Page 68 of Hot and Bothered

“That you’re cooking at Vivi’s.”

Phew.“It’s just an experiment.”

Jack hunkered down and unclasped Evan, who looked like all his Christmases and birthdays had come at once. “More than that, I hear you’re getting on the menu.”

“Not every day. And it’s mostly my chutneys and jams.” She felt a sudden rush to defend her presence among gleaming steel counters, as if she had been caught playing dress up in her mother’s clothes and make-up.

His mouth drew into a pinch. “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to work in a kitchen?”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t even sure I did myself until Tad suggested it. He tried my bruschetta and he offered.” An uneasy thread wormed through her. “Should he have run it by you first? With you being an investor?”

“No, not at all. Tad can hire whomever he wants. I just…sometimes I’m not sure I know what’s going on inside your head. I wish you’d talk to me more.”

Oh, God, talking, her other bugbear. She and Jack had been doing a lot better since she moved to the States but years of sealing every hurt inside was a hard habit to break.

When she was five years old and they had gone to live with her aunt and uncle after her father died, Jack had promised to look after her. He would become her guardian when he turned eighteen—just three more years, baby girl!—and she had believed him. Not that Daisy and Pete were unkind, they were just stereotypically miserable East Londoners. They didn’t like Jack, who was always in trouble, and their care for Jules was insensitive and obligatory. Once Jack turned eighteen, he was already in Paris for his apprenticeship, and those whispered promises to look after her were forgotten. By the time Jules was eleven, he was putting in eighty hours a week at his new restaurant in Covent Garden. TV and New York would come calling a few short months later. He soared while she plummeted further and further, unable to explain her problems in school with anything other than an insolent shrug.

“I just like cooking. It’s fun.”

Minimizing it was her default position. It had taken a few minutes in a kitchen with Tad for him to understand the uncontainable need to be someone other than Jack’s sister and Evan’s mother. It had taken a few minutes with her legs coiled around his hips like a python for him to get how raw and dirty she wanted it. How did this guy know her better than her own brother?

Because she wanted him to know her. She wanted to be known.

Jack tilted his head, assessing. “You could do it properly. Go to culinary school.”

“That’s not for me.” She raised her eyes from the patch of earth she had been weeding with fervor. “I’m not really cut out for school.”

She braced herself for the Jack assault of fraternal affection, where he told her she could do anything and be anything. She loved him for it but sometimes it was just too much.

His indrawn breath was deep and pep talk-sapping.Thank you.“Well, if you ever want to cook together…”

“And have you breathing down my neck telling me everything I’m doing wrong?”

His smile was filled with compassion. “No, sweetheart. Just cooking. For fun.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. This Tad business was making her cranky. “I’d love to cook with you sometime.”

His grin faded. “So I heard something else odd. I mean, so bizarre that I’m finding a hard time getting my head around it.”

She grasped at a particularly pernicious weed that she was sure she had disposed of a few weeks before. Of course, certain problems have a habit of resurfacing just when you think you’ve made strides to eliminate them. Such as Simon St. James. He hadn’t followed up his call but she felt his presence like a sword teetering by a whispering thread.

Simon might want to be a part of his son’s life, but what good would that do? Seeing his father twice a year, or whatever Simon would think was appropriate, would confuse Evan. Any man in her life would have to want her baby, one hundred percent. No uncles-for-a-month or on-again-off-again step dads. No half measures.

Tad was amazing with Evan and he would continue to be there for her son assuming their friendship survived the mind-blowing sex. If she pushed for more and things soured between them, everyone would feel the shockwaves. He had made it clear he wasn’t boyfriend material and begging for a man to see the real her was no longer her style.

“Are you going to tell me what you heard or are you going to leave me hanging?”

Jack’s mouth hardened. “I heard that Tad stayed over.”

“Yep, he stayed the night. Nothing happened. End of.”

“I know. Sylvia said there were performance problems.”

They might have just got done with the latest episode ofSuper Fun Bonding Timewith Jack and Jules,but they weren’t going there.

“Tad and I were kidding around, putting on a show for Sylvia. He’s my friend and we’re not a couple.”

“Music to my ears. He’s not good enough for you.” He bounced Evan on his hip to her toddler’s delighted squeal.

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