Page 5 of Sinfully Shameless Chef

Tears roll down my cheeks, and I reach up to brush them away. She wouldn't want me to cry for her. So, I won’t. I'll just create the best restaurant I can and totally kick ass in her name.

And there’s one more thing I can do in her honor. Something I should have thought of a long time ago, long before she took her final breath in this world. Something that just feels right and makes my heart swell.

Every day, I’ll stand outside on the cracked sidewalk and stare up at the name above the door and be reminded of why I’m here, of who brought me to this point and everything she sacrificed and taught me.

I’m going to call it Grandma’s Kitchen.

2

IZZY

What started out as a light drizzle has become a torrential rainstorm. Buckets of water fall from the sky, and my windshield wipers just can't keep up. Even at full speed, I can barely see out of the glass to the street directly in front of me.

I might as well be driving under water, and the fog building around the edges of the windshield doesn’t help, either.

Shit.

Not exactly the best day to be meeting with the contractor about starting work on the restaurant.

I hope he isn't delayed by this weather.

People drive like idiots when it's like this, and it took me twice as long to get here as it should have this morning. It’s only amped up the tension in my shoulders at finally starting the dream I’ve had for so damn long. The slow progress would have been even more agonizing if I didn’t have Ashley with me today to keep me company and prevent me from getting road-ragey.

But with her attention focused on her phone screen, she doesn’t seem to be interested in the distress the weather is causing me or my nerves about meeting with person who will be in charge of making my dream a reality.

Two blocks from the building, I start scanning for parking spots. Technically, the road directly in front of the building is a loading zone, but Rochelle said I could park there during the construction to make it easier to get in and out and reserve the area for any unloading of supplies. Which is good because the streets around here are just as bad as everywhere else in greater New York, with so many cars parked on them that sometimes I can drive around for an hour, trying to find a spot.

I approach the cross-street, checking both ways to see if anything is open near the corners. A big black SUV rolls through a stop sign to my right, turns in front of me, and flies down the street, spraying water off the tires back onto my car.

“Shit!” I slam on my brakes, both to give myself a little distance from the monster vehicle and because the water completely blinds me momentarily.

Ashley huffs, the abrupt stop finally dragging her from whatever has her face glued to her phone screen. “What a jerk!”

“I know!” I glance her way, then refocus on the road. “The asshole could have waited at the stop sign for me to pass before they pulled out.”

It seems it’s going to be one of those days.

I can barely see the building through the driving rain, but at least it looks like I can pull right up front and avoid getting drenched to start my day. Nothing sucks worse than being wet and cold, and if I had to sit in soaked clothes all day, I would be fucking miserable.

As soon as I flip on my blinker, the brake lights of the SUV driven by the douchebag in front of me flare, and it pulls into the spot directly in front of the building.

My building.

My fucking spot!

“What the hell?”

With a frustrated scream, I slam on my brakes next to the offending vehicle and roll down the passenger window.

Rain pelts Ashley through the opening, and she cringes and shifts as close to me and away from it as she can. “Oh, my God! What are you doing? Close the damn window!”

Not a fucking chance.

The driver's door of the SUV opens, and a dark head of hair appears, followed by a far too handsome man who I might actually appreciate if I weren't so furious at him. He steps out into the rain, instantly soaked by the downpour.

I lean over Ashley and glare at him. “What the hell are you doing parking in my spot?”

He bends down and peers into my car. His dark eyebrows rise, and amber eyes shimmer back at me. Water soaks his black hair and trickles down his cheeks, only accentuating how perfect and angular they are.

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