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A future that Lorenzo had promised and then not followed through on? She hadn’t known he was married at first. She’d let herself fall in love with him before he told her. He’d been going to leave Marcella. He’d done that since. Why couldn’t he have done it then? ‘It was a long time ago and maybe we both have grown up since then.’
Maybe growing up was what allowed Lorenzo to finally get out of a marriage that had made him unhappy. At least he’d done that for himself.
And Scarlett had moved on, too. Perhaps they just hadn’t been meant to be together.
When she searched his eyes she thought she would see agreement. Perhaps softness. Maybe still that hint of teasing. She didn’t expect to see shadows. Such shadows that her breath caught in her throat and she uttered his name with a question in her voice. ‘Lorenzo?’
What is it? What’s brought that hurt into your eyes?
He swallowed and opened his mouth and for some reason her breath stilled as though she was bracing for something. But he just shook his head and gestured to her plate. ‘Are you finished? If so we should probably make our way back. There’s a lot of work still to do before the day is over.’
‘Y-yes. I’m finished.’ So, apparently, was this conversation if she didn’t try…‘If you need—’
‘I’m fine, Scarlett, but we do need to head back.’ He didn’t reject her care. The gentle expression in his eyes made it clear that he appreciated it. But he shut the conversation down, just the same.
Scarlett nodded. She wanted to think about his reaction, what it could mean, but he gestured for their bill and then there was that to settle.
They were on the road again in minutes and he talked about the pros and cons of paying more for local produce, and did it with enough commitment and interest that Scarlett had to throw herself into the conversation with him.
Really, he was only being sensible, doing what Scarlett should have done from the outset today. He was trying to keep them on a business footing.
So why did Scarlett feel that with each moment that passed the tension and consciousness between them, rather than lessening, became stronger until everything between them seemed to be exaggerated a hundredfold?
She could hear each breath he took. The radio was silent. Her own breathing sounded loud to her ears. Each of Lorenzo’s words felt like the brush of his hand against her skin. When they fell silent, Scarlett remembered times in their past that they had shared such silences. Companionable, sweet silences.
If she thought this was only affecting her, maybe she would have had a good chance of squashing it back, but it was in his eyes each time he glanced her way. It was in the clench of his hands around the steering wheel and the tight set of his shoulders as he tried so hard to keep their conversation moving and work-focused.
And safe.
When Lorenzo drew the van to a stop in the parking space at the back of the restaurant, Scarlett turned and gave him a subdued smile.
She was trying. She wanted to be wise. If he could try for that then the least she should do was meet him halfway.
Anything else was sheer madness anyway, even if her mind all but refused to consider this fact right now. ‘Thank you for the trip, and for letting me bounce all my thoughts off you. That was really helpful.’
Scarlett was proud. The words were coming out and making sense. Later she would be able to really and truly examine all the things they’d talked about. For now she said, ‘There are clearly some things I still need to address.’
In fact, she could even think of one of those things right now. ‘I need to speak with Luca about these issues with purchasing local goods. What happened with the olives in the end, by the way?’
And see? A sensible, interested question to arm herself with knowledge about that issue, too.
‘The grower replaced them with a decent grade and got a warning not to pull a stunt like that again.’ Lorenzo stepped from the van and, again, came around it to open her door for her.
His words were clear and to the point and if she hadn’t looked into his eyes Scarlett might have believed they could just be friends.
‘Good. The grower had better do the right thing next time.’ Lorenzo would see that he did. Scarlett felt quite confident of this. Confident enough that she didn’t feel the need to manage the situation herself. ‘I’m learning to trust you again.’ She uttered the words without forethought.
Perhaps they surprised him enough that he didn’t think to step out of her path.
Because Scarlett stepped down from the van and all but into his arms. They ended up practically chest-to-chest there in the rear area behind the restaurant. It was quiet and still out here, the van parked close to the back of the building. They stood between the van and a windowless section of wall.
She looked up into his eyes and he looked down into hers and…that was the end of it. The end of days of working with each other and suppressing all sorts of things and today not managing to suppress them.
