The Wedding Gift (3 page)

Julie thought the part where there would be a bride and groom saying “I do” in front of a few hundred people might be a clue as to the specialness of the occasion, but, of course, she wasn’t going to say that. Besides, just then, she was too busy remembering the first time Andrew Kyle had made these comments about her food. Remembering how much it had hurt.

About as much as it hurt right now, come to think of it.

“So what is it you want?” Julie asked. She very carefully kept her voice level. Completely devoid of emotion.

Even so, Rose shot her a look before taking over the negotiations. “Yes, perhaps if you describe exactly what it is you do want, we will be better able to provide it.”

Andrew smiled at them, actually had the nerve to pull those gorgeous lips of his up at the corners as if nothing was wrong. “Something special. Something different. Something with a bit of imagination to it.”

He focused his gaze on Julie and she refused to let her heart go pitter-patter, darn it.

“Something you couldn’t cook in your sleep, Julie.” Another smile. “This wedding is a big deal for our family and I
know
you can come up with something better than what you’ve served me today.”

Thank God at least one of them knew it, Julie thought as Rose dove in to try to salvage the situation.

“Are you sure we can’t—”

Andrew raised a hand to cut her off. “I’m sorry, but I’ll need to see a completely revised menu before I can agree to sign off on anything.”

“I see,” Rose said. She didn’t sound happy about it.

Julie didn’t blame her, especially since right then she was undecided between slipping out the back door and making for the border, or sticking pins in a doll with Andrew Kyle’s “perfect” features—maybe adding a few new dimples while she was at it.

“Look,” Andrew said, “I’d like to come back so that we can throw a few ideas around. Between Julie and myself, I suspect we can come up with something that’s perfect for the wedding.”

He’d just demolished her cooking for the second time in a few short months, and he thinks she would want him around?

“What a wonderful idea,” Rose said before Julie could flat-out refuse to ever see Andrew Kyle again. “Our aim at the Rose Chalet is to make sure the day goes exactly the way the happy couple wants it. Julie would be happy to brainstorm menus with you, wouldn’t you, Julie?”

Since the question was obviously rhetorical, Julie mumbled something that could be taken as a yes.

Rose stood. “Andrew, if you have a few more minutes, I’d like to talk you for a walk around the Chalet to get a feel for the place. My full staff isn’t here at the moment, but we can start to discuss a few options.”

Julie had never been so grateful for anything as when Andrew agreed. Ordinarily, with a guy like him, she would have watched him go just because she couldn’t
not
stare. Today, however, it was simply to make sure he was well and truly gone before she let out a sigh and slumped down in her seat.

What had she gotten herself into?

Chapter Three

What had he gotten himself into?

The answer to that question was pretty obvious as Andrew followed Rose around the wedding venue. He’d just agreed to add supervising his brother’s wedding planning to a schedule that already included filming a high-pressure TV show, and working as a guest chef two nights a week at one of his friend’s five-star restaurants.

All because he couldn’t stand for food to be anything less than spectacular.

His family wouldn’t even have noticed the difference at the wedding. He would, though.

Andrew had always loved food and cooking, so much that he’d forcefully ignored enormous amounts of family pressure to attend medical school as his brother had. Which was why, if there was one thing Andrew couldn’t stand by and watch, it was food being prepared without that commitment.

“Now this,” Rose was saying, “is our rose garden. Some couples like to have their vows out here under the arch, but I think you were saying your brother and his bride are looking for an indoor ceremony?”

Andrew nodded. The garden was beautiful, but he’d spent some time talking to both Phil and Nancy before he’d agreed to help out. They might not have time to get here for all the wedding preparations, but they still knew what they wanted. Andrew couldn’t help noticing how quickly they’d assumed
he’d
have time to spare, however.

“We’ll arrange time for you to sit down with Phoebe, our florist, and talk through the arrangements for that. Anne, our dress designer, is already hard at work on a design based on the ideas Nancy sent over. Your future sister-in-law will be able to make the last fitting, won’t she?”

