by Judy Jarvie
‘Want to explain this text message from Lyle?’ he demanded. ‘He’s told me I’m to escort you off the premises. Had a bad day?’
The American woman’s fired! I’ve already told her to go. I’m at the café near The Art Gallery mending my blown fuse. And escaping her. Lyle.
Maddie read it and winced. ‘Hate at first sight?’
Jim looked solemn. ‘One explanation. But how did it happen?’
‘We’ve just had a VIP customer and I had to take charge.’ Maddie grabbed her jacket and bag. ‘I’m going to see him and explain. Sheena and John are back from lunch so we’re covered. Okay if I go try some damage limitation?’
Jim shrugged his shoulders. ‘I’m not exactly sure there are any limiting opportunities in this particular damage package. Just promise me you had good reasons.’
‘Let me get my job back first.’
Maddie saw him sitting on the lower tier of the festive European-themed market. At a table in the Ooh La La Creperie courtyard, broodingly nursing a bottle of mineral water and a newspaper. His large frame was squeezed into an outdoor garden chair – a wild tiger in a white plastic cage.
Lyle’s hair was dark as charcoal, his shirt, crisp and white, set him apart. The location seemed incongruous with the man; a thundering entrepreneurial hero against a festive merriment backdrop. While a song about peace and goodwill to all men echoed from someone’s stall’s music system like audible irony.
The broadsheet newspaper Lyle was flicking through lay flat out on the table, sending out a clear message. My territory. Get lost. No interlopers. Just like his attitude to new arrivals in his café; he owned the world and it weighed heavily on his shoulders.
Maddie sank down into the chair opposite him. ‘Hi. It’s me. Calamity Coffee Waitress about to be dismissed. Only I’m not quite sure I’m ready to give up without a fight.’
Lyle looked up, his expression calm. ‘I already fired you. Technically the point is moot.’ Though he stared at her, not a ripple of emotion marred his features. He turned over the page, flicking his gaze to the print. ‘Not gone yet? Maybe you should go find another job?’
Maddie dumped her bag on the table in the middle of his newspaper. Like The Titanic, she wasn’t going down without a momentous splash.
‘You’re so not sacking me today. Not without mitigation.’ She leaned forward in her chair, knitted her brows, determined. She wasn’t a Boston legal eagle’s daughter for nothing. ‘Hear me out. You’ve just had a visit from the most important critic in the city – Rob Brewster from The News. He once slated my uncle, who now has laminated pics of him all over the kitchen wall so every waiter is ready. Consider that expertise enough to know him at ten paces.’
She left out the part about the pins sticking out of the noticeboard picture.
Lyle stared hard. ‘The foodie critic I’ve been calling for weeks?’
Maddie blinked her lashes at him. ‘Bludgeon Brewster, the very same. He had an Americano plus delicious feta and spinach quiche with salad. Served with extra care and a super large smile by yours truly. Though to be honest I thought you were going to blow us up in smoke. Pushing against you is like taking on a difficult bull at a Highland Show, Lyle.’
He smiled grimly. ‘I work out. There’s more to me than coffee and cakes. You should be grateful I chose to be a gentleman.’
‘What do Scottish gentlemen train with these days – pulling super trucks?’
Lyle glared. ‘Let’s stick to the point. You shoved me out of my own café. You’ve changed everything on a whim. Suddenly it’s like a magician’s been doing disappearing tricks in my office and I can’t find anything anymore. I’ve been demoted from boss to ‘he who shall obey the madwoman’. It all stops here, Maddie. You went too far.’
She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I’m sorry – I figured I had to do something. I felt like the situation was closing in on us and I didn’t want you to detonate your write-up.’
‘Couldn’t you have written a note? Alerted me discreetly?’
She shuffled in her seat while she rummaged mentally for justification. She also tried to ignore the way a supercilious expression only made him more handsome. Dark, chiselled features that begged to be photographed and watched.
Were all Scots café owners this good-looking?
Maddie chewed air. ‘There wasn’t time to think. But I guess that would have been sensible. Anyway, we’ve both got each other wrong. Can’t we just put the wrong ideas behind us?’
