Chapter 30
THIRTY
WILDER
Three weeks later
Spending the one day a week the restaurant is closed at Heights Bites isn’t unusual for me. Especially not since becoming a co-owner of the place.
It’s the quietest time for Lexi and I to get together and plan the week, go over the specials, and the boring shit like operational issues. It’s also proven to be the best time to relive a few of our first hookups.
Mixing business and pleasure has become a winning recipe for us both.
But this blindfold over my eyes is a first.
She has me seated in the dining room, hands in my lap, eyes covered, as she gets out my “surprise.”
My imagination needed no time at all to run wild with those possibilities.
I’ve settled on the most likely one. Her curves, covered in something sweet and sticky. Sprawled out on a table for me to clean.
Not a bad Monday, if you ask me.
“Okay, Chef,” she purrs in that throaty tone of hers. “Are you ready?”
“Never not ready for you, bella,” I answer truthfully.
A slight breeze tickles my face, and then her fingers are working the knot on my bandana, removing it as my blindfold.
Every part of me is ready for whatever this surprise is, hands ready to pounce, tongue ready to strike. But she isn’t naked. There’s no food in sight.
Instead, Lexi steps out from behind me, to one side of the table, a nervous look on her face, like she’s waiting.
Confused, I look her up and down, and then follow her line of sight to the table in front of me.
A menu is lying there.
Laminated, half the size of a poster, the menu takes up a good chunk of the table.
“The printer’s options make no sense, do they?” I ask Lex.
“They really don’t.” She stamps a foot in agreement.
Picking up the giant thing, my eyes scour to see what it is she’s waiting for me to register.
“Heights Bites,” I read out. “Locally sourced eats. Ask about our daily specials.”
That’s new.
“The new logo looks good,” I muse.
“What else?” she prods.
I put the menu down and let my eyes feast on her instead. “You look good,” I tell her in a low voice.
She blushes, reaching out to pull the menu back up and block her figure from my sight. “We have to be at my sister’s office in fifteen minutes. Don’t start with that.”
“I could change your life in five,” I tell her, voice laced with promise.
“Just look at the menu, Chef.” She sounds exasperated, and my dick likes when she gets worked up.
And calling me chef? She’s asking for it.
My eyes go back to the menu, so I can get back to her quicker, but they catch on a new column on the right side.
“Salt + Spice?” I read aloud.
Peering at her above the menu, she just nods, beaming at me in excitement.
“Is this what I think it is?” I ask her.
“Keep reading and see,” the brat tells me.
Problem is, my eyes are a little blurry right now and it’s not that easy.
“You read it to me,” I tell her, thrusting the menu at her.
“Salt + Spice at Heights Bites,” she obeys. “By Executive Chef Wilder Amante.”
I’ll never get tired of hearing those words out of her mouth. But seeing them on a menu? Che cazzo, it’s a wet dream.
“House-made pesto tortellini,” she reads off the title and a short description.
One that I’m ninety percent sure was in an email I sent her suggesting the dish months ago.
“Not your mama’s meatloaf,” she continues onto the next item.
“Are these my fucking dishes?” I ask, voice shaking.
She nods, but doesn’t stop reading them out, line by line, until she gets through every recipe I’ve ever suggested in this place.
Every single one that had been shot down.
All on the menu.
In our own restaurant.
I can’t form words.
She looks up from reading, this perfect woman who chose me, nervous at my silence. Lexi drops the menu back to the table.
“I know it’s not a fancy restaurant, but I think people will be excited to try your ideas, Chef.”
One arm flies out, sliding around her hips and yanking her into my lap without warning. She plops down with a squeal, but I steady her.
“Is it your turn to be speechless?” she asks, staring into my eyes. The way the light hits through the plate glass windows, flecks of green and yellow stare back at me in that sea of my favorite chocolate brown.
“You’re perfect,” I tell her, hands roaming, as I try to remember every detail of this moment.
She laughs, pushing my hands away and trying to stand up, but her smile is warm.
“We have to go,” she tells me, tugging on my hand, but I don’t move.
