Chapter 6
His compliment gave me a warm feeling inside and my lips curved a bit as I took in his appearance.
He had on the same black pants he’d worn to the memorial, but had added a new shirt, a tropical print camp shirt that had parrots flying over an orange sunset, the evening sky perfectly matching the color of my dress, so it looked like we’d planned our outfits to coordinate.
He looked casual, but with a confidence that said he knew it didn’t matter what he wore.
And, of course, it didn’t. He was handsome Jack Garcia.
He could wear bib overalls, and the ladies would swoon. I knew I would.
“You’re looking pretty dapper yourself, Jack.” I gave him a shy smile and picked up my clutch from the table. He offered me his elbow, and I threaded my arm through his and we went down to the restaurant.
The Desert Grill was a beautiful restaurant, dimly lit with flickering candles on every table.
The far wall was all windows overlooking the golf course where tiki torches flickered in the evening breezes.
The windows were open, letting in the warm evening air, lightly scented with creosote.
The walls were dark, polished wood, decorated with watercolor paintings of Arizona desert scenes.
There were booths and tables, sparsely occupied, and the hostess showed us to a section that had been reserved for our party.
A couple of tables had been pushed together to make a long table and most of the Luxe group was already there.
At the center of the table, Scott rose to greet us.
Two seats had been saved by him and Jack pulled out the chair next to Scott for me.
After helping me to scoot in my chair, he seated himself.
Scott had a big smile on his face, so I surmised that the dinner was going to be smooth sailing.
I hadn’t anticipated otherwise, but it was reassuring to see his good mood.
A quick look of the table told me that everyone else was drinking, so when our server, a young man whose name tag said Kevin, offered us the drinks menu, I ordered a white wine and Jack had a beer.
As our drinks were placed in front of us, PBD and Megan came in, rounding out our party.
PBD was already clutching a half-full glass of whiskey.
Or perhaps it was half-empty, and the other half was already turning PBD into a more boisterous version of himself.
They sat down at the far end of the table, giggling loudly.
The waitstaff placed menus in front of everyone.
We all perused the choices and I sighed at the thought of how much treadmill time I was going to have to put in.
It all looked so good. Heads bent together, Jack and I discussed our selections and settled on Mesquite Grilled Prawns with a green salad for me and a Grilled Rib-Eye Steak with a baked potato for him.
After everyone had placed their orders, I stood up and as everyone muted their conversations to whispers, I cleared my throat and smiled at the group.
“I’m so pleased that each of you could be here today.
We’ve all worked hard to get to this point, and I think this is going to be a vibrant, mutually beneficial partnership.
And I’d like to say a special thank you to Scott for being open to the invitation to partner with Duvier and for being such a pleasure to work with.
” There was a burst of applause. Scott was a well-liked and respected boss.
“That said, I’ll hand it over to Scott to give us an update on Luxe’s position.
” There was more applause as I sat down, and Scott stood up.
He beamed at the assembled co-workers. “First of all, I’d like to say a warm thank you to the lovely and gracious Eve Lambert.
She has been a gem to work with on the negotiations, tireless in working to find ways to make this partnership a success.
So, a round of applause for Eve!” A sustained burst of applause made me blush. Jack clapped loudly and grinned at me.
“This morning, we saw the final draft of months of negotiations, and we took the time today to scrutinize it, and I am pleased to announce that it looks great! Now it’s time to pass it off to the lawyers and for us to celebrate!
” A jubilant cheer rose up as Scott sat back down and everyone started clinking glasses.
The servers were quick to refill the glasses for toasts.
Jack touched my hand to get my attention and raised his beer bottle to clink with my wine glass.
His eyes sparkled and his smile lit up the room.
“To Eve,” he murmured. Scott heard him and leaned forward to talk to him.
“We haven’t forgotten about your offer, Jack.
We kicked the idea around a bit this afternoon and it has some exciting possibilities.
Be sure to give me your rep’s number and we’ll be in touch.
” He reached across me to shake Jack’s hand, smiling widely.
After he turned to talk to Natalie on his other side, I leaned toward Jack and said, “Only you could crash someone else’s business meeting and come away with a contract.” His answering grin told me that he was as amused as I was.
