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“Of course, it doesn’t bother him. We’re only fake dating to keep the old ladies from setting him up.” She confided for his ears only.
“Heather, you may be beautiful, but if you can’t see that Bellamie can’t keep his eyes off you, you’re blind.” He clapped his hands together then rubbed them briskly. “Wash up and we’ll get started.”
She stared at Zander as he came out of the office. Surely Jeremy was wrong. Wasn’t he? She smiled and winked at Zander. He winked back, his smile growing a mile wide.
Oh oh. Maybe he did like her.Was that a good thing or not?
Her mind screamed, “No, you don’t want him to fall for you.”
Her heart whispered, “It’s the best thing ever.”
Chapter 17
Zander stomped toward Heather and Jeremy. What was Osten doing? What kind of person hit on someone else’s girl? He’d shared more than a few beers with the man. He considered them friends. He banked his ire and handed Heather the pen and paper.
“What can I do?” He asked, controlling the urge to throw his arm around Heather to lay claim. The primitive urge shocked him. “I’m pretty good in the kitchen. Mom taught me a thing or two. She wanted us all to learn to cook. I failed as a kid, but living alone forces you to figure things out.”
“I didn’t know you could cook.” Heather gave him a giant smile.
“Next date, you’re cooking for me,” she declared.
A buzzer sounded. “That’ll be my fish order. Bellamie, you want to get that. Check the boxes off the inventory for me? If I go, this dish will be ruined.”
He narrowed his eyes at Jer’s smirk. The man was pushing his limits. Normally, he’d help without caring, today, he didn’t want to leave Heather in Jer’s clutches. “Sure. No problem,” he ground out through gritted teeth.
He’d noticed the shipping receiving door on the far side of the kitchen near the office. He went over and opened it.
“Hey, where’s Jer?” the driver said in greeting.
“Busy giving a cooking lesson,” Zander growled. “What’s the routine?”
“I bring’em in. You check’em off.” He passed over a clipboard with a shipping slip on it.
Twenty tubs of fresh ice-packed fish, six boxes of frozen items, and eight crates of live crab and lobster later. Zander was more than glad to see the last of the driver. He returned the driver’s salute and began transferring stock to the right locations. One by one, Zander carried the perishables into the walk-in fridge and toted the frozen items to the adjacent freezer. No way on earth was he handling the tubs of live stuff. He made his way back to the counter, trying not to be annoyed.
“What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” he asked Heather.
“We’ve got a crab quiche in the oven and we’re working on salmon with macadamia nuts and fried shallots. I’m learning so much,” she gushed. “Jer is amazing.”
She smiled, genuinely happy that she was enjoying herself. Deep inside, jealousy reared its ugly head. He leaned against the counter feigning calm. “That’s fabulous.” He wished he were anywhere but here. “I can’t wait to taste it. She’s a pretty talented chef, isn’t she?”
He wanted to smack his forehead. Why was he pointing out her good qualities? He didn’t want Jer to fall for Heather. She was his date … his fake date.
“She sure is. Did you know we trained at the same school a couple of years apart? How cool is that?”
He bit down so hard his teeth hurt and his head started to ache. “Cool.”
His phone chimed. He ignored it. Two minutes later it chimed again. And again.
“Aren’t you going to get that?” Heather asked shock evident in her voice. “It might be important.”Did she just put subtle emphasis on important?
“It could be your family,” she added.
Yup, that was a shot.
“You better check.” She turned her attention back to Jeremy.
He pulled out his phone. It was his answering service. It was a bit old-school, but he used a professional service to answer the office phone when the office was unoccupied. It gave his patients a sense of calm to know he’d be in touch right away.
