Chapter 2
Chapter Two
As soon as she started yelling, a smile twitched across his lips.
Myles Calhoun had known her for a very long time and he’d fully expected her to spin out when she saw him.
That was part of the reason he’d decided to bring out the plate of lemon tarts himself.
He’d always loved that feisty, fiery, temper of hers.
God she was still so beautiful when she was mad at him and he knew that shouldn’t make his heart race but it did.
He was a total sucker for a redhead, at least that’s what he’d tried to convince himself of for the past seven years.
But now, face to face with Lily Montcrief again, he knew that actually he was just a sucker for her.
She’d cut off the long, coppery locks he remembered and now sported a wavy shoulder length style that fit her well.
Other than that, she looked mostly the same as he remembered.
Her heart shaped face turned pink with her anger and those big, golden amber eyes of hers flashed with fury.
She wore an oversized sweatshirt emblazoned with the University of Oklahoma logo and basic black leggings that showed off her long legs, though he doubted she’d considered the male gaze, let alone his, when she’d gotten dressed.
Despite the years that had passed since he’d last laid eyes on her, he felt the same old urge to pull her against him and taste her full, pink lips.
He had to shake himself out of that fantasy and back into reality.
A reality where he’d broken her heart and she’d sworn to hate him forever…
and then he’d gone and given her even more reason to despise him by taking the job as chef at her family’s restaurant.
Because other than her parents, he knew better than anyone how she’d dreamed of taking over the kitchen at The Mont.
In elementary school when other kids were dreaming of being astronauts and cowboys, she’d told their teacher she was going to be a cook, just like her dad.
He could still remember her all dressed up for career day in her little white chef's hat and apron with a much too large mixing bowl on her hip. In fact, there was a photo of her from that day on the wall of The Mont, over near the entrance to the kitchen and he’d caught himself staring at it more than once since he joined the staff.
When they’d been in high school, it was all she’d talked about. While their classmates plotted and planned for their higher education and the job offers that would come after, Lily had steadfastly held onto the idea that she would take over the restaurant her father had started.
She’d spent all her free time at The Mont, in the kitchen, soaking in every bit of wisdom the chefs would share.
More than once, their date nights had turned into casual breaking and entering so that she could practice making the infamous lemon tart treats.
He could still remember the way she’d looked with flour on her cheek and a sparkle in her eyes as she made him taste test for her, and then the way he’d also tasted her until her lips were swollen from his kisses.
There wasn’t a single inch of this place that didn’t hold a memory of Lily for him.
He’d thought about her a lot over the last seven years and pretty much nonstop since he’d taken the job working at The Mont.
But he wasn’t delusional enough to believe Lily had given him even a moment’s consideration, not after what he’d done.
“Lily, please. Lower your voice. There are guests.” Her father stood and offered her his napkin to wipe herself off.
“Yeah, Lil. There are guests.” Myles smirked when her gaze whipped to him and she all but bared her teeth.
“Don’t call me that.” She snapped.
“What? Lil?” He raised an innocent eyebrow. “I always call you that.”
“You used to call me that.” She hissed and then held up a hand in a stop gesture. “No. You know what? I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to my father so you can shut up and walk away. You’re good at that last part from what I remember.”
“Lily.” Her mother put a warning in her tone but obviously her parents weren’t aware of what they were up against.
For them, Lily had always played the role of the perfect daughter. She’d been sunshine and rainbows. She’d been good grades and better manners. She’d only ever been a hothead with him… until now.
“Why are you both looking at me like I’m the problem here?
” Lily scoffed as she looked between her parents and then threw her hands up to motion at him.
“Clearly, this is the problem and don’t try to say you weren’t aware I’d have an issue with it because if that were true you’d have told me that he was working here. ”
“We weren’t keeping it a secret from you. It just…” Her mother looked at her father and he shrugged. She turned back to Lily, “It never came up.”
Lily spun on him again, bright eyes narrowing, “How long have you been working here?”
