I wanted to fire him months ago, but he said Adam was the grandson of his wife’s best friend, so he wouldn’t let me do it. Tonight he was an hour late, and said he needed to leave early, and does a terrible job of washing the pots and pans, anyway. So I told him to go home and not bother coming back.” She dipped a dirty pan in the water and began taking her frustration out on the pan as she scrubbed.

“Sounds like a good decision.”

“It felt good. But since we had nobody to wash dishes, they piled up. So here I am.”

“I can help. Tell me what you want me to do.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep washing, but if you could rinse and set them on the drying rack, that would be helpful.”

The area was small, and we bumped into each other every time I reached for the hose to rinse. A surge of energy shot through me with each touch.

When the last dish was clean and in the drying rack, I turned and stopped her before she could brush by me again. Our eyes met, and the energy between us could have started a fire—if we hadn’t already been soaking wet.

The need to kiss her had only intensified as we’d worked side by side. I searched her eyes for any indication she felt the same. The heat in her eyes gave me the validation I needed. Like magnets, we drew together.

Just as the gap between us was about to close in a long-awaited kiss… my phone rang.