‘Well, now you can have something to refresh you at the same time. Don’t worry.’ He pressed one of two glasses of red wine into her hand.
Their fingers brushed as Scarlett automatically took the drink from him. She tried not to notice the warmth of his fingers, the familiarity of taking a glass from him. The quiet of the night around them or how it felt good to stand here with him, just the two of them. ‘Worry?’
‘About the expense.’ He gestured with his glass. ‘I’m not costing the restaurant money. A patron bought this whole bottle, had us uncork it, and then ended up leaving without touching it.’
‘Oh. Yes. Very good. Well, thank you for the drink.’ She said it rather assertively and took a sip. Scarlett would not reach for the ribbon in her hair. It was navy blue this evening, velvet and soft and…comforting.
Not reaching.
Don’t need to feel comforted.
Doing just fine holding up all by myself.
Not tempted by Lorenzo, either.
Totally not thinking about being kissed by him and how that one brief kiss only made me want—
Nothing. Scarlett wanted nothing from Lorenzo aside from good cooking. ‘I thought you’d be in the kitchen. Has the clientele eased off already?’
‘Not only has it eased off, the evening is over, Scarlett.’ He sipped from his own glass of wine.
‘Really?’ Scarlett’s gaze dipped to the strong column of his neck, to the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed the rich red.
What was she doing? Letting herself enjoy Lorenzo’s company? Lorenzo’s words finally got through the fog of what she decided must be over-tiredness messing up her normal thought patterns.
Scarlett frowned. ‘Has the restaurant closed?’
‘Yes. It’s just as well I check the building thoroughly before I leave. You might have ended up spending the night out here.’ He leaned one arm against the railing that edged the terraced area. ‘Did you even eat the meal I sent in to you earlier?’
‘I did. Thank you.’ Every day Lorenzo made sure she ate. He took care of her that way, even when she had her head down for hours and hours, like today. ‘I want to get Rosa into a truly successful position and keep the restaurant there.’
‘You’ve implemented changes, and smoothed ruffled feathers of various staff members when necessary.’ He sipped his wine again. ‘Bringing staff conditions into a more sensible place has to be a good start.’
‘A good start, yes, but it’s not going to be enough.’ Working on the books had made that abundantly clear. ‘We need to lift our client base and keep it lifted.’ She didn’t notice the change in her speech from ‘I’ to ‘we’.
As the days passed, Lorenzo had worked quietly to support her efforts. And somehow through that, Scarlett had started to trust him and rely on him.
Only as the head chef here. Well, as the assistant manager and head chef.
‘I’ve stopped you from going home. I’m sorry. I lost track of the time.’ That had happened while she turned her mind inside out trying to find a larger overall solution to Rosa’s financial issues.
Now all Scarlett could register was Lorenzo’s closeness. She had to pull herself together!
‘Maybe you should tell me what brought you out here in the first place.’ He said it as an invitation, not a challenge.
And Scarlett found herself responding. ‘I have to find a way to let the general public know the true value of Rosa.’ She let her gaze meet his in the dimness.
His eyes gleamed with interest in what she was saying, but there was more, too, and Scarlett went on a little breathlessly.
‘There has to be a way to make Rosa stand out against a neighbour like the glitzy, internationally flavoured Sorella.’ She had sent out a feeler for one idea that might help.
Scarlett would have elaborated on that.
But he chose that moment to lay his hand on her arm. ‘If there is any other way I can help—I can work longer hours—’
‘You already give of your time and don’t claim the overtime you should.’ This was also something that had bothered Scarlett. Of all the staff that Rosa employed, Lorenzo was the one who should be paid more.
She tried not to react to the knowledge of his hand against the bare skin of her arm, tried not to want more of his touch. Yet when he finally dropped his hand away, she missed it.
‘That’s not important at the moment.’ He turned his head away, almost as though her comprehending his generosity had embarrassed him.
‘You—you made us some money catering to that movie star for her special lunch.’ Oh, Scarlett wanted to rest her hand against his arm, to touch him and feel his warmth.
‘Maybe we need to find a way to bring Hollywood to Rosa’s front door.’ He smiled a little as he said it.
‘Yes, why not? We’ll move the entire tinsel town here. Do you think anyone would notice it had gone missing?’ Scarlett returned his smile. They fell silent and finished their wine and…he was so close. She could smell the scent of his cologne, and old memories suddenly got all tangled up with the here and now.
She dropped her gaze away from him. The goal that had been to think about the future of Rosa and see if a break from the office would rattle loose any other ideas inside her mind faded in the face of her awareness of him.
Why was Lorenzo different from any other man? Surely, lots of men could kiss her and make her feel the same way he did. Or even better. Not that Scarlett had kissed a whole lot of men in the past years, and not that any of the candidates she had kissed had stacked up.
She’d been busy building her career. For that reason she hadn’t involved herself in a great amount of dating.
And so what if none of them had swept her away?
These thoughts were not productive, especially at this time of night when she was obviously weary and not able to think clearly.
‘Has it been hard for you, Scarlett? Coming back like this?’ He turned and somehow their fingers were brushing, just gently touching on the railing. ‘You seemed unhappy when I first saw you today at the swimming pool with your sister and Isabella.’
‘I didn’t think you’d see.’ What had he seen? She searched his gaze, and somehow in the dim quietness the words came out. ‘It’s no secret now, that Jackie had a daughter a long time ago. What most people wouldn’t know is that I all but single-handedly separated them back then. This afternoon at the pool, when Jackie was talking about Kate, I felt guilty for the way I’d hurt her.’
Scarlett felt emotion clog her throat, and she was appalled. She shouldn’t have let this out. ‘You mustn’t say anything to anyone. That’s…’
‘Your business, and Jackie’s business.’ He shook his head. ‘I won’t say anything. I…understand about secrets.’
Until he said those words, Scarlett had thought he might pull her into his arms, hold her, and perhaps try to kiss those painful emotions away.
She would have let him.
In fact, somewhere deep inside she admitted she might even have wanted that.
But his admission about secrets hung between them, a thinly veiled reference to his past marriage.
‘Well, I’m being a bit dramatic all of a sudden.’ Scarlett made as light of things as she could manage. ‘I shouldn’t have brought