Scarlett didn’t know who kissed whom. She didn’t know who made that first infinitesimal move or whether they both did.
All she knew was their lips pressed together in the seclusion of the back area. Lorenzo made a soft sound in the back of his throat.
Their hands rose and arms locked around each other. This wasn’t a one-second press of lips against lips and a hurried and startled breaking away. This was the rest of that first kiss. The completion of that first kiss. A giving and taking and offering and receiving that seemed to touch on so much more than a shared attraction or a past closeness.
Scarlett kissed Lorenzo and completely forgot where she was. She forgot her position as Financial Manager of Rosa, forgot that potentially someone could happen along out here. She forget everything except the taste and the touch of him as they held each other close and he kissed her as though he had starved for the taste of her, had needed this intimacy with her. Had to have it for the sake of his soul.
Oh, these were dangerous thoughts for Scarlett to have. Dangerous, wanting-to-leap-to-conclusions-that-she-shouldn’t-leap-to thoughts. They dissipated anyway into pure sensation before Scarlett could do more than feel the drift of them through the recesses of her mind. Her hand rose and her fingers cupped the nape of his neck. Strong muscle shifted beneath her fingertips as she stroked them softly over his warm skin.
Lorenzo’s hands firmed at her waist and their kiss deepened, became an expression of urgency and need that felt more immediate and necessary than ever before.
‘I have missed your taste, the touch of you, the scent of you.’ He murmured the words as he pressed kisses to the column of her neck, the side of her jaw and across her cheek. Finally, before his mouth closed over hers, he added, ‘I have missed you, Scarlett. More than I understood. More than I understand now.’
‘Lorenzo.’ His words were beautiful to her ears and Scarlett gave herself up to kissing him, to the belief in his need for her. She gave and gave and Lorenzo gave back to her, worshipping her mouth with his lips, gently caressing her arms and back and shoulders until she wanted to stay in his arms and never leave.
Would Scarlett have ever thought to stop that kiss?
It wasn’t a question she could answer because a sound nearby broke them apart like…guilty lovers. In that first moment, Scarlett realised it was only a bird rustling through the branches of a tall bush at the edge of the area.
And then her mind began to function again and she became truly aware once more of their surroundings. She’d kissed Rosa’s head chef in plain view of anyone who might have happened out the back door of the premises. She’d kissed Lorenzo and Lorenzo had kissed her right back, as though all of their past hadn’t happened and she hadn’t been forced to navigate her way through the pain of him totally betraying her back then.
What on earth had she been thinking?
‘I—I need to work on the books.’ Scarlett uttered the words without any real idea of what she was doing or saying. She needed to escape. That was all she knew.
From what had just happened, from dealing with how it had made her feel, from addressing the issue of…this, whatever ‘this’ was, altogether.
She didn’t wait for him to argue the point or question her or anything else. Something told her he wouldn’t have. That he felt just as surprised and taken aback by their actions as she did. They were actions they might have taken five years ago when stealing kisses and being together had felt so exciting to her. And then she’d had to deal with his revelation that he was married, his explanations about the broken state of that marriage.
His promise to make all things right in his world so he and Scarlett…
Not now. You’re not thinking about that now.
Scarlett glanced every which way about her to ensure as best she now could, after the fact, that they had indeed not been observed in that compromising few moments, and she hurried into the restaurant by the rear door and shut herself in Luca’s office, where she proceeded to bury her head in bookwork.
Deeply!
To the point where she had no space to think about anything else whatsoever!
And can you continue to ignore all your thoughts and hope that will be a true answer to anything, Scarlett?
To not only the issue of Lorenzo, but of family, too? Do you want to be close to them, or don’t you?
Yes, she did, and Scarlett was trying. These things took time!
Chapter Six
‘OH, NO!’ Scarlett stared at the e-mail she’d just dug out of the spam folder in her Internet mail program. ‘How could this have ended up in the mail trash? What date was it sent? Why didn’t they contact me when I didn’t respond? What if I’ve missed out on the opportunity?’ As these questions popped out another question followed. She opened the e-mail and started to scan its contents. ‘What date have they said they want to do this?’