‘Not so easy when it all adds up to concerns about your impulsiveness.’
‘What I’m trying to explain is – the Ice Café deserves a brilliant review. I just tried to make sure it happens. Some people would call it saving your skin – you on the other hand will only use it to further damn me because you have it in your head that I’m a pain in the butt!’
Lyle reached across and grasped her shoulder, then pushed his forefinger to her mouth. His warm, soft skin gently met her lips, lingering lightly but with firm intent. He stayed silent but she clearly saw that firm chest rise and fall as he watched her.
For a gasp of a moment she wondered if he might kiss her.
Seconds in time stalled. Completely.
All the oxygen in Edinburgh suddenly evaded her lungs as she sat and blinked at Lyle Sutherland while he watched her.
‘For pity’s sake, shh!’
Sparks collided at the contact; him up close, touching her lips with his finger and the very edge of his thumb. Breathing close by and every inhalation causing inner trembles. Technically she’d treated him in the same fashion earlier to make him leave the café. She’d taken physical control, firmed her stance. But this … this was different. Things were going on inside her – crazy new chemical reactions that fired and scared and filled her with excited awe.
The angry boss continued to gently touch her lips, staring into her eyes. A big jump for a man she hadn’t met before lunchtime. She told herself to calm down. It was just fingers on skin. A fleeting moment – but so very much promise.
If the extreme tingles in her knees, shortness of breath and melting spine were anything to go by.
‘Enough.’ His voice sounded rusty as his accusing eyes skirted away.
She was still reeling from his touch, his gorgeous designer fragrance, the way his eyes danced when he was in the heat of action. The thought of the latter had her blushing crimson. And a bright red face with blue streaked hair wasn’t good when it was you modelling the look.
‘You’re not the only one who can act in haste,’ he said, and flicked shut then folded his paper. Lyle’s eyes were sparkling.
She watched as he screwed the cap on his water bottle, then pulled on his jacket. Boy, did those muscles make a girl notice.
‘Do I still have a job?’
‘You think you deserve one? The waitress who locks up the boss?’
‘I need this reference. I don’t want to job hunt again. I did what I did for all the right reasons. Bottom line, I’m trying to get a mortgage and I need regular pay and a track record to be approved.’
She knew her voice now had a pleading edge but she couldn’t help it. Too much was already at stake. The thought of going back to Paula at the agency and telling her she’d messed up this contract wasn’t good. She knew Paula had been angling for sole employment instructions for the rest of Lyle’s cafés and Paula was her best, long-time friend. Plus losing two jobs in a month was a pretty horrendous track record.
‘You’re still on a trial. Right now my primary concern is your assumptions, the tendency to act on impulse and the wild streak that extends further than your hair.’
She sighed. ‘There’s more to me than this. In fact, the hair was a mistake.’
‘Then why do it?’
She shrugged. ‘Rebellion. Shock.’
‘You did it on a whim?’ Lyle raised a quizzical dark brow that made her skin heat watching him close up. Smelling his scent and seeing every facial detail, the texture of
his skin, the colour shade of his lips and eyes felt way too intimate way too soon. And something inside her responded to these details with surprising hunger.
‘The restyle was an impulse makeover when my blood was up. Someone turned all my plans upside down.’ Debilitating as well as dangerous. A bit like Lyle himself.
She recalled Paula’s horrified face when she’d walked through the doors at the agency with radical hair and an announcement about losing her job. Perhaps horrified was too mild – her loyal best friend had looked like she’d just arrived holding a giant wasps’ nest handbag.
‘I note you resigned from your last job due to ‘personal issues’. Want to explain that?’ Lyle pushed.
She’d known this would come up; she’d explained it all fully at interview. She repeated the stock phrases again for Lyle’s benefit. ‘A personal relationship that turned sour. My work and loyalty never came into question. I simply left because relationship-breakdowns can get awkward in the workplace.’
‘Hard for me to corroborate your experience though.’
