Taste (Cloverleigh Farms, #7)(7)

“Kate is a huge fan of Lick My Plate, and she was dying when he came over to the table to chat with us.”

That was something Gianni did at the end of every night, and I found it a bit show pony, but customers seemed to love it. I had to admit, Gianni could charm the fuzz off a peach. Many of our best reviews raved about the way he took the time to talk with people and ask about their dining experience. In a place as tiny as Etoile, it was possible to greet each table personally.

“His family is still here, right?” Felicity asked.

“Yes,” Winnie said. “I’ll have to take you to his dad’s restaurant too, Trattoria Lupo. It’s so good.”

“So is Gianni back in this area to stay?”

I crossed myself. “God, I hope not.”

She laughed. “You don’t get along?”

“There’s some . . . history,” said Winnie with a grin. “Gianni was sort of a rascal growing up.”

“Yes, and since our mothers have been besties for a hundred years,” I said irritably, “I was forced to spend time with him.”

Winnie’s blue eyes gleamed. “And when we were seventeen, they spent seven minutes in a closet, but neither of them will admit what happened in there.”

Felicity’s jaw dropped as she looked back and forth between Winnie and me. “What happened in there?”

“We don’t talk about it.” I sniffed, carefully lowering another glass into the box before changing the subject. “How did you like the Pinot Noir Reserve last night?”

“It was delicious. And you were right—it paired perfectly with the mushroom risotto.”

I smiled, zipping up the last box. “Good.”

“Ell, what are you packing up for?” Winnie said, eyeing the storage boxes.

“My tasting tonight in Harbor Springs. The guy’s a wine collector, so he might have enough glasses, but I always bring extra just in case.”

“Oh right, the editor’s dinner party,” she said, because she listens to me when I’m talking. “I hope the roads will be okay. Your car can’t be much better than mine in the snow—Dex is already on me to get better tires.”

“Dex is on you every chance he gets,” I teased. Not only was Dex a former Navy SEAL, but he was a firefighter, dad to two young girls, and a dozen years older than Winnie, so protectiveness ran through his veins.

Winnie blushed. “But seriously, want me to ask him if he’ll drive you? He’s off work today and tomorrow, and the girls are with their mom. We could take you up there.”

“Thanks, but I actually already have a ride.”

“With who?”

“Gianni.” I frowned. “He was in here bothering me already this morning, and when he heard I was planning to drive up there alone, he went all Italian caveman and insisted that he needs to drive me.”

“That was nice of him,” Felicity said.

“I know. I’m highly suspicious.”

“Oh, come on,” Winnie scolded. “I know you two bicker like cats and dogs, and he does have a bit of an ego—”

“A bit of an ego?” I shrieked. “Has he told you about his Lick My Plate tagline—too hot to handle? Or how they played ‘Fever’ any time he was onscreen? Or perhaps you’ve seen him featured in People magazine’s Sexiest Chefs Alive issue?”

“Okay, but at heart he’s a decent guy.” Winnie wouldn’t give up. “He offered to drive because he cares about you.”

“He didn’t offer, Winnie—he informed me he would drive. He was bossing me around.”

“You could have said no,” she pointed out.

“I did say no!” Then I hesitated. “At first. But he scared me with all these terrible things that could happen, and I thought about being alone out there on the road in the freezing cold because no tow trucks could get to me. And apparently he has good snow tires on his big macho SUV.”

“I mean, he’s not wrong.” Felicity lifted her shoulders. “It will definitely be safer if you’re together.”

“Maybe it’ll be fun.” Winnie’s voice was full of optimism. “Maybe you guys can work through some of the tension in your relationship.”

I shook my head. “The tension in our relationship stems from the fact that he walks around here like he owns the place, and he knows it makes me crazy.”

“That’s the thing,” Winnie said. “You make it so obvious that he gets to you. Why can’t you just ignore him?”

“I don’t know!” I threw my hands up. “I tell myself that all the time. I wake up and say, I will not give him the satisfaction today, and somehow I forget that once he’s around me, and I end up all . . .” I fidgeted, trying to think of a word for the way Gianni could make me feel—something close to the truth without being the actual truth, which I didn’t even like admitting to myself.

“Hot and bothered?” suggested Winnie.

“Let’s stick with bothered.”

“Wow, he’s really got your number,” Felicity said.

“He does,” Winnie confirmed. “And personally, I have always thought all that heat and friction between them would make for a good time, if you know what I mean.”