“I don’t know yet,” Lauren admitted. She had to see what looked good and what was seasonally at peak. Then she would find a way to combine it all into a few dishes for the next day or so. “I was thinking of some chipotle sweet potato fries for a start. Maybe pair it with barbecue chicken kebabs since they did so well yesterday. I might change up the spices a little. Carnitas tacos with a bacon crema and fresh tomato salsa. Perhaps some spicy deep-fried broccoli and cauliflower to go with it. Apple hand pies for dessert. I’ll have to look at what we have and think on it some more.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Once everything was hauled into the truck, they started cleaning and prepping for the day. Lauren was relieved to fall into the familiar drudgery of her work routine and not have to think about last night for a little while longer. They were up to their elbows in a crate of sweet potatoes when they heard a knock at the window.
Lauren approached the serving door, preparing to tell whomever it was that they wouldn’t be serving until 11:30 a.m., but found Gracie Diaz there with a smile on her face and her favorite pumpkin spice latte in her hand. The newest Royal millionaire was one of Street Eats’s biggest fans. She used to show up at the trucks at least a few times a week, after work with the Wingates. Now that she didn’t have to earn a living, Gracie had been a bit scarcer. Lauren missed her coming by and was glad to see her again.
“Hey, Gracie,” she said, sliding open the window. “Haven’t seen you in a little while. How’s the millionaire life been treating you?”
“It’s—” Gracie hesitated for a moment with a conflicted expression on her face “—not what I expected. But I won’t complain about something like that. No one has any sympathy for my problems anyway.”
Lauren nodded. The path to Gracie’s lottery win had been complicated, but now she could hopefully enjoy the fruits of her success. “More money, more problems, right? Well, if you get tired of rich people and feel like hanging out with us lowly food truck cooks, you know how to find us.”
Gracie held up her phone. “I always know where you guys are parked for the day, even if I can’t make it over. And you’re not a cook, Lauren. You’re a chef. An amazing chef. The food trucks are a means to an end and one day you’re going to have a restaurant without wheels. I know it.”
“From your lips,” Lauren said with a smile.
“I’m surprised you’re going to be open today, though. You went to the masquerade ball last night, didn’t you? I’d heard you won that contest, so I half expected you to close the trucks down for today and rest. That was a late night for everyone.”
She had no idea. Lauren had gotten a whopping four hours of sleep after slinking home and lying in bed for longer than necessary, thinking about what she’d just done. It had been the single most erotic encounter of her entire life. Every time she closed her eyes, she could feel his hands on her body again. It took hours for the adrenaline to wear off and allow her to sleep at last.
“It was more exciting than I expected it to be when I won the contest. I had a good time,” she said, avoiding any unnecessary details. “How about you?”
Gracie smiled with a wistful look in her eye. She looked down at her latte and took a sip, avoiding Lauren’s gaze. “It was fun. It almost felt like the kind of night that could change your life forever if you’d let it.”
She was startled by her on-point observation. What did she mean by that? Gracie couldn’t even look her in the eye as she said the words. Had she seen Lauren with Sebastian last night? It’s possible that Lauren was the only outsider who hadn’t recognized the infamous CEO on sight, even with his mask. Perhaps the whole town’s tongues were wagging about her torrid hookup in the billiard room and Gracie was giving her a heads-up before it all hit the proverbial fan.
If that was the case, she might need to reach out to Sebastian and do some damage control. Seeing him again would be a scary and exciting prospect. His woman in red was long gone, but she would have to do it. She’d worked very hard to build her business and she didn’t want one night’s indiscretions to ruin it all. She’d gone to that party to make connections, not to become gossip fodder.
She pushed her worries aside for the moment. Right now she needed to focus on getting the menu going and getting the staff prepped for the trucks going out today. But sooner or later, Lauren would have to face the music and track down Sebastian Wingate.
* * *
It was a Monday morning. Typically one of the busiest mornings of the week. And yet Sebastian Wingate had nothing to do. He’d gotten up early, as he always did. Ran a few miles. Then showered, had some coffee and ate his breakfast. Now he had run out of things to do with his time.
Sutton had already left the house. He’d gone into town to talk to his lawyer about one of the cars he was trying to sell. His twin seemed much more comfortable with his free time. At least, he was better at finding ways to fill the hours. Sebastian was counting down each minute that went by until their reputation and board positions were restored. Then life could get back to normal.
It would happen. He kept telling himself as much. But until then, he needed something to do with his time. Maybe he could make a few calls and round up some guys to play eighteen holes over at Pine Valley. He picked up his phone and realized quickly that everyone he knew was at work.
Frustrated, he finished off his second cup of coffee and put the mug into the sink. He had to get out of this rental house before he went stir-crazy. Grabbing the keys to his BMW from the counter and his jacket from the hall closet, he went to the front door and flung it open—completely scaring the hell out of the woman standing there, about to ring the doorbell.
Sebastian had nearly collided with her in his haste. “I’m so sorry,” he said, taking a step back into the house while they both recovered from the unexpected near miss.
He took the moment to study the unanticipated visitor. Once the flush of excitement faded, he noticed that the woman standing on his stoop was quite pretty. The sun made the honey highlights in her brown hair shine. She had full lips and a full figure beneath the leather jacket and clingy jeans she was wearing. But he didn’t recognize her.
“It’s my fault,” she insisted. “I’ve been standing here working up the nerve to ring the doorbell.”
“I’m not sure who you’re looking for, but we just rented this house,” he explained. She looked at him like she knew him somehow, but he couldn’t place her.
“Actually, I think you’re the one I’m looking for. Are you Sebastian Wingate?”
Suspicion suddenly crept into his mind. He hated that he had started looking for dark intentions in everyone he met, but it couldn’t be helped. Someone had set his family up and, until they found out who it was, everyone was a potential suspect. “If I said that I was Sebastian Wingate, would you serve me a subpoena?”
The woman’s dark eyes grew wide with surprise. “No! A subpoena? Not at all.”
Her reaction seemed genuine enough. “Okay, then. Yes, I’m Sebastian Wingate. What can I do for you?”
The woman seemed to grow a little more nervous as he looked at her. She chewed at her full bottom lip anxiously for a moment before taking a breath and seemingly steeling her nerves. “My name is Lauren Roberts. I own a couple food trucks here in town. Street Eats, if you’ve heard of it. I specialize in high-end, local ingredients, in a fresh, easy-to-eat style...”