“I hadn’t noticed that you were intellectually deficient.”
“To the contrary opinion, I’m not. But the consensus was that if I married at all, it would be to an equally air headed socialite or actress or model. Not a talented business woman.”
“I’m a jilted pie maker from Jersey. I’m pretty sure I’m the one who’s gotten the come-up.”
Alex merged onto the high street. It was the middle of the work day. Not quite lunch. So the roads were fairly tame. They’d be at their destination in under five minutes at this rate. He decreased the car’s speed to prolong the conversation. He wanted to ask Jan a touchy question.
“Speaking of the dead weight you left behind back in Jersey, mind telling me what happened with your ex?”
Jan stiffened in the seat next to him. Her legs went rigid as though she were pressing on the brake to stop the trajectory of the conversation. Or perhaps she was pressing on the gas to get away from him.
“I just think I should know as your current fiancé,” he hedged.
After a long pause, she shrugged. “We’re from the same neighborhood. Our parents all ran in the same social circles. It made sense that we would end up together, but he met a girl at summer camp one year and they were inseparable in high school. She left him after they graduated, and he came back home and settled for me.”
Alex wanted to question that single word; settled. Jan was a prize. Her skill alone would make them a success. But he kept his mouth shut, knowing the story wasn’t finished.
“When his true love came back, he dumped me on our wedding day and married her instead. At our actual wedding. My parents stayed and watched. Well, they’d paid for it, so I supposed they wanted to get their money’s worth.”
“You’re joking?”
She turned to him, pointing at her serious face.
“I’ll promise you this,” he said, putting the car in park and turning to face her. “When it’s time to break our engagement, you can do the honors. Embarrass me however you like. Take your worst revenge fantasy out on me.”
“Really? You’d do that for me?”
“Of course. We’re friends.”
Alex had been on the receiving end of a few exes of his own. Women were crafty when they were spurned. He saw that look in Jan’s eye now. But when she focused back on him, the devilish look melted away.
“I can’t do any of that to you,” she said, disappointment laced in her tone. “We’ll still be business partners.”
Part of Alex wondered what maniacal plan she’d dreamed up. The other part of him was truly scared. He decided to drop it. “Yes, we will, because this is going to be a success."
“I know it will.”
“We’re here.”
Jan turned from him and looked out the window. Her gaze widened impossibly large. Her mouth hung open. The pink flush returned to her cheeks.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yes,” Alex whispered, his gaze still on her. “It is.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jan’s pie shop had been sandwiched between a pizza parlor and a Chinese food place. Neither were upscale. Just the typical neighborhood haunts that locals would run into for a quick bite or a fast dinner. They often stopped into her shop for a quick slice of dessert to accompany their fast fare.
The place Alex had parked in front of was right on the high street. In fact, the street dead-ended, and the building was at the end of that cul-de-sac. It was not affixed to any of the other buildings. It stood proud and tall as though it never needed to lean on anyone or anything.
The little Alex had spoken of the building he’d led her to believe it needed a lot of work. It was nicer than a luxury resort. It screamed five stars. It shouted Michelin stars.
“Oh, Alex. It’s perfect. It’s beyond perfect.”
“I don’t think you can get beyond perfect.”
“Well, you just did.”
She turned to find him gazing down at her. At her words, something flickered across his features. He scratched at the back of his head and kicked at a loose stone in the pavement.
Prince Alex wasn’t good with praise. Jan had realized that back during the pie competition when she’d applauded his sous chef skills. He handled criticism with a laugh and a brush off his shoulders. But praise made him fidget.
“Can we go inside?” Jan asked.
“We can do whatever we want. The building is mine.”
“I thought you had to wait for investors?”
Esme’s words sounded in Jan’s ears. Despite what he’d said about the inheritance, Alex was rich. Had this fake engagement all been a farce to get her here?
“I bought it from an old family friend. He gave me a good deal because he’s opening up a nightclub across the street. He thought a high-end restaurant would complement his new club. In fact, there he is now.”
The man getting out of the limo looked as though he were a sheikh walking out of the desert and into an oasis. His sand-kissed skin gleamed honey-gold in the sunlight. His dark hair rolled down to just above his shoulders like a wind-swept sand dune. But it was his eyes that caught Jan’s breath.
They looked like they didn’t belong to him. They were blue like the sea after a storm. Then he smiled, and Jan forgot the name of the man beside her.
“Hey!” Alex snapped his fingers in front of her face, bringing her back to reality. He glared at the man who approached him. “Turn the charm offensive off. She’s here on business.”
“A creature as enchanting as this?” The man rolled his R’s like a purring tiger. “She was made for the screen.”
“No, she belongs in a kitchen.”
Two pairs of modern, twenty-first century, liberated eyes snapped to Alex. The prince held up his hands to Jan.
“You know what I mean,” Alex said. “Omar, Marquis of Navarre, please allow me to present Chef Jan Peppers, my fiancée.”
Omar had been in the process of kissing the back of Jan’s hand. With the announcement of her relationship to Alex, he dropped her hand as though it were a hot potato. “Your what?”