“Uh…” He hesitated, happy she’d forgotten her own rule that she wasn’t going to talk to him but unable to give her a coherent answer either.
“I’m assuming you didn’t start as the head chef considering when I left town you couldn’t make a grilled cheese without burning it.”
“Hey.” He grunted. “I never burned your grilled cheese. Only mine. I like it that way.”
“Yes, because clearly that’s the sign of a spectacular palate.” She turned back to her father. “Please tell me this is a very elaborate joke and someone is about to pop up and tell me this was all for the cameras.”
“Lily, sit back down so we can discuss this.” Her father sighed and since the older man had done so much for him, and Myles felt indebted to him for the chance he’d taken giving him a job, he couldn’t bite his tongue and let the guy take the full brunt of Lily’s anger alone.
“I started as a busboy and then moved up to a server. I started helping in the kitchen about eighteen months before Dave retired. I was only promoted to head chef four months ago when your father decided to take a step back from the daily duties.”
“Four months.” Lily stared at him for a long time and he could literally see the moment the fight went out of her, the understanding that this was real, that he’d hurt her, again, and this time he’d colluded with her parents to do it.
His chest ached when she pulled her gaze away and turned back to her father, her voice soft with resignation, “Four months? Really?”
Her father sighed again before moving his gaze over her shoulder to where Myles stood, “I’m sure you’re needed in the kitchen. Head on back.”
“You sure?”
“Nobody wants you here.” Lily snapped though there wasn’t nearly enough bite in it for it to hurt the way she intended.
“Go on.” Her father nodded.
“Okay. I have plenty to do with preparations for the Turkey Trotters Feast of Champions and the door to door deliveries but if you need me...”
Lily gaped at him, “You’re in charge of the two biggest events the restaurant hosts?”
“That’s kind of what head chef means.” He shrugged before turning to head back into the kitchen.
Myles could feel the heat of her angry gaze on his back as he headed for the swinging doors down the side hallway.
Good. He would take her anger over her resignation any day.
He knew how to handle her anger, was familiar with it.
What he didn’t like was seeing the way the sparkle in her dimmed and knowing he’d been the cause of it. Again.
He’d hurt her once before, disappointed her, let her down, and she’d walked away from him and then stayed away for years.
Even when she’d visited from college, she’d actively avoided him.
He’d only gotten a glimpse of her a handful of times, always from afar, and he’d let her keep her distance because he knew he owed her that much.
But his position at The Mont changed things and while he’d known that she wouldn’t be happy to hear he was running the kitchen he had always imagined it would ultimately be the thing that brought them back together.
Instead, she’d looked as if she was ready to walk out of the restaurant and leave town for another seven years.
That thought unsettled him in ways he hadn’t prepared himself for when Alan had come in earlier and said Lily was on her way home and to start preparing all her favorite dishes.
“Hey, you okay boss?”
Myles blinked and realized he had stopped walking, standing next to that old photo of Lily dressed up for career day.
Diego, one of the young busboys, was staring at him as if he’d asked him the question more than once.
Myles realized he was taking up the walkway and his apron was covered in remnants of the spilled lemon tarts.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat and tried to sound like he wasn’t spiraling over a girl, “I dropped a dessert tray. Can you…”
“That’s where I was headed.” Diego nodded to the cleaning bucket he was pushing and Myles felt even stupider than he already did because he hadn’t noticed it.
“Thanks.” He stepped aside and let the kid pass before physically giving himself a good shake and muttering under his breath, “Get it together, Calhoun.”
He pushed through the swinging doors into his kitchen and wasn’t surprised in the least to see half his team standing around in small groups gossiping, probably about him and that scene in the front.
Kim, one of the older women who had been employed at The Mont for as long as he could remember, stepped away from her spot and offered him a rag.
The look of pity on her face said it all so she didn’t even have to utter a word as she turned to go back to work.
“Didn’t go how you thought it was going to, did it?”