Page 39 of A Perfect Match
“Got it.”She zips off, leaving me smiling to myself.She should have saidyes chef,but I’ll teach her about that later.I get back to cranking through the orders.Jackie and Tina pop in and out of the kitchen, checking on us while whisking away the prepped orders.
Piper is fast.I try not to look too impressed when she comes back for more instructions and takes them without a peep.Once I’ve walked her through the aioli prep without missing a beat on my own station, she proudly hands the pan to Brady.
“Good luck with the rest of your lunch,” she tells me as she walks by.Before she’s made it too far, she turns and adds, “By the way, I had an idea while I was chopping cilantro.I’m going to go give your entire line free samples of my dessert…with a QR code that leads to my Best of Bayshore voting page.”
She’s gone before I can protest, much less formulate a reaction.I’m too caught up in the tickets before me.But one thing is certain.
I like a little bite in my competition.And Piper is the spice I never planned on including…but also the one that makes the whole dish better.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
PIPER
It’s Sunday morning.
I wake up at a leisurely nine a.m.Well rested and ready for my delightful day off.
I stretch and yawn in the big comfy queen bed I’ve been calling my own here at Griffin’s house.Barely ten seconds pass before my brain gloms onto the one thing I spend every day trying to avoid thinking about:Kru.
I roll over and groan into my pillow.Just when I think I’m making progress—notmeeting him at the fence,notsucking his face off on a nightly basis,notlosing yet another item from my wardrobe to an overzealous rose bush—I remember the way I found him during his soft launch.Not just the way his biceps strain at the sleeves of his black work tees or the adorable tousle of his hair, but his attention to his job.Hyper-focused, in control of the chaos, moving around his kitchen like he’s been doing it for years.
Hot guys are a dime a dozen, but hot entrepreneurs?Hotchefs?They have a little something extra.At least for me.
And now my fantasies of what Kru might sound like ordering me around the kitchen will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I smash my pillow over my face as though this will somehow quiet my thoughts.Spoiler alert, it doesn’t work.All I can see in my mind’s eye is Kru popping me up onto the edge of that prep table after hours, filling the space between my legs with his body, kissing me so hard my lips go numb.
I’m dying to see him again.
But since I know what’s best for me, I won’t let myself dip even a toe into those waters.
So what’s the smartest idea for my day off?Distraction.I force myself out of bed and into the bathroom.My cousin Bella is arriving in Bayshore today with her brand-new, honest-to-godfamous rock starboyfriend, Jackson Bedd.Nobody in the Keegan family has met this man yet, but today is the big day.We’re all excited, but Mom has been tittering the most about this.She’s going to flip when a rock god plays euchre with her on Wednesday night.I freshen up in the bathroom, change into a fresh set of clothes, and wander down the hallway.
It takes me a few moments to understand what I’m seeing.Maybe I’m still waking up, but Griffin is mopping the kitchen floor like he’s on a timed game show.
I blink a few times.“Morning.”
He looks up at me, and jerks his chin.His breath comes out in quick bursts of air.“Morning.”
No mention of working that mop like it might double as a hockey stick.
“Why are you so, uh…vigorous right now?”I gingerly step past him, making sure to stick to the already-dry areas of the floor.I can’t stop looking at his mop technique though.Amazing how you can know someone for your entire life and still not knowthisis how they mop a floor.“And have you always mopped a floor like this?”
He pauses, straightening slightly, chest heaving.“Like what?”
So he doesn’t realize he looks like he’s bailing water out of a sinking ship.“Nothing.”
He grunts and returns to his maniacal mopping.“Kay.”
I begin brewing some coffee, glancing back at his full-body mopping.“Like, are you specifically trying to burn calories?”
He stops mopping, standing up straight.“Do you have a problem with the way I mop?”
“No.No mop problems.”I tuck my hair behind my ear.I file away this tidbit for when I really need it around my other brothers.“You absolutely mop like a normal person.”
He narrows his eyes at me and continues.Thwump, thwump, thwump,goes the mop against the kitchen floor.He’s even got a booty wiggle involved.I’m about to make another comment about how he apparently learned how to mop by watching aliens give it their best guess without ever having seen a mop, but my phone buzzes on the countertop and distracts me.
BELLA: WE’RE ON OUR WAY!!!!ETA 3 hours!
