Turning Up the Heat: A Sizzling Modern Romance Novel

14. Oskar

I had gottento know Kelsey’s friends and family on the coast before I started a relationship with her, so there had never been any sort of awkward introductions.

But I knew Felipe, in particular, was important to her. She spoke about him and Caroline a lot, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect when I met him.

While Caroline was funny and seemed like a generous person, I had a feeling Felipe was going to be a tougher sell.

Soon after Caroline walked back to the kitchen with our orders, a tall, tough-looking Black man wearing an apron came out from the kitchen. He moved confidently, a man in his own territory, and I could tell that while he and Caroline might have been business partners, the restaurant we were eating at was his.

“Hey, baby girl, you going to introduce me to the man?”

The adoring look he gave Kelsey gave him away.

“Oskar” —she smiled at me— “Felipe. Felipe, Oskar.”

I held out my hand. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

He nodded and took my hand. “It’s about time you got up here.”

Though he came across as a hard-ass, I had a feeling that as long as I stayed on Kelsey’s good side, I’d stay on Felipe’s as well. He pulled a chair up to our small table.

“So is this the boyfriend? Are we using the B-word yet? As much time as you spend on the phone with this man, Kelsey, I would hope so.”

Kelsey gave me a shy smile.

I cleared my throat and smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Kelsey talks about you a lot.”

Now it was Felipe’s turn to snort. “We heard all about you, Chef.”

Kelsey kicked him under the table, but Felipe only grinned. “Glad to finally meet you. You keep putting a smile on her face like that and we’ll be okay.”

I watched Kelsey as she leaned her chin on her hand, smiling at her friend. “I love you.”

Felipe leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I love you too, but you’re not getting free breakfast.”

She was beautiful, and I was jealous as hell. I wanted those words, easy as Sunday morning, directed at me. I stared, stunned by the flood of emotions that ambushed me in the middle of a café.

Felipe caught my eye over the table, and I saw his mouth curve into a slight, understanding smile.

Kelsey said, “Tell me about this new guy in the East Bay who’s doing Portuguese sausage. I saw linguica and eggs on the menu. That’s new, right?”

“Oh, he’s bomb, baby. This man knows his shit.” Felipe glanced at me. “You cure anything at your place yet?”

“Not yet. Just starting to experiment with in-house fermentation.”

“All right, all right.” He nodded.

Since charcuterie was an interest of mine, Felipe, Kelsey, and I were soon involved in a lively discussion about food and other common interests.

I didn’t have many friends in the United States who were working chefs, so Felipe and I had a great time trading stories. He and Caroline seemed to operate a flawless trade-off between the kitchen and front of house that kept the whole restaurant moving.

Though it was a tiny café, I was beginning to see why it was so crowded. It was a totally different sort of atmosphere than Mesa, but I really enjoyed it.

The food was exceptional, and the friendly banter between Caroline, Felipe, and the regular customers was almost like watching dinner theater. We were all laughing, and the whole restaurant hummed with a happy energy as diners finished their food and enjoyed the conversations around them.

“This is what it’s about.”

Kelsey looked up from her eggs and hash. “What is?”

“This.” I looked around the crowded little café. “This energy. This feeling that everyone is eating, almost like they’re with their family, you know?”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “You’re right. This is what it’s about.”

“I want that for Mesa.”

“It takes time, right?”

I nodded.

Time. And energy. Energy that had lately been very distracted by the woman sitting across from me. I didn’t know what to do about that, but for now, I tried not to think about it. It would be harder tomorrow when I knew the restaurant would be open and Victor would be cooking instead of me.

Things started to lull around ten thirty, so Felipe pulled up a chair at our table and sat down again. “Oskar, I think I like you, so I’m going to let you in on a little secret.”

I smiled. “Is it the recipe for your hollandaise sauce? Because I will steal it.”

“I’ll get it for you, but just for personal use. Try that shit over asparagus in the spring and you’ll be kissing my ass.”

I didn’t know about kissing his ass, but that hollandaise would be great over asparagus.

Felipe continued. “No, the secret I’m going to let you in on is the real secret to keeping your girl here happy.”

“Really? Because I have some pretty good ideas about that already.”

Kelsey narrowed her eyes and pinched my arm. “Stop.”

Felipe laughed out loud. “Okay, I do like you, Viking man.” Then the smile fell from his face. “It’s about the poached eggs.”

“No.” She tried to put a hand over his mouth, but Felipe evaded her maneuvers.

