She didn’t know if it was because of the margaritas or the conversation or the kiss—or the synergy of the three—but she liked the rush. She hadn’t felt this alive...this free and unencumbered by past grief and the uncertainty since—well, it had been way too long.
Tonight she was free to enjoy this exceptionally sexy, broad-shouldered man—no strings attached. That’s all that mattered at the moment. The only thing she knew for sure was she wanted more.
* * *
Shane saw the flash out of the corner of his eye. It cut through the fog of delirium enveloping him as he kissed AJ. He’d seen metaphorical fireworks as they’d kissed...those sparks ignited a flame inside him, but the flare that dragged him back to reality was literal.
Reluctantly, he pulled back so he could get a better look over AJ’s shoulder.
“Look.” He gestured toward the south side of the park where azalea bushes grew in thick, crowded clusters.
“Oh, my God! Is something on fire?” She jumped to her feet. Shane was right beside her as they made their way toward the blaze.
“Call 911,” he said.
The words were no sooner out of his mouth when he caught sight of the same hoodlum he’d seen on the street corner the day he went to the food festival. He and two other teens were running away.
Shane took hold of AJ’s arm and silently directed her to stop, but by that time they were gone. “Some kids were over there. I recognize one of them.”
AJ handed her cell phone to Shane. “Here, why don’t you talk to the 911 operator? Tell her what you know.”
Chapter Seven
She stood in the Women’s Club kitchen taking inventory of the supplies she and the servers she’d hired had unloaded from the Celebrations, Inc. van. It was already five-fifteen. Guests would arrive at seven o’clock for the cocktail hour, then sit down to dinner at eight.
AJ only had an hour and forty-five minutes to pull everything together. Yet she couldn’t seem to get out of her own way. Thank goodness everything was pretty well organized because she was distracted. Her mind kept replaying a loop of the unexpected kiss she and Shane had shared last night by the fountain.
The kiss and the fire.
It turned out that the kids had ignited some gasoline-soaked rags and tossed them into a garbage can that was near an old oak tree. They’d gotten away before the police could catch them. But at least the fire had been extinguished before it got out of control.
What was this world coming to? She might not have been so shocked if it had happened in Dallas. But senseless vandalism in Celebration? It was a prank that could’ve been a lot worse if she and Shane hadn’t been in the park.
She pressed her fingers to her lips, remembering the sensual lingering of Shane’s mouth on hers, the heady taste of him—a hint of lime from the margaritas, a whisper of his after-dinner espresso, which was nearly masked by the breath mint he’d put in his mouth as they’d left the restaurant. A mélange of flavors she craved, and the last thing she should be thinking about right now as the clock ticked away the minutes until the dinner hour.
And as for the vandalism—she needed to quit dwelling on the negative—there would be plenty of discussion about that at a meeting later that week where the town would discuss organizing a neighborhood watch program. Who would’ve ever imagined it would come to that in sleepy Celebration? The thought made her pulse spike.
She bit her bottom lip. Shane would be there at five-thirty to help with tonight’s event. For the next fifteen minutes—until he arrived—she could allow her mind to drift back to the kiss as she got herself organized.
As she daydreamed she realized the irony. To keep herself from feeling physically vulnerable, she was opening herself to emotional vulnerability.
She pressed her lips into a flat line. Maybe it was a better idea to clear her mind and focus on her to-do list. Tonight was important. It was the annual Women’s Club Scholarship Awards dinner—a virtual audition for more business. AJ had to be on top of her game. These women could make or break her business. She needed to impress each and every one of them. Especially Pepper’s mother, Marjory Merriweather. Not only was Marjory one of the Dallas area’s foremost socialites, she was this year’s president of the Women’s Club and the wife of Texas Star Energy Corp founder, Harris Merriweather, the main provider of scholarships for tonight’s celebration. AJ had proven herself by doing a few small catering jobs for Texas Star, but at Pepper’s urging, Marjory had gone out on a limb hiring her to cater the club’s biggest event of the year. There was no way AJ would let her down. That meant she needed to get her head in the game and her mind off Shane Harrison.
