Kitabı oku: «The Chef's Choice / The Boss's Proposal», sayfa 5

Chapter Six

It was difficult, Cady discovered, to avoid thinking about someone when the person you were trying to avoid thinking about was always around. It was even worse when they popped up in your dreams. She could try all she wanted to forget; she could tell herself she wanted no part of him.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss.

She’d always told herself she was different, worn it like a badge of honor, but when she remembered the feel of his mouth on hers, her legs got weak. And that was no way to be feeling with the leg weakener nearby.

She knelt at one of the flower beds on the back side of the inn, setting out marigolds as quickly as she could. Behind her, closer than she liked, lay the restaurant. And Damon. She’d put off planting this particular bed as long as she could. Now, she flipped a pony pack over in her hand, hurrying to finish. The last thing she wanted to do was to run into him, with that low, persuasive voice and that killer smile.

The worst part of it was that she couldn’t really blame the kiss on his smile. She could have stopped him if she’d really wanted to. She hadn’t. He’d been right that day in the greenhouse; they’d both been wondering about it. And if she’d been awash in nerves when he’d approached, she’d been awash in anticipation, too.

Making a noise of frustration, Cady picked up another pony pack. The problem was that her workdays were largely physical. Normally, that suited her to a T because she was largely physical, too. Now, though, it merely provided her with way too much time to think.

About Damon. About the kiss. And about all of the other things she was missing.

Her hands slowed. What would it be like to have him touch her, really touch her? What would it be like to have those strong, nimble hands on her skin? She’d had so little experience—kisses with a few men, a pair of memorably disappointing encounters in bed. How would it be with a man who knew about pleasure? And if he could take her so far with a kiss, what else could he do?

The back of her neck prickled and she reached back to rub it absently. Bad question to ask. It was pointless—dangerous, more like—to think about sex or anything else with Damon Hurst. Like a deer trying to have a relationship with a hunter, and she wasn’t the one wearing the camouflage vest. He was here and gone, and she needed to remember that.

Cady rubbed her neck again and shifted uneasily. The prickling hadn’t gone away. Even though it was a cloudy day, even though she was working under the shade of the tall pines that grew between inn and restaurant, the back of her neck felt hot.

Just her imagination, Cady told herself. But she couldn’t keep from glancing over her shoulder.

Only to see Damon in his apron, leaning idly against the wall by the back door. He looked tall, lean, insouciant. His teeth flashed white as he tapped the side of his fingers to his forehead in a mock salute. Face flaming, she turned hastily back to her marigolds.

It had been going like that all week. The more she tried to avoid him, the more he was everywhere she looked. No matter how early she dropped in to work the grounds or tend the greenhouse or get supplies for her workday, she always seemed to run into him. He’d be heading into work or coming back from the farmers’ market or taking a break from the heat of the kitchen, but he’d be there.

The fact that she’d been able to avoid talking to him so far was scant comfort. She could read it in his eyes as he nodded or winked or gave one of those half-assed salutes: he hadn’t forgotten. He was just biding his time.

The thought made her stomach tighten.

Enough, she thought impatiently and pressed another marigold into place, using her knuckles to tamp down the earth around each plant. She didn’t need to think about it anymore. What she needed to do was—

A thump and a curse from one of the guesthouses had her glancing over. It was her father, carrying one of the inn’s Adirondack chairs up the stairs to the guesthouse deck, and not having an easy time of it.

She frowned as he stopped halfway up, leaning on the railing, breathing hard. “Dad?” she called, rising to her feet. “You want some help?"

She didn’t wait for the answer but jogged over anyway. By the time she got there, he was standing again and waving her away. “Everything’s fine, hon. I was just catching my breath. This fool cold I’ve had just won’t go away.” He wiped his forehead.

She caught hold of the bottom of the chair and began carrying it up with him. “Don’t you have someone who can do this?” She shook her head before the words were even out.

“Okay, dumb question, never mind. But seriously, maybe you ought to give it a rest. You don’t look so hot.”

“I’m fine,” he puffed. “I just need to kick this bug.”

“You just need to stop running yourself into the ground,” she countered. “Didn’t the doctor tell you that last week?"

“The doctor’s office is probably where I got the cold. I was fine until I went to see him."

