When the first patrons of the evening walked through the door, Daniel approached Natalie in the service station.
“You’re up first,” he said. “Can you take a deuce on table twelve?”
Natalie’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “A–excuse me?”
Adam turned away to fill the coffeemaker, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
“A deuce,” Daniel repeated. “Two on table twelve.”
He exited as quickly as he’d arrived to wait on the next people in the door. Natalie grabbed a water bottle, turning to Adam in question.
“Is that a thing with him?”
Adam’s face was red, lessening a bit as he laughed out loud. “It’s one of the few things we all agree not to tell new servers. Makes it more fun to see the look on your face the first time he says it.”
Natalie snorted. “I’m just glad he didn’t say that in front of customers, or I’d have poured this water right into some guy’s lap.”
The evening flew by as she waited on guests, cleared tables, and refilled water glasses. Despite the knots that formed in her stomach every time she heard the word “service,” the kitchen was simply far too busy to worry about making eye contact with Seth. Each time she entered to carry dishes out, Seth either had his back to her at the grill or was so focused he paid her no mind. That was fine by her, though she couldn’t help but enjoy watching the way he worked. It was obvious he thrived here in the thick of things, moving effortlessly around his station alongside Chef Finnegan.
As soon as last call was announced, Natalie and the others made fast work of cleaning up. The kitchen had their breakdown to a science, every appliance and surface quickly spotless and food wrapped and put away. Soon only Hunter, Aubrey, and Katie were left on the clock. Rachel and Adam headed to the bar next door, promising to grab tables while they waited for the others to get off. Natalie helped Katie polish the rest of the wine glasses.
“You know, you’re great with the customers,” Hunter told her as she handed off a tray of clean glasses to him.
Natalie waved him off, hoping the blush on her cheeks wasn’t obvious.
“No, really. Don’t think we don’t pay attention,” Hunter insisted, waving a thumb between Aubrey and himself. “
“To be fair, I’ve barely taken any orders,” Natalie said with a laugh. “I think I’ve only had like six tables so far.”
“For once, I agree with Hunter,” Aubrey cut in. “You’ve got a great smile, you’re polite–you’ll be just fine here.”
“For once?” Hunter echoed, a hurt look on his handsome face.
Aubrey smirked and threw a towel at him. “Finish wiping down so we can get our drink on already. You can flirt later.”
Daniel came upstairs a few minutes after eleven, money in hand. Paying out the servers, he had them initial his paperwork to confirm they’d received it. Natalie pocketed the cash, beyond pleased with what she’d made, even with half the usual tables. That promised even better money when she grew more accustomed to the work.
Katie and Natalie headed next door, while Hunter and Aubrey promised to join in a few minutes.
“Not as many people here as I expected,” Natalie said when they walked into the hole in the wall.
“That’s the beauty of the industry,” Katie said, waving at someone near the front. “Our schedules are the opposite of everyone else, so at least we don’t have to fight the crowds for things like drinks and groceries.”
Almost an hour later, Natalie had had two beers, which meant she needed to pace herself if she wanted to last. It was already midnight, but the bar they’d gathered at stayed open ’til two in the morning. Natalie was just happy to still be awake. She’d grown used to the new late-night schedule, but adding in alcohol was a shaky piece of the puzzle. The last thing she wanted was to fall asleep in front of everyone in one of the uncomfortable metal chairs.
Natalie was smushed in between Aubrey and Katie, a dozen of them grouped around a couple large round tables. Most of the kitchen guys had also joined, sitting together on the other side and cracking jokes with the servers.
Natalie didn’t quite understand the swooping feeling in her stomach when Seth and Tom joined their table, down at the far end. Seth hadn’t looked at her as he sat down, keeping his attention on his friend and the baseball game replay on the television. Since when is he into baseball?
“Incoming,” Katie mumbled.
A shadow loomed behind Natalie; before she could turn her head, a pair of hands were on her shoulders, fingers lightly massaging her. Hunter’s deep voice rumbled in her left ear.
