by Candis Terry
“You know, if you’ve got extra time on your hands, you might want to check your Christmas list,” she said. “You only have five more shopping days left. And on that note, did you get Jordan and Lucy a wedding present?”
Presents.
Shit.
“Gotta be honest. I’m not that great at buying the perfect gift.”
“Everything doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, you know. Sometimes it’s just the thoughtfulness behind the gift. And if it’s going into the crowded stores you don’t like, you can always buy online. It might cost you more for shipping at this point but—”
“I’m not shopping online. I’d rather eat worms and die.”
Tiny crinkles appeared at the outer corners of her eyes as she laughed. “I hope you mean Gummy Worms, or I am never kissing that mouth again.”
“Oh yeah?” He leaned in and kissed the hell out of her. When he raised his head she sighed.
“Okay, that was a total lie.” She leaned in for one more. “I’m going to kiss that mouth every single day.”
He grinned. “I have some other places you can kiss too.”
“And so do I.” She danced away when he reached for her again. “But right now, I’ve got work to do.”
Tempted to follow and distract her into taking off all her clothes, he watched as she disappeared through the big swinging steel door that led to the kitchen.
She was right. Time was tight. By tomorrow she’d have everything on that checklist marked off. He trusted her to make sure the rehearsal dinner went off without a hitch, from the Popsicle drinks upon the guests’ arrival to the pumpkin cheesecake dessert.
He trusted her.
And that was a damned good feeling.
While Gabriella put the final touches on the pumpkin caramel cheesecakes in the kitchen, Parker stood at the hostess station near the front door, double-checking everything on his own list. Aside from the pressure of his brother’s rehearsal dinner and wedding reception in the next two days, he’d planned the restaurant grand opening for the second Friday in January. Before then everything had to be perfect for the health inspector or he’d be delayed in opening the doors.
The buzz about the restaurant had begun around town and everywhere he went people queried him about the menu and the grand opening. Lili and Brooke already had the website up and running and had placed ads in several local magazines and papers. Before everything had started to fall into place, he’d been confused about which direction to take. Hell, he’d been confused about a lot of things before Gabriella had come into his life. He couldn’t imagine it now without her.
As he worked, footsteps sounded on the stone entryway leading up to the restaurant doors. Parker looked up but could see nothing past the kraft paper he’d used to cover the windows so none of his sneaky relatives could peek inside before he opened the doors for the big reveal.
Fearing Groomzilla had been bitten in the ass with curiosity, Parker jumped to intervene by quickly stepping outside and closing the door behind him.
Utter disbelief exploded in his brain.
Not only was the man on the walkway not his brother, he was literally the last person on earth Parker ever expected to see.
Miraculously and confusingly, standing before him was world-renowned celebrity chef Giovanni Altobelli.
What. The. Fuck.
“Chef Altobelli.” Star struck, Parker gaped at one of his culinary idols before he managed to pull himself together and offer his hand in greeting. “I’m Parker Kincade. Welcome to Sunshine & Vine.”
Defying his pleasant TV personality, Altobelli looked at Parker’s extended hand a long awkward moment before finally reaching out with his own. To say the man wore a pinched expression would be putting it mildly.
What the hell was he doing here?
Sure, the local marketing buzz for the restaurant had been building over the past few weeks, but how had word of his restaurant reached someone of Altobelli’s caliber? And why the hell wasn’t Parker just grateful instead of dissecting every possibility?
“Forgive my awkwardness,” Parker said. “I’m just surprised to see you standing here.”
“Are you.”
Not even remotely a question, Parker realized.
Though the man was at least half a foot shorter than Parker, there was no doubt the chef was looking down his nose. It was then Parker realized the magic of television. On TV the middle-aged man looked robust with a thick head of dark brown hair and clear, intelligent eyes. In person his complexion appeared ruddy, like he’d been drinking too much for too many years. His eyes were bloodshot and guarded. His hair and upper lip were thin, so when he smiled he appeared disingenuous. And though they say TV puts ten pounds on everyone, Chef Altobelli looked at least twenty pounds over. Parker couldn’t help but wonder if the chef was one of those who, on TV, wore Spanx to suck it all in.
Parker disregarded the chef’s non-question response. “Absolutely. We don’t plan to officially open our doors until mid-January. And while I’d love for you to sample some of our dishes, the kitchen isn’t stocked.”
“Hmmm.”
Apparently without cue cards the man wasn’t exactly a master communicator.
“But I’m honored that you’re here,” Parker said. “So how can I help you?”
“I’ve come to see my daughter, not your café.”
The way he’d said café made Parker grit his teeth. Like such a place would be below him to enter. There was nothing wrong with a restaurant being a café, but that didn’t describe his place.
Wait a minute.
“Your daughter?”
The chef gave a sharp nod. “I was told she was begging for a job at this . . . establishment.”
Alarm pinched the back of Parker’s neck. “And your daughter would be . . .”