“Thank you for this,” I say, eyes flashing to the menu.
“Thank you for saving Heights Bites,” she says back.
“I didn’t save Heights Bites.” My head shakes in denial.
“You saved my ass,” she insists.
“It’s too good of an ass not to keep around. I just did what I could to help,” I tell her, launching from the seat to try to get my hands on said ass.
Lexi darts between tables, laughing louder than I ever remember hearing her, until her face goes serious, eyes heavy on mine. I slow to a stalk, closing the distance so I can capture her hands in mine, holding her close.
“You know that I love you, right?” she asks, voice uncertain.
“You’d better love me,” I purr at her, chest rattling. She freezes, not sure where I’m going, so I put her mind at ease. “Otherwise I’m fucked, with how much I love you.”
Her grin breaks out, lighting up my whole world.
This woman was worth every single thing it took me to get here and find her. My early mistakes, the dark years, my time in prison, it all led me to cooking, to Heights Bites, and to Alexis.
Keeping her as mine is going to be the thing I’m proudest of in this life.
Lexi places a delicate kiss to my lips, and pulls back before I can deepen it, tugging on my hand again. “Then let’s go see what Rory has planned next.”
I lose track of how many other locals greet us as we walk to Rory’s office. They stop us, and Lexi chats with them for minutes at a time, unhurried, and unbothered. Most gush about the restaurant, but Lexi asks about their kids, families, and careers for just as long.
A whole flock of elderly residents are piled up at either end of Main Street, one group by the drug store, the other at the hardware store. Like rival gangs with their territories. We wave to them both, exchanging distant greetings, until we’re finally able to slip inside the New Heights office.
Rory, Wyatt, Amelia, and Weston are already here. Four faces look up as the bell tinkles with the door opening.
“You guys made it,” Rory says.
“Duh.” Lexi sticks her tongue out at Rory, and both sisters smirk.
“We already finished packing up the commission,” Weston says, hip leaning on the nearest wall, arm behind his head.
“Sorry we missed it,” Lexi lies.
Amelia jumps in, shaking her head. “There wasn’t much. Rory had it all organized for us already. I think it took two trips to the truck.”
“Sounds about right,” I say with a nod. Roping an arm around Lexi’s neck, I hold her close to me.
“A fresh start,” Lexi muses, turning as much as she can under my arm to look at the office, empty of everything that used to be here except for the chairs, a single desk, and the huge picture hanging over it.
Rory moves closer, stepping out of Wyatt’s hold where his ass rests against her desk along the far wall. “The last three years has been better than I could’ve ever imagined,” she says.
“If you make me cry today, I swear to God—” Lexi starts, holding a finger out accusingly at her sister.
Rory wraps a hand around the finger with a sad smile and pulls her sister in for a hug. My arm drops back as she goes, and I watch. After a few quiet words, sniffs and giggles, the sisters pull back, still holding one another, but facing the rest of the room.
“For everything we all had to lose to get to this place,” Rory starts, eyes meeting each of ours for a beat before continuing. Mine, Amelia’s, Weston’s, Wyatt’s, and then hovering on her sister’s the longest. “Where we are now is so much sweeter because of it.”
Lexi throws her head back and sniffs loudly, and I hear a peep come from Amelia, too, but my eyes are locked on the woman I love.
Rory kisses her fingers and holds them out to the giant picture on the wall. “Love you, Mom. Thanks for bringing me back home.”
Lexi drops her head on her sister’s shoulder, both still staring at the woman who raised them. “Mom might have brought you home, but you’re the one who brought our family together.”
Rory hums before saying, “We both did.”
She holds an arm out for Amelia to join their hug, and snaps at the Grady brothers when they don’t join in.
“You too, bodega man,” Wyatt insists, looking right at me. “Guess I need to figure out a new name for you now.”
Coming up behind Lexi, I join in for a moment before everybody takes a few steps back, wiping their eyes and taking a deep breath.
“What now?” Amelia asks.
“That’s the best part,” Rory says, a gleam in her eye. “Whatever the fuck we want.”