Customer response to the lunch menu was astounding. Dani took no credit for the new offerings and referred comments and compliments to him. Still, she was in the spotlight everywhere he went. Customers loved her. The waitstaff deferred to her. Her smile lit the dining room. Her laughter floated on the air. And he was glad when she said goodbye at the end of the day, if only so he could get some peace.
Monday morning, he arrived at the restaurant and breathed in the scent of the business he called home. Today would be a good day because Dani was off. For two glorious days he would not have to watch his words, watch where his eyes went or control hormones he didn’t understand. Plus, her having two days off was a great way to transition his thoughts away from her as a person and to her as an employee.
And who knew? Maybe Allegra would work so well as a hostess that he could actually cut Dani’s hours even more. Not in self-preservation over his unwanted attraction, but because this was a business. He was the boss. And the atmosphere of the restaurant would go back to normal.
As Emory supervised the kitchen, Rafe interviewed two older gentlemen for Dani’s job. Neither was suitable, but he comforted himself with the knowledge that this was only his first attempt at finding her replacement. He had other interviews scheduled for that afternoon and the next day. He would replace her.
Allegra arrived on time to open for lunch. Because they were enjoying an unexpected warm spell, he opened the windows and let the breeze spill in. The scents of rich Tuscan foods drifted from the kitchen. And just as Rafe expected, suddenly, all became right with the world.
Until an hour later when he heard a clang and a clatter from the dining room. He set down his knife and stormed out. Gio had dropped a tray of food when Allegra had knocked into her.
“What is this?” he asked, his hands raised in confusion. “You navigate around each other every day. Now, today, you didn’t see her?”
Allegra stooped to help Gio pick up the broken dishes. “I’m sorry. It’s just nerves. I was turned away, talking to the customer and didn’t watch where I was going.”
“Bah! Nerves. Get your head on straight!”
Allegra nodded quickly and Rafe returned to the kitchen. He summoned the two busboys to the dining room to clean up the mess and everything went back to normal.
Except customers didn’t take to Allegra. She was sweet, but she wasn’t fun. She wasn’t chatty. A lifelong resident, she didn’t see Italy through the eyes of someone who loved it with the passion and intensity of a newcomer as Dani did.
One customer even asked for her. Rafe smiled and said she had a day off. The customer asked for the next shift she’d be working so he could return and tell her of his trip to Venice.
“She’ll be back on Wednesday,” Rafe said. He tried to pretend he didn’t feel the little rise in his heart at the thought of her return, but he’d felt it. After only a few hours, he missed her.
AND SHE MISSED HIM.
The scribbled notes of things she remembered her foster mother telling her about her Italian relatives hadn’t helped her to find them. But Dani discovered stepping stones to people who knew people who knew people who would ultimately get her to the ones she wanted.
Several times she found herself wondering how Rafe would handle the situation. Would he ask for help? What would he say? And she realized she missed him. She didn’t mind his barking. He’d shown her a kinder side. She remembered the conversation in which he’d told her about his family. She loved that he’d taken her suggestion about a lunch menu. But most of all, she replayed that kiss over and over and over in her head, worried because she couldn’t even remember her first kiss with Paul.
Steady, stable Paul hadn’t ever kissed her like Rafe had. Ever. But he had qualities Rafe didn’t have. Stability being number one. He was an accountant at a bank, for God’s sake. A man did not get any more stable than that. She’d already had a life of confusion and adventure of a sort, when she was plucked from one foster home and dropped in another. She didn’t want confusion or danger or adventure. She wanted stability.
That night when she called Paul, he immediately asked when she was returning. Her heart lifted a bit hearing that. “I hate talking on the phone.”
It was the most romantic thing he’d ever said to her. Until he added, “I’d rather just wait until you get home to talk.”
“Oh.”
“Now, don’t get pouty. You know you have a tendency to talk too much.”
She was chatty.
“Anyway, I’m at work. I’ve got to go.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Call me from your apartment when you get home.”
She frowned. Home? Did he not want to talk to her for an entire month? “Aren’t you going to pick me up at the airport?”
“Maybe, but you’ll probably be getting in at rush hour or something. Taking a taxi would be easier, wouldn’t it? We’ll see how the time works out.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“Good. Gotta run.”
Even as she disconnected the call, she thought of Rafe. She couldn’t see him telling his almost fiancée to call when she arrived at her apartment after nearly seven months without seeing each other. He’d race to the airport, grab her in baggage claim and kiss her senseless.
Her breath vanished when she pictured the scene, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She really could not think like that. She absolutely couldn’t start comparing Paul and Rafe. Especially not when it came to passion. Poor sensible Paul would always suffer by comparison.
Plus, her feelings for Rafe were connected to the rush of pleasure she got from finding a place in his restaurant, being more than useful, offering ideas a renowned chef had implemented. For a former foster child, having somebody give her a sense of worth and value was like gold.
And that’s all it was. Attraction to his good looks and appreciation that he recognized and told her she was doing a good job.
She did not want him.
Really.
She needed somebody like Paul.
Though she knew that was true, it didn’t sit right. She couldn’t stop thinking about the way he didn’t want to pick her up at the airport, how he’d barely had two minutes to talk to her and how he’d told her not to call again.
She tried to read, tried to chat with Louisa about the house, but in the end, she knew she needed to get herself out of the house or she’d make herself crazy.
She told Louisa she was going for a drive and headed into town.
* * *
Antsy, unable to focus, and afraid he was going to royally screw something up and disappoint a customer, Rafe turned Mancini’s over to Emory.
“It’s not like you to leave so early.”
“It’s already eight o’clock.” Rafe shrugged into his black wool coat. “Maybe too many back-to-back days have made me tired.”
Emory smiled. “Ah, so maybe like Dani, you need a day off?”
Buttoning his coat, he ignored the dig and walked to the back door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
But as he was driving through town, he saw the ugly green car Dani drove sitting at the tavern again. The last time she’d been there had been the day he’d inadvertently insulted her. She didn’t seem like the type to frequent