Page 7 of Recipe for Romance

Chapter Four

~Nicole~

When she’d come into the house from outside where she’d spent the last few hours sulking about her father’s decision a few days earlier, the last person Nicole expected to see was Aiden Kemp. He wasn’t the first boy she’d ever had a crush on, he wasn’t aboyat all, but even at twelve, she had feelings for him stronger than any she’d had before where the opposite sex was concerned. Maybe it was the fact that she was going through puberty at the time, but seeing him in her father’s kitchen one night many years ago had felt like a punch in the gut whereas her feelings for anyone else had felt like little more than a tickle.

He was handsome, there was no arguing that, but it had been more than his good looks that had caught her attention. Aiden had been her father’s favored protégé at the time, her dad speaking of the younger man often and with a fondness in his voice. Nicole could see why. His knife moved with a speed she’d never seen before and his focus was intense. She was jealous of his ability to tune out the noise and chaos of the kitchen and just get things done, something she’d never been able to do with anything. Aiden was an amazing chef and having him teach her his skills was an incredible opportunity, but it wasn’t what she wanted.

Turning to her father, Nicole opened her mouth to plead with him one last time, but she choked on the words when she saw the determined look on his face. Nicole wished she was someone who didn’t take no for an answer, but she’d heard it so often from her father that even her making an attempt to get something from him was a victory in itself. She may have a lot of energy, but this was one battle she was too tired to fight. Knowing that this offer was better than any other she was likely to get, Nicole decided to take it as a win.

Smiling politely at Aiden, she tried not to think about how much better he looked now than he had thirteen years ago. “I really appreciate your willingness to do this,” she told him, meaning every word. Just because her dad was pushing her off on someone else didn’t mean she wasn’t grateful for the opportunity. “Your tarte tatin is still the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.” The crease between Aiden’s eyebrows deepened as the words she’d just uttered played back in her head.

A fierce blush overcame her, but luckily Aiden’s face smoothed out as his eyes shone with clarity, preventing her from having to hide her reaction. “You’re allergic to chocolate,” he stated.

Nicole couldn’t stop herself from beaming at him. “You remember.” Her voice was breathy, the words spilling from her mouth like she was in a dream. Of course her crush would decide that this was the perfect time to make itself more obvious, but Nicole was too busy reliving the memories she’d conjured to care.

Nicole used to be a staple at her father’s restaurant, but once her mother was no longer around to accompany her, she was often left at home either with a sitter or eventually on her own. The one exception was always her birthday. The year she turned twelve, Nicole was seated at the chef’s table at her dad’s restaurant. He took breaks from time to time to check in on her, but he was so busy that most of Nicole’s night had been spent watching everyone else cook.

The brigade was formidable, but none more so than Aiden. He worked cleanly and diligently, not a spec of food or sauce landing on his chef whites the entire evening. Nicole watched with rapt attention as he diced, fileted, seared, and sauced just about everything in sight with incredible precision. She’d been so enthralled with watching him that she hadn’t even really touched her food, not that it would have made much of a difference.

French cuisine was something she was used to, her father favored that style of cooking and she had never been a picky eater, but mussels in white wine and bouillabaisse weren’t what she was hoping to eat for her birthday dinner. Not wanting to interrupt the kitchen, Nicole contented herself with picking at the complimentary bread basket as she watched the movement of the line cooks.

At one point she had gotten so caught up in watching her dad bark at the garde manger about the mushrooms being too cold that she hadn’t noticed Aiden until he was right in front of her. The shadow of his tall, lean figure blocked her view, but twelve-year-old Nicole didn’t care as she thought he was the hottest guy she had ever seen despite the lack of a smile on his face.

Clearing her untouched bowl of fish soup away from her place setting, Aiden swept a plate with a fluffy cheese omelet and crunchy fried potatoes down in front of her instead. When she gazed up at him and smiled, no doubt blinding him with the metal of her braces, the corners of his mouth twitched. “I don’t care for the soup either,” he’d said conspiratorially. With a nod, he walked back to his station, put his head down, and got back to focusing on his work.

There had been no other personal appearance from him, although when the server dropped off her dessert, a delicious apple tart in lieu of soufflé due to her chocolate allergy, the server mentioned that it was made especially by Aiden as he was the “resident apple expert.” Nicole had no idea at the time that he was an expert due to his growing up on an apple farm, but she learned that later on when she furiously Googled everything about him. She also knew that the dessert she’d enjoyed that evening had been the best thing to hit her taste buds and hadn’t been matched in the years since.