“I’m his fiancée,” said Jan.
The Marquis’ mouth went slack as he stared between Jan and Alex. Just another in a long line of people who wouldn’t believe the two of them were a pair. Jan put her arm through Alex’s in a show of solidarity.
The Marquis’ gaze focused on their linked arms. Then back up to her. A slow, cautious smile began at the corner of his mouth. “Chef?”
Jan nodded.
“I suppose you two met in California before the Oscars?” said Omar. “At the food co-op Alex set up in the inner city?”
“Food co-op?” Jan began.
“No, no,” Alex interrupted. “Jan and I met after that.”
“Oh?” said Omar. “In Nairobi with the hydroponic gardens you helped install? Or down in Mexico with the bus stop farmer’s markets? Or have you been on some other philanthropic trip that you haven’t told me about?”
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He rubbed at his temple. He looked entirely uncomfortable in his skin.
He was fidgeting again. He’d just been outed as a do-gooder benefactor and not a bad boy royal. He was Clark Kent unmasked.
“In any case, my dear, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” The Marquis took Jan’s hand again, planting a chaste kiss on her knuckles. “Welcome to the family. I’m excited to get to know the woman who has finally tamed our wayward prince.”
And with that, Omar crossed the street to the other large building, the nightclub she supposed he would be opening in tandem with their restaurant. Jan turned to Alex.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the food co-op or the hydroponics or even the bus stop food market?”
“It wasn’t an important part of the story.”
“It’s the most fascinating part of your stories,” she insisted. “Except, of course, for the chapulines.”
He threw his head back and laughed. All signs of fidgeting were gone, and h
e was his relaxed, confident self again.
“I’ve always wanted to do something like that,” she said. “Something where I could give back to the community using food. I’ve always wanted to tackle school lunches. Show kids that healthy food can be tasty and fun. Teach them how to prepare tasty snacks that don’t come out of a plastic bag.”
“I think that would be brilliant in the school system here.”
“Really? You think we could do that? Later, of course. After we get the restaurant open.”
“You could do it now in the role of my fiancée.”
Jan didn’t like the idea of that; the idea of doing it herself. Alex had built them up as a team. She wanted to keep it that way. “Why not both of us?”
“It can be both of us. But you’ll be the face of it. I told you, whenever I try to do good, it gets turned around. Best if I stay in the shadows.”
“But no one will see the real you if you keep the real you in the dark.”
He reached up and pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “The people who matter will.”
She wasn’t sure how they came to be holding hands. She wasn’t sure how they came to be standing toe to toe. Just as she wanted to partner with him in the business, and stand next to him with the school lunch venture, she wanted Alex by her side for as long as she could keep him there.
“We should probably have a look inside,” she said.
He nodded, but he made no motion to move forward. His gaze dipped to her lips. There was no one around, which meant there was no need to pretend kiss.
Still, he came closer. Looking to her lips and then her eyes, clearly asking permission.
She didn’t shake her head no. She didn’t nod her chin in a yes. She held still.
No. She was moving closer. In minute, barely perceptible increments just like him.
First, their knees knocked as they pressed into each other’s. Her free hand found its way into his palm. The top of her shoulder brushed against his chest.
She tasted a whiff of his breath. He’d had chives for breakfast. The smell brought her mind out into a field of bulbous green onions; garlic, leeks, scallions. Those would work perfectly as the base of a sweet corn cheddar pie.
Jan gave herself a mental shake. She needed to stay present if Alex was going to kiss her. Then she realized, she really wanted to be kissed by him.
His lips were nearly on hers when a flash blinded them both. Instead of pulling away from her, Alex wrapped her up in his arms. He shielded her, pulling her face into his chest and turning to seek out the danger.
His chest was firm and soft at the same time. There was a clear definition beneath his cotton shirt. But also a space to rest that was comfortable. Jan wanted to nuzzle.
“They’re gone now,” he said. “They got what they wanted.”
They? Her brain was slow to make out his words. The flash had obviously come from a camera. Not a tourist camera by the strength of that bulb. It had been the press.
Had Alex seen them coming? Had he staged that almost kiss?
“That picture of us here will be on blogs tonight and all Cordovian media outlets in the morning. I can just imagine the headlines; Serving the Chef After Hours. Or some such nonsense.”
By the haggard look on his face, Jan revised her thoughts of Alex staging what had just happened between them. He didn’t want the press’ attention. Especially if all they cared to write about him was negativity and lies.
“I’m sorry, Jan. I didn’t think about them dragging you and your reputation into this too.”
“Clearly, I don’t care what people say or think about me,” she said. “You’ve met my ex and my parents.”
Alex hadn’t let her go. He pulled her closer but not into his chest. He tucked her under one shoulder like a brother would a sister. Whatever possible passion had existed just a moment ago, that flame had been extinguished by that photographer’s flash.
“Let’s go and check out our new restaurant.”
They turned their backs on the street and walked into the establishment. Though Jan’s excitement had died down somewhat. She was a fool. Here she was literally walking into her dream business, but she was fantasizing about a kiss from a prince.
