Chapter 7 #3
Rory steps into the doorway, commanding the small office with her presence as she click-clacks in, dressed in a sleek pantsuit and heels.
“And Wilder, we should really talk about using some of the eggs from my hens for the menu.” Aurora gestures a hand between her and Lexi. “Our mother had a million chickens. We get dozens of eggs a day.”
Puzzled, my brows draw together in confusion. “You guys don’t want them?”
She waves a hand easily in my direction. “There are more eggs than the three of us could ever use. We can’t give them away fast enough at this point. The restaurant should take them.”
“You think Rory cooks?” Lexi laughs scathingly, craning her neck to look up at her sister from her seated position. “When’s the last time you made eggs, Ror?”
Rory’s face tilts upward until her nose is in the air. “Wyatt makes them every morning for our daughter.”
“You, Aurora. When’s the last time you cooked eggs? Junior high? When someone told you they’d give you tits if you ate six a day?”
“Hey! I got boobs, didn’t I?”
“Not as big as mine,” Lexi mumbles like the cat who got the cream.
Did she forget I’m in the room?
My eyes can’t help but verify her statement.
Lexi’s tits are perfect. Big handfuls, and now that I’ve seen what they—well, at least one—look like underneath those overalls, I can confirm, they’re everything a guy like me wants in his face while he’s making his girl come.
Natural, a heavy hang to them, they’d bounce dangerously if I had her in my lap, or fucked her from below. Swinging, teasing my mouth to take a bite, tight pink nipples begging for teeth and a tongue to worship them.
The head of my cock knocks against the underside of the desk, trying to burrow a damn hole in my chef’s pants.
Fuck, this woman is going to owe me a new wardrobe by the time I get to fuck her for real. If she’s not grinding on my pants and making a mess on them, she’s making me damn near come in them.
The flush in Lexi’s cheeks tells me I’m not the only one whose mind went back to our time in the walk-in. Does she remember every flutter, every pulse in the kind of detail I do?
Are her underwear getting soaked at the thought, the way my pants are starting to get tight?
My mouth waters, desperate to know what she tastes like. How sweet her orgasms would be on my tongue. Fuck if I’m not gonna get myself off to that thought tonight.
Che cazzo, it’s lucky there’s someone else in here who steers us away from that path. The one that leads to Lexi bent over her desk, stuffed full of me.
“I’ll take my chest over yours.” Aurora goes right past the quicksand Lexi is drowning in. “You probably get back pain from those grapefruits. I’m good with mine. My husband doesn’t mind lemons. He’s a lemonade master.”
“Ew! What does that even mean? And try limes is more like it.” Lexi tries for her normal heat, but it falls short.
Rory tosses her head. “You mean the perfect chaser to a drink? Yeah, not the insult you think it is.”
Lexi sighs heavily. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to check on things. Am I allowed to care about my sister and her venture?”
Lexi’s phone starts vibrating where she left it on the desk, and she snatches it up. Her face blanches at the screen, and she hits the side button rather aggressively, the way she does most things in my presence.
“Alexis, it took you long enough to get an iPhone, tell me you know how to answer it?”
“It’s just a spam call.” Lexi’s eye twitches.
“You know the phone can block those, too, right? Here, give me the—” Aurora reaches for the phone in Lexi’s hand, but she swats her little sister away, dropping the phone into the front pocket on her overalls, clasping her fingers together overtop of it and scowling up at her.
Lucky phone. If I could live nestled between her breasts, I would.
Or her thighs. Yeah, definitely those.
“I don’t need your help wiping my ass, thank you,” Lexi bites out.
“Just every other aspect of your life then?” Rory’s sharp words don’t come out as harsh as they could, her eyes are too soft for that.
Just the same, I decide to jump in before one of them draws blood.
“We were just discussing the overwhelming support from the townsfolk about the new menu,” I say, biting back my smirk.
Lexi swivels her head up at me. “Townsfolk? There you go patronizing us again.”
“What am I supposed to call them? Is that not an accurate name?”
Her eyes narrow at me with enough heat to power half the menu I’m trying to get the green light on. When she speaks, it’s scathing. “It’s the way you said it.”
“My accent? Is that what’s got you all bunched up beneath those jeans? Can’t help it, bella. Born and raised in the city. Brooklyn, baby!” Two fingers come to my mouth for a quick kiss, then head for the sky.
She rolls her eyes and crosses her legs. “Not your accent, the way you sneered when you said it.”
Zero fucks given, Rory interrupts with a tone that could peel the wallpaper in my grandmother’s upstate cabin. “Clearly things are going great here, I don’t know why I bothered coming by.”
“Oh shush. You’re the one that stuck him on me.” Lexi flails a hand, fluttering it at me like I’m a pest she can’t bother looking at.
Probably because her nipples get stiff when she does.
“Are we still on about that then?” Rory takes a seat in the open chair next to her sister, crossing one pantsuited leg over the other. Into mediator mode in a flash, quicker than Charlie could start a grease fire.
