by Debbie Mason
“Garcon.” Gaston St. John snapped his fingers at Jasper as he walked toward the entryway. “My chapeau and coat, si’l vous plais.”
Jasper’s nostrils flared, and he turned on his heel. The new chef studied his reflection in a bronze plaque while he waited, leaning in to smooth his left eyebrow and then the right. Colleen leaned in to study him too. The shape of his smooth, clean-shaven face, the hazel eyes, reminded her of…
Jasper returned with a black fur coat and fedora, releasing a sigh when Gaston held out his arms. Once Jasper had helped him into his coat, Gaston placed the hat jauntily on his head. “Au revoir until tomorrow, garcon.”
Jasper practically slammed the door behind him. “What has Sophie gotten us into?”
Colleen wondered the same and made a run at the front door. She didn’t go through it as she’d hoped. It appeared she was still bound to the manor. She hurried back to the study, walking through Ava, who was leaving, pretending that she wasn’t upset about Gaston St. John taking her job. Colleen couldn’t worry about that now. Something was nagging at her, and she wanted another look at the lad.
She rushed to the window and watched the new chef walking across the parking lot. He glanced over his shoulder as though checking to be sure he wasn’t followed. A silver Lincoln Navigator pulled up to the front gate. St. John rushed toward the waiting vehicle and jumped inside.
“Trouble, my boy,” Colleen said, responding to Jasper’s earlier question. “Trouble with a capital T.” She recognized the vehicle and the woman behind the wheel.
Paige Townsend was up to her tricks again.
Chapter Eleven
Griffin sat across from Sully at a table in the far corner of the dining room at Greystone, bracing himself for the approach of their waitress. It was Ava. Only not the Ava he’d hauled from the shower weeks before. No, the woman making her way toward their table looked more like the girl he’d married than she had in years. She wore black shoes with a small heel, a black skirt that hugged her hips and thighs to fall below her knees, and a white blouse that was sheer enough you could see her black arm brace under the sleeve.
He wasn’t feeling much like smiling, but he did. “Hey, Ava, I didn’t know you were working in the dining room.”
If he had, he would have suggested they eat elsewhere. He’d been doing his best to avoid her. Which must have come across in his greeting because Sully kicked him under the table with a what-the-hell look on his face.
Her long, ebony curls piled on her head in some kind of a bun thing, Ava handed Griffin a menu without looking at him. “I started yesterday.” Sully got a small smile along with his menu. “Hi, Joe.”
“Hey, Ava, if I knew you were working here, I would have stopped by sooner.” Sullivan gave her the same smile he’d been flashing at girls since high school, the one that, according to Sully, had gotten him laid more than their entire crew combined.
Griffin said his favorite word in his head, and not because he was worried Ava would fall victim to Sully’s supposed panty-dropping smile. It was because he was pretty sure she’d been expecting him to call her and finish the conversation they’d been having the other day in the study. The day he’d come close to kissing her. He’d planned to call after he’d met up with Sully. He’d wanted to, but…
Another kick to his shin interrupted his thoughts. “What the…,” he began without thinking. He caught Ava looking at him, her brow furrowed. He gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry, did you say something?”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, sure, just didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night.” Because he’d been thinking about her. Just like he had the night before, and the one before that. He glanced at her brace. “Isn’t it a little soon for you to be back to work?”
“The rehabilitation center my father has been placed in is expensive. I can’t afford to be off,” she said, giving him a pointed look. Then, as though remembering Sully was there too, a flush worked its way from her chest to her cheeks.
“Yeah, I hear it costs a crap—” Sully shrugged when Griffin gave him a shut-it look. “She was married to you, so I’m sure Ava’s heard worse than crap. Sorry if I offended you though,” Sully apologized to Ava. “What I was going to say was that, whatever it costs, it’s worth it. At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“I hope so.” She gave Joe another small smile. “Would either of you care for a drink before you order?”