Chapter Seventeen
“Children need to fill their heads with academics as well as the arts. Music, movement, expression, all strengthen the brain.” Esme spoke into the microphone though she didn’t need the amplifying device. Her voice rang clear and loud across the crowd gathered out in front of the elementary school as she spoke on her first initiative; an early learning institute for children under the age of six.
Alex stood behind his soon to be sister-in-law. The soon to be part of that title seemed unnecessary. Esme had been a fast friend the first time they’d met. He looked at her like she was a sister before his brother came to his senses and realized Esme was the woman he wanted to share his throne with, raise his daughter with, and spend the rest of his life with.
“She’s in her element,” Jan whispered, beaming proudly at Esme’s command of the crowd.
Jan stood beside Alex. They were both on the stage alongside Esme and Leo. But they had taken a step back and were off to the side so that Esme could shine.
Alex had always been content to stand in the back and watch Leo at work. Leo had not taken a step back from his intended bride. He stood looking down at her. His hand was possessively laid at Esme’s lower spine. His eyes glowed with something beyond adoration.
Watching Leo as he watched the woman he loved, Alex felt a twist in his chest. There were the private glances Esme and Leo stole, the secret smiles they shared. Alex had never felt that with a woman. He’d never considered exploring the possibility of those emotions.
Alex’s own fingers rested lightly at Jan’s low back, but he had no claim on the strong woman standing beside him. He’d never wanted any claim on a woman. His fingers curled around Jan’s hip, bringing her closer. He told himself it was so that he could whisper back to her.
“They were meant for each other,” Alex said quietly in Jan’s ear.
He didn’t miss the smell of shampoo in her hair. It was the smell of toasted coconut. It wasn’t enough that she surrounded herself with food all day and night, the woman even bathed in its essence.
“I’m happy for them,” she said. “They prove that some people who you’d never expect on the same path, could not only meet but continue their journey in life together.”
“Why Chef Peppers, that was almost poetic. Don’t tell me you’ve turned into a romantic.”
She snorted. A few heads turned to them in the audience. Followed by a few flashes of cameras.
Alex pulled Jan into his hold. He rested his chin atop her head. He told himself it was to protect her from the press’ scrutiny. They stayed locked in the embrace for the duration of Esme’s speech. When polite applause sounded, announcing the end of Esme’s speech, Alex found himself reluctant to let Jan go to join in on the praise.
“Thank you all for coming,” Leo said, stepping up to the podium while still not relinquishing his hold on his fiancée. “We have time for a few questions about the new early learning program.”
Hands shot up. Leo pointed to one reporter. Alex sighed when he recognized the reporter as Lila Drake from The Royal Times. She turned away from Leo and Esme and promptly aimed her mic at Alex and Jan.
“Prince Alex, how did you propose to Ms. Peppers?”
Alex raised his head from Jan’s. He didn’t come forward to speak into the microphone. He didn’t care if his voice carried to the tape or not. He also held back because he didn’t want to encourage anymore questions other than this one.
“I proposed in her pie shop. It was over a slice of pie.”
The laughter of the female citizens gathered would definitely be caught on tape. If the tape recorders and video cameras hadn’t heard his response, it would certainly be repeated for the straining ears.
“This was last week?” Lila continued h
er line of questions.
“Yes.” It was all she would get. Alex had no idea where she was going with this, but he knew he didn’t want to play along.
“What about reports that you were in Nairobi just two weeks ago with Chantal Bissett?”
He felt Jan bristle in his arms. Looking down, he saw that she was frowning—no. Jan was glaring at the reporter. Before Alex could come up with a dismissive quip, Lila turned her toxic gaze on Jan.
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” Lila said with a smile. “He’s known as the bad boy prince for a reason.”
“Bad news?” said Jan, her voice ringing loud and clear without the need for a microphone to amplify her. “Why don’t you try reporting actual facts?”
Lila’s eyes lit up like a Vegas slot machine. The press loved when celebrities pushed back.
“Ms. Peppers,” said the reporter, “do you truly believe the playboy prince has changed his ways?”
Jan took a step toward the edge of the stage. Alex reached for her, but she slipped out of his hold. The Jersey flare in her boiled over like a pot on a raring flame. Alex stood back in awe at the display.
“He was there,” Jan said, her accent thick. “If you took a moment to talk to any of the locals there, they’d tell you the real story. If you, ace reporter, only took a moment to look at the pictures, you’ll see he was installing hydroponics to help people grow clean and wholesome food.”
The pencils, which had been scribbling furiously at Jan’s outrage, stuttered. The camera shutters closed. Each face in the crowd frowned as though trying to comprehend the turn of events.
“Cordoba’s playboy prince,” Jan spat out the words that Alex had detested all his life, “has been more concerned with feeding the world’s downtrodden population than he has cared to chase skinny twigs in a skirt. So, no, I don’t think he’s changed at all. You all have never seen who he truly is.”
Silence reigned in the crowd. The revelation made everyone in attendance fidget. Not Alex. For the first time in his life, he was perfectly calm and content. He wanted the moment to go on forever.
The Prince and the Pie Maker Page 9