“No, he has to know the life of frustration he’s signing up for.”

I was confused and amused at the same time. “Poached eggs?”

“Yes, but not just any poached eggs, Mr. Man.” Felipe trapped Kelsey’s hand. “This girl has got to be the pickiest damn egg-eater that I have ever had the challenge of cooking for. She likes poached eggs, mind you, but not the nice, lovely runny ones we both like. No, no. And she doesn’t like them medium or well-done either. This finicky little girl likes her eggs about exactly halfway between medium- and well-poached. She got it from some book or something.”

Kelsey finally piped up. “You are exaggerating!” She shot me a look. “Toni Morrison described the perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg in Song of Solomon, and I realized that it was also the way I liked my eggs poached.” She shrugged. “That’s all. She wrote that the yolks should be the texture of wet velvet. And she’s right—they’re perfect that way.”

Felipe was shaking his head, but I stared at Kelsey and felt a smile creep over my face.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “She’s right.”

“See?” Kelsey looked at Felipe. “He gets it.”

“Oh my God,” Felipe muttered. “I’m done. The two of you are perfect for each other.”

I could picture exactly what she was talking about. It was the power of describing food effectively. Kelsey had the same gift, but I don’t know if she realized yet how powerful her writing was.

Kelsey caught me staring at her and blushed a little. “It’s not that big a deal. Felipe just likes to tease me about it.”

“I don’t think you’re silly. And now I know just how to cook your eggs for you.” I leaned over and brushed a kiss over her lips. Then I held my hand out to Felipe to shake. “Thanks for the tip, Chef.”

He shook my hand and smiled. “Chef Olson… I wish you good luck in keeping this girl happy with her eggs.”

Kelsey threw a napkin at him. “It’s the only thing I’m high-maintenance about, but you tease me relentlessly.”

“I know.” He winked at her. “But it’s too much fun. Well, I had better say goodbye for now. I’ve gotta go clean up from breakfast and get ready for lunch.” He stood up and looked at Kelsey. “You all have fun… doing whatever you’re doing.”

Kelsey decidedshe would take me on the tourist circuit around San Francisco for the afternoon. “That way if anyone asks you if you’ve been to all these places, you can just say yes,” she said. “We’ll do more interesting stuff tomorrow. Besides, it’s Monday. A lot of smaller places will be closed, but all the tourist spots are still open.”

I’d been to a few places in the city with Hanna, but I tended to stay in Marin when I visited my sister, so there was a lot I hadn’t seen.

Kelsey had a whole plan.

“We’ll take the ferry from Larkspur Landing. That way we’ll end up downtown and you can see the Ferry Building. They restored it in 2003, so it’s really beautiful. Did you know that before they built the bridges over the bay, the Ferry Building was one of the busiest public transit depots in the world?” She shook her head. “Now everyone just drives.”

I smiled as she rambled. Honestly, I didn’t really care as long as I got to spend time with her. I loved the fact that she wanted to show me all her favorite parts of San Francisco.

What would I show her in Copenhagen? If we went in the summer, it would be beautiful. We could rent a boat. Go to the Tivoli Gardens.

I would definitely make her eat pickled fish.

“Oh, we can take the cable cars up to Fisherman’s Wharf!” She was still rambling. “Have you been there before? It’s really touristy, but the views of the bay and Alcatraz are really good. And the sea lions. We can see the sea lions. Where should we eat? There’re so many places down there. Oh, and we’ll have to go to Ghirardelli Square. A lot of the shops will be closed, but you have to have the hot chocolate; it’s so good. Oh, and maybe Fog City Diner.”

“Kelsey.”

“Maybe someplace in Chinatown for dinner?”

“Kelsey.”

“Yeah?”

I smiled. “Let’s do something. I don’t care what. We’ll wander around. We’ll eat whatever you want. I’ll kiss you a lot. As long as I get to do the last bit, I’ll be happy.”

She paused to think for a moment, opened her mouth as if to speak before closing it again; then she just smiled. “Okay. Let’s go back to my house and get some warmer clothes. It’s always colder in the city.”

We did it all.

We took the ferry. We rode the cable cars. We drank hot chocolate. I held her hand all day, and we talked about important things and silly things. We laughed at each other’s jokes. We practiced blatant public displays of affection that would make my sister puke.

It was great.

We were watching the sea lion colony at Fisherman’s Wharf when it happened. Stupid little kids feeding the stupid seagulls. They were swooping down, and the kids were laughing.