It was Friday evening. She’d been just about to pack up in Luca’s office and to be honest she had felt a true sense of achievement.
She still didn’t have all the answers for making the restaurant completely self-supporting and guaranteed to always run in the black, but the changes she’d made were starting to pay off and she wasn’t at the end of her stream of ideas by any means.
This was only the beginning of what Scarlett could do. One of the things she’d tried was to canvas the local promotional body for Monta Correnti to see if she could interest them in granting publicity and media coverage to Rosa for a weekend cook-up. The body had a budget for community-related events, and Scarlett had hoped she might be able to interest them.
Scarlett had logged onto her e-mail account at the last moment just now to check for a response. Because she’d asked about it and time had passed with no answer, she’d all but given up on the possibility. But she had found her answer, sent almost a week ago and hiding out in the mail program’s trash file!
She quickly skimmed the contents of the e-mail. The promotional group not only loved the idea she’d put to them, they’d taken it further and brought in a second restaurant so the two could run a ‘friendly’ cook-off contest. ‘Oh, please tell me it’s not—’
Sorella.
But of course it was, because they were side by side in the square. The local co-ordinators couldn’t imagine anything more exciting or convenient. They anticipated a high degree of interest, advertising would commence…Scarlett read the date and her eyes widened. Advertising would commence today. And the contest itself would run next weekend with TV and newspaper coverage!
‘That’s only seven days away.’ A lump of panic lodged itself in Scarlett’s throat, and doubled in size when the remaining implications made themselves felt. ‘And they’ve set us up to compete against Sorella.’
According to this e-mail, Sorella’s owner had been more than delighted to front up for a contest to see which restaurant could prepare the best dishes and be declared better than the other.
Oh, Scarlett, what have you got Rosa into? And the family into by letting this come about?
Scarlett’s mother would thrive on this kind of competition. It didn’t surprise Scarlett that Lisa had agreed to the contest. That was enough of a problem. Scarlett could imagine Lisa hustling her restaurant staff by remote control over the phone from wherever she happened to be at the time, to ensure they did a good job in the contest. If Lisa didn’t have other more important engagements, she might even turn up for some part of the weekend.
Unfortunately, Luca might be a little more enthused about the possibility of ‘beating’ Sorella in a cook-off than anyone in the family would want as well.
Isabella, Jackie, Lizzie and some of the others had all been trying to get things on a better, less confrontational footing between the various branches of the family and specifically between Lisa and Luca.
More rivalry was the last thing they needed and yet now Scarlett had single-handedly set the family up for a cook-off war.
Scarlett dropped her head into her hands where she sat at the desk. ‘I can see it now. Front-page news. Rabble-raising Restaurants in Fantastic Food Fight. There’s no way this can work out well. Either one restaurant loses the challenge or the other one does.’
‘If you have a moment.’ The words came from the office doorway.
They were tight, low, spoken in a very familiar male voice and they held a decided edge of ‘unimpressed’ about them. The words were Lorenzo’s, but they didn’t come from the relaxed, helpful Lorenzo she’d worked with in recent days.
Days in which they’d almost felt as though they were in some kind of holding pattern to Scarlett. They’d kissed beside the van after parking it behind the restaurant. Scarlett had melted into his arms and he’d seemed to need their kiss as much as she had. Since then she hadn’t been able to get those moments out of her mind. But nor had she been able to draw any conclusions about them, decide what she should do about them.
In fact, Scarlett had asked herself whether there might be some way that she and Lorenzo could, perhaps, pursue these feelings now.
The thought wasn’t an easy one for her to have. He’d broken her heart five years ago. Scarlett had never expected to feel anything again for him other than contempt and anger. But working with him here at Rosa had changed that. They’d developed a mutual respect for each other. Scarlett might have wanted…If Lorenzo had seemed to want to pursue…
Well, so far he’s done a good job of not pursuing anything. Maybe he’s forgotten all about the kiss. Maybe he kisses women like that all the time.
And maybe her head chef was a little upset right now and Scarlett had better deal with that. He stepped into the office and slapped down a copy of today’s newspaper.
