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“My mother already agreed to watch the baby,” Tara said, “and my old sorority sister gave me tickets to an event at the art museum, one of those wine and cheese affairs where everyone stares at some multimillion dollar new acquisition and pretends to find some obscure but highly profound meaning in the vague patterns.”
“I’m stifling a yawn even as I listen to the description,” Dominic said.
Tara stuck her tongue out. “I’m not inviting you, Mr.Personality. What do you say, Melanie?”
“I’d love to,” I told her, “but the new staff is still a little unsteady, and I don’t want to leave them on their own.”
“Hello.” Dominic waved. “I’m here, remember? I’m capable of dealing with the staff.”
“They’re slightly afraid of you,” I said delicately.
He looked shocked. “Who’s afraid of me?”
“I’m not naming names, Dominic, and you know very well that you make some of the servers nervous.”
“Dom, you are kind of frightening, sometimes,” Tara observed. “Remember how Leah cried the first time she met you?”
Dominic glared at his sister-in-law. “She was an hour old. All she did was cry.”
Tara laughed. “I’m just giving you a hard time. You know I love you.” She batted her eyelashes. “So give my girl the night off, would you?”
He threw his hands up. “I already did. She won’t leave.”
“That’s right, I guess you did.” She turned to me. “You’re overruled, Melanie. You’re coming out with me.”
I smiled. “All right. I’ll go.” I nodded at Dominic. “You sure you’ve got this covered?”
The question annoyed him. “Yes, I’m sure I can handle being in charge of my own staff in my own restaurant for six hours.” He gestured dismissively. “Melanie, go have a good time. I swear I won’t chase anyone off.”
Tara left to go drop off the baby, and I wanted to run home and change. The prospect of a night out was actually making me kind of giddy, even if it was just a fun few hours with a girlfriend. I hurried through a few minor bookkeeping tasks, called a brief meeting with the serving crew, then hunted Dominic down. I found him out back, breaking up some of the delivery pallets.
“You taking off?” he asked. He’d returned to his dangerous, unshaven look. I stared at the thick black stubble along his strong jaw, remembering what it felt like on my thighs in the middle of the night ...
I cleared my throat and tried to clear my head. “Yes. Last chance to change your mind.”
He cracked a pallet in half with his heavy boot. “I won’t.”
“Dominic—”
“Look, I ran a restaurant long before you came around, Melanie. Pretty sure I can manage not to burn the place down.”
His tone was short, impatient. It definitely rubbed me the wrong way. He probably didn’t mean the words to come out as harshly as they sometimes did. He always seemed surprised when I pushed back, like he didn’t know what he’d done.
I crossed my arms and adopted a rival haughty attitude. “I’m aware of your talents. I was just going to tell you that Patsy called, and she’s going to be a little late because she had to take one of her kids to Urgent Care for an ear infection.”
He straightened up and peered down at me. Even though we were at work, and even though I was genuinely irked by his condescension, he was still the sexiest man in Phoenix. The fire of arousal coursed through my belly, and suddenly I desperately wished that we were a normal couple in an ordinary relationship. I wished he could kiss me right there in the back alley. I wished we could just be impulsive and take off together for a weekend and drive somewhere, anywhere, maybe someplace up north in the mountains where the world was more quiet and more colorful.
“I’ll take you there, Melanie. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
“Thank you,” Dominic said, and all the snappiness was gone from his voice. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Can’t have you thinking that the place is going to fall apart if you take a night off. Go on, Mel. Enjoy a night away from Esposito’s chaos. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I asked with a knowing smile. “Or later?”
He leaned in closer, pressed his forehead against mine for one heady, breathless second.
“Later,” he promised, and gave me a quick kiss. “Just wish I was the one taking you out,” he whispered.
“I wish you were, too,” I whispered back. “But it’s not like Tara’s any competition for you.”