“I wasn’t kidding earlier. You’re a great addition to the team.”
The pressure he applied made her melt a little and she managed to murmur out a thank you. Her eyelids fluttered in pleasure. Suddenly all she could think about was his hands in other places. Places much lower than her shoulders.
Someone slammed a beer bottle on the table, jolting her back to attention. Her eyes popped open, the source of the noise coming from the end where Seth and Tom sat on the outskirts. Seth didn’t look at her, but a flush of red crept up his neck.
Before Natalie could wonder further, Aubrey brought back two more pitchers of beer for the table. After refills, their tables broke up a little as a few people stood to play pool. Natalie cheered Aubrey on against Adam, her back against the cheap wood paneling.
A smooth voice came in from her left. Hunter sidled next to her, leaning over in her direction. “To continue our conversation from earlier … makes me wonder what else you’re great at.”
Natalie looked over at him and laughed at the suggestive tone. “Man, you’re easy to read.”
He faked a hurt expression. “Easy to read?”
“Uh huh.” She went back to watching the pool game. “Even if the others hadn’t warned me about you, it’s not exactly rocket science to figure you out.”
“I’m not everything people say I am, you know,” Hunter said.
His tone was sincere enough to make Natalie pause. “I suppose that could be true.”
“I could prove it to you,” he suggested.
Natalie couldn’t help the unladylike snort. “How would you do that?”
“A date.”
“I didn’t take you for the dating type.”
“Maybe I’d like to make some changes for myself.”
“And I’m, what, your guinea pig?” Natalie quirked a brow at him.
“Someone I’d sincerely like to get to know better.” Hunter leaned down, his breath tickling her ear.
Natalie played coy, tilting her head slightly to look up at him beneath her lashes. “I don’t put out on the first date.”
Hunter laughed, the genuine expression making the corners of his eyes crinkle up. Natalie found it made him even more attractive. Or at least, her libido thought so.
Aubrey broke up their conversation as she came over to nudge Natalie’s shoulder. “Want next round?”
“Not if you’re planning to hustle me,” Natalie said with a laugh, gesturing to the devastation on Adam’s side of their game.
“You can play the loser,” Aubrey said, pointing to her empty glass. “I’m getting us another pitcher.”
Natalie accepted the pool cue from her with a little laugh. She glanced at Hunter, who also grinned.
“I’ll help,” he volunteered. “Natalie needs another beer, anyway.”
The two bartenders left, leaving Natalie and Adam to set up their pool table. Seth and Tom still sat on the far end of the nearby table, while others had separated to go smoke outside or head home.
Adam glanced up at her as he racked the balls. “Not that it’s any of my business, but are you gonna go out with Hunter?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Natalie said, laughing it off. “It could prove a fun distraction from … things.”
“What kind of things?”
“School, family, money, the usual.” Natalie changed the subject. “What about you? Seeing
anyone special?”
Adam shrugged coyly. “I’m technically single.”
“Judging by that tone, it sounds like maybe you won’t be for much longer.”
He chuckled, removing the black plastic rack and putting it aside. “Maybe not. But he’s got some baggage, I’m not sure it’s a good fit.”
Natalie shrugged. “We’ve all got baggage.”
Adam eyed her hard as he leaned over to eyeball his trajectory. “You’re not wrong, I suppose, but I just don’t know if I’m prepared to deal with it yet.”
“That’s okay, too,” she said, putting chalk on the end of her cue. “You have to do what’s best for you.”
“You’re not going to charge me for this session, right?” Adam smirked. “You can go first.”
Natalie laughed, bumping him over with her hip. She leaned over and hit her ball, cracking it against the group of them. Three solids made it into pockets. She grinned at the astonished look on Adam’s face.
“I had a good teacher a few years back,” was all she said, her smile fading a bit as she looked Seth’s way again.