‘Call Andrea at Junior Play Space Station. She’ll vouch for my work. I was a U.S. Kids’ Camp counsellor in the States too. It may sound like child’s play but believe me, marshalling thirty hyper kids a day takes stamina and commitment. Sometimes earplugs too. I think I can handle a coffee bar without it causing me a nervous breakdown.’
‘So you’re telling me you’ll conform. You won’t push me out again like the earlier stunt.’
Things about this man pushed lots of instant reaction buttons inside her all at once. His manner, his brusque bravado and his tingle-causing all-man looks. The lurking inner bad boy that she kept seeing glints of in his eyes. Those hands that had such long fingers it almost felt sensual noticing them. Hands that caused her to imagine them touching her skin.
Maddie shrugged in fake surrender. ‘You won’t regret giving me a second chance and that’s a promise.’
He shook his head, unimpressed. But she noticed that he chanced a sidelong look at her. ‘Well, so long as you’re clear. Any more crazy stuff and you’ll be gone without further warning. I don’t have time for employees going loco.’
Something inside her – she wasn’t sure what – clicked and she just had to answer back in the face of his accusations. Perhaps it was the assumptions, the fact he didn’t know her at all and was damning her with stereotypes. The immovable negative standpoint just jarred and cut deep. Something made her bite.
‘When I next decide to scale Edinburgh castle’s ramparts naked, I’ll be sure you’re out of the country. Or not looking. Since I’m such a shock-seeker.’
Lyle stared at her. His sharp grey eyes glittered and his brows even rose a touch. Maddie didn’t actually know where the retort had come from. She’d derailed herself. Now he just thought she was the crazy American woman who couldn’t be trusted. Even to keep her mouth zipped. It was one thing winning an argument and fighting your cause, another thing discussing nude monument ascent like she did it as a weekend hobby.
But something made her spar with Lyle Sutherland – perhaps the way her heart had been revving since he’d touched her mouth? Or the way he’d judged and trampled all her efforts.
‘Maybe I’d prefer to stick around for that spectacle.’
Maddie laid her hands flat on the table. Tried to keep them steady, her tone even. ‘Look, I’m not work-shy and I’m not here on a free pass. All I want is a fair chance.’
Lyle rose and fixed her with those eyes. ‘See you back at the café in twenty minutes – punctual, ready to serve. Keen to keep the boss on side even if it means resisting the urge to rock climb.’
‘Sure, boss.’ She let out a deep breath in relief. ‘Thanks for the second chance.’
Maddie sat back; she still had a job, that was the main thing. But why did she feel like she still needed to protest?
‘Better make me glad I gave it, Maddie.’ She watched him vacate the table and walk away, adding over his shoulder, ‘Thanks for the Brewster thing but steer clear of the castle. Publicity’s important – but I draw the line at my baristas stripping to get it.’
Lyle pushed the newspaper headline in front of Maddie. ‘Great review. Almost makes me glad you captured me through trickery and locked me in a dark windowless room by force to get it.’
He watched as shock momentarily froze her features.
‘We got a good review?’ she asked, taking the newspaper and scanning it intently.
‘Though don’t go getting a big head about it.’ He smiled. ‘And I quote, “the enthusiastic and attentive waitress made it a joy to be served here. American hospitality abounds. Book your seat at Edinburgh’s open air festive Ice Café soon. You won’t be disappointed. Lyle Sutherland took the rally world by storm and now he’s set to achieve the same with his coffee chain of Ice Cafés.” ’
‘All in a day’s work,’ she answered, then gave him a hint of grin. ‘I didn’t know you were a rally driver?’
‘Hidden depths. Or speed-freak guilty past. Not sure which.’
Lyle mused that it made a nice change to see Maddie’s impish qualities return – he’d never thought he’d say it but she’d almost won him over since their disastrous meeting.
‘Just don’t ever go bossing me around again. I only make exceptions once. But you’re right, I probably wasn’t showing myself at my best when he dropped by.’
‘D’ya think?’ She stemmed a chuckle.