“Just for another three months,” Lexi grits out through her teeth. “Then he’s back to the rat-infested gutters you both called home.”
“Hey!” Aurora and I bark out in unison.
“What did the city ever do to you?” I ask.
“If you visited, you’d get it, Alexis.” Aurora folds her arms over one another and settles back in her chair. “And Wilder lives here now, so can you stop trying to make it harder on him?”
“Oh, she’s made it real hard, but it’s okay, that’s how I like it.”
Lexi squeals when I shoot her a wink, meanwhile her sister just throws her head back and laughs.
“Someone who drives you even crazier than I do. He deserves a raise. Text me your birthday, Wilder, I owe you something nice.”
Lexi’s brows slide down her face. “You’re leaving already?”
“Looks like you’ve got everything under control, right?”
“Okay, I’m sorry I was a bitch, stay for a minute.”
“You think I don’t know your personality by now? I love when you’re a bitch. It’s your love language, Lex. If you don’t like someone, you don’t give them the time of day. When you go full see you next Tuesday? Mmhmm. That’s when it counts.”
Interesting.
So is the subtle wink Aurora throws at me when Lexi is too busy rolling her eyes to notice.
Lexi’s shoulders slump as she leans forward in her chair, head in her hands. Aurora glides behind her and massages her shoulders.
“Come on, big sis. You’re a Weiss. Bad bitch up. You got this. I’m sure your head chef will do everything in his power to help you make Heights Bites a success. Best restaurant Smoky Heights has ever had, that’s for sure. Not hard to take that title, you should nab it on day one.”
Lexi freezes up beneath her sister’s touch—or maybe her words—and rolls her spine until she’s upright again.
“Right.”
“We were just working out how to be a little more farm-to-table. Homegrown herbs, maybe some chickens to farm if I can find a little land for it,” I say.
“Ooh, yes, love!” Aurora is already out the door, but her words float back to us. “Can’t wait to try it!”
“You’re a real prick, ya know that?” Lexi mutters when we’re alone again.
“New York chef sets aside lifelong dream to come help struggling café in a small town, despite ungrateful manager’s constant barrage of failed insults. Not sure I’m the one coming off as a prick in this scenario.”
Lexi tilts her head to the side, thin nose scrunched up. “Mmm, I wouldn’t call it a café. It’s always been more of a diner.”
“Over my dead body are we calling it a diner.”
Those coffee brown eyes light up. “Is that all I have to do? Off you and all this is over?”
“Knowing you, Boss, you’re more likely to get off on me. But I’m game for anything you wanna try, bella.”
It’s hard not to gloat when her cheeks pinken, but I manage to bite my smug smile back when she changes the subject.
“What lifelong dream?” She makes it sound like an insult, and my cock thickens at that tone from her.
My hands illustrate the signage I can see when I close my eyes. Metal and glass, with natural wood accents. “Salt + Spice. Executive Chef Wilder Amante.”
“Sounds like the kind of restaurant that should be in New York.”
One shoulder lifts and falls. “I always thought so.”
Uncrossing her leg, she’s quick to wag a finger at me. “Oh my God, do not pull that sad puppy dog shit on me, Chef. I will not feel sorry for you. You’re the one ruining my life by being here, not the other way around. Let’s get that straight right now.”
“And here I thought I was helping you live out your dream.”
“My dream is to continue my family’s legacy of a chill diner that our town can always count on. Not some fancy pet project from someone who’s spent ten minutes here and thinks he’s too good for the Heights.”
“Heard, Boss. We can keep it simple.” I tilt my head once. “But the people here also deserve to be delighted by their evening meal, and they clearly have taste.” My head jerks toward the computer screen, and the poll results still up on it.
Before she can go off like a teapot all over again, I jump back in.
“I’m gonna help you with the shit you’re still learning. I’ll be your personal tutor. But you’re gonna let me take your original menu and make it a little better. Small changes for big flavor.”
She side eyes me but doesn’t stop me.
“Over time, I’ll throw some other ideas at you. All I want is for you to give me a chance here, Lexi. We both want this place to smash it. Let me help you get there.”
“I’ve been an assistant manager before, Wilder. I know what I’m doing.”
I raise my brow at her and let silence hang in the room.
We both know wherever she came from, it didn’t teach her everything she needs to know to run a restaurant. She’s out here doing her best, but she doesn’t have to do it alone.
After a few heavy beats, she clears her throat.
“Maybe there’s a few things I’m still learning.” Lexi shifts in her chair.
“I can help you,” I tell her. “We can work together, Lexi. It doesn’t have to be a war.”
“I think that’s enough for today, Chef,” she says, standing and straightening her clothes.
My eyes stay on her with every step she takes on her way out the door. The grin on my face spreads, ready to celebrate this as the victory it is. She’s not the type of woman who can lose face by saying yes. But she’s coming around.
Finalizing the menu design on the screen, I send it off to the local printer, and CC Lexi on the email.
The Heights isn’t ready for how great this place is about to be.