One brief glance showed her the feature piece.
Restaurants will break out their competitive spirits for a weekend cook-off next weekend!
‘Um, about that.’ She really could have done with a few minutes to try to figure out how to present this to him in the best light, now that there was nothing she could do to change the course of events.
It was the end of the day. Why couldn’t she have discovered this earlier? Had Lorenzo known about it earlier? ‘When did you find out?’
‘Just now. None of us had time to look at the paper today.’ His gaze held an accusing edge. ‘I don’t know whether to say it’s just as well a patron didn’t tell one of us earlier in the day, or wish that they had. At least there’d have been a bit more notice.’
Scarlett forced a smile to her face and hoped it was a placatory, calm, very professional one. ‘Would you mind if I took a look? I didn’t know this was going to be in today’s edition of the paper so I haven’t actually seen it yet.’
That sounded suitably under control and not totally panic-stricken. Didn’t it?
Lorenzo silently pushed the newspaper her way with the tip of one finger. He still looked ready to pitch a fit over the topic. She should feel defensive about that. No, she should be aggressive about it, in an ‘I’m in charge here and this is just another aspect of performing your tasks for the restaurant so don’t bother complaining about it’ kind of a way.
Instead, she kept thinking how strong and manly he looked with his muscles locked that way and irritation and displeasure stamped on his face.
‘Right, well, let me just take a quick look.’ Scarlett had never skimmed a piece of print quite so quickly. As she did so she felt Lorenzo glowering down at her. She finally forced her gaze up, to meet stormy brown eyes. ‘Um, maybe you’d like to shut the door while we discuss this.’
‘Shutting the door isn’t going to make a bit of difference, Scarlett.’ His words weren’t shouted, but they were strong enough that they would carry. ‘I’m done here for the night, anyway. If you want to maintain some privacy on the topic of an article that I hadn’t even heard about, I suggest we take this elsewhere.’
Right. Well, that seemed like an eminently sensible idea. Scarlett shot to her feet. That was, she rose gracefully, and calmly gathered her laptop into the all-purpose carry bag that housed her room key and other necessary items a girl couldn’t do without, and stepped confidently towards the door.
And through it.
Without revealing even slightly that her heart was racing in a highly unprofessional way.
Oh, she wasn’t scared of him.
She just hadn’t had time to absorb the implications of this arrangement, and therefore didn’t exactly have a plan in mind for dealing with Lorenzo’s feelings about the whole matter. And she had this compulsive and extremely unprofessional urge to offer to rub his shoulders or in some other way unruffle his clearly ruffled feathers for him.
‘We’ll go to my bedsit. It’s close and the owner is away so I know we’ll be quite private even if you need to express your sentiments…’ Loudly? Vociferously? With gusto? Scarlett decided it might be wiser not to finish that sentence.
Instead she strode through the restaurant ahead of Lorenzo, and they walked in silence across the square to her bedsit. She let them in quickly, set her laptop down carefully against the wall inside the door.
Lorenzo drew a deep breath and advanced two steps into the centre of the room.
Which also brought him two steps closer to Scarlett who happened to be standing just shy of that same centre of the room herself.
‘Why is this the first I’ve heard of a cook-off that’s to take place between Sorella and Rosa? What do you hope to achieve from this? Have you thought of the possible ramifications?’
He was unapologetically irritated. And yet his eyes stayed gentle.
Scarlett frowned. Not at Lorenzo, but at her own thoughts. Now was not the time to take stock of Lorenzo’s eyes, or to feel that she wanted such gentleness from him.
‘The response from the local body handling my application ended up in my e-mail spam folder almost a week ago and I didn’t find it until today.’ Scarlett would contact them to find out just why she’d received no follow-up when she had failed to respond to the e-mail. It really wasn’t appropriate for the matter to be settled upon and advertised when one of the restaurants hadn’t actually agreed to the terms!
‘And don’t you think that as Head Chef I might have been made aware that such a cook-off event was a possibility in the first place?’ His hands came up to perch on a set of lean hips. ‘What if I didn’t want to participate in a cook-off?’
‘Well—’
