Finding the Right Girl (A Nice GUY to Love spin-off) (6 page)

Yes.

Tessa quickly spun back around to the stove, their murmured compliments over the food barely audible over the blood pounding in her ears.

Hearing the loud, jovial sounds of Abby and Skylar gabbing away as they entered the ballroom kitchen was her only saving grace. Grabbing two more tasting forks, she took a sample of two different entrées and greeted them without missing a beat. “Hey Abby, hey Skylar. Burgundy-braised pork loins in this one, and the other is stuffed beef tenderloin.”

“Yum,” praised Skylar, “crazy good stuffing.”

“This pork is like butter,” chimed in Abby. “And you seriously need to teach me how to make this glaze. I’d eat it by the bowl-full.”

Finally feeling her nerves settle, Tessa smiled. “Oh good. I was pretty sure I didn’t screw it up but I don’t usually handle much more than the prep and finish for the non-dessert dishes. I mean I’ve helped Lana do individual steps of almost all the dishes multiple times, but I’m definitely a better baker than I am a cook. By the way, thank you guys again for swooping in to help at the last minute; this is the first time Lana has been sick during an event.”

Tessa knew she was practically babbling but she was downright frazzled. And it wasn’t just because of Brian’s nerve-wracking presence. It was because of the entire event itself.

Her ten-year high school reunion.

Sort of.

To avoid that train-wreck of a reminder altogether, she just switched her brain to autopilot. She could do this. This was just like any event. And Brian was no different than the other helpers they sometimes book for bigger events.

Riiight
.

She plastered on a big smile and jumped in feet-first.

“Connor, Abby, could you two set up the dessert station for me? I have a photo of the standard set-up we use over by serving carts. There will be five trays of desserts so if you could just space it accordingly, that would be awesome.”

“No problem.” Abby went over to grab the photo and moved to quickly usher Connor out the door.

Grabbing two pitchers, Tessa handed them over to Skylar. “I’ve left all the chafers—those metal trays that keep the food warm—at the serving stations out in the ballroom. Do you think you and your dad could take some pitchers and fill each of the pans out there with about an inch of water and then get the fire going on them? I’ll have all food ready to go out when the water gets hot enough.”

“Sure.” Skylar headed over to the sinks at the other end of the kitchen.

And all at once, the kitchen suddenly felt no bigger than a broom closet.

Tessa didn’t even have to look up to know that Brian was now standing beside her.

“I didn’t get a chance to say hi. I like the blue hair, by the way, maybe even better than the pink and purple.” He placed a kiss on her cheek. The other cheek, this time.

Not that she was keeping track or anything.

“Hey, Tessa did you want us to—” Connor’s voice halted mid-sentence as he got jerked by the collar right back out of the doorway.

Tessa blushed. “I take it Abby was the one that asked you to come help?”

“Yep. In what was the most obvious set-up of all set-ups.”

Her cheeks were going to burst in flames at this rate.

And feeling the back of his fingers brush over her heated skin didn’t help the cause one bit.

“Brian, I have no idea why she did that. I swear, I haven’t even told her we went to dinner last week.”

He grabbed the candle lighter and volleyed back, “Who said the set-up was on your behalf?” before heading over to help Skylar carry out the pitchers.

C
ONNOR CORNERED
Abby in the far end of the buffet station, out of earshot from Skylar. “Is someone sticking her cute little nose in where it doesn’t belong?”

His impish wife looked up and batted her lashes at him. “What do you mean? Tessa needed the help. And when I heard how big the event was, I figured it’d be best to call Brian.”

Uh huh. “For an event involving
cooking
?”

“Whiiich is why I also called in Skylar.”

Connor chuckled. “So Brian talked to you about Tessa, huh?”

In an instant, her grin vanished and turned into a piqued pout. “Wait, Brian’s been mentioning Tessa?”

Shit.
Major guy code violation. “No,” he backpedaled. “Not
specifically
…”

“You’re lying!” It was an indignant, hands-on-hips huff. Cute as hell.

“Possibly,” he fessed up, smiling as he offered graciously, “Of course I might know for sure if I’m lying or not if you tell me what Tessa’s been telling you about Brian.”

Brian and Tessa were so going to kick their asses for this.

Abby maintained military silence for all of three seconds before her curiosity got the better of her. “Okay, Tessa hasn’t been talking to me about Brian per se. But, she did comment out of the blue once that Brian is really alpha intense.”

“And you’re sure she was talking about Brian
Sullivan
?” Connor’s brain couldn’t even link the two descriptors to his brother.

Bobbing her head excitedly, she was practically giddy. “That’s why I invited him tonight.”

Connor chuckled. “Well, this is going to be interesting.”

TH
IS WAS THE FIRST TIME
since Connor’s wedding that Brian was seeing Tessa all buttoned up in that white catering uniform. He much preferred seeing her in her of- the-wall novelty tees she always paired with a denim or flowing gypsy skirt. She looked…more her that way.

And he was really starting to like her being her.

He’d known this was a set-up from the first thirty seconds of Abby’s call a half hour ago, but he went along with it anyway because he’d wanted to see Tessa.

He was starting to get addicted to her.

After finishing up getting all the warming stations going on the buffet line, he sent Skylar to help Abby and Connor finish up at the dessert table, and headed back to the kitchen to see what else Tessa needed done.

“I’m telling you guys, that’s her. You can’t tell because she’s all covered up, but that’s definitely that chick we almost pulled a train on out at the lakes our sophomore year.”

