Moonlight Cove (13 page)

Her grandmother gave her a withering look. “I don’t see why not. I’ve cooked for a crowd many a time. And,
truth be told, I’m far better at it than your sister is. If Abby stays, I stay.”

Jess recognized the determined lift of her chin and nodded. “Okay, then, thank you.”

She turned to see that Kevin and Ronnie were already huddled over the menus and Gail’s laminated pages of recipes. Her brother glanced up.

“Abby, you’re on salads,” he said. “You can’t screw those up. Gram, Ronnie says the desserts are made, but they need to be cut into proper portions, put onto serving plates. He says Gail usually adds a swirl of raspberry sauce or chocolate for decoration, but you can skip that.”

“No problem,” Gram said. “I know how to jazz up the presentation of a dessert.”

Jess watched the four of them go into action. “Thank you, you guys. You’re amazing. You, too, Ronnie. Gail obviously has a lot of faith in you for good reason.”

He beamed at her. “Thanks. I guess this is going to be my indoctrination by fire, huh?”

“I guess so. I’ll be out front seating people, so let me know if you need anything at all. I can probably shift one of the waitresses in here if you need more help.”

“We’ll be fine,” Kevin assured her.

Feeling confident as she walked out of the kitchen, she placed one more call, this one to her father. “Ronnie’s running the show in the kitchen tonight. Do you think you could get his father over here to see what a natural he is as a chef?” She knew it was a risk, but she also knew how much his father’s approval meant to the young man. It was something to which she could relate.

“I’ll get him there,” Mick promised. “I think I’ll avoid
mentioning Ronnie, though, just in case something goes awry. How about that?”

“Perfect. Thanks, Dad.”

To Jess’s astonishment and relief, the evening passed without a hitch. No one seemed to have a clue that the kitchen was being managed by an inexperienced kid, an ex-paramedic, an investment adviser and a woman in her eighties. Jess was in awe of them.

When she strolled by to chat with her parents and the Forrests, she looked Ronnie’s father in the eye. “How was your meal?”

“Excellent. That chef of yours gets better each time I come here.”

Jess beamed at him. “Then you should tell him that.”

He blinked for a moment. “I thought your chef was a woman.”

“It is, but tonight we’ve had her assistant filling in. I’ll bring him by.”

She emerged from the kitchen a moment later with a reluctant Ronnie trailing along behind. “Mr. Forrest, I’d like you to meet the man who ran our kitchen tonight.”

The man did a double take. “You cooked this meal?”

Ronnie nodded. “Gail’s been training me and I’ve signed up for some classes.”

“Gail thinks he’s going to be an extraordinary chef,” Jess told Mr. Forrest.

“Well, he’s obviously off to an amazing start,” Megan chimed in. “Ronnie, the food tonight was superb.”

“It was,” his father agreed, looking at him with new respect. “I suppose I should have taken you seriously when you said this was something you wanted to do.”

“Well, thankfully, Ms. O’Brien and Gail did,” Ronnie said, standing straighter. “And to be honest, I can’t take all of the credit for tonight. I had a lot of O’Brien help in the kitchen.”

Now it was Mick’s turn to look startled.

Jess grinned at him. “Long story, but Kevin, Gram and Abby pitched in, too. They were awesome.”

“Nell must have been in her glory,” Megan said with a laugh. “I have to run into the kitchen to compliment her.”

“I’ll go with you,” Ronnie said, clearly eager to escape.

Mr. Forrest looked at Jess. “You’ve been good for that boy.”

She shook her head. “No, it was Gail who first saw his potential.”

“Well, I owe you for giving him a chance in the first place.”

“I’m just glad it worked out,” Jess said, then went off to speak to the other remaining diners.

By eleven, when the last of the customers had left, she was not only exhausted, she was exhilarated. She looked up from closing out the register just in time to see Will approaching.

“You’re too late. The kitchen’s closed.”

