“So tell me, what is it that you do for a living? You’re a waiter or... I think Cory said something about supervising the waiters.”
“Excuse me?” His eyes shown confusion.
“I’m sorry, maybe I misunderstood her.” I threw my head from side to side in an exaggerated motion. “I might have been a little intoxicated at the time.”
As I went back to the kitchen for the salad, he began piling spaghetti onto our plates.
“I think you’re confusing me with someone else. I’m a pilot.”
I must have looked like a mannequin in a culinary advertisement, standing in the doorway, a bowl of salad the only thing between him and the dumb expression on my face.
“A pilot? Then why were you waiting tables at Sal’s?”
He laughed. “Okay, I see why you’re confused. I’m the pilot who flew the waiters and the band to your party. When Cory hired me, she also invited me to stay afterward. As for waiting tables—my mother owns Sal’s. I waited tables there while I was putting myself through flight school and I still help her out when she’s in a jam.”
My mind was working overtime trying to process the events leading up to my party.
“So, Cory must have met you, what, at the airport? I know she had never seen you before the first time I saw you at Sal’s.”
“That would be correct. I ran into her a few days after the first time I saw you. We talked a bit and she hired me to deliver your... guests.”
“Then you know Charlotte’s fiancé, Kevin? He’s been a mechanic there forever.”
“I wouldn’t trust my plane to anyone else.” He teased, slapping the table. “Yes, I know Kevin, great guy.”
“So, you’ve met my friends and your mother owns our favorite café. Talk about a small world.”
“And don’t forget your grandmother. I’ve met her, too.”
I let out a faint laugh. “And she’s not one you’ll soon forget.”
He agreed with a nod of his head, as he finished the last of the spaghetti on his plate.
Almost rhythmically, I washed the dinner dishes and he dried and put them away. I had never considered a man with a dishtowel draped over his shoulder as being sexy but tonight, I couldn’t imagine anything sexier.
It took a conscious effort to keep my mind off him and on topics that wouldn’t land me in an embarrassing situation.
“So, how long has your mother owned Sal’s?”
“All of her life. Actually, her parents bought it when she was born and named it after her, her name’s Sally. Her mother died before I was born and her father only a few years later. She’s been running it ever since.”
My eyes opened wide as he twirled the dishtowel in his hand as if he were going to towel snap me with it. I watched cautiously, but his playfulness ended with twirling.
“And, I’m assuming you lost your father.”
“Yeah, a long time ago.”
His demeanor changed so slightly that if I hadn’t been looking directly at him, I would have missed it.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked about him.”
“No, that’s okay. It doesn’t upset me that he’s gone, what upsets me is what he was when he was here.”
I found myself curious to his meaning and resisted asking, but gave him my undivided attention when he offered an explanation.
“My father was a drunk—that being the cause of my parents divorce soon after I was born. My grandfather paid for the best rehab facilities, bought him a business and even tried cutting him off financially when all else failed. But my father never did beat it.”
“Now I’m really sorry I asked.”
“Don’t be.” He stared into the dirty dishwater for a second, and then returned his attention to me. “In some respects, I’m glad things happened the way they did. I mean, my grandfather is obnoxious and domineering to a fault, so I try my best not to be like him and my father was an embarrassing drunk, so I rarely drink. If I never had the opportunity to see the flaws in people, I may not have strived as hard as I have to find the good in myself.”
I stared at him, my mouth slightly ajar. I think it was at that exact moment when I realized I was no longer seeing him for his outward appearance. He was the first man I had ever known that was as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside, making me want him more than I’d ever wanted anyone.
I teased, “Do you have any flaws?” before my better judgment could stop me.
Hanging the dishtowel on a knob and turning his attention to me, he stated, “I keep take-out food joints in business due to a lack of culinary skills... My laundry has a tendency of getting ahead of me and I have a little scar on the back of my thigh. I expect one-hundred and ten percent from the people I work with, earning me the reputation of being a little difficult... I don’t always remember to buy cards on holidays, but I’m working on it and two of my lower teeth,” pointing to them, he continued, “overlap just a little.” He sat on one of the stools by the island. “Like my mother, I refuse to kowtow to my grandfather, no matter how much money he waves in front of me... I’ve been known to foozle on the golf course and I don’t visit the gravesites of my dead relatives. In all honesty, I find it a little morbid.”