cheerfully walked into the kitchen for a pickup. In the dark pants and white blouses required by Rafe, the other waitresses looked plain. But not Lily. Her curves made the simple garments a treat for the eyes, as her perpetual smile lit up the restaurant.
“Be careful with that butter.”
Mic shook his head and ripped his gaze away from Lily as she exited the kitchen. The butter in the frying pan spit and sputtered. He whipped the pan off the stove. Rafe frowned. “Your mind wanders.”
“A fluke.”
“I think it is more that you can’t keep your eyes off my waitress.”
Mic laughed. “You’re just worried about competition. Afraid your customers will miss me when I’m gone.” But even as he said the words, Lily returned. He took in the thick hair he had at one time run his fingers through and her breasts filling out the plain white blouse. Today she looked every bit as perfect as he remembered her to be.
“You are gone again.”
Mic almost cursed. The woman had spent an entire summer with him. She’d warmed his bed, but then she’d dumped him. Cruelly. How could he still find her enticing?
He shouldn’t.
He refused.
She came bouncing into the kitchen again, her ponytail bobbing.
He slid a warm plate to the stainless steel shelf between them. “Tortellini?”
The smile in her eyes caught him off guard. “Si. Grazie.” Taking the plate, she spun away and raced out of the kitchen.
Mic’s pulse scrambled and his heart kicked against his ribs. Her body might tempt him, but that smile brought back memories far more dangerous than the lure of her body. He’d helped her get beyond the loss of her parents. She’d been his biggest cheerleader. In his mind, their relationship had been as happy as their chemistry had been blistering hot.
But those wonderful memories might be the problem. Because he hadn’t had another serious relationship since the one he had with her, he kept remembering things as if they were perfect. Clearly, they hadn’t been.
At the end of the night, he sat at the bar with Rafe, helping with the next day’s menu, as he surreptitiously watched the waitresses clear the dining room.
Halfway through a suggestion for a tangier sauce, his brain stalled. This time Rafe only sighed. But Mic had had enough.
No one could be as perfect as he remembered Lily to be. Yet, he couldn’t seem to convince himself of that with simple words. Mostly because he was curious.
He’d loved her enough at one time to want to marry her. She’d broken his heart. And now here she was, a waitress. Somehow he’d always believed she’d left him for something more. Something better.
So why was she still here in Monte Calanetti?
The next day, Lily placed her order for a latte and scone at the coffeehouse. But before she could pay, a hand came from behind, giving the money to the cashier.
She spun around. Mic.
Her heart speeded up and her stomach plummeted. She’d hoped her time off would be her chance to get away from his probing eyes. The day before, he’d done nothing but stare at her. She’d expected anger. Maybe a little bit of resentment. But curiosity? What if he asked her how she’d spent the last eight years? How sad would it be to have to admit she and her sister would have been destitute had it not been for Signor Bartolini, owner of Palazzo di Comparino, giving them a place to live when she took the job as his maid?
“I can afford my own coffee now.”
He sniffed a laugh. “Funny, I remember when we had to scrape together our pennies to buy one and then we’d share it.”
She smiled. “Yes. Our Sunday morning treat.” Again, she thought of the last sip he’d always saved for her. The memory nearly brought tears to her eyes.
“So how is your sister?”
Her gaze jerked to his. “She’s good. At university now.”
He chuckled. “That was a fast eight years.”
She glanced away as the barista called her name and handed her coffee and scone to her. “Yes. It was.”
“And what about you?”
Her nerve endings quivered. She’d let him leave her so he could become successful. The last thing she wanted to admit was what a failure she’d been. “What about me?”
“How have you been?”
He motioned to an empty table and her heart stuttered. He was going to sit with her?
She sighed at her own stupidity. Of course, he was. Eight years had gone by. Those eight years had been very good to him. She was the one with the past she wanted to hide. And if she made a big deal of this, he’d probe until he discovered the things that would humiliate her. Even if she told him she’d enrolled at university with Melony but had stayed behind the first semester to give her sister a taste of freedom, it would just prove it had taken her almost eight years to get her life together.
She led them to the table, slid out of her coat and sat, pretending that being so close to him didn’t set off a firestorm of flutters in her stomach. “I’ve been fine. Busy. How about you?”
“I’m actually between jobs. I’ve been offered a partnership in a restaurant in Paris. I’m probably going to take it but I have a few weeks to think it through.”
She smiled. “It’s nice that you have options.”
His blue eyes twinkled with the joy of his success. “It is. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t appreciate how lucky I am.”
He shifted a little closer, not something the old Mic would have done, and Lily’s nerves prickled. Even in his expensive jacket and designer jeans and shirt, she’d been seeing him as the Mic she’d loved. But as he had said, eight years had gone by. He had money now and fame.
She looked deeper into his shiny blue eyes, and saw an edginess that hadn’t been there before.
“And it’s the fact that I’ve always been lucky that makes it all the more puzzling that you dumped me.”
“I didn’t dump you. I just didn’t accept your marriage proposal.”
“Why?” He moved closer and ran his thumb along her jaw. “You certainly couldn’t complain about our chemistry. So what happened?”
Oh, she was tempted to tell him. To