“I was hoping you might have time for a nightcap,” he said, just as the kitchen door swung open and her makeshift staff came into the dining room. Will stared at them, openmouthed. “What the devil’s going on here?”

Kevin laughed. “We got called into emergency service.”

“Did a darn good job of it, too,” Gram said, her eyes sparkling despite the weariness evident on her face.

“Yes, we did,” Abby agreed. “But I need to get home to my husband and kids. They were laughing their fool heads off about this when I told them where I was going. Gram, you coming with me?”

“I most certainly am,” Nell said, though she seemed oddly reluctant to go. She gave Jess a fierce hug. “Thanks for letting me be a part of this. I loved pitching in.”

“Letting you? We couldn’t have done it without you,” Jess told her. “I’m the one who’s grateful.”

Kevin sank down onto a chair. “What’s a man have to do to get a drink in this place?”

Will regarded him with amusement. “Wine okay? I know where that is.”

“Get a bottle of red,” Jess called after him. She glanced at Ronnie. “Are you sticking around?”

He nodded eagerly. “If it’s okay. I’m too wound up to go home.”

“Of course it’s okay. You’re a vital part of this team. You did well tonight.” She called after Will. “Bring four glasses, okay?”

Kevin’s gaze followed Will. “Seems awfully comfortable around here,” he commented.

Jess shrugged. “He’s been by a few times.”

Kevin’s gaze narrowed. “Is that so?”

She frowned at him. “We are not having this conversation. Just because you helped to save my butt tonight doesn’t give you interrogation privileges.”

“Being the big brother does,” Kevin countered.

“You might want to ask Connor how that worked out for him today before you head down that path,” she retorted, relieved when Will returned. At least she
trusted her brother not to say anything to embarrass Will in front of Ronnie, a relative stranger to the family dynamics.

Unwinding from the frantic night, Jess realized she was glad that Will was here to be a part of it. It felt natural, just the way it had back in the old days when they’d all hung out together. For the second time today she wondered if maybe she’d been making too much of the step from friendship to dating. Maybe it would only mean more comfortable nights like this.

She glanced over and saw the way Will was looking at her, the barely banked desire in his eyes. Her pulse kicked up several notches. She revised her thinking. Maybe it was a little scary after all, the impact he had on her senses. One of these days very soon, she was going to have to decide. Until then, perhaps she could get away with acting like a very young teenager and restricting their dates to things they could do with a crowd. Just imagining Will’s reaction to her self-protective strategy made her smile.

The demand for Lunch by the Bay superseded anything Will had anticipated. Even if he’d wanted to go on a date himself—with Jess or anyone else—he was too busy to schedule one. At least that’s the excuse he’d given himself for not asking anyone out after the disastrous date with Anna Lofton a few weeks ago.

Okay, that and the fact that things actually seemed to have taken a turn for the better with Jess. He knew she couldn’t be rushed, so he was trying to wait for her to reach the same conclusion he had, that they deserved a chance.

Occasions like the chance encounter at the festival
and the relaxed evening they’d spent that same day at the inn seemed to be easing her defenses. He just needed to be patient. Of course, years of being patient should have been sufficient practice, but it was getting harder.

A few days after his late-night stop at the inn, he was hunched over his computer keyboard at the office when the door opened and Jess walked in. He stared at her in surprise. It was the first time she’d ever crossed the threshold into his professional domain. Come to think of it, it might be the first time she’d ever sought him out, period.

She stood looking around the room, her gaze filled with curiosity. “No couch,” she noted.

“Not all shrinks have them,” he replied, diving into the conversation cautiously as he tried to figure out what had brought her into enemy territory. “Most people prefer sitting in a comfortable chair.”

“Did you try the whole sofa thing?”

“For a while. Then I redecorated.” He grinned. “Did you really come here to discuss my decor?”

“Honestly, I don’t know why I’m here.”

“Did you want a session?” he asked, enjoying the quick flush of color the question brought to her cheeks.