“You probably had it already, you just didn’t have symptoms.”

“That’s what your mother says.”

“And if you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll never get over it,” Cady scolded.

“Your mother says that, too.”

“Lucky you, surrounded by adoring women.”

“Or women who think they’re always right.”

“That’s because we are right,” she said as they topped the stairs. “And one thing I’m right about is that you need to take a break."

“I’d better not. I’ve got to get these chairs out. Tomorrow’s Friday and we’re full up. First time all year.” He sank down on the Adirondack with a sigh. “I just need to sit down for a minute, that’s all."

“What you need is to take some ibuprofen and go to bed.” She bent over him worriedly, studying his pasty face. “I’m going to call Tucker. He and I can put the chairs out."

“Don’t bother him,” Ian protested. “He’s got the marina to worry about."

“I’ll help him push his boats around next week.” Straightening, she pulled out her cell phone.

Ring tones sounded in her ear and then there was a click. “Whadda you want?” Tucker demanded, but she could hear the grin in his voice.

“Is that any way to talk to your favorite cousin?” Cady asked.

“The one who never calls me unless she wants to ask a favor? That cousin?"

“You mean the cousin who comes to every one of your gigs, no matter how many Dave Matthews songs you insist on playing?” Tucker played bass on weekends in a local bar band that featured more enthusiasm than talent.

He gave an elaborate sigh. “All right, all right. What is it this time?"

“I need your help moving some deck furniture. Dad’s not feeling so good."

“I’m feeling fine,” Ian muttered bad-temperedly.

“He’s not feeling so good,” she repeated. “There isn’t that much to move. We could probably do it in half an hour if you’ve got the time."

“Be there in five,” Tucker responded without hesitation, hanging up. Over on the docks, she could see him leaving the marina kiosk in his work shirt and jeans.

“Everything all right?” a voice called and she glanced down to see Damon at the foot of the stairs.

Any nerves she might have felt were tamped down by concern. “Just calling in reinforcements,” she told him. Behind her, Ian shifted. “Don’t you move or I’ll call Mom,” she threatened, turning to give him a stare.

“Not one of you kids gives me any respect,” Ian complained.

“I know. You’re so maltreated,” she soothed, leaning in to kiss his forehead. “Now be quiet and rest. Better yet, go back to the house and lie down."

“I can’t do that. One of the waiters called in sick. I’ve got to fill in for him tonight and there’s way too much to get done before then."

“You’re not working anybody’s shift. I’ll take it.”

Ian snorted. “You hate waiting tables more than you hate working the front desk."

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” She flashed him a grin before turning for the stairs. “Besides, I can use the tips."

Damon was waiting for her when she reached the bottom. “He okay?"

Her smile faded. “Just a cold that’s coming back,” she said. “He tries to do too much sometimes. It happens when your job description includes everything."

Damon glanced over at the array of slatted wooden chairs and snack tables outside the storage shed. “Where are all those going?"

“On the decks of the guesthouses.”

“Lotta stairs,” he observed.

“You’ve noticed that?”

“I guess maybe you could use some help.”

“Speaking of jobs, shouldn’t you be in slinging hash?”

“I get time off for good behavior,” he told her.

“I’ll skip pointing out the obvious because we need to get these chairs out,” she said. “If you’re serious about the offer, we need two chairs on each deck, plus a snack table."

“You outsourcing my job?” Tucker demanded from behind her.

Cady rolled her eyes. “In case you two haven’t met, Damon, this is my cousin Tucker McBain, who runs the marina. Tucker, this is Damon Hurst, the new chef at the restaurant."

Tucker had sun-streaked brown hair and the easy grin of a man who spent his life on the water he loved. He also had the McBain height that only Cady had somehow missed inheriting. It gave him an appearance of lankiness that was deceptive; a person who looked carefully would see the muscle and power Tucker had developed over years of running the marina and working his lines of lobster pots. A person who underestimated him would be both foolish and sorry.

“Now she’s raiding the kitchen for conscript labor.” Tucker shook hands with Damon. “She’s out of control."

“Clearly.”

“So, you in on this gig?”

“Long as we finish it before dinner service starts,” Damon said.

“We’d better finish earlier than that,” Cady told them. “I have to go change."

Tucker raised a brow. “Jeans and a T-shirt not dressy enough for planting flowers?"

