United States of Love: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance

by Sue Fortin

  ‘You look like you want to say something. Cat got your tongue?’ She turned the tap on, rinsing her hands without looking at Anna.

  ‘Stay away from my brother.’ Anna hoped her voice sounded firm and steady. Christine gave a derisive laugh.

  ‘Or you'll do what? Tell tales on me out of school?’

  Anna didn't actually know what the or else bit was of her warning, she hadn't got that far in her mind.

  ‘He's married. He has four children. Just leave him alone.’

  ‘Your brother is an adult. What he does is up to him. I didn't force him to come here tonight.’ Christine began flicking her hair again, pulling a strand that was on the wrong side of the parting. ‘Obviously coming out with me was a much more attractive option than staying at home with his wife and four children.’

  ‘You're just playing games.’ Anna's breathing was getting faster as she became increasingly more frustrated and angry by Christine's indifference.

  ‘I don't think your brother needs or wants his little sister speaking for him,’ said Christine as she turned and faced Anna, one hand on her hip, the other leaning on the sink.

  ‘Just stay away from him,’ repeated Anna.

  Christine leaned closer to Anna. When she spoke it was low and almost sinister.

  ‘Stay away from Tex and we might have a deal.’ She gave a smile that turned into a snarl, stood up straight, knocking Anna's shoulder with her own as she walked out of the toilets.

  That woman was such a cow. She needed stopping but Anna had no idea how.

  When Anna reappeared ten minutes later, Christine was already back. Tex looked questioningly at Anna as she took her seat next to him. She looked innocently at him as he studied her for a moment, her hands clasped together in her lap to try to stop them shaking.

  ‘Do you want some fresh air?’ he asked.

  Anna nodded and let herself be led out of the marquee. She put her arm in his as they wandered towards the woodland path, away from the noise of the band and a few smokers who were standing under a gazebo.

  ‘There, relax now,’ he said, stopping and turning to face her. ‘Wanna talk?’

  Anna shook her head. ‘A hug would be nice.’

  ‘I can do better than that,’ said Tex, kissing her. Eventually he pulled away, letting out a small groan before holding her close to him. ‘Oh, baby, did I tell you how beautiful you are?’

  It felt so right being held by him. She just wanted to go back to his apartment and enjoy him. Leaving all her worries behind her.

  Later that night as they laid together naked on Tex's bed, spent, tired, happy and contented, Tex tentatively enquired about earlier. He was sure something had happened, some words exchanged between Anna and Christine, but didn't know what. Anna had definitely followed Christine to the washrooms and both women had come back slightly unsettled. He hadn't missed the trembling of Anna's hands. He hadn't pressured her to say what was bothering her, in case it had put her on edge, which could possibly spoil the build-up to their lovemaking. He had wanted her all night, from the moment he had picked her up from her little house. She'd stepped out in that tight blue dress, high heels, glossy tights, looking absolutely stunning. Seeing her had taken his breath away and aroused him in a heartbeat. Had it not been a charity event or a possible award for Edward, he would have driven her directly back to the Arundel apartment and taken her straight to bed. As it was, he had had to wait several hours and wasn't going to let a spat with Christine spoil it. Christine seemed to be intent on stirring up trouble.

  ‘Do you want to talk about it now?’ he asked, pulling the cotton sheet over them.

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing,’ said Anna. ‘Just the whole Christine and Nathan thing, I don’t like it.’

  ‘Hey, it’s not your battle to fight.’ Tex kissed the tip of her nose, hoping to reassure her.

  ‘But I don’t feel I can sit back and just let him mess up his marriage. I’m so surprised at him, especially after…’ She stopped abruptly.

  Tex cursed silently to himself, wishing he hadn’t brought this up. She looked troubled now. Still, he wanted to know, maybe he could fix it. He brushed a strand of her blonde hair away before speaking. ‘After what?’

  ‘After what I went through with Mark.’ She paused and gave an apologetic smile. ‘I’m sorry, let’s just leave it. I don’t want to spoil the evening by talking about my marriage.’

