Chapter 3

3

DEREK

T he light coming in from the curtains was a lot brighter than I was used to. That was the first thing I noticed on Tuesday morning. It was right in my eyes at an angle that it normally wasn’t first thing in the morning. For a moment, I thought I must have woken myself up early, and then I looked at my phone. The little green light indicating that it was fully charged wasn’t on. Curious, I grabbed it, pulled it to me, and swiped up.

Ten in the morning. I wasn’t early. I was extremely late.

“Fuck,” I exclaimed, swinging up to a sitting position like a zombie coming from a grave and my heart suddenly pounding. “Son of a bitch, shit, dammit!”

The stream of curses wasn’t exactly helpful, but they released some of the anger and frustration. I suddenly realized that the battery on my phone read that there was only thirty percent. I looked at it, confused, and then it dawned on me. None of the lights were on. None of the usual sounds of a house, wired and coursing with electricity, were reaching my ears.

The power was out.

“Ah, dammit.” I put in the password and then found the number for the electric company and dialed it. The line was busy, but I would wait. I lay back in the bed, trying to get my heart to calm down while I called.

I started to doze a little after forty-five minutes on hold, but eventually I got through to someone at the hour mark. Apparently, there were lines down due to some moron cutting a tree on his property and not knowing how to fell it. Silently, I cursed myself for not taking Noah up on his offer to build a generator into the place and grabbed my things to head to the gym. I needed a shower, and since my place wasn’t going to cut it until at least that evening, I needed somewhere with warm water.

On my way there, I pulled up Cam’s number and gave him a call.

“Where the hell are you?” Cam said as a way of a greeting.

“Love you too, brother,” I said. “My freaking power went out. Some dipshit cut a tree, and it fell over the wires. My alarm didn’t go off, and I have no power left on my phone battery. The power company said they need someone at the house though, so could you head over there and hang out?”

“In the dark?” he asked.

“Yes, Cam. In the dark. Are you scared of the dark?”

“No, but it won’t help me get my work done if I can’t plug in,” he said. “How long of a wait?”

“I’m honestly not sure. Could be fast. Could take until I get back.”

“Christ, Derek,” Cam said. “Just get up here and start lunch service. Ally can handle the kitchen, but she’s going to get overwhelmed if we’re anything like last Tuesday. I’ll head to your place.”

“On my way, just have one stop to make first.”

“What stop?” Cam asked. “The restaurant is almost open.”

“I need a shower, Cam,” I said. “Trust me. I’ll be there in twenty.”

With an exasperated sound, Cam hung up, and I pulled into the drive of the gym. I was in and out in ten minutes, confusing the poor girl working the desk. By the time I got to the vineyard, I noticed that one of the delivery trucks that was supposed to be there wasn’t. As I got into the kitchen, Ally looked at me over the steam of the wok on her station, and I could see the relief in her eyes.

“Fucking delivery’s late,” she said. “We need it for dinner, or else we’re serving empty plates. Can you call them and find out what the shit is going on?”

“You know I am the chef, right? You are the sous chef.”

“You are the chef who is about to get a paring knife in his dick if you don’t get calling. I’ve been running this place without you so far, and lunch is picking up,” she said, not looking away from the wok.

“Fair. What do you need me to do to catch up?”

“Anything,” she said. “Literally, anything. There’s like ten things on burners and two in the oven. Just grab something and shake it, for God’s sake.”

“That’s what she said,” I muttered.

“Just make the call, Derek,” Ally said, finally breaking a smile.

I pulled up the phone and dialed the delivery service. Apparently, they were running late because of an accident right by the distribution center, making it hard to get trucks out. It meant that I couldn’t even be mad at them. The estimate was that they would have the truck well before dinner service, so we would be fine, but I was still mad when I hung up.

“News?” Ally said as she fell back into the normal sous chef role, helping me plate entrees and making sure any mise en place was done.

“Accident near distro,” I said, shaking a pan of vegetables and sprinkling salt over it at a high angle so it fell evenly. “Should be here two hours before dinner service.”