She wrinkled her nose at him. “I’ve got to fill in for one of the waiters during dinner tonight."

The two men stared. “You?” Damon asked.

“What about me?”

“Well, getting let loose on the unsuspecting general public, for one."

Her brows drew down. “Hey, it’s either me or Dad and he looks to me like he needs the night off."

“Uncle Ian knows about this?” Tucker shook his head. “He must be sick if he’s agreed."

“Can we just move the chairs, please?” Cady muttered.

Tucker grabbed a chair and hoisted it with a grunt. “What the hell are these things made of, iron?"

“Teak,” Cady supplied. “It’s heavy.”

“No kidding.”

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll take the chairs for guesthouse one, you guys can get guesthouse two."

Tucker eyed Damon. “She likes to run things.” “So I’ve noticed.”

Ignoring them, Cady carried a chair toward the stairs of a guesthouse. She stopped at the bottom step, eyeing the treads.

“Overambitious, too,” said Tucker, stepping around her with the chair he carried.

“Yep. And permanently cranky,” Damon added, neatly lifting the Adirondack out of Cady’s hands, ignoring her squawk of protest.

“You’re a good judge of character,” Tucker approved as they began climbing the stairs.

“It doesn’t take a genius and it doesn’t take long,” Damon said.

“You can talk about me like I’m actually here, you know.” Cady’s voice was testy as she carried up the little drinks table. “And I didn’t need you to carry that chair for me."

“You hear something?” Damon asked Tucker.

“Probably the wind in the trees.” Tucker reached the deck and set down his chair with a sigh of relief.

“Wind from somewhere,” Damon added.

“Funny, guys,” Cady said, scowling. “How’d you get to be so funny?"

“Just natural talent,” Tucker said modestly.

Chapter Seven

Hauling furniture wouldn’t have been his choice of a way to spend a couple of hours, Damon thought as he fired entrées for the staff meal, but all things considered, it hadn’t been bad. Not that he was happy to see Ian McBain sick, but schlepping chairs had been a good excuse to be outside. And to spend time with Cady.

He’d kept his distance after that afternoon in the greenhouse, in part to give her space, in part to give himself time to get his head together. He was supposed to be walking the straight and narrow now, not turning around to make the same mistakes with the same kinds of people. But Cady wasn’t quite like anybody he could think of, and he wasn’t at all sure that she was a mistake.

He finished up another plate and slid it across the steel counter under the overhead shelf to the pass where waiters picked up plates. The servers were beginning to crowd around

like cats at the sound of a can opener. Even as they were filling the butter dishes for the bread baskets and topping off salt, pepper and cream containers, they could smell the food. They knew the staff meal was near.

Staff meal or family meal was traditionally a haphazard exercise in turning leftovers and scraps not fit for diners into something vaguely edible to keep floor and kitchen staff going through service. Damon had never subscribed to that approach, though. In France, Descour had always served family meal at the table, with plates and napkins and real food. Treat the staff right and they’ll treat the customers right, was his theory. A good one. And Damon had carried it out ever since.

Of course, that didn’t mean that family meal couldn’t double as the waiters’ meeting and tasting. Especially now, when he was shifting the old menu over to the new one by a half-dozen dishes a night. The servers needed to taste the new entrées and appetizers, see how to place them on the table, know the ingredients and presentation so they could answer questions, if necessary.

With a quick flick of the wrist, he drizzled brilliant green chive oil around the last plate and pushed it over to the pass. “Okay, listen up, people. We’re still in the process of changing over the menu. Tonight, we’re launching the new seafood—“

And then Cady walked in and his train of thought didn’t just derail. It went right off the damned trestle.

He’d seen her already that day, watched her in her worn jeans and T-shirt as she’d planted flowers, moved furniture. Watched her and tried not to remember how she’d felt in his arms. But the woman who walked in wearing the uniform of white tuxedo jacket and narrow black skirt bore no resemblance to that Cady at all.

Slender, he’d no idea she was so slender. Perhaps it was the formal clothing, but she looked graceful, taller somehow. The skirt was far from short, almost demure, and yet it seemed almost indecent as it revealed a pair of startlingly lovely legs. She’d drawn her hair back with combs. There was a delicacy to her face, he saw now, one he’d never fully appreciated. Her mouth looked soft and tempting beyond all sense.

