Mixed Up(11)

It buys me time. My family will be here for two whole weeks, during which, I can get interviews done for someone to replace him. It also means I can open for food every afternoon the way I want to during my busiest period. Spring Break clued me in to how much money I could make if I offered food, and the math worked out after.

Of course, that depended on whether or not I could afford Parker Hamilton.

He was one of the best chefs on the east coast. People would kill to have him in their kitchen for just one week. Could I really afford to pay him the kind of wage he'd demand?

I didn't think I could. I wasn't a big shot restaurant with reservations six months out, as his New York City spot was rumored to be.

I was a beachfront cocktail bar with a dream.

At least I served damn good cocktails. I knew I could mix as well as he could cook. I'd perfected my skill the way he had.

"Look," Sienna, my bar girl said to me as she served up two dirty martinis. "Think of it this way-the summer is the important part of this, right? So, hire him for the summer and then you have until Spring Break to find another chef. It doesn't have to be a year-round thing right now."

I knew what she was saying, but I wanted it permanent. There was enough local business to warrant it. "If that's what I have to do, that's what I'll do. The problem is my lack of wanting to hire him at all."

"Fifteen dollars please." Sienna took the card from the girl in front of her and turned to the register. "I know that," she said to me. "But, it could be a good thing. Think of the business his name would bring in."

She had a point.

"Thank you." She handed back the card and turned to me, her hand on her hip. "You're his best friend's sister. He's not going to ask you for your firstborn. Hell, what guys like him make, he probably doesn't even need any money."



       
         
       
        

"I don't want him doing me a favor. I don't want to owe him anything."

"You'll figure it out." She peered toward the door. "Holy shit, who is that?"

I took a deep breath. I already knew. Still, I glanced in his direction anyway.

Yep. Wearing a white polo shirt that hugged his apparently muscular body and dark blue, jean shorts, Parker Hamilton entered the building and commanded the attention of everything with a set of ovaries in the immediate area.

"That'll be Parker," I said reluctantly.

"How the hell do you hate him?" Sienna breathed. "I think I'm pregnant from just being in the same building."

"He hasn't opened his mouth yet."

"He doesn't need to."

"Sienna." I snapped my fingers in front of her face, drawing her attention back to me. "Focus. Do you think you can calm your tits enough for me to be able to speak to him?"

She blinked rapidly. "Got it. Focus."

I nodded behind her at a waiting customer.

"Got it," she repeated, stealing once more glance at Parker.

I will not shake my head. I will not shake my head. I will not shake my head.

I motioned for him to follow me with a wave of my hand and stepped out from behind the bar. He followed me out to the back where my office was, and I opened the door and walked in without saying a word.

I had no idea how to start this. Judging by the way he shut the door and settled into the chair on the other side of my desk, Parker wasn't going to give me an inch in it.

"I spoke to Ryan earlier," I started. "Apparently the Karras Circus is descending on the Keys three days early."

"I did hear your mom's panic at seven a.m. when I got back from a run. It was followed by your dad leaving with his gun case in his hand." He smirked. "Some things don't change."

No. He was right. Usually the closer we got to a reunion  , the stronger Dad's need to shoot something got.

"Well, I didn't know that." I grabbed my water bottle from earlier. "But Yia-Yia is expecting me to serve food. I'm pretty sure it'd break her heart and then she'd be going home in a box."

"Because she's old or because she'd give herself a coronary with her dramatics?"

"Both," I hedged. "But that's why you're here."

He folded his arms across his chest, the barest hint of a smile playing on his lips.

I was going to throw up.

"I would like to talk about your offer to work here."





CHAPTER FOUR 

Parker





Her jaw clamped shut the moment she stopped talking. God, she hated every second of that, and I fucking loved it.

I studied her a moment before talking. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail high on her head, and her bangs swept smoothly across her forehead, just touching her eyebrows. Her bright-red lips were pursed in annoyance--at herself--and her white knuckles gave away how tight she was holding her water bottle.