Brian rolled his eyes in disgust as he neared the group of three guys standing out in the hallway near the restrooms. Those were the very guys he’d avoided in high school. Pathetic that some of them just never seemed to grow out of it.

“I know that night was her first time but she would’ve been all over you guys too if those other girls hadn’t thrown up all over the place and killed the mood for everybody. The girl was a freak—still is, I bet. Look at that club skank hair with the blue streaks; she’s probably wearing something slutty right now under that chef coat.”

Brian saw red.

Murderous, bloodthirsty anger pumped through his system, all rational thought gone. Those assholes were talking about Tessa.

And he was going to make them pay.

“Brian,
no
.”

The horrified voice sounded so far away, but somehow it pierced through the haze of rage tunneling out his vision, filling his veins with adrenaline.

Not enough to stop him though.

That’s when Connor entered his field of vision and shoved him back against the wall. “Brian, calm down.”

He couldn’t even begin to form words. The three dead men walking had turned around to see what the commotion was and he was itching for them to come on down.

Tessa clamped her hands down on his forearm. “Just let it go, Brian. That guy’s a dick, not worth your time or anger.”

“What’d you just call me, bitch?”

“For crissakes, the dumbass had a death wish,” muttered Connor as he grabbed Brian’s shirt and shoved his forearm up against his throat to keep him pinned against the wall. “While I’d love nothing more than for you to pound the shit out of him, I’m telling you, just walk away.”

But he didn’t have to go anywhere, because Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest were so conveniently bringing the fight to him.

“Gavin, dude. Enough. Come on, let’s just go back in to the party.”

Well, at least one of them had brains.

‘Gavin,’ who was clearly already drunk off his ass, elbowed his friends back and kept right on coming.

“Do we have a problem out here, gentleman?”
The uniformed officer that was serving as security for the event stepped into the hallway, with the people from the reception table at the front trailing close behind.

Gavin turned around and squinted at the approaching officer for a second, before chortling loudly, “Trey? Is that you, man? It’s me, Gavin. You played football with my brother. Dude, you’re a legend!”

Trey didn’t even dignify that with a blink. “I asked you folks a question. Is there a problem here?”

Tessa rushed forward. “No problem, officer. My team and I are just trying to get the food out for the reunion is all—”

“No, no, we do have a problem, Trey,” interrupted Gavin. “Because here I was just minding my own business, trying to catch up with my high school buddies, and then out of nowhere, I got verbally assaulted by this skanky high school dropout here.”

“
You fucking
—” It took
both
Trey and Connor to slam Brian back against the wall. And this time, it was the fridge-sized cop and his massive forearm that was nearly cutting off his air supply. “Don’t do it, man. I don’t want to have to arrest you.”

Trey turned to Gavin. “I suggest you return to the ballroom and not bother this young lady any more. If I find you so much as talking to her again, I’ll be personally seeing to it that she files a harassment charge against you.”

Gavin looked around at all the eyes glaring at him with varying degrees of repugnance and wrath. “Whatever, I’m going back to the party,” he shot out with a weasely grunt. He turned around in a complete, drunken circle then, looking for his two sidekicks.

They were nowhere to be found.

Looking far less cocky now, Gavin tossed Tessa one last hateful look and then slinked off around the corner.

Trey turned to Brian. “Sorry man, but since you’re not a guest, and there were specific complaints from the workers here about you, I’m going to have to ask you to leave as well.”

Brian growled. “I’m not leaving Tessa alone here with that asshole.”

A calm, cultured voice rang out from behind them. “Don’t worry, my wife and I will stay with Tessa tonight.”

T
ESSA TURNED
to look at the distinguished man walking toward them with the gorgeous redhead on his arm.

“Tessa, you probably don’t even know who I am—”

“James,” she said with a smile. “Of course I know who you are; we had geometry class together.”

A surprised grin transformed his face, made him look even more like the boy who always used to help her with her classwork. “Yes. I can’t believe you remember me. We only had one class together.”

“A class I would’ve failed had it not been for you.” She reached out to shake his hand, and then his wife’s.

“Well, like I said, Marcy and I will be happy to help out,” repeated James. He looked over at Brian. “Tessa won’t even have to leave the kitchen at all, man; we’ll handle everything out in the ballroom.”

Tessa shook her head, instantly rejecting the generous offer. “No, don’t be silly. You’re guests tonight. I can handle the rest on my own, really. Everyone can just head home and head back to the party. There’s not all that much left for me to do.”

Marcy stepped forward. “Our minds are already made up. In fact, we’ll probably even run a little wager on who can run the smoothest buffet line. Even at the restaurant where we work, we’re terribly competitive.”

“Which restaurant?” asked Connor. “Because you two look really familiar.”

“James and I are both line chefs at
Le Mille Feuille.”

One of the most elite, five-star restaurants in Arizona.

“Holy shit.” The commentary was a soft murmur from behind Connor.

“Skylar, language!” scolded Abby, though her expression mirrored the sentiment.

When Tessa looked over and saw Skylar sliding worried looks over at her dad, a kaleidoscope of clips from the last ten minutes flooded Tessa’s brain all at once, all the awful things Gavin had said…things Skylar had undoubtedly heard, things Brian had been willing to assault another man over.

The room spun.

“Tessa?” Brian pushed past everyone and gripped her elbow, easing her away from the group and toward the door so she could get some air. “You okay, sweetheart?”

The intense concern she saw in his eyes humbled her. “Brian, thank you for defending me back there but I’ll be okay. Why don’t you go on and take Skylar home. Please. She shouldn’t be around this.”