Page 17 of The Billionaire's Bad News Baby

“Who taught you?” he asked. For someone who was quiet, and Kayla had to admit more than a bit socially awkward from what she’d seen, Elio sure was asking her a lot of questions.

“I kind of taught myself,” she said, focusing on flipping the omelet to reveal a perfectly golden crust along the bottom. “My mom likes to cook, but she’s not very good at it. So that’s my department now.”

“It’s a step above my mother, at least. I don’t think I ever saw her set foot in the kitchen. But I never saw her much at all, so maybe she does secretly like cooking, who knows?”

He sounded kind of sad and then lapsed back into that quiet place where he seemed to take a step back from the outside world. So far it had been, in the strangest way possible, a very fun morning. And maybe Kayla was being delusional, but Elio seemed to be having fun as well. There was a weird protective surge that overcame her as she dished up the obscenely large omelet, big enough to share, and started garnishing it with fresh herbs. The least she could do was make this situation bearable for him, for them both. Anyone would do that, right?

“This is my apology and thank-you omelet,” she said, feeling victorious when Elio smiled, even if it was just a shy little grin.

“Well, if you’ve got the food under control,” he said, getting up from the counter and moving to the fridge, “I’ll do what I do best and provide the wine.”

“Wine?” she said with a raised eyebrow. “For breakfast?”

“It’s Italy, darling,” Elio said. “Wine is for every meal.”

Kayla felt her ears turn as hot as molten steel while Elio went about his business, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he’d just called her darling. It was early. They were both out of their comfort zones. It had slipped out, that’s all. Being called darling wasn’t that big a deal. It was certainly nothing to get so flustered about, right? Right.

Eternally grateful for the excuse to leave the room with her dignity intact and pulling out some extra curls to cover her ears, Kayla took their food and cutlery and made herself busy arranging it on the countertop, trying to make it look at least a little bit fancy. She was sure Elio only ate the best, considering he had a literal personal chef at his beck and call most of the time. Luckily, sprinkling fistfuls of parsley over it all seemed to do the trick.

It was coffee that Elio returned with, despite his claims about the wine, and Kayla nearly melted into a puddle when he started pouring the beans into the fancy espresso machine, the fragrant clouds washing over her from all away across the kitchen.

“Okay, smell that,” she said, “and tell me that you don’t appreciate good-quality produce.”

“It’s coffee,” Elio said dryly. “It’s not a root vegetable.”

“It’s literally a bean. What are you talking about?”

He stopped, mouth open to respond, then snapped it closed again.

“That’s a really good point, actually,” he mumbled.

“So I win,” Kayla said, victorious, and Elio actually rolled his eyes at her as the espresso machine started dribbling out the most divine-smelling coffee.

“You don’t have to win a conversation.”

“You don’t have to, no. But I did win, didn’t I?”

He gave her a deadpan look, and she smiled sweetly. It shouldn’t be this fun to tease someone, but Elio just seemed to stoke up some sort of mischievous little demon within her.

“Fine,” he said with a completely flat expression. “Yes, you win. Coffee is a bean, and I like it. Are you satisfied with your victory over the least controversial point in history?”

“I am. Thank you for the acknowledgment. You were a valiant opponent.”

He rolled his eyes at her, which he seemed to be doing a lot, and took a bite of the omelet. As he chewed, those eyes that he’d been rolling so much went wide and he looked up at her.

“This is great,” he said, and Kayla ducked her head.

“Thanks.”

“I mean it,” he urged.

“Thank you,” she said, looking him in the eye this time, taking a bite for herself. And not to toot her own horn, but it was good.

“I don’t know why you’re running around doing the bidding of lawyers when you can cook like this,” Elio said, unashamedly digging in. “I think you need to reevaluate your career choices.”

Kayla thought that maybe he was onto something.

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