Page 68 of Simmer Down
Callum’s brow raises. “This is all your fault, Penelope.”
I mouth, “What are you doing?” at him.
Penelope seems to be going through the same thought process, because she’s staring at Callum with her eyebrows all the way at her hairline.
He crosses his arms over his chest.
“Wh-what?” she stammers.
“Remember that selfie you posted of you two with a caption calling out Hungry Chaps?” Callum says. “Well, this is the outcome. Nikki and I had it out over that, but now we’ve come to an understanding.”
Penelope furrows her brow. “And now you’re cooking together?”
“Something like that.” Callum lifts his eyebrow for just a half second, but the message it sends is indisputable.
His cheeky little nod is more than enough to clue her in. She’s beaming again and turns to me. “Oh my gosh, it’s like those enemies-to-lovers romances! Those are my absolute favorite!”
I tug her arm, finally understanding what Callum is doing. Sometimes the best way to hide is out in the open. Penelope is already a fangirl. If I can convince her to keep this a secret as a friend and fan, she’ll feel special. And our secret will be safe.
I turn Penelope to face me. “We have you to thank, Penelope. You brought us together. Sometimes we even call you Cupid.”
The lie doesn’t flow as smoothly as I hope, but she’s too excited to notice, thankfully.
“You do?” she squeals.
I nod. “But we have to keep this quiet, okay? The Maui Food Festival’s coming up, and we don’t want this to ruin our chances. People will think we’re just a cute love story and make unfair assumptions about us working together. But we are still two separate food truck businesses. We don’t mix that part of our lives at all.”
I bite my tongue as soon as I say it.Love. Way wrong word to use, but maybe it will sell us better to Penelope.
“You don’t mix—except for tonight.” She winks. “Say no more. It’s our little secret. I won’t breathe a word until you two are ready to make things public.”
I wink at her. “You’ll be the first we tell, promise. We just want to get through the festival before, though, okay?”
“Okay!”
She pulls me in for one last squeeze of a hug, then softly punches Callum in the shoulder before yanking him into one of her death-grip hugs. Even though he’s twice her size, he winces at her strength.
“You nabbed a good one, buddy,” she says.
Callum can’t seem to contain the grin tugging at his mouth. “Don’t I know it.”
Penelope makes a zipper gesture with her lips, waves good-bye to us, then scurries back down the hall to the dining room.
I pat Callum on the chest. “Bold move deciding to let her in on us.”
“It’s obvious how highly she thinks of you,” he says. “She doesn’t want to let you down.”
“Way to think on your feet. I was sure we were busted as soon as she saw us together.”
He raises his eyebrow at me. “So according to Penelope, I’m the lucky one in this arrangement.”
“She speaks the truth.”
He chuckles and turns toward the kitchen.
“Wait.” I catch his wrist. “About earlier. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. Cooking here with you was a dream. I’m so sorry if I made it sound like anything else.”
His mouth curves up in a soft smile. “Thank you. I feel the same way about working with you.”