To her surprise, she met his gaze, noting the little smile on his face, probably at her technique. Seth’s cheeks reddened, as if she’d caught him looking. She knew exactly what he was thinking, because she thought about it, too. The hours spent after shifts together with friends, drinking and laughing and Seth’s hands on her as he taught her how to play pool. She took a deep breath and turned away, shoving the memories away.
Seth and Tom sat on the far end of the tables, near the rest of the kitchen guys who were still there. Seth had watched Natalie play Adam, nearly shouting with approval when she’d hit those first few in. All those hours of teaching her, playing together, had paid off. And stayed with her, apparently, which Seth had never realized he wanted to know.
Seth snapped out of it when Aubrey and Hunter brought back pitchers for everyone.
“Aubrey, you’re in trouble,” Adam said as he and Natalie put their cues away. He jerked a thumb at Natalie. “This girl is a straight up hustler.”
“Is that so?” Aubrey said, white teeth showing in her bright smile. “Well done, Nat. We should team up.”
“Winners get refills,” Natalie chirped, making Aubrey laugh. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all. You’d think I wouldn’t bartend in my off-hours,” Aubrey said, smiling even as she poured beer in Natalie’s frosted mug. “I must just like you guys that much.”
Seth turned to his best friend, but Tom’s eyes were on Aubrey, his face softening. When the Australian beauty met his gaze and flashed him a big smile, Tom froze, managing to pull a half-hearted wave with his own beer glass. When she turned away at something Katie said, Seth elbowed him.
“Ask her out already.”
“She’s way out of my league.”
“Says the head chef of the hottest restaurant in Crystal Springs. I can’t figure you out sometimes, you know that?” Seth chuckled. “Every other head chef I’ve ever met is a complete miscreant, but you hate the spotlight.”
“It’s my food that should be famous, not me,” Tom replied, suddenly taking great care in drinking his beer.
“And I respect that, but you should own it a little more. You guys are friends.”
“Exactly,” Tom said. “We’re ‘just friends.’ I am forever a girl’s ‘male best friend.’”
Seth nudged his shoulder. “Nah, it means you’re halfway there. Aubrey thinks you’re cute, she told Katie weeks ago.”
“‘Cute,’ great,” Tom said, rolling his eyes. He poked his stomach as he spoke. “Like the Pillsbury dough boy. That’s like a death sentence, you know that, right?”
“Whatever man, ‘cute’ is your way in. Be downright adorable if that’s what it takes to get a date with Aubrey. You’ve been into her since her first day at LUSH.”
“There’s not a chance in the world a girl who looks like her would ever be romantically interested in a guy who looks like me.” He poked his stomach, which was decidedly not in six-pack shape.
Seth waved him off. “Even if that was an issue, and it’s not, that can be fixed with some time at the gym. A few hours of your spare time, that’s it.”
Tom laughed. “You go to the gym in your spare time. I clearly work on the menu. In any case, you did that thing again.”
“What thing?”
“Where you change the subject to avert suspicion.”
Seth broke their eye contact to watch the baseball game on the television hung up on the wall. “I don’t know what you mean.”
A grin broke out across Seth’s face, enhancing his boyish features. “If looks could kill, Hunter would be dead ten times over by now. Especially after that mini-massage he gave her.”
Beer bottle to his lips, Seth sneered in the guy’s direction. Hunter kept his face close to Natalie’s, chuckling at something she said. “I hate that guy.”
Tom snorted. “To be fair, we always have, but I guess it would seem substantially worse if he’s hitting on your girl.”
“She’s not my girl,” he said quickly.
“Sure she’s not. Tell me then, why are we here?” He tipped his bottle to the people in front of them. “We could be at home drinking the same crummy beer we already bought, and I could take my pants off.”
“Dude.”
Tom rolled his eyes. “You live with me, you know I prefer boxers.”
“Yeah, and I hate that I know that.” Seth swallowed the rest of his beer. He debated if he should get another, staring hard at the peeling silver label.
“What exactly do you plan to do if King Dingaling over there offers to take her home?”
