“I won’t play games with him, Lane,” she says, her face sober. “I really like Ben. He’s a great guy.” Ben? Since when does she call him Ben?
“So he’s Ben, huh?” I tease . . . sort of. I really want to know what that’s about.
“I don’t know.” She sits on the bed again and fiddles with the hem of her shirt. “We’ve been hanging out the past couple of days that you’ve been at work and we’ve had a lot of fun together. I enjoy spending time with him.”
Mia hasn’t always had the best luck with men and most of the guys that she associates with aren’t so ‘great,’ so I’m sure she appreciates being around someone as kind and attentive as Benny. Even if he calls her every princess name known to mankind.
I pat her leg and she looks at me. I’m not sure what I see floating around in her eyes, but it almost looks like she wants my approval.
“Have fun tonight,” I say with a wink, reaching for my purse. She follows me through the house, and I stop to grab my recipe book then shove it in my purse. Just as I reach for the door, it opens and Benny walks in. I give him a knowing smile and push past him. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I throw over my shoulder as I walk to my car. I swear I hear Benny say, “Well shit, that doesn’t leave us with many options.”
The drive to Flame is short and it’s still fairly early, so the parking lot is empty when I arrive. I gather my things and head into the restaurant. The hostess—I think her name is Jamie—is setting up the tables and I wave at her. A soft melody floats through the air and I smile. Everything about this place is familiar and it makes me happy. It makes me feel safe.
Mason pushes his way through the heavy door that leads to the kitchen and stops right before plowing into me. “Hey, Laney,” he says with a smile, but I keep going in the direction he just came from. As much as I love Mason, he’s not Levi, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed to walk in here—yet again—to no Levi. It probably sounds stupid of me, but I really thought I’d gotten somewhere with him the other night. I know he was shocked to see me, but there were points during our conversation that he looked genuinely happy. So the fact that he has gone MIA when he knew I would be here working rubs me the wrong way.
“Hey, Mason.” I know he follows me because I can hear him behind me. I set my purse down on the counter and reach for my white jacket that’s hanging on the back of the door. This I can handle. Put me in a kitchen, let me cook, and I’m good to go.
“You okay?” he asks. Pulling my recipe book from my purse, I turn to find Mason watching me, his hip propped against one of the sinks.
“Fine, you?” I can tell by the look on his face that he knows I’m lying. He smiles and points toward my book.
“What’s that?”
I smile, giddy about what I have planned, hoping that he doesn’t mind. “This,” I say dramatically, picking up the spiral-bound book, “is my recipe book. I was hoping we could try a few new dessert items out.”
“That’s a great idea—”
“No,” Levi interrupts, barreling through the door. “We aren’t changing the menu.” His words are clipped and final, his eyes hard—and oh so sexy.
“I’m not trying to change the menu. I’m just trying to spice it up. You have the exact same dessert options that you had eight years ago,” I defend, hoping I’ll get him to cave. Mason looks at me apologetically but doesn’t step in . . . and I don’t blame him. His big brother is a force to be reckoned with, and you have to be prepared to go up against him. Lucky for me, I’m prepared. “How many desserts do you sell a night?”
Levi looks to Mason, who shrugs. “I don’t know . . . maybe ten to twenty, roughly.”
“That’s it?” Levi barks.
“It’s because your dessert options are boring, Levi,” I tell him. “People don’t want to buy a dessert from you that they can just as easily make at home. They want something new and exciting, something fresh. They want to pay for something warm and delicious here so they don’t have to go home and spend hours prepping and baking.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Mason says, grabbing my recipe book and flipping through it. “Plus, Flame is mine so it’s my decision.”
“Wrong,” Levi snaps, pulling the book from Mason. “Flame is ours. It doesn’t matter if you’re running it, we both make the decisions.” Levi stops and I watch as his eyes roam over one of the pages. He looks up at me and then back down at the recipe. “Can I borrow this?”
I hesitate, biting on the inside of my lip. That recipe book is like a Bible to me. When I’m feeling any sort of emotion, I bake, and even though I know all of those recipes by heart, I don’t want anything to happen to it. Levi must notice my hesitation because he adds, “Just for tonight. I’ll look through it, pick out a few and you can make them for Mason and me, then we’ll go from there. That okay?”
I nod, happy that he’s at least considering it. Levi walks out without a second glance and Mason smirks.
“What? What are you smiling at?” I ask him.
“You’ve got his undies so twisted up he can’t fucking see straight.” How the hell he got that out of the little conversation we just had, I have no idea.
“Really? Have you noticed that he’s been conveniently missing since the moment I started here?” Seriously, how am I supposed to weasel my way back into his life if he won’t even come near me?
Mason shakes his head. “He hasn’t been missing.” Now this piques my interest. “He’s been watching from afar. I’m telling you . . . you coming back home has got him all sorts of discombobulated.” I was hoping my return would affect him, but I’m not sure I like hearing it put quite like that.
“Why do you say that?”
Mason runs a hand along his neck and looks down before he meets my curious gaze. “Fuck. I shouldn’t say anything because it’s none of my business.” I watch him, eyebrows raised, urging him to continue. ?
??Fine,” he moans, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You being here has messed with his head, Lane. Don’t take that the wrong way, because I think he’s genuinely glad to see you. But he wasn’t expecting it, and now he doesn’t know what to do or how to act. I think he’s been hiding out because he’s afraid to be around you.”