want normal? What did it even mean?
“You could start with the lady you were making goo-goo eyes at. Along with her backbone, and pretty face, there’s something sweet about Michele Cox.”
“That was Michele Cox from Alfieri’s? She made me one of the best chicken cacciatore dishes I’ve ever tasted. I still have daydreams about that chicken.”
“Can I pick ’em or what?” Matt grinned and threw his arm over Jeff’s shoulder.
“You’ve got it wrong. I’m not marrying any of these women, but I might hire Cox. I watched her on a cooking show once. Hell, she handled her kitchen with such passion, such flair. Spice and color all mixed together. I’ve never seen anything like it. She was poetry in action.”
Matt cocked his head. “Poetry in action? Seems like you’ve thought about her a bit.”
Had he? Sure. After seeing her on television, he’d made a point to visit her restaurant a few times. One night he’d even asked Alfieri if he could go back to the kitchen to meet the chef, but she’d left before he got a chance. The next time he’d gone in, he was told Michele had left the restaurant altogether. He’d been disappointed.
“I see it on your face. You like her,” Matt said.
“I’ve never met her.”
“So now is your chance. Ask her out. I dare you.”
Jeff shot him a dirty look. “What is this, middle school? Dares don’t work anymore. I’m not interested in searching for love. I just need a chef, and a wife who’ll satisfy Dad’s terms.”
Matt shook his head, his voice sad. “You’ll never feel it that way.”
“Feel what?”
“Lightning.”
Michele scoped out her beautiful bedroom. It had a sitting area, a desk, two televisions, two queen-size beds, Spanish tile and a balcony. The decor was tasteful and lightly Mediterranean. The room was twice as big as her bedroom at home. Heck, maybe it was bigger than her bedroom and living room combined. She opened the French doors and stepped onto the balcony.
“Oh, hello!” The petite chef from The China Lily was sitting on the veranda. “Lovely view from here.”
Michele looked out over the gardens below and let her gaze drift out to sea. “It’s beautiful.”
“And overwhelming. This bedroom is almost as large as my flat in Manhattan.”
“Mine, too.” Michele stretched out her hand. “We weren’t formally introduced. I’m Michele Cox, from—”
“Alfieri’s.” Lily took her hand. “I know. May I say I love your lasagna? It’s the best Italian dish I’ve ever tasted.”
“It’s my own recipe. The secret’s in the sauce.” Michele brought her finger to her lips. “And your dim sum is to die for.”
“Ah, we’re a mutual admiration society.” Lily motioned to the other lounge chair. “Join me?”
Michele sank into the plush cushions and exhaled deeply. She was tired, jet-lagged, and her feet hurt from running in heels. “It feels like I haven’t sat down in years.”
“It has been a long day. I didn’t know there would be a competition. Did you?”
“No. I might not have applied,” Michele said softly, thinking about how the competition complicated her plans. “Do you know any of the other chefs?”
“Not personally, but I recognized Freja Ringwold, the gorgeous tall blonde? She’s very famous in Sweden with her own cooking show. Tonia Sanchez, the curvy brunette with green eyes, owns three high-end Southwestern restaurants in Arizona. Suzette Monteclaire is well-known for—”
“French cuisine. Yes, I know.” Michele felt like a fish out of water. A really small, unqualified fish. “What about the dark-haired chef with amazing skin? Nadia something.”
“I’ve never seen her before. But—” Lily held up her finger and took out her cell phone “—Google will know.” A short time later, she smiled. “Nadia is an award-winning Mediterranean chef in Saudi Arabia, oh, and her father is a sheikh. There’s a picture of him and RW Harper taken about fifteen years ago. So, she might be a shoo-in, with her connections.”
Great. What were Michele’s chances with this group? “That’s all of us, then. An eclectic bunch. What is Jeffrey looking for?”
“A fantastic chef. Any of us would fit the bill,” Lily said.
Except she wasn’t the chef she used to be.
“If you do not mind me asking, why did you leave Alfieri’s? It seemed like you had a good situation there. I read there was some sort of—” Lily ran her slender hand through the air—“shake-up?”
Michele sighed. “You could call it that.”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t pry.”
Michele studied the woman who was her competition and didn’t feel any sort of maliciousness in her. It had been a long time since she’d had a friend to talk to. Mom was the person she had confided in her whole life and now that she was gone... God, her heart was so heavy.
“It’s okay. Alfieri was—” how to describe the man who’d destroyed her? “—difficult. I couldn’t stay. Don’t get me wrong, I owe him my career. He took me in as a young apprentice. He was a great teacher, a fabulous chef who took a chance on me. When things were good, they were really good. I miss what we had together. What we created.” That last bit came out choked.
“Oh,” Lily said softly. “You were in love with him?”
The creative genius? She adored that part of him, but the rest terrified her.
She shook her head. “He is fifteen years older than me and so full of life and experience. I was an innocent girl from Indiana who ventured to New York to hone my cooking skills. Alfieri became my mentor. Because I owed him so much, I overlooked—” she winced, remembering the night he’d tried to scald her with boiling sauce because it was too salty “—I tried to ignore his faults. Until things got too intense.”
Her throat was dry. She reached for the mineral water on the table with trembling fingers. Damn that man! He still got to her. She tried to wash the memories down.
“What happened?” Lily’s eyes filled with concern.
She didn’t know if it was the fact that she was so far from home and missing her sister—and, of course, Mom—or because Lily had such a gentle way about her, but Michele felt like she could confide in her. Now that she was talking, she couldn’t stop. “I threatened to leave because parts of me, the best parts, were disappearing.” Now, thanks to him, she still second-guessed herself every time she stepped into the kitchen. Alfieri’s caustic words had dammed up her colorful river. “He apologized for his behavior, promised