Andrew spread his hands. “That’s definitely one part of the wedding I’m not having any input on.”

His phone went off just as the gardener wandered past and gestured for Rose to come over for a moment. Obviously assuming he was going to take the call, Rose excused herself and stepped away. He thought he heard her say something to the gardener about not bothering her while she was with a client, at which point the gardener simply grinned and replied, “Don’t worry, I won’t get any dirt on you or your clients,” before gesturing to the flower beds at the corner of the building.

Andrew looked down at the screen on his phone and saw that it was his assistant, Sandy, most likely contacting him to let him know about some small details for the filming later.

His new show was doing away with most of the usual gimmicks in favor of Andrew cooking in front of a live studio audience. It was this very simplicity that worried the producer, which was why he was insisting that Andrew be consulted on every minor detail. His last issue had been the arrangement of the salt and pepper containers on the set to make sure they didn’t create shadows with the lighting.

For once, Andrew let the call ring through to voicemail. Sandy might not look like much–the producer had already made the mistake of expressing the opinion that twenty-five year olds with too many piercings couldn’t possibly be real assistants–but she was extremely capable.

Besides, Andrew had another woman on his mind right then. One who didn’t pick colors for her hair based largely on what was most shocking that day...and one he’d just agreed to closely work with.

Julie Delgado.

He’d recognized her instantly. She wasn’t exactly easy to forget. And it wasn’t just that she was beautiful. Working in TV, Andrew was more than used to beautiful women being around by now. He’d had his share of relationships with them too. Generally, they lasted either until Andrew worked out that they were more interested in his celebrity status than in him, or until the women decided that there were better things in life than food.

Usually both.

There was something different about Julie. Andrew couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly it was, yet, but he still knew it was there.

It had been there even when he’d gone in to review her restaurant. He’d taken one look into those deep brown eyes as she’d come out into the restaurant’s dining room to check on his meal and it had almost,
almost,
been enough to make him change his mind about his review.

In the end, though, he’d had to behave with integrity.

What was Julie doing
here
?

He’d heard that her restaurant had closed, but thought she’d pick up a spot in a great restaurant somewhere in the city. She certainly had the technical skills. Back when he’d run his own restaurants, Andrew would have been happy to offer her a spot in the kitchen, if he had known that she was available and thought she would accept.

In your kitchen? Or in your bed?

The truth was, Andrew silently admitted to himself, Julie Delgado sparked his interest in a way other women didn’t.

Rose came back and gave him more details about the wedding, but Andrew was only half listening. He was too busy thinking about the wonderful darkness of Julie Delgado’s eyes, the curve of her lips, the way she’d looked stunning, even in clothes that had obviously been chosen more with the kitchen in mind than with impressing anyone.

Andrew had barely been able to take his eyes off her. Normally, he would have asked her out in a heartbeat, yet things were more complicated here.

“Tell me about Julie,” Andrew said, playing things as cool as he could.

A worried look flashed across Rose’s features. “I know the food wasn’t quite what you were expecting, but I really think that if you give her a chance—”

“Her cooking skills are excellent,” Andrew replied. “I like knowing about the people I work with. Has she been here long?”

“Just a few days.” Rose kept moving as she talked. “Her aunt, Evie, used to run the catering for us, but, sadly, she had to retire due to poor health.” Rose paused, and for a moment, she did look saddened by it.

“So this is the first wedding Julie will have catered?”

“Yes, but I assure you she comes to us well recommended. She used to own her own restaurant. Delgado’s. I imagine you’ve probably heard of it, given what you do.”

Andrew could tell that Rose not only wanted the wedding to go ahead without a hitch, but that she also cared about the people who worked for her quite a bit. If she knew about what had happened with Julie’s restaurant and his review, she might try to stop him and Julie from working together. But Andrew was too used to getting what he wanted to allow that to happen.