“That’d be great. Bring us a couple of North Shore ales when you have a chance. We’ll order in a bit,” Sully said, giving her another one of his lady-killer grins.
Griffin watched Ava walk away with a subtle sway to her hips. Her walk had been the first thing that had drawn his interest in high school—even as a teenager she’d exuded sensuality and confidence. He’d been at football practice, and she’d been walking across the field with a bunch of girls. He’d casually pointed her out to a friend and asked who she was, shocked to discover it was Ava and not some new girl in town.
He was a couple years ahead of her in school, but he knew who she was. Until that moment, he just hadn’t paid much attention to her. She’d grown into her nose and lost the baby fat. She’d lost the braces too. The one thing that hadn’t changed was her laugh. She was always laughing and smiling. She’d been the happiest, most passionate girl he’d ever known.
Ava stopped to talk to the other waitress. Erin said something that made Ava laugh. God, he’d missed that husky, low laugh.
“Are you done salivating over your ex yet?”
Griffin caught himself raising his hand to check for drool and scowled at Sully. “No, I—”
“Yeah, you were.” Sully glanced at Ava and then looked at Griffin. “You’re still in love with her, aren’t you?”
“I don’t think I ever fell out of love with her,” he reluctantly admitted, in part because he could use a sounding board who wasn’t a Gallagher. Aside from his brothers, Griffin had mainly hung out with four guys all the way through grade school and high school: Sully, Damien, Caleb, and Ryan. He’d been closest to Sully.
“So what are you going to do about it?” his friend asked.
Griffin looked around the dining room. It was fairly busy for a Thursday night, but the tables nearest them were empty. “Nothing I can do about it right now,” he said, and told Sully about the bombshell Lexi had dropped on him three weeks earlier.
She’d asked Griffin to keep the news to himself for now. Because Ava had lost their baby late in her pregnancy, he understood where Lex was coming from. He didn’t want his family to get their hopes up, only to be disappointed. They’d dealt with enough loss over the years. He trusted Sully though.
“I’m happy for you, man. That’s great news. But I can see how it complicates things for you and Ava. Does she know?”
“No, she doesn’t know any of it. Lexi’s not exactly a fan of Ava’s. She basically warned me to stay away from her.” She’d called him the night he’d arrived at Greystone, checking to make sure he got in okay. Griffin had always been honest with Lex and thought it best to come clean about the time he’d spent with Ava hours earlier in the study.
Up to a point. He didn’t tell her he’d begun thinking about a second chance with Ava. But no matter how innocent he’d made it appear, nothing he said placated Lexi. Which was why he’d been avoiding Ava and would continue to do so. Until Lexi had the baby, he couldn’t contemplate a relationship with her.
“Not that I’m an expert on women, but are you sure Lexi isn’t hoping you two get back together?”
“I asked her straight out, and she said no. She’s overprotective. She thinks Ava messed with my head.”
“I wasn’t exactly happy with Ava when it all went down either. But Lexi didn’t know you guys when it was good. And it was really good, man.”
“Yeah, it was,” he said, and the memories of how good it had been swamped him. Movement out of the corner of his eye interrupted the trip down memory lane. His brother intercepted Av
a as she walked toward the table with their beers. “This stays between us, okay? Family doesn’t know.”
“You know me better than that. I—Hey, Liam, they got you working as a server?” Sully asked, accepting a bottle of beer.
Liam pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. “No, I just finished setting up for the bridal fair.” He lifted the bottle of beer to his mouth.
“Get your own,” Griffin said, reaching for the bottle.
Liam moved it out of his reach. “Ava’s bringing another one. I told her to order our meals too.”
“Who said you could join us? And we haven’t even looked at the menu,” Griffin said.
“My wife. She wants me to keep an eye on Ava, and I ordered the specials. You got a problem with that?”
Sully grinned around his beer. “I’m good.”
Griffin shifted in his seat to watch Ava enter the kitchen. “Why does Sophie have you keeping an eye on Ava? Is it because of her—” A high-pitched male voice followed Ava out of the kitchen. She rolled her eyes when the door closed on the sound of pots banging and more yelling. Then she delivered orders to a table of three businessmen.