  With an immense effort, Tex quelled the sigh that threatened to escape. The mere mention of Mark ignited some crazy feeling of jealousy. Jeez, what was that all about? Jealousy wasn’t on Tex’s list of emotions and, yet, it sure as hell was trying to make it. He decided not to press her to talk about it; he wasn’t sure he could handle his feelings. Pulling her towards him, his hands wandering up and down her bare skin, he went for the distraction tactic instead.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Anna watched him sleeping, the steady lifting of the dark swirls of hair as his chest rose and fell, the peaceful look on his face, his stubble beginning to show and his fringe flopping to one side. It was nine-thirty in the morning, and street sounds outside were coming to life. Anna knew she was in Tex's Guildford apartment, but where exactly that was in relation to the town she had no idea. She had never been there before. They had stumbled in late last night, or was it the early hours of the morning? She knew that the taxi had dropped them off at the back of some premises, which she had a vague recollection of being retail, and that Tex had held her hand as they climbed the wrought-iron staircase up to his apartment. Once inside, he had simply swept her off her feet and straight into the bedroom.

  She liked to think of it as making love, it sounded much nicer than just sex, but it was too early for love. Yes, she really liked Tex, really liked him, and she was sure he felt the same, but they had only known each other for a few weeks, and in the cold light of day how could she be in love with someone she hardly knew? She needed to keep things in perspective and not get too carried away. Although she had forced herself to leave the tag of ‘client’ in the depths of her mind, every now and then it popped up to shake her confidence in her relationship with Tex.

  Not only that, but it was her first romance of any description since Mark had left and she needed to take her time, for her own sake as well as not scaring Tex off by appearing too needy, pushy or demanding, and yet still show she was keen. How on earth did you achieve that? Not for the first time did she think that dating as an adult, where you overthought every situation, was much more complicated than when you were a teenager and just got on with it, fearless in love.

  ‘Hey,’ said a sleepy Tex, opening his eyes. He reached over and stroked her face. ‘Did you sleep okay?’

  ‘Didn't get that much sleep actually,’ she teased. ‘Someone kept me up half the night.’

  Tex grinned. ‘Shouldn't I be saying that?’ He kissed her nose and ran his hand down her side, over her hip and round to the back of her thigh. His fingertips were like charges of electricity as they moved across her naked skin. Anna's whole body tingled as she responded to his touch.

  Afterwards as she showered, Anna's thoughts turned to last night. She smiled at the memory of Jamie and Yvonne being poured into a taxi by Tex, who, while stuffing a bundle of notes into the driver's hand, relayed their address. Duncan Hughes and Edward, together with their wives, had been charming and very good company. Their other table companions though were another matter.

  Nathan and Christine had stayed until Tex and Anna left. Nathan was driving Christine home and had offered to do the same for Tex and Anna, adding that he could take Anna back to Chichester with him. He was obviously making it clear to everyone that he had no intention of staying the night with Christine, something that Anna took a little heart from. When Tex had said that it was okay but they were going back to his apartment, she had thought for a moment that Nathan was going to object. For a second the two men locked eyes, each weighing up the other. Nathan in a ‘so you think you're taking my sister back to your flat do you
?’ way and Tex in a ‘you gotta problem with that?’ way. Fortunately, Nathan must have realised he wasn't really in a position to spout the appropriateness of what was right and had simply kissed Anna goodnight, telling her to ring him if she needed him. Anna gave a half laugh to herself, it was rather ironic that he was questioning Tex's intentions and her morals yet he himself was treading the very fine line of what could and couldn't be considered adultery.

  Drying herself and putting on her jeans and blouse from her overnight bag, she decided to put any thoughts of Christine and Nathan out of her mind. To shut them off as she had Luke and Mark. While she was with Tex she didn't want any problems seeping in and tainting it. Whatever the ultimate conclusion of her romance with Tex turned out be, she wasn't going to let worrying about them preoccupy her time. Whilst she was with Tex she was going to enjoy it.

  By the time she had finished getting ready and found her way to the kitchen of Tex's surprisingly large apartment, he was busy preparing brunch. Scrambled eggs, salmon, brown bread, orange juice, fresh coffee for him, tea for her. Yummy. It was in a totally different league to the bowl of cornflakes or toast and Marmite she usually had.