He and Julie would work together on his brother’s wedding, and if Andrew judged it right, they might also be able to explore that spark that had been so obvious between them.

At the very least, he was going to get to the bottom of Julie’s cooking. She had the technical skill. She obviously had the palate when it came to balancing flavors. She had a good knack for presentation, and the ability to manage several dishes at once…all the individual ingredients necessary for her to be so much more as a chef.

Andrew knew as well as anyone that ingredients alone weren’t enough. It was what someone did with them that truly mattered.

His phone rang again, and this time, Andrew excused himself to pick it up.

“Don’t you pick up your phone anymore?” his assistant demanded.

“Did the lighting guys decide they needed my permission before they changed the shade of filter on the main spotlights again?” Andrew countered. “Come on, Sandy, you can handle that.”

“Sure, I could handle that, no problem. But we really need you back at the studio.”

“You know I’m dealing with my brother’s wedding preparations. It’s my wedding gift to him.”

“And I still think you’re crazy for agreeing to it. You could have just given him a vase and told Phil to take care of his own wedding. Or I could tell him for you. Because, frankly, you have enough to do right now without taking on extra projects.”

Andrew couldn’t help a small smile at his assistant’s protective streak. “You know I could fire you, right?”

“Yay. Then someone else can have all those endless conversations with our producer about exactly why the frozen food he ordered wasn’t good enough.”

She had a point there. Andrew had to put his foot down somewhere, though. “Look, I don’t need to be on set for the show until this afternoon, so—”

“But that’s what I’m trying to tell you,” his assistant shot back. “The idiots have changed the filming schedule. They say they sent an email, but I never got it. Anyway, they wanted you on set twenty minutes ago.”

Andrew normally wouldn’t let the studio jerk him around like this, but if he wanted his new show to get off the ground on the right foot, he was going to have to cut his time at the Rose Chalet short.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get going,” he said to Rose as he hung up.

“You are planning to come back, aren’t you?” Rose asked. “To go through the menu again and talk about the flowers? There’s such a lot to decide on.”

Andrew thought about Julie Delgado once more. Cooking was so personal, so connected. The pressure of the kitchen was relentless, but there was also magic to it.

There was nothing like food for getting to know everything about people...and nothing like feeding someone–and being fed–for getting closer to someone.

“Yes,” he said in answer to Rose’s question, “I’m definitely planning to come back.”

Chapter Four

Julie cleaned up the dining room, carefully stacking the plates and putting them in the dishwasher, each movement precisely controlled. She was not going to end up breaking a plate on top of everything else.

And she was definitely not going to wallow in thoughts about Andrew Kyle.

Admittedly, that was easier said than done. There were those dimples, for one thing. Not to mention the way he had just come in there and high-handedly dismissed Julie’s best efforts like they were nothing, exactly the same way he’d dismissed her restaurant. Julie had put out her best efforts there, too, and Andrew hadn’t even bothered to come up with a better word than
bland
to describe them.

Who did he think he was?

A successful celebrity chef, obviously, but other than that? Where did he get off, taking apart her carefully-thought-through menu in front of Rose, so that now Julie would have to work twice as hard to convince her temporary boss that she was the right choice to deal with the Rose Chalet’s catering on a permanent basis?

Julie’s best guess was that Andrew enjoyed the power of it. He could make or break careers. What an ego trip that had to be. Julie couldn’t believe the casual way Andrew had suggested that he should come in and ‘help’ her. In other words, “stand over her, criticizing everything she did.”

Unfortunately, she knew the type, only too well. Men who were impossibly sure of themselves—utterly certain that all they had to do was snap their fingers and women would come running. It was one of the main reasons Julie didn’t date these days.

On the other hand, after she took a few deep breaths, Julie had to admit that wasn’t precisely the impression she'd gotten from Andrew while he was critiquing her wedding menu.