“That’s the reason.” His brother pointed at the kitchen. “You’d know what’s going on if you hadn’t been making yourself scarce the past couple of days.”
“I’ve been busy. So I’m not exactly getting what the problem is?”
Liam lifted his chin to where Ava stood a few tables away from the businessmen she’d just served, intently watching them eat. His brother leaned in. “Sophie’s been after Ava to take over the restaurant for months. Ava always refused, using Gino as an excuse. Soph finally gave up on her a few weeks ago and started putting out feelers for a head chef. She hired him a few hours before Ava said she wanted the job.”
Griffin’s gut twisted as he looked at Ava. She and Erin were talking behind their hands as they now watched a table of four eat their meals. “When?”
Liam grimaced. “The same day Gino went into rehab.”
The same day Griffin had promised to call her. “Fire him.”
“He’s got a contract. We can’t afford to buy him out.”
“I can,” Griffin said, pushing back his chair with every intention of firing the man himself.
“That’s the thing, you can’t. Sophie explained the situation, and he wouldn’t budge. Said something about Greystone inspiring his muse, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. The other thing is the guy’s actually qualified. He trained in Paris and worked with some world-renowned chef Dana got all shiny-eyed over.”
“You saying that just because this guy’s trained, he can cook better than Ava?”
After sharing a knowing grin with Sully, Liam said, “No, because I like my face the way it is and so does my wife.”
Sully chuckled into his beer. Griffin scowled at the two of them. “This isn’t something to joke about. I’ve never met anyone who can cook as well or who was as passionate about food as Ava. She needs this, Liam. It’d be the best thing for her. Sophie—”
“Feels bad enough as it, so don’t say anything to her about this. And don’t do or say anything to wreck this guy’s ‘muse.’” Liam made air quotes. “We need the bridal fair to be a success. Besides, Ava seems fine with it.”
Griffin sat back in the chair and crossed his arms. “Is that right? Then why are she and Erin sniffing each of the meals they serve and watching everyone eat?”
“Looks like we’re going to find out,” Sully said, aiming his beer bottle at Ava, who approached with a loaded cart. “Um, are we expecting anyone else?”
“I didn’t order all that, did I?” Liam asked, staring at what appeared to be at least five entrées.
Ava shrugged. “I wasn’t sure which of the specials you would prefer, so I ordered all of them. You don’t have to eat everything. Just maybe a sample of each. I can bring the rest back to the kitchen.”
“Won’t that hurt the chef’s feelings?” Griffin said, fighting a grin. Her accent always became more pronounced when she was nervous or excited.
She snorted. “He has no feelings.”
“Don’t hold back, honey. Tell me how you really feel.”
Ava’s gaze shot to him, a hint of pink flushing her cheeks. Until that moment, he hadn’t noticed that she’d lost the gray cast to her olive skin. He’d been focused on the tantalizing way she filled out her blouse and her skirt. The weight gain that had rounded her chest and hips had also filled out her face. She looked healthy and well rested, and at that moment, she also looked confused.
He wasn’t; he knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted to turn back the clock to the day in the study and find out if her feelings for him were still there. If she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Then he reminded himself it didn’t matter what he wanted, at least until the baby was born.
Ava didn’t respond. Though his brother gave him a knowing grin. Only because Liam had no clue what was really going on. Sully, who did, gave Griffin a sympathetic smile. Ava’s arm brushed his as she placed a dish in front of him. Griffin felt sorry for himself too. She was close enough that he could smell her perfume. Sweet and sexy, warm and alluring, it reminded him of the confident, flirty girl he’d married.
This wasn’t doing him any good. He had to snap out of it. “What is this exactly?” he asked, poking his fork at the lump of golden pastry sitting in congealed gravy.
“Le fricandeau,” she said, the words rolling off her tongue. She had an ear for languages and spoke several.
