15. Me And My Man

15

ME AND MY MAN

" I 'm assuming your brother knows we are coming tonight?" Van asked the next night.

"Of course," Kelsey said. "He has to cook my food. I'll make sure the server knows that too, but they do."

"What?" he asked. "He cooks yours special?"

"Don't give me shit over that," she said, bumping her shoulder into his. "I get that enough from my mother, but Duke doesn't mind. He gets it."

"Gets what?" he asked.

She could tell it was odd to him. It wasn't that she didn't trust her brother's other chefs.

"That he's the best and I should get the best. He'd want that."

She was laughing when she said it. She was joking but not really.

"What's the real reason?" he asked.

"He's my brother," she said. "I do a lot for him, he does for me too."

She was still grinning and he shrugged his shoulders. He rarely asked her to elaborate. She wasn't sure if that made her happy or not.

"Whatever," he said.

"It's not a big deal," she said. "Just something he's said he'd always do and to make sure he knew I was here."

She kept her grin on her face, but that was part of the reason. Duke said he'd always take care of her and that meant making her food too.

She found it sweet but knew it might be annoying to her boyfriend tonight. The protectiveness of her brother.

But she was the older twin and would remind him of that too.

"Table for two," Kelsey said, walking in and seeing the hostess. "For me and my man."

She slipped her arm through his and saw Brittany at the hostess counter lift an eyebrow. They knew her here.

Her relationship wasn't a secret, but it wasn't that common of knowledge either. Might as well put it out there for most to see.

Why not?

"This way," Brittany said.

"You didn't need reservations?" he asked. Other people were waiting.

"No," she said. "But Duke knew I was coming and when. He probably told Brittany to make sure there was a table for me. No reason to make reservations then."

They moved to the back of the restaurant closer to the kitchen.

Oh yeah, this was Duke's doing. She knew that, as she hardly ever sat back here. Unless she was on a date.

She did bring men here if she'd been on a few dates with them. But most times she didn't tell the person Duke was her brother.

Though meeting guys online, most weren't on the island, but they'd come here for a date and want to impress her at her brother's restaurant.

Duke would normally come out when she was here, put her food down and ask how things were going so far in terms of their dinner visit. He'd check the guy out and then give her a code on whether to keep or to ditch him.

It always seemed to be ditch.

If her brother did it this time, she'd pinch his arm in front of all his customers.

She knew that her parents would have kept Duke up to date on what was going on. She'd even talked to her brother a few times too but nothing in depth.

When they sat down, a server came over quickly. "Hi, Kelsey. What can we get you to drink tonight?"

"I'll take a pinot grigio. The good stuff," she said, lifting her eyes. "The bartender knows." There were cheaper wines to choose from. She didn't need to see the menu. They'd know to get her the best bottle already opened. She wouldn't want the most expensive if it wasn't opened, as she'd only have one glass.

"Got it," Margot said. "And you?"

"I'll take a number eight," Van said from the beer menu.

"Here are our specials," Margot said, laying down a sheet. "I'll be back in a few."

"They don't read them to you?" he asked.

"They used to, but Duke found that a lot of times the servers messed up describing them or might have forgotten one. When you're running back and forth so much it's harder and keeps them at the tables longer too."

Her brother was good at turning the tables over as fast as he could.

"This is better anyway," he said, looking at it.

"I know what I'm getting," she said. "That is why I got a wine to go with it."

"I'll just get a steak," he said. "I'm pretty basic."

"The filet is out of this world," she said. "With garlic smashed potatoes."

"You might not like the garlic later," he said.

"I'll look past it," she said. "Or you can brush your teeth. Maybe I'll have a few bites and we can kill some vampires together by breathing on them."

He laughed when she wiggled her eyebrows. "It's that strong?"

"No," she said. "It's not. Get what you want. I'm just saying that is a good meal. Everything here is, but Duke will make it personally."

Margot returned with their drinks. "I'll take the shrimp scampi," she said, winking at him.

"Now I understand the garlic smashed potatoes comment. You're consuming it too," he said, smirking.

"Caught onto that pretty fast, didn't you?" she asked.

"I'll take the filet with the garlic smashed potatoes," he said.

When Margot left, she said, "You're a sweetheart and don't even know it."

"I know what I am," he said.

"Don't do that to yourself," she said.

"Do what?"

"I'm not sure what it is exactly, but you put yourself down when I'm trying to be nice. Maybe I should be more serious."

"No," he said. "I think I need something less serious in my life."

"Good," she said. "But tell me if I'm too goofy. I can rein it in. I do it enough daily."