The food arrived, drinks were refreshed, and talk picked up around the table.
I leaned in to smell my prawns—garlicky, smokey, and buttery.
Before I had a chance to spear one with my fork, Jack leaned over and said, “Your prawns look amazing. I’ll trade you bites; steak for prawns.
” I scoped out his perfectly done steak and considered.
“What’s the steak to prawn trading ratio?” I asked, smiling.
“Bite for bite, of course,” he answered promptly.
“That doesn’t seem fair. You have a lot more steak than I have prawns. It seems like you’d come out the winner in that deal.”
“I can see you eyeballing my steak. Do you have a counteroffer, Eve?” he asked with a chuckle.
I considered for a moment. “One prawn for a bite of steak, plus a bite of your dessert.”
“No doubt about it, you are a tough negotiator. All right, I accept your offer.” And he reached over and speared a prawn off my plate and took a bite. I raised my eyebrows and tapped my fingernails on the table, indicating I was waiting.
His eyes rolled upward as he moaned. With his mouth full he managed to say, “Oh my gosh, you’ve got to taste this.
It’s amazing!” I shook my head at his foodgasm and took a bite of a prawn.
Oh, my word, he hadn’t been exaggerating.
It was heavenly. I closed my eyes to fully savor the flavor, trying to keep from emulating his moan.
When I opened my eyes, there was a fork with a bite of steak on it in front of my face.
“Put it on my plate, Jack. I’ll eat with my own fork, thanks.” It seemed awkwardly intimate to be sharing eating utensils.
He shook his head, his eyes crinkling up with suppressed laughter. He leaned in and whispered in my ear in a low voice, “Eve, we’ve slept together. I don’t think sharing a fork is going to be the undoing of you.”
Feeling a childish urge to stick my tongue out at him, but suppressing it because I’m an adult, I took the proffered fork and gently slid the steak bite off of it, my lips touching the tines as little as possible.
Jack laughed, “Honey, if there was a sexy way to eat a steak, that wasn’t it.”
I couldn’t stop myself. The tongue did come out, just a little. Childish? Yes. Deserved? Absolutely.
Jack groaned. “The fork might not be your undoing, but that tongue will be mine.”
Flustered, I turned away to change conversation partners. Jack was much too slippery to banter with. He had every advantage.
“Scott, how did you get into the spa business?” I asked.
Scott finished chewing a bite of his grilled salmon.
“I started out as a massage therapist. My school counselor told me it was a good entry job as I could start making money very soon after school, with relatively little tuition costs. And then, he said, I could make a decision to go on for further schooling and do something like nursing or be an EMT. That sounded good, so that’s what I did. ”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Well, let’s just say I always came home with interesting stories to share.”
“What’s your favorite story?” I asked. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Jack was leaning forward to get in on the amusement.
Scott took another bite of his dinner, chewed thoughtfully, and said, “I think that would have to be the time a client set my room on fire.”
“What? What happened?” I asked.
Jack chimed in. “Did you give a terrible massage, and he retaliated?”
Scott shook his head, took a sip of his drink, then told the story.
“I’d just started working at a small massage practice.
There were three massage therapists that rented rooms in an ancient office complex, and we shared a receptionist. My room was at the end of a hallway and was just big enough for a massage table, a small table for supplies, and a rolling chair.
There was a small end table beneath the window that was set up with votive candles, incense and a speaker for the standard massage New Age music. ”
Natalie and Phil were leaning in now, listening to Scott’s story.
“Well, the client must have had a cold or allergies. We were about halfway through the massage, and he started sneezing uncontrollably. He lifted his head up from the headrest and asked for a tissue. I handed him a couple to blow his nose. He blew, then he laid his head back down on the face rest and pitched the wadded-up tissue off to the side. I don’t know if he thought he was aiming for a trash can, or just didn’t care if it landed on the floor, but where it landed was on one of the lit candles.
It ignited and flames shot up, catching the window curtains on fire and the fire spread like crazy fast. I shrieked; he jumped up, wrapped the sheet around himself and waddled out as fast as he could.