Chapter 4
Chapter Four
When the bell over the back door sounded, Myles turned from the large schedule on the wall that he’d been updating and immediately had to suppress a groan.
Lily slipped into the small hallway that led into the kitchen and he found it hard to breathe.
She’d said she was going to go home and change but he hadn’t realized her mission in doing so was to drive him crazy.
Instead of the oversized sweatshirt and leggings, she now wore a fitted black t-shirt that hugged her curves and, for all he knew, could’ve been beneath the sweatshirt the whole time.
But she’d also switched out the leggings in favor of a pair of black and white checkered shorts that left miles of sexy leg on display.
She’d pulled her red mane into a high ponytail that swished as she walked towards him.
He had a flash of the teenage girl he’d never been able to forget and his body hardened despite his brain knowing it was a useless chemical reaction. This wasn’t his Lily. Not anymore. Not even if she still looked like the girl who he had known inside and out.
“Myles?” She snapped his name and from the way her lips pursed he thought perhaps it wasn’t the first time she’d spoken.
“Sorry, what?”
“I asked where you want me.”
He bit his tongue when his gut instinct was to grab her and pull her against him. That was where he wanted her. In his arms. Her body, tight against his. Her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist the way they'd been so many times when they were younger.
He shook away the memories and pointed to the chopping station, “Vegetables.”
Lily’s nose wrinkled and she snorted.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Lily…” He shrugged, “What?”
“I offer to come and help and you give me the job a child could do.” She sniffed as if it should’ve been obvious and moved to the station he’d set up for her.
“I wouldn’t let a child hold a knife so no, not really.” He deadpanned which earned him a glare.
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I’m not sure I do.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to go on the attack because even though this might not be the same Lily he’d known as a girl, she’d already proven she still had that feisty temper he remembered.
“Don’t play dumb. You’re smarter than you look, even with those ridiculous glasses.”
He smirked, “You like my glasses?”
“Do you actually need them or are they just for show? To make you look more authoritative?”
“Do you think they make me look more authoritative?” He lifted an eyebrow and she scowled at him.
“Stop that.”
“Stop what?”
“Turning everything I say back into a question.”
“Sorry, I figured if you could ask things I could too. Is that not the game we’re playing?”
Her eyes flashed, “This isn’t a game to me, Myles. This is my father’s restaurant. This was supposed to be my kitchen and instead I come home to find you’ve somehow snuck your way in here and stolen it from me.”
That got his back up and he shook his head, “That’s bullshit, Lil. I didn’t steal anything. I earned my spot here fair and square. You’re the one who left and didn’t come back.”
“You’re the one who made me leave!” She raised her voice and it took everything in him not to tell her the truth right then and there. “You and my parents practically pushed me out of town and now you’ve teamed up again.”
He took a deep, calming breath, “I don’t know what kind of conspiracy you think this is, but I can assure you I didn’t team up with anyone to hurt you, Lil.”
“No. You never mean to.” She hissed back at him. “But it just keeps happening.”
Myles ran a hand down his face and sighed, “You can hate me all you want but please, do it while you’re cutting vegetables so we don’t end up here all night, okay? We have a lot to do before tomorrow since all the sides need to be prepped and ready before we can start deep frying the turkeys.”
Lily’s eyes went wide, “You’re kidding me.”
“What?”
“You deep fry the turkeys?”
“Yes.” He confirmed and she rolled her eyes.
“Jesus, you’re turning my restaurant into the Beverly Hillbillies.”
“It’s not your restaurant.” He reminded her, “And what’s wrong with a deep fried turkey? Not fancy enough for you now that you’ve traveled the world?”
She huffed, “Turkeys should be glazed and baked, the way God intended.”
“Well, the good people of Compass Creek seem to like them fried.”
Myles could hear her muttering under her breath about him ruining her life but since she was chopping carrots like she wished it was his limbs under her knife, he let her be and went back to his own station.
He smiled to himself as they worked in silence.
There was a tension in the air that felt charged but he couldn’t say that he minded.
He was still such an idiot over the girl that just being close to her again made him happy.
He could remember all those nights they’d spent together in this kitchen and maybe he was a sap but he’d always hoped that someday she’d come home and they’d get the chance to be together like this again.