“Gabriella Altobelli,” the chef replied like Parker shouldn’t be so dense. “Although I’m told these days she’s taken to using her mother’s surname, Montani.”
A chill sliced up Parker’s back.
“Gabriella’s your daughter.” Another non-question question.
“Did I not just say that?” The chef tossed Parker another how-could-you-be-so-stupid glare. “Where is she? Scrubbing dishes? I wouldn’t be surprised. She’s been trained for little else.”
Chef Altobelli pushed past Parker and opened the restaurant door.
Speechless, Parker followed him in.
Once inside the building, the chef shouted Gabriella’s name. When there was no response, he shouted it again.
Parker couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
Finally the stainless door swung open and Gabriella came into the room, squeezing a white towel in her hands like she wanted to wrap it around someone’s throat.
“Father. What are you doing here?”
Parker snapped out of the fog of disbelief and stepped forward. “This is your father?”
Anger coiled in his gut as the woman he’d fallen in love with, the woman he’d trusted, stood there wringing her hands and staring at the floor as she nodded.
“And you what . . .” Parker curled his hands into fists. “Just happened to forget to mention that your father is one of the most famous chefs in the world when you came in here looking for a job?”
He knew his tone was sharp. Hell, he was practically yelling. When her head snapped up, he wanted to pull back his words. But lately he’d had enough deception in his life. The idea that she’d pulled something this monumental over on him made him a little bit wild-eyed and crazy.
She glared at him. “Would it have made a difference?”
“Hell yes. It would have at least told me where you’d been trained. Then maybe I wouldn’t have fallen for that whole audition routine.”
Obviously wounded, she sucked in a breath and narrowed her eyes.
“Well that’s the problem, Mr. Kincade,” Chef Altobelli piped in before Gabriella could defend herself. “Other than what she’s learned in my own mothe
r’s kitchen, Gabriella has no formal culinary training whatsoever. Did she tell you otherwise?”
“Not exactly.”
“So she fooled you,” Chef Altobelli said. “Made you think she had experience when all she’s really suited for is flipping burgers at McDonald’s.”
“Excuse me?” Parker looked at the chef through a veil of red. Granted, Parker was pissed off about Gabriella’s dishonesty, but this was her father. The one man in her life who should be building her up, not tearing her down.
Parker got even more pissed off that Gabriella just stood there silently while her father chastised and embarrassed her.
What the hell?
“I offered her the finest education,” Altobelli said. “She threw the offer back in my face.”
“That’s a lie.” Gabriella twisted the white towel. “You never offered to pay for a culinary education even though you knew that’s what I wanted. You told me I’d never make it in your world. That I wasn’t good enough and never would be.”
“I offered to send you to school so you could learn to be something other than a chef. Because I knew you’d never come close to your brother Marco’s skills. And God knows you’d never have mine.”
“But all I ever wanted was to be a chef.” Gabriella folded her arms across her sweatshirt. “Cooking is my passion. Just like it was yours.”
Parker stood back and watched the volley between father and daughter and felt like he’d been hit from both sides by oncoming trains. He didn’t know what had transpired between the two of them in the past, but in Gabriella’s eyes he could see the aftermath of deep emotional pain.
“Then if I’m so worthless,” she said to her father, “why did you bother coming here?”
“To stop you from making a fool of yourself.”
“This isn’t about me. This is about you.” Her brown eyes watered and Parker suddenly wanted to plant his fist in the famous chef’s face.
“You’re right,” her father said. “Because I don’t need any more public humiliation coming from you.”
“How can I possibly do that again when I never humiliated you in the first place?” she asked. “In case you’ve forgotten, you were the one who drew blood first. You cut me out of your life.”
“After you took your mother’s side.”
“Yes. After you had an affair that crushed her spirit and ripped our family apart.” Gabriella spat the words but they barely had any effect. From what Parker could see, Chef Altobelli was one coldhearted customer.
“How did you even know where to find me?” she asked.
“Your grandmother has been bragging about how well you’re doing. I had to see the impossible for myself, so I forced her to tell me.”
Gabriella’s shoulders fell like someone had dropped a building on top of her. Parker may be pissed off that she’d misled him, but he wasn’t going to stand there any longer and let this man take her down because he was worried about his own pathetic reputation. Parker may have once respected the chef, but no more.
“That’s enough.”
Both Gabriella and her father looked at him as though they’d forgotten he was in the room.
“Look. I don’t know what happened in your past,” Parker said, “because Gabriella obviously hasn’t felt comfortable enough to discuss it. But I can tell you you’re wrong about her, sir. She’s a talented and creative chef, and she has an impeccable work ethic.”
“And you’re sleeping with her,” the man said.
“That’s none of your business.” Parker curled his hands into fists to keep from knocking the smug expression off the chef’s face. “But this place is my business and I’m not going to stand here and listen to you disparage your own daughter any longer.”
“Are you asking me to leave?” The man actually had the nerve to smirk.
