Hungry For You(23)

She quickly did up her seat belt, and then glanced to Cale as the driver’s side door opened. He got into the car on a cold breeze carrying a combination of citrus and a woodsy aroma she couldn’t identify. Toronto air had never smelled that good. Alex was pretty sure the scent was his, some designer aftershave she guessed, and found herself inhaling deeply with appreciation.

“Where would you like to go?” Cale asked, starting the engine before doing up his own seat belt.

Alex opened her mouth, and then hesitated about admitting she’d planned to hit a fast-food joint. He was a Parisian chef, for heaven’s sake, and would no doubt sneer at the thought of fast food. On the other hand, she wasn’t interested in him and shouldn’t care, Alex reminded herself and spat out the name with defiance.

“And where is that?” Cale asked, not even arching a supercilious eyebrow at her choice.

Alex found herself relaxing and gave the directions. It wasn’t far, and she hadn’t considered that it was past midnight, so was relieved to see that the restaurant had a twenty-four-hour drive-thru.

It quickly became obvious Cale had never gone to a drive-thru before. Alex found herself biting her lip with amusement when he rolled the window all the way down and leaned half out of it to talk directly into the speaker. Her eyebrows rose with surprise, however, when he gave her order, hesitated, and then said, “Double everything please, it’s for two.”

Alex now suspected she was going to have company for her meal. She’d been hoping he’d simply drive her back and drop her off with her booty, allowing her to get on with her business. But if he asked to join her to eat, it would really be rude to refuse after he’d taken her to the restaurant and back … and even paid for the food, she added with silent irritation when he waved away the money she offered to pay for both meals.

Alex spent the ride back to the restaurant ignoring the scents emanating from the bag on her lap andconcentrating on figuring out the best way to get rid of Cale once they were done eating. A polite, “Well, I have to get back to work now, so thanks for everything,” seemed the best way to go. At least that was the best she’d come up with by the time they’d reached her restaurant again.

Rather than risk a ticket for parking on the street, Alex directed him to park around back and was out of the car almost the moment he stopped. She was walking toward the back door of the restaurant, the bag of food in one hand and searching her pocket for her keys with her other when Cale called her name. Pausing impatiently, she glanced back to see him coming around the car with one of the drinks in hand.

He smiled almost painfully as he approached, and then said, “I doubled the order intending to eat as well.”

“Yes, I figured that out,” Alex assured him, and when he hesitated, she recognized the significance of his only carrying one drink and realized he hadn’t intended on joining her as she’d feared. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, flushing, “I thought you expected to eat here with me.”

She started to shift the bag in her hands, intending to retrieve her half of the food, but he said, “Well I hadn’t intended to because you’d said you were busy, but since you are inviting me, I will be pleased to join you.”

“Oh, I—” Alex started to tell him that it hadn’t really been an invitation, but he was already hurrying around his car to shut off the still-running engine and fetch the other drink.

Sighing, she shook her head at her own inept tendency to get herself into these ridiculous situations,and then turned and continued on to the back door of the restaurant. By the time she had unlocked it, he was behind her, and Alex pulled the door open and then held it for him to enter with the drinks. She followed him inside, but Cale paused after only a couple of steps to peer around.

A low whistle slid from his lips as he took in the setup. “It’s huge.”

“Three times as big as the original La Bonne Vie,” Alex acknowledged proudly as she paused beside him to peer over the kitchen herself. She was rather pleased with what she’d done here. She’d designed the layout herself and thought it was perfect. There was plenty of room so people wouldn’t be tripping over each other, and yet no one was so far away that they would have to raise their voices to be heard.

“You are planning for more kitchen staff, obviously,” he said, glancing over the various stations.

“More than double the staff at the original restaurant,” she acknowledged, “They’re already hired and trained and ready to go.”

He glanced at her curiously. “I am surprised you simply did not have one of them step in and take Peter’s place tonight then.”