Page 12 of Recipe for Romance (Applewood #2)

~N icole~

The achiness in her fingers was starting to subside, but Nicole’s hand still felt slightly cramped from all the writing she’d done in her notebook.

Aiden’s critique of her food had been honest and fair, but it was still hard to hear just how badly she’d performed.

Knocking it out of the park on her first try wasn’t something Nicole had thought would happen, but she hadn’t imagined she would shit the bed so completely either.

Dwelling on it wasn’t going to do her any good, so Nicole simply asked for all the ways in which she could improve.

There were now about twenty pages filled with notes in her hands about how to do just that.

Hearing her shortcomings verbalized should be something she was used to, and Nicole had expected his rebukes to make her feel as horrible as it always did, but listening to Aiden detail all the ways in which she was doing things wrong hadn’t felt the same as other times it had happened.

Professors, employers, and her father especially had always spoken about her lack of attention to detail, her wandering focus, and her lack of follow-through, but all of them had spoken to her as if they were already resigned to her never improving.

Even her friends would excuse her forgetting plans or oversharing as “Nicole just being Nicole.”

While Aiden had been blunt and honest to an almost brutal extent, he’d also told her how she could do better next time, something no one in the past had really ever bothered doing.

It felt good to have someone actually expect something of her, even if she wasn’t totally sure he believed she could achieve it.

Of course, that also inconveniently led to her crush flaring up again.

Looking over at the man in question, Nicole smiled as he surveyed his war-torn kitchen.

She wasn’t always quite so sloppy when she worked, but she also hadn’t expected to be put to the test the moment she showed up on his doorstep.

When Aiden answered the door, his pumpernickel hair disheveled, a sleep crease on his lightly stubbled cheek, and his long body wrapped in soft cotton pants and a t-shirt, Nicole had also been thrown off by how attractive he was, even half-asleep and cranky as hell.

Once Aiden finally let her inside, he led her toward the kitchen.

The sight of his very bite worthy ass as it moved in front of her made her forget about needing him to teach her how to prepare a meal.

Suddenly, she wanted to move onto the portion of the assignment where the two of them head upstairs to cook up something hot and heavy in the bedroom.

Sadly, he didn’t seem to be on the same page as she was.

“I don’t understand how this is possible,” Aiden grumbled. His eyes roamed over stacks of dirty pans and half prepped ingredients, his hands on his hips and a look of abject misery on his face. “How can such a small person create such a large mess?”

The question was rhetorical, but Nicole decided to answer it anyway.

“My mind can sometimes get caught up on a new task before I finish the first.” It had happened multiple times already that morning.

At one point, she’d thought of making pancakes to go with the omelet, only to remember she had no idea how to make them from scratch.

The half-made batter sat in a glass bowl on the counter next to the onion she’d also left partially chopped.

“Things may have gotten a little out of hand.”

Aiden snorted, shaking his head. “This is more than a little out of hand.” Picking up a paper towel soaked with milk, he flung it into the garbage bin. It hit the side with a satisfying wet plop, but even that couldn’t erase the scowl from his face. “It’s like a tornado whipped through here.”

Nicole nodded and started to hurriedly clean things up.

“I know, I know, and I’m sorry.” After gathering pans and walking them over to sink, she turned to face Aiden who was holding up a half empty bag of caramel popcorn she’d found in the pantry, his eyebrow raised in question.

She was jealous of his ability to do that and was tempted to try it for herself but quickly dismissed the thought.

He already looked at her like she was a little crazy.

No need to give him more reasons to confirm his suspicions by making weird faces. “I can replace that,” she assured him.

Aiden’s brow lowered slightly. “Got snacky again, did you?” Nicole thought she saw the ghost of a smile on his lips, but it was gone before she could be sure. Instead, he stiffened again and placed it back in his pantry. “I suppose I should be grateful that it didn’t end up in my omelet.”

Slightly perturbed by his continued needling of her failed breakfast, Nicole balled up her hands and placed them on her hips. “I stand by my decision to add the chips. It’s not my fault your palate is so unsophisticated,” she said haughtily.