Seth shrugged, but inwardly, fire raged in his stomach at the thought. “We’re not together, Tom. She had plans and they didn’t involve me. Now we’re here. End of story.”
“Her plans didn’t exactly work out, did they?” Tom asked. “I mean, I don’t know the details, but sounds like LUSH is a pit stop. Don’t you want to see if her plans have changed?”
Seth glared at him, hating the reasoning and how much he wanted to agree with it. He didn’t want some stupid little sliver of hope to crack his heart wide open. Not with Natalie. “Whatever, man. It looks like her immediate plans are taken up by Hunter.”
“We both know how that’ll end,” Tom said, shooting a dark look in their direction.
They did. Hunter Stone had a different girl every night. He’d gone through most of the neighborhood servers, plenty of willing female customers, and was in fact one reason why Daniel hated staff hook-ups. At least a third of the servers quit a month into working at LUSH, thanks to Hunter’s skirt-chasing ways. He didn’t do relationships, and it created too much drama. Seth’s stomach twisted at the way Natalie looked at Hunter, at how much she laughed at whatever he said to her.
“She lights up the entire room when she laughs,” Seth mumbled into his beer.
“What’s that?” Tom asked, leaning over to hear him better.
“Nothing.” Shut up, Seth, you drunk fool.
Hunter held Natalie’s hand, half-dragging her down the other dark hallway, back towards the bathrooms. Tom’s eyebrows shot up when Seth leapt to his feet. He couldn’t control himself; it was like his legs had a mind of their own as he went down the other hallway, where the U-shape would take him back to the bathroom.
It was a totally creeper thing to do, but he couldn’t help himself. Seth told himself he wanted to be there in case she screamed for help. Never mind that she’d willingly gone back there with him.
Seth turned the corner to see them standing close together. He had her pressed against the wall, with zero space between them. His hands were intwined with hers as he kept her pinned. He whispered something in her ear, making her giggle. His lips brushed her cheek. A red sheen came over Seth’s vision and he had half a mind to charge that womanizer and break his nose in three places.
Hunter pulled away and said something else in her ear. His eagerness made Seth want
to punch his lights out. Then Natalie surprised him as she pulled her face away.
“I admit it would be fun,” she said, growing firm, “but I’m not going home with you tonight.”
He grinned. “But maybe another night?”
Her mouth quirked and Seth could tell she tried not to laugh. “Maybe,” she said, “but it’s definitely not happening tonight.”
“Give me a chance,” Hunter said earnestly. “I can prove I’m not who everyone thinks I am.”
Natalie flicked a finger up and down at their closeness. “Not setting a great example here.”
“That’s because it’s impossible not to want to be near you,” Hunter said without skipping a beat. “C’mon, Nat, one chance. I’ll prove to you I’m not a playboy anymore. Let me take you out.”
That jerk wants to take her out on a date? Hunter did not date. Jealousy reared its ugly head, searing through Seth’s stomach.
“I’ll think about it,” Natalie said. She put a firm hand on Hunter’s chest, pushing him slightly back. “But it’ll have to be one heck of a date.”
The infamous LUSH bartender grinned, his white teeth shining even in the dim light. “Done. I already checked the schedule, we’re both off on the same day this week. Wednesday night, you and me.”
“We’ll see.” Natalie chuckled, pulling away from Hunter to slip inside the women’s bathroom.
Seth’s insides leapt with glee as they separated. Hunter groaned, adjusting his jeans as he went back down the opposite hall into the bar. Seth quietly backed away, not wanting to get caught. He made his way back to Tom, who shot him a curious look.
“You seem happier than you were five minutes ago.”
“No particular reason.”
“Uh huh. And the fact I just saw Hunter come back alone has nothing to do with it?”
“We’ve gotta get you a girlfriend, Tommy,” Seth said, clapping him on the back. “Such an overactive imagination.”
“I’m observant,” he argued. “And I think–”
Seth didn’t want to know. “Look, even if I cared at all about Natalie, it’d be to warn her about that man-whore.”
Hot in the Kitchen Page 4
