“You know what? Ordinarily, I totally would have done that,” he said. “But I woke up this morning, and I couldn’t wait to talk to you. Last night was really good… at least, for me it was.”
“No, I had a good time too,” she assured him. “It was special.” And she was speaking the complete truth in saying so. She’d had a wonderful time.
“Should we do it again?” he asked. “I thought… if it was all right with you, I thought I might like to cook dinner for you. At my place.”
He was trying to get her to his house again, then.
Except that something felt different this time. It wasn’t cheap anymore, the way it had been the first time he had asked her to go home with him. Stephanie genuinely believed what he was saying—he just wanted to cook for her. And if that was allthat happened between them, she didn’t think he would be too disappointed. After all, they’d had that intimate night on the beach and he hadn’t made a move. Maybe he had finally realized that wasn’t going to work on her.
Maybe.
“I’d like that,” she heard herself saying, and wondered whether she had lost her mind. Was she really going to go over to this man’s house?
Oliver would not approve of this.
Something sparked in her heart. She was choosing what Elijah wanted over what Oliver would want. Maybe that was the answer she had been looking for all along.
And maybe—if she was very lucky—she would figure out exactly what she wanted, too.
CHAPTER 14
ELIJAH
“Everything you need is on the kitchen island,” Ernesto said, pointing. “And I’ve written out the directions for you.”
Elijah eyed his personal chef with misgivings. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea, all things considered.”
“You’re going to be fine.” Ernesto hesitated. “Do you want me to stay and do the cooking for you?”
“No. She’s not the kind of woman who appreciates it when a man shows off,” Elijah said. “At least, not when he shows off his money. She’ll like it better if I do the cooking than if I have someone else do it for me. And anyway, that’s what I promised her this was going to be, and I want to show her that I can follow through.” He sighed. “But you know I’ve never cooked before.”
“This is an easy meal,” Ernesto assured him. “It’ll taste nice, but really, it’s not that hard to make. You just boil the water, put the pasta in, set the timer. Use the time it’s cooking to prep your garlic bread and pop that in the oven. The salad I’ve alreadychopped up for you, so you just have to mix the ingredients together in the bowl. No one could mess that up.”
“I bet you I’ll find a way.” Elijah sighed. “I just shouldn’t have offered this. I have lots of things I know how to do well. I should have offered to do some of those things for her.”
“Nonsense,” Ernesto said firmly. “Every woman likes a man who knows how to cook. She’s going to appreciate this. And you’ll do fine, but if you get in over your head, text me.”
Elijah nodded. “All right. Thanks, Ernesto.”
The chef threw him a mock salute and left.
Elijah leaned on the counter and surveyed the written instructions Ernesto had left.Step one: put a saucepan on to boil.
Well, what the hell was a saucepan?
He squinted at the instructions. There was a parenthetical:The saucepan is the one by your left hand.
He had to chuckle. Ernesto had thought of everything. He filled the saucepan with water, narrowed his eyes at it, and then dumped half of it back out. That was probably too much.
He put the pot on to boil, took out the bread that was supposed to be garlic toast, and began to spread butter on it.
He almost missed the moment the pot began to bubble. When he turned back to face it, it was frothing, the water about to spill out onto the countertop. He turned the heat down quickly and grabbed the bag of spaghetti.
Pouring it in caused immediate problems. The noodles didn’t fit into the pot. They stood up against the sides, and almost at oncehe could smell burning. He grabbed a spoon and began to push the noodles down, breaking them in the process. Now they were in smaller pieces—but at least they were in the pot. It was going to have to do.
He grabbed for the instructions. How long were these things supposed to cook for? Five minutes would be enough, according to what Ernesto had written, and he was already supposed to be heating up the tomato sauce in a different pan.And then you can pull the garlic bread out of the oven.
The garlic bread was supposed to be in the oven already?