Aiden clearing his throat wrenched Nicole out of her prepubescent past and into the present. “Yes, well, it’s hard to forget a rare allergy like that.” His low voice sent a shiver down her spine, but she pushed aside the feelings that seeing the handsome man, this time as a fully grown woman, stirred in her belly. This was aprofessionalrelationship, not a chance for her to live out the fantasies currently playing on repeat in her mind, ones that were decidedly more inappropriate than the tame ones she’d had in her youth. “So, you’re interested in becoming a chef. How green are you?”

Before Nicole could address his question, her father stepped up next to her. The wince on his face was readily apparent. As often as she’d seen it, it still affected her. Nicole’s shoulders slumped slightly, as if she were a small child curling in on herself.

“I’ll put it in terms you’ll understand. If she were an apple, she’d be a granny smith.”

Trepidation was painted all over Aiden’s face, but her father was quick to smooth over the words that had cut her deeper than his chef’s knife ever could. Nicole would have the skills already if he didn’t prioritize everything above her, but she was twenty-five now and she couldn’t discount her own stubbornness either.

“But she’s got a lot of energy and definitely the desire. Isn’t that right?” Her dad gazed down at her, but not with nearly as much affection as she’d hoped to see.

She nodded and turned to Aiden, needing to convince him to take her on. “I just finished up my degree program in restaurant management at USC, and I did work in a few of the dining halls,” she informed him. Nicole pointedly left out the part about getting fired from those jobs due to her inattention as well as that one time she nearly started a fire in the kitchen, but he would see those qualities for himself soon enough. Still feeling the need to defend herself, she kept going. “I’m not exactly as wet behind the ears as some others you might encounter.”

Before Aiden could respond, her dad seemed to go in for the hard sell. “You’ll be needing help in the kitchen and with other things along the way as you place that first brick that will become your own empire as well, Aiden,” her father interjected. Nicole rolled her eyes at her father’s empire remark. Of course that was what seemed like the most important thing to him. “Besides, I think we both know that no one of any formal training would be likely to work with you at this point in time.”

Ignoring the barb that her father had just thrown at Aiden, and in a way her as well, Nicole focused on the realization that her training was a bargaining chip in some deal Aiden had made with her father. She’d read about her chef crush’s troubles in Chicago, but she hadn’t really connected the dots until her father mentioned it.

“I’m hardly building an empire, just a restaurant.” Turning to her, Aiden narrowed his eyes and took measure of her before extending his hand. “Welcome to the team.”

Nicole’s heart sank at the fact that she was being passed off from one chef who wanted nothing to do with her to another who was only helping her because hehadto, but she tried to focus on the bright side. She wasn’t getting the culinary training she wanted in the exact way that she wanted it, but it was still a good opportunity.

“Thank you.” She took Aiden’s strong hand once again, unsurprised that she felt another fissure of heat travel up her arm as she did. It had happened the first time, but that could be written off as a fluke. The tingling feeling on her skin and in her stomach told her this was definitely not a one-off feeling.

Taking advantage of the moment, Nicole ran her thumb across the back of his hand, noting the light dusting of hair as well as thin scars, no doubt from his many years handling a knife. His blue eyes that were so light they were almost turquoise burned into hers and his nostrils flared.Did he feel it too?The moment he dropped her hand like a dead fish, Nicole had her answer.

The attraction being one sided was a good thing, she reasoned. She had a hard enough time staying focused as it was, no need to add catchingactualfeelings for her mentor to her already busy brain. Attempting to banish her own attraction, Nicole focused back on the conversation. Still, as the trio discussed the logistics of how she and Aiden would return to Washington State and where she would live, Nicole’s eyes kept drifting back toward Aiden, wondering just how long she would be able to fool herself into thinking she could focus on anything other than him.

****

The private jet herfather chartered was as glamorous as Nicole remembered from the last time she flew in it. Dark wood veneer and white leather covered the walls and large plush chairs sat surrounding a dark wood table on one side while a long, micro suede couch sat on the other. The door that led to the back cabin was open, giving her a peek at the large bed that took up most of the space.

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