Centering herself, she vowed not to look at her watch or give Shane or the vandals another thought...until Shane arrived. With one last wistful glance at the door, AJ took her list from her pocket and reviewed her plan. Since her very first catering job, she’d been making to-do lists. They were her road maps. They helped to clear her mind so she could focus on the food and the guests and not worry about the logistics.
First, AJ set out her knives, a ritual that signaled the start of the job, like a gunshot at the start of a race. Then she reviewed the menu, which Marjory had personally selected: glazed Cornish hens, chestnut risotto, sautéed green beans and a salad of watercress, blue cheese, pears and walnuts.
Of course, much of the food was already prepped, but the menu still required some last minute attention before the servers could plate it.
Marjory, Harris and Pepper were like family to AJ. With that in mind, AJ approached tonight’s dinner as if she were cooking for family—well, family and seventy-two of their closest friends.
Pepper was joining her parents for dinner tonight at the head table and would be able to give AJ the inside scoop. She’d also promised to do a little soft selling, even though AJ didn’t put her up to it. If anyone could employ the power of suggestion and not make people feel as if they were being sold, it was Pepper. She was a tastemaker who had a knack for steering people to the bandwagon without making them feel that they had been shepherded.
Pepper had a talent, and AJ wanted to hire her to work her magic in the bookings department of Celebrations, Inc. However, so far, Pepper had been elusive, not wanting to formally commit. Soon, they’d have to have a serious talk about formalizing the arrangement. To build her business, AJ needed a permanent staff—or even partners—who would head up the catering company’s various divisions: bookings; public relations/front-of-house manager; breads, desserts and pastries.
As if on cue, Caroline walked in with an armload of freshly baked French bread loaves. AJ tried to ignore the way her heart leaped and then plummeted when she realized it wasn’t Shane entering the kitchen. Not that she wasn’t happy to see her friend, but...
Caroline must have read the disappointment on AJ’s face. “What’s wrong?” she asked, setting the loaves on the stainless-steel prep counter. “I heard about the fire in the park last night. What is going on around here?” Before AJ could answer, Caroline had grabbed a push cart and was wheeling it toward the door. “I guess we’ll figure that out at the town meeting the day after tomorrow. Are you going?”
“Of course I am,” said AJ.
“Well, good. No sense in worrying about things now. I know you’re on a tight schedule and I have to get back to work. The cakes are in the car. They look gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Will you help me carry them in?”
In addition to the bread, AJ had contracted Caroline to make ten coconut-dusted, red-velvet cakes for dessert. Caroline had spent months perfecting the recipe: she found just the right amount of cocoa powder—but not too much—and she tested cream cheese icing versus a vanilla-flavored concoction she whipped up on the stovetop. It produced a final product that resembled whipped cream.
They’d agreed on the latter variety for tonight’s dessert—with a final dusting of coconut—because it was different. And delicious.
Shane’s kiss had also been delicious....
AJ mentally shook the thought from her mind and bit her bottom lip as she followed Caroline outside to help her bring in the cakes.
“I was up until three this morning baking,” Caroline said. Only then, in the golden late afternoon light, did AJ notice the weariness on her friend’s face.
“Did you work today?” she asked.
“Of course I did. We’re in the middle of a project and my father is on the warpath. No one is allowed to take vacation or even get sick until we close this deal.”
“He makes people schedule sick days?” AJ asked, only half joking.
Caroline shrugged as she put the last white cake box on the cart and closed the hatch of her SUV. “You know my father.”
Yes, AJ did. She also knew how miserable Caroline was working for him. That was all the more reason she wanted to provide an out for her friend. She was close to convincing Caroline to leave the world of high finance and join her permanently as Celebrations’ pastry chef. At least she’d have a stake in a business she enjoyed—and AJ wouldn’t have to outsource desserts anymore.