He didn’t and raised an eyebrow.
“Braised veal. It’s been slow cooked with pickled pork, white wine, and stock, and covered with bacon.”
“Sounds”—he was going to say great, because in his book anything with bacon was great, but one look at Ava’s face and he changed it to—“good.”
“We’ll see,” she said, and placed a plate in front of Sully. “Canard a la orange.”
“Some kind of orange bird, right?” Sully said, eyeing his plate with consternation.
“Duck,” she informed him, and then picked up a platter with a white sauce and mushrooms covering what looked to be fish. She rounded the table to serve Liam. “Sole Normande.”
“Okay, I got this. Norman sole, like the fish, right?”
“Yes, and mussels.”
“Perfect. I love…” His brother looked up at Ava and, because he was a smart guy, said, “I kind of like mussels.”
She pursed her lips. “Hmm.” Then walked back to the cart, lifting the lids on two other dishes. “Cote de porc Normande. Pork chops in cider. And boeuf bourguignon. Beef cooked in Burgundy wine.”
Both dishes looked more appealing than the one in front of Griffin. From the expressions on Liam’s and Sully’s faces, they thought so too. The three of them looked at Ava, who was standing with her arms crossed. “Mangia. Mangia.”
Griffin had barely chewed the first bite when she asked, “How is it?”
He cut off a piece, offering it to her instead. “You tell me.” He wasn’t stupid either.
Well, that’s what he thought until she leaned in and he smelled her perfume again, and she opened her mouth to accept the piece he offered her from his fork. She closed her eyes and delicately chewed, making a familiar humming sound in her throat. He couldn’t take his eyes off her lips. They were plump, moist, and perfect.
Sully kicked him lightly in the shin. Griffin didn’t get a chance to react because Ava opened her eyes.
She moved her head from left to right and then said, “It’s okay. The pastry is good, but the veal is overcooked, and the gravy…” She shuddered.
“Maybe you should try another piece.” Griffin held it up to her. He stepped on Sully’s foot to avoid another kick in the shin. He already knew he was playing with fire, but if this was all he had to hang on to until the baby arrived, he’d take it.
She nodded and leaned in again, her teeth closing on the fork tines—perfect, white teeth. Her eyes and lips closing as she savored
the taste, he savored every inch of her gorgeous, expressive face, waiting for her to make that sound again.
His brother, who’d been staring at him, laughed out loud. Ava’s eyes shot open. “Choking,” Liam said, covering his laugh with a cough.
Ava straightened and picked up a bottle of sparkling water from the cart, walking to Liam’s side to fill the crystal goblet. “How is the sole?” she asked his brother as she went to fill Griffin’s and Sully’s glasses.
“It’s”—he glanced from Ava to the half-empty bottle in her hand—“good.” He looked relieved when she placed the sparkling water on the middle of the table.
She picked up a fork and knife from the neighboring table. “Do you mind?” she asked Liam.
“Nope, not at all.”
She cut off a big chunk and, cupping her hand beneath it, leaned toward Griffin. “You loved my tilapia scaloppini. See if this compares.” He leaned in and removed the piece from the fork with his teeth. While he chewed the sole and mussels, she moved her mouth like she was too. “So?” she asked when he swallowed.
“Not even close.” It wasn’t bad, but then again, he really did love her tilapia scaloppini. “Why don’t you give it a try?”
She nodded and cut off a piece. He was a little disappointed at how quickly she ate and swallowed this time. She didn’t make that sound in her throat either. He understood why when she scooped up Liam’s plate.
His brother stared at her, knife and fork poised in the air. “Hey, where are you going with that?”
“The mussels are undercooked. Do you want to get sick?” she asked, muttering under her breath in Italian as she practically slammed the platter on the cart. Griffin found himself grinning at the familiar curse words rolling off her tongue.
“Here,” she said, taking the lid off the pork chop dish. She stuck her finger in the sauce, licking it off as she walked toward Liam. “It’s still warm.”