"Which is probably why you let loose so much when you're not working?" he asked.

"Could be," she said. "But my brother is the serious one of us. I'm used to grouchy puss-faced men."

He let out a cough after he sipped his beer. "Puss-faced?"

"You know," she said. "Sour puss."

She puckered her lips, sucked in her cheeks and crossed her eyes.

"If you keep doing that it's going to freeze that way," Duke said.

She hadn't heard him come up behind her. That was odd, as she always felt his presence. Guess she was too drawn into the hot man across from her.

"You've been saying that for years," she said to her brother. "It hasn't happened yet. Van, this is Duke. Duke, Van."

The two men shook hands and neither smiled.

"Nice to meet you," Duke said.

"The same," Van said.

"Back to your corners, boys," she said, clapping and shooing her brother away.

He didn't give her the ditch-it look and that was something.

Duke grunted. A noise close to what Van normally made and it just occurred to her why she had no problem with that kind of personality.

"What's so funny?" Van asked her when Duke left.

"I just had an aha moment."

"Are you going to share that with me?" he asked.

"You're Jell-O," she said, laughing.

"What?" he asked. The look on his face was so comical that she started to giggle.

"That is what I tell Duke all the time. He's Jell-O. Firm on the outside but all squishy and jiggly in the center. He even gave Hadley her engagement ring in a Jell-O mold."

"You're joking," he said.

"Nope, I'm not. I bet you couldn't get a woman to hang onto you because you're moody and sarcastic. You don't like to show the softness to many, but I bet you did to some. I'm used to dealing with that. I shared a womb with a person like that. You're just like my twin."

"I doubt he feels that way and I'm not so sure myself," he said.

"Not just like him," she said. "But in that particular aspect. That's how I can handle you so well."

"Handle me?" he asked.

She put her hand to her mouth after she formed an O with her mouth. "You liked it the other night."

It might have been the wink that did it.

He actually smiled at her this time.

A true genuine one. "I more than liked it," he said. "Are you going to be like that again tonight?"

They'd had dinner together last night. Hit the sheets at his place because she was answering some more questions about the hotels for him.

She knew he'd met with her father, but he wasn't in the best mood when she got there.

Not horrible but a little withdrawn.

She was trying to give him space and she assumed he appreciated it.

Tonight they were going back to her place and she wanted to warm him up some.

Both of them had chores and errands to run today, so he came over to get her before dinner. She'd asked if he wanted to spend the night since he had to work tomorrow and could leave from her house.

She thought he'd say no, but he didn't.

"I can be anything you want me to be in bed," she said quietly. "It just stays there."

"Heard," he said.

They dropped the sex topic after that as too many people were walking around.

Their food came out fairly quickly, just as she expected it would.

"Duke said he'd bring dessert out," Margot said.

The server left after that. "I know what I'm getting for dessert," she said. "I'm not going to eat all of this because I need to leave room."

"He just surprises you with dessert?" he asked.

Van cut into his filet, popped a piece in his mouth and closed his eyes.

"Awesome, isn't it?"

"It's melting in my mouth," he said.

She took a bite of her shrimp after twirling it around in some homemade pasta. "I told you everything here is great. Want to try some of this?"

"I'm not a seafood person," he said.

"Bummer," she said. "You don't know what you're missing. But it's okay. I don't cook it. I get it here."

"So what is your dessert?" he asked.

"Triple chocolate cake," she said. "My favorite. He doesn't make it daily."

But she'd been hoping since she'd texted him this morning that he might do it.

"He'd make it for his sister because he wants her to have what she wants," Van said. "The best, that only he can provide her. Along with his protection."

"Ding, ding, ding," she said, pointing her fork at him. "You got it."

"Don't make me need to protect her from you," Duke said behind her again.

That was twice now he'd done that.

She turned to look at his face and heard the low growl in her brother's voice, then he turned and walked away after Van and Duke had a stare-down again.

"What was that about?" Van asked.

"That was his sign not to ditch you."

"Growling and staring at me?" he asked, still eating his steak and unfazed by anything that happened with her brother.

"Yep," she said cheerfully. "You didn't flinch at his stare once nor blink at the growl. Just kept eating. If Duke can scare someone, they aren't for me."

"Because they can't protect you or stand up to you?" he asked.

"Exactly that. You passed."

"Didn't know I needed to," he said drily. "I figured it only mattered what you thought. At least from what your father said."

Her face softened. "Ahhh, you had the father-boyfriend talk. Jell-O."

Van shook his head and mumbled, "Mr. Franklin."

She held her giggle in.