She’d kissed him with those lips, kissed him and gasped against him and spun his world right around. And though he could tell himself that he shouldn’t have done it, he wasn’t a damned bit sorry. And, he realized, he had every intention of doing it again.

Regardless of the consequences.

He cleared his throat. “Right. Let’s talk about the new entrées for tonight."

You didn’t grow up around an inn like the Compass Rose without learning every aspect of the business—whether you wanted to or not. Working in the restaurant might have been Cady’s least favorite activity, but she’d bussed and even waited tables from the time she’d been sixteen.

So she put on the white shirt and bow tie and the tuxedo jacket in preparation for her shift. If she added lipstick and actually took a few minutes to fuss with her hair, it had nothing to do with seeing Damon. She was merely being professional, she told herself, nerves roiling her stomach as she walked into the kitchen. But the little buzz of purely female satisfaction she felt when he gave her the double take had nothing to do with professionalism.

It was strictly personal.

Given her choice, Cady would have skipped family meal. Showing up two hours before the start of dinner service ate up precious time and she didn’t trust herself around Damon any more than was absolutely necessary. Her parents had insisted, though. And now, as she stood at the end of the line and stared at the plates, she understood why.

Things had changed—the menu, for one. Gone were many of the dishes that the Sextant had served for decades. Those that remained had been reinterpreted—the baked New England dinner of seafood covered in bread crumbs had morphed into pan-seared scallops with brioche minicroutons and lemon beurre blanc, for example. And to the delight of the servers, Damon was serving the plates for family meal.

Fancy plates, Cady saw, arranged like sculptures, painted with color. Pretty enough, but it was the incredible smell wafting up from them that had her mouth watering. Of course, it had the same effect on the crowd of floor staff currently digging in with forks and knives.

“Alfred, for chrissakes, that was my hand, not the veal,” complained a tall blonde named Sylvia.

“And here I was going to tell Chef that the meat wasn’t tender,” stocky Alfred returned, shoveling a bite of roasted potatoes into his mouth. “Now I understand."

Amused, Cady looked up, only to catch the eye of the chef in question.

“I knew you couldn’t stay away,” Damon singsonged under his breath as he walked past her to the line.

“I’m only here because I’m working,” she shot back.

“Well, if you’re going to be working, you’d better get in there and try the entrées. How else are you going to be able to answer questions?"

“No thanks,” she said, glancing over at the clutch of waiters. “I’d like to keep my fingers just the way they are."

Damon turned to the oven behind him and pulled out a ramekin. He pushed it over to Cady. “Here."

She poked at it suspiciously with a fork. “What is it?”

“Something I made special when I heard you were coming. Fresh-made penne with a truffled asiago and fontina béchamel.” His lips twitched at her blank stare. “Macaroni and cheese."

Tentatively, Cady took a forkful, and put it into her mouth. And pure bliss flooded through her. Tangy cheese, silky cream, an addictive hint of earthiness. “Oh my God,” she mumbled, reaching out for more. “This is incredible.” In the midst of taking another bite, she glanced over at Damon.

And felt a flare of heat that had nothing to do with the food.

He was watching her again with that naked hunger in his eyes. She held the fork but he was the one who looked starved—and she was the main course. He stepped closer to her, his gaze never wavering.

“You think I can make your mouth happy now,” he murmured into her ear, “just wait."

She swallowed. “Dream on.”

“Remind me to tell you what’s been happening in my dreams lately,” he said softly. “I think you’ll find it very interesting."

There were glints of gold in those dark eyes, she realized as she stared back helplessly, like sparks at midnight. And his mouth had been so soft. Nearby, the rest of the staff were oblivious, but the feeding frenzy was beginning to die down. She moistened her lips. “This isn’t the place or the time."

“Give me another place and another time, then.”

“Later,” was the best she could do. “Right now, we need to worry about dinner service."

“And later we’ll worry about something else.”

The dining room, with its broad sweep of windows looking out over Grace Harbor, had always been one of her favorite places at the inn. Antique maps of the Maine Coast dotted the pale blue walls, rugs covered the wide-planked maple floors. Atop each snowy-white tablecloth sat a glass storm lantern with a flickering candle. Outside, the sailboats in the marina bobbed on water stained gold by the last rays of the setting sun.