  Tex's flat was not dissimilar to that of his Arundel one, in that it was unfussy, very white, lots of glass and chrome, very modern and minimalistic. There was a wide, tiled hallway running the length of the property, with rooms leading off either side. Tex's room had an en-suite, so she assumed the doors led to the second bedroom he had told her about, and a main bathroom. At the end of the hall was the living room that Anna had glimpsed as she had come out of the bedroom. The whole apartment had a spacious and airy feeling with its high ceilings and long-paned Georgian windows.

  Anna sat down at the table as Tex served brunch. ‘Where exactly are we? I know we’re in Guildford but other than that, I’ve no idea.’

  ‘We're above my restaurant. I like to be near, although I do have an excellent restaurant manager. He lives nearby with his wife, who also works for me. She's the other maître d' when Edward is not working.’

  ‘So what made you want to become a chef?’

  ‘My grandma. She used to cook the most amazing Cuban food and I loved helping her. I think that’s where my affair with food began.’

  ‘Cuban?’ queried Anna. ‘Not Italian, then, like some people thought?’

  ‘No, not Italian. It’s a common mistake. My father is a second-generation Cuban immigrant to the States. He met my mom, who came from a big ranching family in Texas, and was seduced by ranch life and, of course, by mom. And the rest, as they say, is history. They took over the ranch together with my uncle. My grandma lived with us.’

  ‘You didn’t follow in your father’s footsteps then?’ She was curious; a cowboy from Texas with a Cuban father, training in France to be a chef was unusual.

  ‘My folks never put any pressure on me to work on the ranch. It was probably helped by my brothers all getting involved. I suppose Pa thought three out of four wasn’t a bad average. I think they thought me going off to Europe was something I needed to get out of my system and that I’d be back within a year or two.’

  ‘Three brothers? Wow, you have a large family,’ commented Anna.

  ‘Yep. Four boys and two girls.’

  ‘You have another sister as well. God, you could start up your own town.’

  Tex laughed. ‘Well, if I told you that my brothers all live on the ranch with their wives and family, you’d realise that isn’t too far from the truth.’

  ‘They all live together?’

  ‘No. They all have their own homes at various different places on the ranch.’

  Anna could hear the amusement in his voice. He grinned at her then spoke again. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not Banjo country, nothing like that film Deliverance. All my nephews and nieces go to regular schools and mix with normal kids.’ He emphasised the word normal as he swept her up in his arms, simply, it seemed, just to feel her against him again.

  ‘I wasn’t implying that,’ protested Anna, looking up at him. ‘Just how big is this ranch?’

  ‘Oh, not too big. About one thousand eight hundred acres,’ he said in an offhand manner, but grinning at her wide-eyed, and then added, ‘I’ll take you there one day.’

  After breakfast, Tex took Anna downstairs to show her his restaurant, taking her first to the kitchens. Stainless steel, tiled floor and walls, all spotlessly clean and professional looking. Whilst it looked busy, with staff hurrying around and the noise of pots and pans against utensils, there was a definite atmosphere of calm about it all.

  Tex greeted his staff, nodding and smiling to their acknowledgements of 'Morning Chef' or just plain 'Chef'.

  ‘This is where you busy yourself on a Saturday night then?’ said Anna, stepping out of the way as a kitchen porter scurried past with a tray of individual deserts.

  ‘Yes, I'm usually over there at the passe.’

  ‘The passe?’ Anna had no idea what Tex meant.

  ‘It's where I check the food for presentation. I make sure it has been plated correctly, that everything is as it should be before I let service take it out to the customers. It's the main point of communication between the kitchen and front of house. Come. I'll show you the restaurant.’

  The restaurant was furnished very much in the style of his apartments, Anna noted. Clean lines, modern furniture, no frills, swags or tails. Crisp white tablecloths, brown leather chairs, buttercream walls and wooden floors. All very tasteful, subtle and oozing understated sophistication. They stood at the rear of the room, which was just receiving its first customers. A smart, bright-eyed Edward, showing no signs of a late boozy night, was greeting guests and escorting them to their seats. As he left a couple at their table, he acknowledged Anna with a nod of the head and a small but respectful smile.