Maddie looked up into his eyes – the pure depths of those bold blue eyes bolted him to the spot. Purest azure fire and he couldn’t help just staring. The woman was a conundrum. But praise where praise was due – she deserved the credit. They’d scored the review he’d craved. Even if her methods were maverick in the extreme.
Over the past few days she’d towed the line; quieter, affable, diligent. She’d even made the changes he’d asked for without issue. Clearly there was an astute business brain behind the wild blue hair – her actions as regards the critic had thrown him. But impressed him too.
His customers rated her highly and seemed super keen to relay their regard. She had a real charm about her; clearly Jim had been right to hire her. Her friendly buzz drew people in. She drew people in and kept them coming back.
As much as he hated admitting it, he’d misjudged her. She possessed a rejuvenating, edgy something that was just what the place needed.
Maddie pulled the print closer to read it again. ‘I’m shocked because Brewster rarely goes into raptures. Clearly I caught him in generous mood.’ Her eyes glittered. ‘Not that Weasel Face Brewster deserves fawning – he’s ruined more good new restaurants through being catty and snide than anyone. My uncle holds a mean grudge for his past actions. Should’ve spiked his drink with rat poison.’
Something inside him responded to her sparks. He felt the sizzle, the zap of her irrepressible energy ensnare him. He wondered what other antics she might just get up to if the inclination took control?
Like mentioning nude rock climbing at a moment’s notice.
Lyle gulped at that mental image and the mixed feelings it caused to swirl inside him – big climbing boots and a naked Maddie emergency-flared his hormones into orbit. Lyle stuffed a hand through his hair and pivoted on his heels under the guise of fetching his order sheets. He wished his brain hadn’t just gone there again.
Would she be this feisty and enthusiastic in other more provocative settings? Like the bedroom?
Lyle made a stab at sensible-toned boss. ‘Our customers deserve nothing but the best. Let’s just leave it there okay?’
‘Sure, boss. I’ll cool the jets. I’m up to speed with your decorum policy now.’
He gave her ten out of ten for pluck. But there was an errant force in Maddie Adams that sometimes made him wonder if she might actually do the crazy things she threatened. He vowed he wouldn’t let her distract him. He had too much at stake right now – a string of new cafés in the wings – to let his mind stray anywhere but business.
; He had to ensure the success of his café chain.
Lyle walked to the far side of the café courtyard. He swiftly recognised the shock of dark curls and the familiar tiny white and blue sneakers rushing towards him in a flurry of haste through the milling crowd. The tiny blinking lights in the soles of Josh’s boots gave him away.
‘Daddy! Take me to the swing park so I can go on the slide.’
Josh’s excited face filled him with so much affection, it served to short-circuit his brain, so it didn’t jump to obvious thoughts of why his son might be here in the first place.
‘Josh!’ He whirled his beloved son. ‘Great to see you, champ.’
Lyle held his four-year-old son in his arms and gently kissed his soft, sweet-smelling cheeks. Josh was now clamouring for more attention.
‘Mr Sutherland, I have an urgent problem to deal with,’ said a familiar voice right beside him. Brigitta Friedrich, Josh’s au pair, looked solemn. Her face told of strain, worry and pressing thoughts. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘About what?’
Pure adrenaline jolts of concern coursed through Lyle. What had happened? Was Josh hurt? He visually checked over the boy running his hand through his curls and Josh certainly wasn’t looking or behaving any worse for any bad experience that may have befallen him. ‘How’s he been?’
‘Fine,’ answered the au pair. ‘It’s my father, he’s in hospital back home in Austria and it’s very serious. I need to leave and go to him.’
Lyle stared, taking her words in and assimilating the implications. She was clearly in distress at her devastating news. He looked at Josh, who was clinging to him unfazed. Still smiling, chuckling, pulling on his dad’s hair and asking him to go to the play park. Compassion made him react, but concern for his own predicament kicked in too. ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Brigitta.’
The woman’s lip trembled. ‘I really must go. I can’t stop worrying.’
‘Naturally you want to go home. I’ll call around now and make requests to nanny agencies. As soon as we can get another nanny replacement – ’