It had been a while since she’d waited tables. She’d forgotten just how exhausting it could be. By the end of the first hour, she’d discovered that her new black shoes pinched; by the second, she’d managed to punch a hole in her finger with the corkscrew. By the third, her arms were leaden from carrying heavy plates.

It could’ve been worse—at least the servers didn’t have to haul the meals from kitchen to table. That honor fell to the runners, who carted the heavy trays of dishes out to a station in the dining room where Cady and the other waiters delivered them to waiting diners. Not that the arrangement had kept her from burning herself on a plate that had been broiled under the salamander a little too long. All things considered, though, she’d probably gotten off easy.

“Waitress, over here.”

Or maybe not.

She turned to see a disgruntled-looking man waving at her from a table in the corner. The flesh of his neck spilled over his collar; his comb-over didn’t hide the pink shine of his scalp. The hint of embarrassment in the face of his companion across the table warned Cady that it wasn’t his incipient baldness that had made him unhappy, though.

She gave him her best smile. “How are your meals?” she asked.

“Terrible.” The man’s face was dark with displeasure.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“I ordered fois gras glazed tenderloin, medium well. It’s not glazed, it’s all dried out, including the meat."

Cady glanced at the plate. “It looks right to me, sir. That’s the way the dish is made."

“Well, that’s not the way it sounds from the description. You can’t serve meat dry like this. It needs some kind of a sauce."

Perfect. Cady could just imagine walking into the kitchen and delivering that particular bit of news to Damon. She’d wind up with the plate launched at her head, if she weren’t careful. Or the customer tossed into the parking lot.

“I think it’s dry because you asked for medium well, sir. I did warn you that this cut of meat is very difficult to cook anywhere past medium. The chef recommends that if you want something more well-done, you order the rib eye.”

“If I’d wanted the rib eye, I would have ordered the rib eye,” he said peevishly. “Iordered the tenderloin."

“But, sir—”

“No buts. I want it sent back.”

“Walter.” His companion looked embarrassed.

“I want my dinner,” he returned, obstinacy in the very set of his shoulders.

Cady sighed. “I’ll take it back, sir. It’ll just be a few minutes.”

Now this, she thought, had all the makings of a disaster.

During one renovation or other, a McBain had installed a double set of sliding doors between the dining room and the kitchen, separated by a vestibule. The arrangement insulated the dining room from the racket of the kitchen. It also gave Cady brief refuge before facing Damon with the unwelcome news that a customer had had the temerity to suggest that not only had they overcooked the tenderloin but that the very concept of the dish was faulty.

She took a deep breath and walked through the second set of doors.

The unbroken hot surface of the stove was festooned with steaming kettles of soup and boiling pasta water and what looked like dozens of sauté pans of sizzling meat and fish. On a shelf above the stovetop, dozens more clean sauté pans sat waiting, flanked on either end by salamanders for warming finished plates or adding a final broil.

In the lane between the stove line and the counter stood the trio of white-aproned line chefs. At the far end, quick-handed Roman manned the grill and deep fryer; in the middle was Rosalie, on veg and pasta; and nearest Cady, on sauté, stood Damon.

During Nathan’s tenure, the scene had been one of more than a little chaos, with insults and ribald jokes flying thick and fast above the sound of speed metal from the radio. Now, the room was almost eerily quiet. Gone was the music, gone was the sense of untidy confusion. In its place was a focused calm. The only voices were those of the expediter, Andy, reading off the orders as they printed out on the machine in the corner, and Damon repeating them.

The printer chattered. “One tenderloin, one salmon, two lobster,” Andy called out.

“One tenderloin, one salmon, two lobster,” Damon echoed.

Watching the group at work was a bit like watching a ballet because for all the quiet, the line was the scene of rapid, purposeful activity so synchronized it could have been choreographed. The cooks pivoted between stove and counter, passing plates to one another, saucing and garnishing, each of them working on three and four dishes simultaneously.

And as in a ballet, there was always one who was impossible to stop watching. Damon worked the end of the line in constant motion, bending, reaching, flipping, stirring, shaking a sauté pan with one hand while seasoning an entrée with the other. And, she swore, plating up with a third. There was a precision to his movements and more than a little grace, as though he were indeed going through the moves of a dance. He seemed totally absorbed in the process, bending over every plate as he worked with a swift, silent, almost ferocious concentration.

