Page 25 of A Sudden Romance

Most people in the room danced, including Iris. But Sabastian wasn’t most people. Otherwise, he’d take Iris’s hand and join her in shaking it up.

Iris shook her head, and the colorful disco lights glinted over her hair and highlighted her broad smile as she swayed side to side. At her suggestion, they’d left their coats in the car as if she’d known there’d be dancing.

She looked at him as she lifted her hands in question. “C’mon, Sabastian. You’ve got to dance. You can’t waste this music.”

He grinned. That was all he could handle tonight. If he attempted to dance, he’d only trip over her, and that wouldn’t be the way he wanted Iris to remember him.

By the end of the night, he felt like the richest man in the room—the world even. Spending a day with Iris was a dream come true. Now, if he wanted to fulfill the reality of having her in his life, he had some big steps to take. Could he?

CHAPTER 7

Maybe he needed another distraction—no, not distraction. Panic was the word.

Sabastian flicked the card Iris handed him earlier that morning onto his desk and sank deeper into his office chair, his mind sinking back into their adventure last night to investigate Spin Twisters. He couldn’t call that a date, could he? If only...

He eyed the card again. Grey Miller. He’d watched an amazing chef called Chef G. Miller on an international cooking show. But this couldn’t be him, so he’d called the guy right away. Now, he was waiting to connect for the virtual interview Mr. Miller requested.

The meeting screen came to life, and he leaned over it, hoping the webcam worked all right on his computer as he didn’t know much about virtual meetings. “Um, hi. Can you see me?”

“Just a minute, I’m not sitting yet, but we’ve got you—Sabastian, right?”

“Right.” He folded his arms on the smooth glass desktop. A suit came into view as a man sat.

Sabastian jerked upright. That was Chef G. Miller, the chef from the international cooking shows, the man who’d written cookbooks and owned an international tasters kitchen as well as vineyards in Spain and perhaps Italy and world-renown five-star seafood restaurants throughout America. Just great. What right did Sabastian have to be sitting here discussing his cooking with this man? His stomach knotted.

So he focused on the meeting’s other attendee, a taster, someone he didn’t know.

“Okay, Sabastian.” The unnamed man smiled. “We’re just going to go over some of our questions. Can you begin by discussing why you became a chef and sharing your culinary background skills?”

“Um, I don’t have many of those. I’ve worked in a private residence for the last twelve years.” He went on to share the years he’d been in culinary school before joining the Stones. He then warmed to the subject of why he became a chef, relaxing as he shared his dad’s love of cooking. “You could say I grew up with a wooden spoon in my mouth and in my hands.” Whereas Iris grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. “I spent my childhood sampling foods and watching kitchen miracles and wanting to make them happen myself.”

Grey laughed, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “Well, you’ve got the passion for it. That’s for sure. I know how you feel. Now, would you be comfortable cooking with random ingredients—and not following a recipe?”

He could do that. But... “What kind of audience are we talking about?”

“It isn’t a big show, but you will have to cook in front of the people who’ve bought tickets. Can you do that?”

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