They worked in silence for a long while. Lily chopping. Him making dough for the pie crusts. They moved around one another without speaking but somehow, the kitchen seemed to be getting smaller and hotter by the second.
He slid past her to get more flour, a hand lingering on her hip a second longer than necessary.
She brushed by him on her way to get a large bowl for the vegetables and her breasts pressed momentarily against his back.
He couldn’t be sure if it was intentional on either of their parts but the outcome was the same either way.
He was losing his mind as the need to touch her, really touch her, went from a mild desire in the back of his mind to an urgent need that made his entire body hum with electricity.
“How’d you end up here?”
When her voice broke the silence he was so lost in his own unspeakable thoughts that he completely missed what she’d said, again, “Huh?”
“Jesus Myles. You got glasses. Are you sure you don’t also need a hearing aid?”
“I was focused on what I’m doing.” He growled. “And what is your fixation with my glasses?”
She chose to ignore his question, again, “Here, at The Mont. How did you end up here and get to be named head chef? I can’t figure it out, not when the last time we spoke you were joining up with one of the oilfield crews to be a landman or whatever.”
“It’s been seven years since we last spoke, Lil.” He ignored the slice of pain that came with those words. “A lot can change in that amount of time.”
“Clearly.” She shot a glance at him and motioned around the kitchen with the knife, “So… tell me about it.”
“What do you want to know?”
She sighed as if she’d expected him to just blurt out his life story, “Did you even join that oilfield crew you were so convinced you were destined for?”
“I did. Yeah.” He picked up the rolling pin again, “But it didn’t last long.”
“Fired?” She teased and he glanced up to see her lips curled into a small smile.
He chuckled, “Injured actually. I took a loose shaft to my left leg. Broke it so badly I nearly lost the damn thing.”
“Seriously?”
He glanced up to see her eyebrows were nearly at her hairline, “Yeah. It was bad. I was laid up for months. Had to go through a handful of surgeries. There’s some metal pins in there that’ll set off a security checkpoint and I still have a bit of a limp but it healed.”
Myles lifted the leg of his pants to show her the scars that crossed from his kneecap all the way down to his ankle and she gasped.
He knew it still looked bad and he could admit, at least to himself, that he may have wanted a little bit of her sympathy.
She put a hand to her mouth and shook her head so he dropped the pants leg back into place.
“I’m such a bitch.” She muttered and his lips twisted upwards.
“Sorry, what?”
“I noticed the limp. Earlier. I noticed and I thought you were trying to do some sort of swagger.” She winced a little and he laughed.
“You think I have swagger huh? Good to know.”
“I said I thought you were trying to have swagger.”
He only grinned at her, happy to be having what amounted to a fairly normal conversation with her again. He liked that their teasing banter was still there, the flirtatious glances too. Despite the years and what he’d done, he didn’t think she actually hated him, even if she wanted to.
“So you got injured on the rig and…” she prompted when she caught him staring at her for too long.
“And, I survived for a while on severance, damages, unemployment, that sort of thing, but it doesn’t go as far as you think it might.
” He shrugged. “I was living in an apartment and Dave was my neighbor. He took pity on me and started bringing me leftover food after the restaurant closed for the night. He’d stay and talk, give me some sort of human interaction, and when I got pissed about not being able to work, to even walk some days because of the pain, he started teaching me how to cook as a way to keep my hands and my head busy even if I couldn’t do much with my leg. ”
“Cooking became an outlet for you.” Lily smiled softly, “I think I told you once that it gives me peace.”
“Yeah, you probably did tell me that but I didn’t get it back then, not like I do now.
Cooking became my way of controlling things when life felt out of control for me.
As long as I knew my ingredients and my measurements, I knew what the outcome was going to be.
To be honest, Dave probably saved my life because I really don’t know what the depression would have done to me if he hadn’t given me this skill. ”
“Dave’s a good guy.”
“He is.” Myles agreed. “I miss him, even though I know he’s happy he was finally able to move down south to be closer to his grandkids.”
“I bet he is but it’s hard to imagine this place without him. He was as much a part of this place as my dad is in a lot of ways.”