“Two scallop, veal medium rare, rib eye well,” Andy called out.

“Two scallop, veal medium rare, rib eye dead.” Damon reached to the shelf above the stove line for a trio of sauté pans, setting them on the stove to heat.

“One rib eye dead,” echoed Roman with a grin, slapping the cut on the grill.

Grabbing a cylindrical bain-marie from its simmering water bath, Damon ladled a sauce into a fourth pan and put it on a back burner to reduce. “Where are we at on table ten?” he asked, moving a sizzling pan of what looked like tenderloin from stovetop to oven.

“Ready on the rib eye, one salmon in the salamander, one on the grill,” Roman responded.

“Risotto’s done. One minute on the lobsters,” put in Rosalie, winding pasta around a meat fork to provide a bed for one of her lobster tails.

By the time she’d finished speaking, Damon had the veal seasoned and into the pan with the shallots to sear off. “Okay, stop where you are on the last order. Let’s focus on getting this eight-top out.” Reaching into one of the ovens, he pulled out two sauté pans, each with a piece of meat that was finished cooking. Lamb loin, Cady recognized.

He flipped the meat onto the cutting board and deftly sliced each loin into medallions, leaving them together like a sideways stack of poker chips. Even as he reached out, Rosalie passed him a pair of plates with mashed potatoes piled in one corner. He pulled a bubbling sauté pan of what looked like wine sauce from the stove and drizzled a circle onto each plate, then used his knife to lay the stack of medallions in the middle, pressing them gently over so that the perfect rounds of lamb lay against one another in the ring of red.

“Veg, Rosalie,” he said, sliding over the two plates so she could add the tiniest zucchini and yellow squash Cady had ever seen. Meanwhile, Rosalie had traded him her two lobster plates. With a squeeze bottle, he added a few precise dots of lemon butter sauce around the edges of each, adhering to some vision that only he could see.

Meanwhile, Andy the expediter was madly sprinkling sliver-thin parsley chiffonade over the lamb and risotto and sticking what looked suspiciously like fancy potato chips into the top of the mashed potatoes. He and Damon slid the plates across the counter to the pass.

Less than a minute had elapsed.

“All right, table ten up,” Damon called. “Let’s go, people. Hands on hot food.” He clapped his hands. The runners swarmed in.

Cady cleared her throat. “Chef?” she said.

Damon turned from adding knobs of butter to two of his sauté pans. He started to flash a smile. Until he saw the plate in her hands. “What’s that?"

“Fois gras glazed tenderloin from table four.”

“I can see that.” He flipped the veal. “The question is what is it doing back in the kitchen?"

This was the delicate part, she thought. Little was more irritating to a chef than having to interrupt the complicated dance of getting orders out the door to redo a plate he’d thought was safely gone. And when that chef was Damon Hurst, almost anything could happen.

“The customer isn’t happy. He says it’s too dry. He wants a sauce."

Damon’s eyes narrowed. “Table four, that was medium well, right?”

Cady nodded.

“Well, yeah, it’s dry. It’s been cooked to death.”

“I tried to suggest the rib eye, but he didn’t want to hear it.”

“Roman, toss this one in the Frialator,” Damon directed, slapping a new piece of tenderloin onto a sizzle platter and sliding it down the counter as if he were playing kitchen shuffleboard. “Set phasers for medium well."

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Roman grinned.

Damon turned back to the stove to get the veal in the oven and add scallops to the other two sauté pans. “Now what’s his sauce issue?"

“He says when he saw glazed, he wasn’t expecting a crust,” Cady said.

“Did you tell him that’s how the dish is made?”

“He didn’t want to listen to me.” “Maybe he’ll listen to me,” Damon said with an edge to his voice.

The printer chattered. “Three lobster, one scallop, two tenderloin medium, one lamb rare,” Andy read. “I don’t really think—”

“I’ve got to get some entrées plated,” Damon interrupted.

“But what do I tell him?” Cady asked desperately.

“Leave it to me. I know how to handle these kinds of idiots. Now go take care of your tables.” He turned away, hands already moving in a blur.