“No.” Parker took a step forward. “I’m telling you to get the fuck out.”
Altobelli harrumphed then turned his head to spear Gabriella with one more evil glare. “This isn’t over, Gabriella. You will not bring down my empire because of your inept desire to humiliate me over something that happened a long time ago.”
Gabriella remained silent. Her jaw quivered as though she’d either been biting her tongue so she wouldn’t speak her mind or maybe because her father terrified her.
Neither was acceptable.
“Get out.” Making himself perfectly clear, Parker glared at the man and pointed his finger at the door.
“I’ll see you soon, daughter,” was the chef’s parting shot as he strode out.
Once the door closed, Parker turned to Gabriella. Expecting to see her in a crumpled mass of hysteria, she surprised him by maintaining a fragile composure.
His natural instinct was to take her in his arms and console her. After all, this was the woman he’d woken up next to this morning after making love to her for hours last night. But he’d trusted her, and in return she’d duped him.
Momentary relief filtered through Gabi’s body when her father walked out the door. But that moment shattered when Parker turned and looked at her.
Something hotter—darker—than rage sparked in his eyes and flew in her direction. Without saying a single word he leveled her, wrapped her up in an emotional agony so strong, she was sure they could never repair what her father had just torn apart.
No.
She’d torn it apart by not telling Parker the truth in the first place.
“I’m sorry.” She held his gaze, saying the two words that probably meant nothing.
The anger in his eyes dissolved, only to be replaced by sadness and pain.
“The day I showed up here, I didn’t come to start anything with you,” she said. “I came because I wanted a legitimate chance to make something of myself without my father’s influence. I know it means nothing to you now because you feel deceived. But talking about him—claiming him as my father—is something I gave up long ago.”
Without a word he let her continue.
“He shattered my life when he cheated on my mother. He abandoned me—his only daughter—because I was a teenage girl who took her mother’s side after he flaunted his affair in her face. And because I took my mother’s side, he told me I’d never be anything without him. I turned eighteen the month before their divorce. Since then, I’ve known it was all up to me. That I had to make it on my own.”
She took a breath to calm her nerves. To release the regret that bound her heart in a steel vise. She knew now, had known since she became involved with Parker, that she’d wasted too many years seeking a day of reckoning with a man who cared nothing for her. Even though she was his own flesh and blood.
“Before I met you, I let my anger control me. I focused only on a need to prove him wrong about me. For years, that need to prove him wrong consumed me. I let him win,” she said. The truth took another vicious stab. “Before I met you, I didn’t know anything else existed in this life. I didn’t know anything else mattered other than making a name for myself and proving him wrong.”
Parker silently watched her with his arms folded.
“After I graduated from high school, my mother fell apart. My brother had taken my father’s side and walked away from her just like my father had. And every time she looked at me, she could only see what my father had done. We stopped speaking even though we lived in the same house. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I moved to Italy to live with my grandmother. The same woman who’d taught my father most everything he knew about cooking.”
His silence twisted her stomach in a knot and she wondered if she was wasting her breath trying to explain. But she had to try.
“I’d always loved to help out in the kitchen. And during the summers I visited my nonni, I watched her cook with so much passion. I wanted to feel that too. Because after my parents’ divorce, I feared all I’d ever feel again was hate. After I moved to Italy, I worked hard because I wanted to be better than my father. I guess in some twisted way, I wanted to hurt him as much as he’
d hurt me.”
“That’s a hell of a way to live,” he said.
“I didn’t know any other way.” She shrugged. “Not until I met you. Sometime soon after we met, the need to prove my father wrong disappeared. You’ve warmed a place in my heart that had been cold for so long.”
Desperation rolled over her to make him understand.
“I love you, Parker. And it has nothing to do with my father or this restaurant. I love you. The man who’s taught me to laugh and to live again.”
For a heart-stopping moment, he said nothing. Gave her no reaction whatsoever. Yet, Gabi didn’t regret for one moment telling him how she felt. She’d once lost the faith that love existed. Parker had not only helped her find it again, he’d made her truly believe.
“You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, Gabriella.”
“I know that now.”
“I trusted you,” he said. “I gave you plenty of opportunities to tell me about this. To tell me who you really are.”
“This is who I really am, Parker. I’m just a girl who wants to have a chance to make good food and be with the man she’s fallen in love with. I haven’t been Giovanni Altobelli’s daughter in a long, long time.”
His gaze flicked over her and her heart sank.
“I need some time to think,” he finally said, running a hand through his hair and squeezing the back of his neck.
“Parker—”
“Gabriella. There’s too much going on right now. And this?” He dropped his hands to his sides. Shook his head. “This is a lot to take in.”
“So that’s it?” Her heart squeezed painfully. “You won’t even give me the time—a chance—to talk about this?”
He glanced away. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too. Sorry I fell in love with the wrong man.” She flung the towel in her hands at him and slammed through the kitchen door.
Chapter 16