If one hadn’t taken a shit on my favorite jacket, it might have been cute.

“Shit.”

Kelsey started laughing when she saw it. “Yes, it is. Oh, Oskar!”

She just kept laughing. Wonderful.

“What the hell? This is my favorite jacket.” I cast a dark glance at the sky. “Stupid seagulls.”

I was muttering at the seagulls… the kids… the sea lions. Pretty much the whole of Fisherman’s Wharf was being cursed at in a combination of English and Danish while my girlfriend—whom I used to think was pretty great—laughed her ass off. She took my hand and led me away from the edge of the pier and upstairs to the second tier of shops.

“Come on.” She was still laughing a little. “The bathrooms up here are cleaner. I’ll get you some paper towels.”

She ducked into a women’s restroom that was at the top of the stairs. I didn’t see a men’s in sight, so I just leaned against a railing and eyed the offending spot on my sleeve.

“Fucking seagulls,” I muttered again.

Kelsey came out of the bathroom, still smiling but with a handful of wet paper towels. “I can’t believe they shit on your jacket. I’ve been here a hundred times, and I’ve never had that happen.”

“Thank you so much for making me feel special, seagulls. Maybe it was my psychic energy.” I was trying to stay pissed off, but she looked adorable when she laughed. It was contagious, and soon I was chuckling along with her.

She was holding my arm, laughing, and cleaning my jacket with the paper towels she had grabbed when it hit me: I was completely in love with Kelsey Rankin.

Of all the times to realize it, it had to be when she was wiping bird shit off my arm.

She was smiling and laughing. Her cheeks were flushed from the wind, and pieces of her hair had fallen out of the twist she had hastily put it into on the ferry crossing.

She was beautiful and intelligent. She was generous and funny. She made me laugh and think and drove me crazy with desire.

And I was in love with her.

Suddenly Fisherman’s Wharf wasn’t so bad after all.

She finished cleaning my sleeve and went back to the bathroom to throw the towels away and wash her hands. I leaned against the rails and waited for her, my mind completely blank.

When she walked back out, she must have noticed something on my face. “Are you mad? Come on. It’s not nearly as gross as gutting a fish. And I know you’ve done that.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Are you okay? You look weird.”

I walked over and wrapped my arms around her. I leaned down, lifted one hand to her cheek, and kissed her. I broke away for a moment and looked into her puzzled eyes. I kissed her again and realized that I could happily kiss her for the rest of my life.

“Can we go back to your place?” I asked.

“If that’s what you want. Are you okay?” Her eyebrows drew together in concern, so I took my hand from her cheek and smoothed them gently with my fingertips.

“I’m great. I’d just rather take a nap with you than see anything else.”

“Okay, we’ll head back then. You’re sure you’re feeling all right?”

I smiled into her face. “I’m fantastic.”

After we pulledup to Kelsey’s house, I exited the car and walked around to open her door. I helped her out and trailed behind her, my hands resting on her soft hips.

“Sleepy?”

She nodded. “Long day.”

“Yeah.”

As soon as we were inside, I let my mouth do what I’d been thinking of the entire way back to her house—I bent down to her neck. My lips traced the outer shell of her ear, and my tongue darted out to taste the soft flesh behind her lobe.

I switched my mind from English to Danish, whispering all the things I wasn’t ready for her to understand.

“Oskar?” She was confused, but she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me back.

“I love you.” I whispered the words in Danish so she didn’t have to know. “I love you so much.”

We walked to her bedroom, and I tugged off her coat and scarf, my hands reaching and exploring the soft planes of her stomach. When we got to the doorway to the bedroom, I paused.

“I don’t know how it happened. I didn’t mean it to happen like this.” I whispered again, unburdening myself in a language she couldn’t understand.

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she whispered.

“It doesn’t matter.” My cool hands slipped beneath the hem of her shirt to touch her burning skin. She gasped at my touch, and I pulled her into my hips, my own breath audible in the silent room. “It doesn’t matter because I love you.”

I continued to whisper nonsense as we removed the rest of our clothes. Kelsey’s overwhelmed eyes met mine as I laid her back. I kissed her mouth and eased into her, my eyes closing briefly as the feeling washed over me.

I made love to her. I brought her to climax over and over again, my whispered murmurs and fevered lips covering every inch of her body until we both lay shuddering in the late-afternoon light.

I pulled Kelsey close and held her under the covers as I drifted to sleep.