Page 27 of Recipe for Romance

It was a good thing the money Aiden was getting from the investment group wasn’t directly tied to Eddie because after that, he wasn’t sure he would have been able to accept it. It would have felt dirty, like money earned off of the years Nic had spent working diligently toward a goal her father never intended for her to reach.

A hand on his forearm stopped his movements. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Nicole peered up at him with so much genuine concern that it helped dispel some of the anger that had threatened to rise up again on her behalf. “You slept until nearly ten this morning, so I know you are decently rested. Then we had a snack before we left, so you getting hangry can’t be the explanation, so what is it?”

“I don’t get hangry, remember?” Aiden glared at her, but there was no heat in it, not anymore. He still complained every morning when she banged around in the kitchen when it was too early and at night when she would talk his ear off about all of the random thoughts in her head, but he didn’t mind either of those things so much anymore. In fact, they were slowly becoming a part of his new routine. He would miss them when they were gone. The large messes in the kitchen were another matter, but that was why they were here and not at home. “I’m fine. Just lost in my thoughts a bit.”

Nic nodded to the front of the diner that was decorated for Halloween. The holiday was next week and it seemed as though Mr. Harvey had gone all out. The vinyl booths and chrome tables remained untouched, but anything else was covered in tufts of cotton cobwebs, plastic spiders and bats, and there was even a large skeleton seated at the counter, clutching an empty coffee mug. “Thinking about your costume for this year? I already have mine for when we pass out candy.” She smiled and pulled out his chef’s knife, gently placing it on the butcher block.

Aiden knew Nic did it so carefully because she had already cut herself numerous times on the blade, but he also liked to think that she was so cautious because she knew how important a knife was to the chef it belonged to. He’d had that knife since his first official job in her father’s kitchen. Eddie had taken one look at Aiden’s kit from cooking school and passed him the business card of the man he got all his knives from.

The set he currently had was one of the most expensive things he’d ever owned, but it was worth it to have something that had been with him for over twelve years. It was a little pathetic that Aiden’s longest relationship was with a set of inanimate objects, but those knives had seen him through countless jobs which was more than he could say for most people. Still, as he watched Nic trace his name that was engraved at the base of the knife, he couldn’t help but long for something like that with her.

Pushing down the thought, Aiden shook his head. “No costume for me, I’m afraid. And who said anything about handing out candy?”

Nicole looked up at him, her big brown eyes seeing a little too much for his comfort level. “Please. I know that somewhere under all that bluster is a big softie.” She took the tenderloin from him and started to slice it exactly as he’d shown her. “Think of all those smiling faces we’ll get to see. If you’re really good and don’t bark at any of them about ‘getting off your lawn,’ I’ll even let you pick which scary movie we watch.”

“You make me sound like an angry grandpa,” Aiden huffed. He tried not to think of her seeing him as some grumpy old man, but it was difficult.

Giving her so many reasons to come to that conclusion certainly didn’t help. Instead of thinking of their age difference, he tried to focus on her continued prep work. It was coming along, but still nowhere near where it needed to be. She would need more time, and he could give her that. What he couldn’t give her was the one thing he desperately wanted to, but hearts getting involved wasn’t part of their new normal.

Unaware of his inner turmoil, Nic bumped him with her shoulder. “You may act like a curmudgeon some days, but trust me, I know you aren’t a grandpa.” Her eyes danced over his face, filling with heat and a little bit of mirth. “Maybe a daddy. If that’s your kink.”

Aiden groaned. “You can’t say stuff like that,” he requested. Wiping a hand down his face, he snatched an apron from the wall, tying it around his waist. Getting called ‘Daddy’ wasn’t what he was into, but even hearing her bring up the subject of kinks had him rock hard. He passed another apron to Nicole to cover his tracks, though from the wicked glint in her eye, she knew what she was doing to him. “Let’s just focus on the cooking and we can talk about Halloween later.”

“Fine,” she acquiesced. “But we’re definitely talking about it while we eat this. I have a lot of ideas for decorations for the house too. Oh, and we can talk about the couches for the seating area at the restaurant. I have a feeling if left to your own devices people would end up just standing around like cattle.” Aiden rolled his eyes, but a smile played at his mouth. Listening to hear babble was becoming the best part of his day.

