Sal squeezed the armrest of his chair. “Which one?”

“What do you mean?” Sofia stopped tying her apron.

Before he could gather his thoughts to respond, Alex’s words made him hold his breath. “Speak of the devil.”

In walked Grace. It had only been one full day since he last saw her and it felt like forever. Her hair was down. All this time he’d been witness to her hair in a bun or in a ponytail. Now it was down and hung loosely around her face, adding yet another thing he hadn’t noticed about her before. How damn sexy she was. Of course.

CHAPTER 8

They’d been talking about her. Grace felt her heart speed up at Alex’s words, but seeing Sal when she walked in the back room pushed her nerves into overdrive. “Morning,” she said, to no one in particular.

“Good morning, Grace.” Sofia was the first to respond.

“Ready to show us your stuff?” Alex asked, with a smile. He turned back to Sal, “I’m curious about this. If she’s even half as good at cooking as she is at putting drinks together, I think we got ourselves a cook.”

“Good morning, Grace,” Sal said.

His stoic expression said it all. He didn’t share the same enthusiasm as his siblings about testing her cooking skills. He looked at Alex. “You’ll have to tell me about it. I’ll be leaving in a little while.”

“What? You’re not gonna stick around and see what she can do?”

Sal’s eyes met hers for a lingering moment. Then he added to her disappointment, “Nah, I’m meeting someone in a couple hours. I’ll get a chance to another time.”

With that, he turned around to face the computer.

“You’ll have to put your hair up though, Grace,” Sofia said, as she pulled her own hair up.

“Oh, I was going to. I just wore it down so it could dry on my way here.” Grace started digging in her bag for the band she used to pull her hair up in a ponytail. She gulped trying not to think about Sal’s aloof demeanor.

Her throat actually constricted, making her swallow hard. How could a few cold words from him actually make her feel like choking up? It was so stupid. She was so stupid. All night and all morning, it’s all she had thought about—what he would think of her cooking.

She’d been a ball of nerves the whole bus ride there. Then hearing Alex’s words stirred things up in her stomach even more but seeing Sal had done it. All day yesterday, she’d longed to see him, even if it was for just a moment. Now here he was and as usual, his indifference for her was palpable. Even as anal as they’d made him sound about the cooks, he wasn’t the least bit interested in seeing how she fared in his precious kitchen.

Of course not, why would he? God, she felt ridiculous. This restaurant, as important as it was to him, wasn’t his life. He had a life outside of this place and apparently, whoever he was meeting today took precedence.

Alex stepped out of the office to take a call from his wife. Sofia finished with her hair and apron before Grace. “I’ll go check what orders, if any, are in the kitchen. But it’s rare that anyone orders off the menu during brunch, especially because all the breakfast stuff is already out there.”

Grace nodded, hurrying to get her hair done. She didn’t want to be left alone too long with Sal. As soon as Sofia walked out the door, Sal turned to Grace almost as if he’d been waiting for Sofia to leave the room. “So which one is your boyfriend? Or are they both?”

His question came out of nowhere. She stopped what she was doing. “What?”

“The guys that pick you up after work.” He stared at her, the apathy now replaced with significant interest. He shrugged. “Just curious. Sofie mentioned your boyfriend seemed real excited last night when he picked you up. Does he know about the other guy?”

His tone was anything but just curious. It was almost accusatory. Wow, he wasn’t kidding when he’d said first impressions went a long way. He still had her pegged as a liar. “They’re both just friends of mine. Neither is a boyfriend.”

She saw the insolence in his smile. “So do your friends know about each other?”

Was he for real? Alex walked in just in time to hear her response. “As a matter of fact they do. We hang out together all the time.” She wasn’t about to get into Joey and Taylor’s relationship with him. It was none of his business. How dare he pass judgment on her with all the women he had hanging all over him?

She finished with her hair and reached for her apron.

“Sounds interesting.” He turned around to face the computer again. “You’ll need a jacket if you’re going to be in the kitchen.”

He almost sounded mad. Having his reservations about her as an employee because of the lie on her résumé was one thing. She’d give him that, even if she’d already apologized for it. But getting haughty over something he found questionable about her personal life was crossing the line. He had no right, no matter how anal he was about his employees’ integrity.

She took a deep breath, glancing at Alex and held in what she really wanted to say. “Where do I get a jacket?”

“In the stock room. Sofia can show you.”

She finished with her apron and shoved her bag in the cabinet.

“Showtime,” Alex said.

As excited as she’d been when she got there, she couldn’t even muster a smile before walking past Alex out the door. If Sal had made up his mind about her already, then there was no need to even try to impress him. Apparently, the jerk had her all figured out.