Caroline loved to bake and was darn good at it. However, as witnessed by the late hours she’d pulled to deliver fresh cakes for tonight’s event, it was difficult for her to stay up late baking and make it to the office early with a clear head ready to crunch numbers. Leaving her day job wasn’t an easy decision, either. She’d followed the family path getting a masters degree in business administration from Harvard Business School because her father had, as had his father before him and his before him and so on. If AJ had a penny for every time Caroline had confided how much she hated her job and would rather do something she enjoyed—like baking red-velvet cakes until she produced confectionery perfection—AJ would be a very wealthy woman.
Seeing the sheer exhaustion drawing on her friend’s face underscored the need to have that let’s-get-serious talk with her friends. AJ wrote it on her mental to-do list. Later this week, as Pepper, Caroline and Sydney toasted the success of the Women’s Club scholarship dinner, they would have a serious talk.
However, before that toast of success could happen, AJ had a long night and a lot of work ahead of her.
As she and Caroline wheeled the cart toward the kitchen door, AJ heard the sound of tires crunching on gravel. Her heart lurched as she looked up and caught sight of a shiny, black Ford F-150 pickup truck pulling into the parking lot.
Shane.
* * *
As Shane steered the truck into the driveway of the banquet hall, he caught sight of AJ balancing what looked like two white cake boxes in her hands. He hadn’t talked to her since last night, and only now did he realize it was a relief to see that everything appeared to be back to normal after the fire.
The fire. He resented the fact that not only were the thugs wreaking havoc on people who wanted nothing more than to live quietly in a community in which they took pride, but that this gang of hooligans had also ruined what should’ve been an otherwise great night.
He’d wanted to kiss AJ since the moment he met her. Never in his wildest imagination had he thought their first kiss would end like it did.
In a roundabout way, the gang that had been terrorizing Celebration had dredged up memories of Shane’s own loss. The parallel was when innocent people got in way of criminals, it never ended happily. There was no way in hell Shane was going to sit back and let these misdirected hoodlums terrify this community.
As he pulled into a parking space that faced the building, his gaze snared AJ’s. The calm he sensed in her stilled the outrage that had been simmering in him all day. Her eyes were as warm and blue as the Mediterranean where Shane had swum as a kid. She waved, and the serene curve of her smile took him back to their kiss. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms, tell her she was safe and kiss her until she believed it.
He jumped out of the truck’s cab intending to help her carry in the boxes. That’s when he noticed the woman who was pushing a cart loaded down with similar packages to the ones AJ was holding.
The other woman was dressed in a business suit—not in the all-black catering “uniform” AJ had asked Shane to wear for tonight. The woman in the suit kept on her journey toward what Shane figured must be the kitchen.
“Hey,” he said, reaching for AJ’s load as he approached her. “Let me help you.”
“Hi. Thanks,” she said, looking even prettier in her white chef’s jacket in the bright of day than she had last night under the moon light in the park. “Just be very careful not to tilt them. That’s tonight’s dessert.”
The handoff was successful, and AJ gestured to the woman pushing the cart. “Caroline baked them. Best red-velvet cake you’ll ever taste.”
Reflexively, his gaze dropped to AJ’s lips...wanting another taste to see if they tasted even sweeter today than they had last night...but he caught himself and shifted his focus to the woman with the cart.
“I hope I get a taste,” he murmured. “Of the cake.”
“We try to test everything before it goes out,” AJ said. “Although I’ll bet I’ve already eaten a whole cake’s worth of test pieces as Caroline was perfecting the recipe. Oh, and by the way, Caroline, this is Shane. Shane, this is Caroline.”
They exchanged greetings, and by that time, AJ was holding open the kitchen door, motioning them inside. “Just leave the cakes on the cart,” she directed. “Put them right over there in the far corner where they’ll be out of the way. We won’t plate dessert until after the main course goes out.”
