Page 26 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House
Archer was leaning on the counter now, elbows on the smooth surface. He took his own forkful of pancakes. ‘What’s wrong with it?’
Iris shrugged. ‘Is it weird if I say it’s too good?’
‘Too good?’
‘It tastes too good. Too fluffy. I think maybe the old diner pancakes were denser.’
Okay, so sifting the flour was out.
‘Did you try a mix?’ she asked, popping in another bite. ‘Aunt Jemima or something?’
‘You want me to make pancakes using a mix?’
Iris laughed. ‘Jeez, you sound like you’re about to have a stroke. It was just a suggestion.’
He tried to calm down whatever horrified expression was on his face, but seriously, a mix? There was no way he was serving people food made from a mix. That was unacceptable.
‘I’ll tweak the recipe again, but I’m not using a mix.’
Iris smiled at him as she finished off the pancake. ‘So, you’re really good at this, huh?’
‘Cooking? Yeah, I hope so at this point.’ He smirked and made more bad decisions. ‘Stay home for dinner tomorrow and I’ll make you some real food.’ She’d been out to eat with her cousin her first few nights here, but suddenly he wanted to see her face when he fed her more than this disappointing pancake.
Dangerous thoughts, Archer. She’s not yours to cook for.
But when everything else felt like failure, Iris’s smile felt like success. He wanted more of it.
Iris’s smile grew. ‘Okay, I’ll let you make me dinner.’ She hopped down from the stool. ‘Goodnight, Archer.’
It wasn’t until she was out of sight that he realized he was staring again.
ChapterTwelve
‘He’s making you dinner? What the hell is going on over there, Iris?’
‘Bex, calm down.’ Iris was driving to her ten o’clock aerobics class while Olive was at school. They’d actually made it on time today and she was feeling pretty good about that until her cousin called to rain on her parade. Maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned the late-night chat and pancake testing as well as the subsequent dinner invite, but it wasn’t like it was a date or something.
‘He’s making dinner for Olive and himself and just offered for me to join them. It makes sense. We live in the same house, I can’t just not be home whenever he is.’
Her cousin’s long-suffering sigh came clearly through the speaker. ‘You need to keep the line between you very clear, Iris. He’s yourboss.’
‘I am aware of that, thank you. And nothing even happened!’ Besides some light ogling while he cooked, she was only human. And it was impossible to avoid noticing how sexy her new boss was. But despite what Bex thought, she could practice restraint. Just because she found a man sexy did not mean she had to immediately jump his bones. She understood the boundaries here, but she wasn’t about to turn down a delicious (and free) meal.
‘Anyway, are you coming to class today?’
‘No, can’t today. I picked up a few more lessons.’
‘Okay, I’ll text you later.’
‘Just be careful, Iris. If things go sideways with this guy, you’re out of a job and a place to live. Unless you want to reconsider my offer…’
‘I love you, Bex! Gotta go!’ Iris hung up before she could get lectured anymore. Growing up, the girls had seen plenty of men come and go in their mothers’ lives and it had left Bex wary of all men. Iris on the other hand, may have been more like her mother than she cared to admit. Much like her employment record, Iris’s relationship record didn’t exactly reflect longevity. She liked relationships like she liked her chicken wings, hot and fast.
If she’d learned one thing from her mother, it was that romantic love was fleeting but sex was fun while it lasted. And while her mother never seemed overly distraught when things ended, it was young Iris who was left missing the latest casualty of her mother’s wandering attention. Eventually, she learned to stop hoping that her mother’s latest boyfriend would maybe one day become her new stepdad, but clearly some damage had been done because grown-up Iris didn’t bother getting too close to any man.
Things just seemed safer that way.
And besides, she wasn’t reckless enough to sleep with her boss.