“Hallelujah.” Ally waved her hands in the air. Thankfully, she was a well-trained chef and had the sense to let the knife stay on the board, since I was walking past her to get to the oven.

“Indeed. Divine intervention at its best. Now let’s burn through this lunch rush and have a beer before shit gets nuts for dinner. We have the Baked Alaska on tonight.”

“Crap,” Ally muttered. “I forgot the Baked Alaska is tonight.”

I nodded. Neither one of us was entirely sure about adding it to the menu, not because it was difficult, but because it was so damned time-consuming. Between the ice cream, the crust, and the general assembly of the damn dish, it required multiple stages for it to cool and then rest. It was delicious, but it was a pain in the ass to make, and we were likely going to have to pump out dozens of them for the dessert menu.

Since it was the lunch service, it was, as usual, just Ally and me back there. There were a couple of line cooks that we brought in on weekends and for the dinner services on rotations, but daytime lunches were still the exclusive domain of one of my oldest and dearest friends and soon-to-be sister-in-law and me.

I was still a little miffed at her for what she had concocted on Sunday, but at the same time, it was sweet. I understood her point of view. I just didn’t agree with her. I was good being alone.

Lunch rolled by pretty easily, and I was starting to feel pretty damn good about things again. One of the line cooks showed up early, just in time to meet the delivery truck that pulled up at almost the same time. I sent him out to help with the delivery and went about finishing up the rush so I could break everything down and get ready for dinner service.

When we were down to just a couple of tables left and service officially over, Ally dipped out for a moment while I took care of cleaning up. It was the least I could do after she did such a great job of getting things going earlier.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, putting her hand on my arm.

She was gone for a few minutes before she came back into the kitchen. Everything was in the dishwasher that could go there, and it was nearly an hour before the preparation for the dinner rush would begin.

“Could you come out with me for a minute?” she asked, popping her head back into the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” I shot back, instantly suspicious.

“Just a for a bit. There’s someone you should meet.”

I was tired, irritated, and frustrated at how the morning had gone, but most of all I wanted to make sure it was a smooth night. The last thing I was expecting was to see Ally bring me to a table in the restaurant where an absolutely gorgeous woman sat, her green eyes sparkling in the low light of the room. Long brown hair was brushed to part from one side and fell gracefully around the other side of her face, and my stomach tightened when I saw her.

The realization hit me a few steps away, and anger bubbled up inside me. Hadn’t Ally meddled enough? Wasn’t Sunday enough of an indication that not only was her setting me up not working, but not appreciated? Noah must have either not spoken to her at all, or not gotten across how I found her inserting herself into my love life inappropriate and wrong.

No matter how gorgeous the woman she was setting me up with, I didn’t want the pressure. I didn’t want the help.

“Derek, this is Jodi,” Ally began, but I put my hand up to stop her.

“Hi, this is all too much. You are very pretty, and I am sorry you came out here. I am very happy being single and do not wish to meet anyone right now, thank you very much.” Then I spun on my heel and headed back for the kitchen. I only got a couple of steps before the woman’s indignant voice rose up and stopped me.

“Wow, I’m shocked to hear you’re single,” she said. “Probably cuz of that colossal stick up your ass.” I turned, making eye contact with her for only a second before she turned her attention to Ally. “Ally, it was lovely to see you again. Stay safe. I have to go.”

Ally nodded and hugged the woman briefly and then turned to me, glaring at me with an intensity that frankly surprised me. The woman, Jodi, stomped off and headed for the door. As soon as the door opened and she disappeared out of it, Ally opened her mouth to yell at me in the empty restaurant.

Before she could get a word out, I threw my hands up in the air and went back to the kitchen, smashing the double doors open with my foot and letting them swing back hard on their own. I normally detested when people did that, but at the moment, there was just far too much raw emotion going on. Part of me was so damned mad at Ally for making this situation happen in the first place.

But I had to admit, there was a part of me that was just angry at myself. That woman had been gorgeous, and now there was a doubt that she was there for the purpose I assumed Ally had brought her in for. Regardless of why she was there, I had been a major-league dick about it.

With my mind dark, full of conflicting thoughts, I went back to my station and continued preparing for dinner service.