Shane followed Caroline as she pushed the cart in direction that AJ had indicated. “You can put the extra boxes right there with those.” She pointed to the row of boxes on the cart’s top shelf. “Center them on top.” He safely deposited the two cakes in his charge where she had specified.
As he turned around, he gave the kitchen the once-over, taking in the industrial space, the large, multitiered metal carts filled with food covered in plastic wrap. There were piles of vegetables on the stainless-steel counters, which a woman he’d not yet met was washing in one of the deep sinks. Someone had set out bottles of oil, cloves of garlic and spices. Cooking pots and utensils waited at the ready near something that looked like... a portable oven?
“Did you bring an oven, too?” he asked.
“Of course she did,” said Caroline.
AJ shrugged. “I never know how other ovens are going to heat. I can’t take a chance on the food not coming out perfectly.”
He smiled. “You don’t give anything up to chance do you?”
She hesitated, narrowing her eyes, as if weighing his comment. “Not when it comes to something this important.”
As AJ talked to Caroline, who was getting ready to leave, he gave the kitchen another once-over, he realized AJ had indeed brought everything but the kitchen sink. He guessed she would’ve brought one of those, too, if she didn’t trust the one available.
She seemed to trust him, and he didn’t want to disappoint her or slow down what seemed to be a finely tuned schedule, choreographed down to when each plate was set before the guests.
He’d driven tanks and fired M16A2 rifles without blinking an eye, but standing in the kitchen looking at all the uncooked vegetables and various gadgets he had no idea how to use, he sensed he was out of his league.
Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. But as AJ stood beside him, looking like something that could soothe his weary soul, he remembered exactly what had been on his mind when he’d volunteered to help. He surrendered control and prepared himself to start taking orders...even if that meant cooking.
“By the way, Shane,” AJ said, “any word on the guys who started the fire in the park last night?”
Caroline hitched the strap of her purse higher up on her shoulder, then paused, listening.
Shane shook his head. “I talked to the sheriff around four o’clock. No arrests yet, but they do have a solid lead they’re following.”
He could tell by the looks on their faces that they were hoping for a differe
nt answer. Hell, he wanted a different answer. He wanted nothing more than to hear that the teens were off the street before they hurt someone or caused any more damage.
“Are you going to the town meeting?” Caroline asked.
Shane blinked. He’d seen signs that had appeared around town today, but he hadn’t thought about attending. He was, after all, temporary.
“You are coming, aren’t you?” AJ asked. There was an urgency in her voice that instantly had Shane rethinking his indecision. “You’ve seen the guys who have been causing the trouble...twice.”
“Okay...I guess I can be there.” Relief illuminated both of the women’s faces. “Sure, I’ll come. Right after work.”
“Hey, AJ.” A guy who was dressed in the all-black uniform of the waitstaff joined them. “Is this the floor plan for the set up of the dining room?”
The guy held up an eleven-by-seventeen-inch piece of paper with what looked like a schematic design.
AJ nodded. “We’re going to focus on the front of the house first. You all can get started on that in a minute, but first, I’d like to call everyone together for introductions and a quick meeting.”
Caroline said goodbye, and AJ introduced the team: three people she used regularly and three, including Shane, who were temporary help for tonight. AJ went over the menu, the order of events and the floor plan. She split the staff into teams and put five to work as the front-of-the-house team, moving tables and chairs into the configuration indicated on the floor plan, and then dressing and setting the tables so they would be ready for the centerpieces that, according to the schedule, would be delivered at six o’clock.
Shane and AJ were the only two on the “kitchen team,” as she called it. It was nice to have a moment alone with her before all hell broke loose and service for tonight’s dinner started. Shane pushed up his sleeves ready to get to work preparing the green beans to be steamed.
“It’s the first step before they’re sautéed in butter,” AJ told him. “That’s the secret. Butter...lots and lots of butter. Now you know.”
Texas Wedding Page 8