Nic’s chatter continued as they seared the pork, sliced apples, and onions, and rubbed the marinade onto the meat before placing it all in the oven. Aiden had thought he needed the sounds of the kitchen to be content, but Nic talking about anything and everything was quickly becoming his new favorite noise.

When everything was cooked, they sat at the counter, Nicole telling him about her favorite Halloween memories as a child when her mother would take her trick-or-treating, the two of them decked out in coordinating costumes while her father worked. She also spoke of how she would always be bummed about getting mostly chocolate candy but that her mother would act as a “switch witch” to give her nothing but gummy bears and licorice instead, and how her next door neighbors would go all out with decorations, turning their front lawn into a haunted house.

“We have to do something with our place,” she insisted for the umpteenth time. “Kids won’t know to come up for candy if we don’t do at least a little decorating.”

Aiden smiled indulgently at her. “As long as it doesn’t look like a party store threw up all over the grass, I guess I can live with it.” He already knew he would approve any idea she brought to him. Nic had claimed he was a softie deep down, and he was for those he cared about. She had quickly gotten herself added to that list, and he wasn’t sure she would ever leave it.

“No promises,” she chuckled. Nicole smiled at him, her eyes filled with gratitude. “Thanks again for tonight.” She waved her fork over her nearly empty plate. “I think it actually turned out okay this time.”

Aiden took his final bite of the dish, the juicy pork seasoned with mustard and thyme pairing well with the apples. “It turned out better than okay, actually.” He smiled softly, pulling out his own notebook and flipping the pages until he found what he was looking for. Sliding it over the counter to her, he pointed to the list he had going. “I’m thinking of adding this to my menu.”

Nicole’s eyes skimmed the page, her expression thoughtful as she considered everything he’d written down thus far. “Rosemary roasted chicken with apple, acorn squash with sausage, apple, and cranberry stuffing,” she read aloud. She continued down the page until she got to the bottom, glancing up at him with a very confused look on her face. “What is mulligatawny stew?”

Aiden chuckled. “It’s a version of a stew originally from Southern India,” he explained. “I traveled there a while back, not for long, but the food was so flavorful. The anglo version has been around for a while, but I wanted to put my own twist on it. It’s got protein, dairy, and vegetables. Some people even add apples.”

A wry smile pulled at her cheeks. “I’m sensing a theme,” she chuckled.

Aiden nodded, taking back his notebook and sliding it into his pocket. “It wouldn’t be a family restaurant if I didn’t include the one thing that my family’s known for.” Standing, he walked their dirty dishes to the sink to join the rest of their clean-up, Nicole scrambling to keep up with him.

“Family restaurant? I assumed you would go the fine dining route.” Nicole grabbed the first pot and started washing it, handing it over to him to dry when it was finished.

Aiden sighed. “Truthfully, I had thought about going that way at first.” He had always imagined his own restaurant would look like those out ofFood & WineMagazine, sterile looking spaces where food was served in lopsided bowls with a cloud of liquid nitrogen pouring out the top. It would have fit right in with the establishments he’d been trained and worked at for the entirety of his career. Nicole handed him another pan and he shrugged.

“I don’t know. Somewhere along the line I guess I decided to go another way. I couldn’t really picture my family being comfortable in a place like your dad’s or even the last place I was executive chef, and it’s important to me that they feel welcome at my restaurant.” He didn’t speak of it often, but his family meant a lot to Aiden. Even though they were the ones who gave him the most shit about his lackluster personality, they were also his biggest cheerleaders and he appreciated that more than they knew. Probably because he didn’t tell them often enough, something else he would have to be better at.

When he hazarded a gaze at Nic, she was beaming at him. “I think that’s really amazing.”

That meant a lot to Aiden, but he didn’t say as much for fear of disrupting their new normal. “Thank you,” he whispered, instead. It was another phrase he needed to say more often, not just to her, but to everyone in his life who had helped him along the way.

Nic bumped him with her shoulder. “You’re welcome.” They went back to washing dishes, but it felt as if something between them had shifted. She had shown him so much of herself when she spoke about her dad, so maybe this was just him returning the gesture, though it felt like more than that. It felt like a turning point. What lay ahead, Aiden didn’t know, but he was looking forward to finding out.

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