  ‘Madame. Chef.’

  ‘Morning, Edward,’ replied Tex, as without pausing or breaking stride, the maître d' continued with his work.

  A gentleman dressed in a smart dark grey suit approached them. Tex shook his hand.

  ‘Bonjour, Jean-Paul. Ça-va?’

  Jean-Paul obviously hadn't been expecting Tex and was anxious to know if everything was all right. Anna looked incredulously at Tex. He was speaking French. Afterwards, when Jean-Paul left, she couldn’t help herself.

  ‘I didn’t know you speak French!’

  He grinned. ‘Sure. You don’t spend several years in France training to be a chef and then marrying a Frenchwoman without picking up the language.’

  ‘Oh, your wife was French. I didn’t realise.’ She looked at him, trying to gauge whether the mention of his wife had provoked any sort of emotion. She couldn’t tell.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  ‘So you're a cook then?’ Luke flopped down on the sofa, opposite Tex.

  Tex nodded. ‘Essentially, yes.’ He glanced at Anna standing in the kitchen doorway, looking decidedly on edge. He knew she hadn’t been expecting Luke back from his friend’s so early. He looked back at Luke. ‘I learnt to cook from my mother. I learnt to be a chef at college. I learnt to be an artist at work.’

  ‘I thought cooking was a bit girly myself,’ replied Luke, putting his feet on the coffee table as he crunched into an apple. ‘Only girls do cooking at school.’

  ‘But that was the best bit.’

  ‘How's that then?’ Luke eyed Tex suspiciously.

  ‘I got to spend all my cooking lessons with the girls. They thought it was great to have a boy in the class. The fuss they made over me. I got lots of attention. They all were keen to help me after school with my homework. It was great!’ Tex winked at the sullen teenager.

  This wasn't quite how he had planned the morning. After leaving Guildford the previous morning, they had arrived back at Chichester and, taking advantage of an empty house, Tex had stayed the night. He and Anna had enjoyed a beautiful, long lie-in that morning. Anna had made breakfast, poached egg on toast. They had showered together and gone back to bed again. Fortunately, they were downs
tairs, dressed and ready for a stroll, when Luke had unexpectedly arrived home.

  ‘You're back early,’ Anna had stammered. ‘I wasn't expecting you yet.’

  ‘Obviously.’ The tone had been scathing, hostility oozing out of the laconic teenager.

  Tex was doing his best to be calm and relaxed; he could see Anna was on edge. She was scurrying around making Luke something to eat, being overly cheerful, and trying hard to carry on as if her lover and her son were the best of friends.

  ‘So, you any good at cooking then?’ Luke asked whilst turning the half eaten apple round and crunching into the other side. He pushed a bit of apple to the side of his mouth. ‘I mean, do you work for a fancy hotel or restaurant?’

  ‘I have trained and worked in some of the best kitchens in Paris and London. Now I have my own restaurant in Guildford.’

  ‘Tex is being very modest,’ commented Anna, putting a bacon sandwich down on the coffee table. ‘His restaurant has a Michelin star.’ Luke looked nonplussed. ‘He's also opening a restaurant in Arundel soon.’

  Luke ignored his mum and looked over at Tex. ‘But you're not famous though, are you?’

  ‘No. Not my style.’ Tex held Luke’s gaze for a moment. Luke looked away and discarding the half eaten apple, tucked into his sandwich. Tex decided a different tact was needed. He nodded towards the guitar case propped against the sofa. ‘You play guitar then?’

  Luke regarded the guitar case. ‘Clearly. It's not a flute in there, you know.’

  Little shit, thought Tex. Anna went to say something but stopped at Tex's slight shake of the head.

  ‘Can I have a look?’ Tex continued. He wasn't going to give up yet.

  ‘If you like.’

  Tex took the guitar out of its case and gave a long, low whistle as he turned the instrument over in his hands.

  ‘A Fender, electro-acoustic. Nice. May I?’ He rested the guitar on his knee, his left hand automatically taking position at the neck, his right arm resting on the top.