Aiden barked a laugh, but it morphed into him coughing into his fist. The fact that she’d kind of made him laugh erased any irritation she had been feeling towards him, pride taking up residence in its place.

“Let’s just get this cleaned up. I need to walk the restaurant space and take a few pictures for the investors.

I can drop you off on my way.” He picked up the garbage can and swept balled up paper towels and egg shells into it.

“How did you get here anyway, and how did you know where I live for that matter?”

Nicole felt her cheeks heat with a blush.

“About that.” She had already looked up his coffee order, something she’d found in an old interview, but what she told him next would put her in another category of crazy altogether.

“When I went down to Grind and Shine to get your coffee, I started talking to the barista about how I was working with you, and this older couple overheard me and mentioned that they’d been big fans of yours for a long time and how proud the whole town was of you.

” The impatience in his expression went up tenfold and she tried to focus on getting to the point.

“Anyway, I started talking to them and they said that they’d seen you coming from the rental that used to be owned by their daughter’s ex-husband.

I asked where that was and when they told me, the barista, her name is Jenny by the way, and she was awesome, she told me that her boyfriend who was sitting at the counter was heading out this way for work and that he could drop me off on his way there. ”

Nicole watched as the wheels of his mind turned to try and process her word vomit. Finally, Aiden sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That was a lot of information.”

“Yeah,” she breathed out. People sometimes seemed overwhelmed by the info dumps that tended to happen when she was around, but it was nothing compared to living in the brain that created them. “Sorry.”

Aiden’s eyes shot to hers. “Don’t apologize.

” It was a gruff command, the low timber of his voice sending a shiver up her spine.

His cobalt eyes burned into hers, seeing deeper than anyone had even bothered to try looking in a long time.

Finally, he broke their little staring contest and went about cleaning again.

“Let’s get this cleaned up and then I’ll take you to the motel. ”

Nicole’s automatic nod at anything he had to say stopped when the words finally made sense.

“Wait!” she shouted. Aiden peered over at her as he continued to clean.

“Take me with you. You’re not going to be able to do everything on your own.

I might not be as small as a banana, but you can use me for scale in your pictures.

” She posed like she was showing off the future waiting area of his restaurant or whatever he would snap pictures of.

Aiden’s expression was nothing but confusion. “Banana?”

Nicole’s posture slumped and she waved away his question. “It’s an Internet thing, trust me.” Clearly he needed to spend more time on social media if the phrase banana for scale didn’t ring any bells.

“If you say so,” he remarked. “At least let me take you by the motel to change.” His eyes traveled up and down her body, not completely disapprovingly but also a bit like he was assessing for damages. “Unless of course you want to walk around looking like you’re covered in baby spit-up.”

Nicole glanced down at her clothes. Grease stains and glops of some unidentified substance covered her t-shirt and shorts.

“That would definitely be a choice,” she muttered.

Knowing that however she looked reflected on the man in front of her, Nicole nodded.

“Okay. We’ll clean up, then change, then we’ll look at your new restaurant.

” She clapped excitedly. The ghostly smile on Aiden’s face was back and gone again, but this time Nicole didn’t question her seeing it.

If anything, she was more determined than ever to make it come back.

****

O pening the door to Aiden’s white SUV, Nicole slid inside, sighing at the feel of the buttery beige leather against the bare skin of her legs.

After ditching her dirty clothes, she slipped into a sundress to try and enjoy the last of the summer weather.

When she turned to look at Aiden, two deep lines were etched on his forehead. “What took you so long?” he fumed.

Nicole rolled her eyes at his growling, something that hadn’t gone unnoticed by him.

The lines on his forehead deepened, so she smiled as brightly as possible.

“I was only gone for a minute,” she protested.

If she didn’t know any better she would think he hadn’t actually consumed one ounce of the coffee she’d gotten, he was that cranky.

Aiden tapped the clock on the dash. “Twenty,” he corrected her. “You were gone for twenty minutes. I could have jogged around the building half a dozen times by now.”