“You’re the last person I’d want poking around in my psyche,” she claimed. “You do that enough when we bump into each other.”

“Jess, contrary to whatever goes on in that head of yours, your psyche is the last thing on my mind when we run into each other.”

She perked up visibly. “Oh?”

Since he didn’t intend to lay his heart at her feet only
to have her trample on it, he asked again more pointedly, “Why are you here?”

She moved around the office, picking up a magazine here, a piece of sculpture there. When she retrieved a seashell from a shelf behind his desk, she held on to it, studying it curiously.

“Did you find this around here?” she asked.

“On the beach by your house, as a matter of fact.” He met her gaze. “Don’t you remember?”

“There are probably thousands of seashells, Will. Why would I remember this one?”

“You cut your foot on it when you were about fourteen. You were bleeding all over and trying not to cry. I carried you back up to the house so Nell could bandage your foot.”

“And you saved the shell?” she said incredulously.

He shrugged, feeling ridiculous. “At the time I thought I was taking it away so it couldn’t pose a danger to you or anyone else again. Then it just sort of stayed with me.”

“To remind you of playing Sir Galahad?”

“Something like that.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“I wish you would.”

“Had you ever thought about kissing me, I mean, before that night at Brady’s?”

He smiled at her solemn tone. “All the time.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He laughed at that. “You never seemed to want me to. In fact, you’ve been nothing but prickly around me practically from the day we met. And after I became a shrink, forget it. Just like earlier, you act as if you’re ter
rified I’ll see something inside you that you don’t want anyone to know.”

“I don’t really have any secrets,” she said. “I think everyone in town has always known all my business.”

“Then I shouldn’t scare you, should I?”

“Probably not,” she said, then met his gaze. “But you do.”

Will felt as if the earth had suddenly shifted under him. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Sensing that he was teetering on the edge of a precipice that could forever alter their relationship, he asked casually, “Want to go to dinner tonight and see if we can figure it out?”

“That sounds an awful lot like a session to me,” she said warily.

“I don’t take my clients out to dinner,” he said. “It’s unethical.”

She regarded him with a penetrating gaze. “So if you ask me a question, it’ll just be because you want to know. You, Will.”

He nodded solemnly. “Just me.”

“Okay,” she agreed at last.

Will mentally shouted a few choruses of hallelujah, then stood slowly, feigning nonchalance. “I’ll get my jacket.”

As they walked outside, Jess slanted a sideways look at him. “So, when you know me better, will you fix me up with another one of those Lunch by the Bay clients of yours?”

Will stopped dead still and stared at her incredulously. Thankfully, before he uttered the first indignant thought that came to him, he saw the definite twinkle in
her eyes. He deliberately held her gaze until she shifted uneasily, then licked her lips nervously.

“Well?” she prodded.

He smiled. “Not if tonight goes the way I’m counting on it going.”

She swallowed hard. “Then that kiss a few weeks ago, it wasn’t just a fluke?” she said as if not quite sure she could trust her own impressions or his actions, as if she needed to clarify before she risked anything. “That’s what you want, Will? Us together, as a couple?”

He regarded her solemnly. “I’m not sure how many different ways I need to say it, but to be perfectly clear one more time, yes. I think it’s way past time for us to try,” he told her, his expression solemn. “Don’t you think so? Isn’t that really why you came to my office tonight?”

“I think it’s terrifying to be changing what we already have,” she admitted candidly. “Have you really thought about what will happen if we start sleeping together?”

“All the time,” he said, amused.

“What if we’re no good at it?”

He laughed. “Oh, I think we’re going to be great at it.”

“How can you sound so sure? Maybe we should just test it, see how it goes, before we get emotionally involved.”

“Jess O’Brien, are you suggesting we have uncomplicated, no-strings sex right now? Sort of get it out of the way, then decide what comes next?”

Her gaze met his. “I think I am.”

Despite the almost overwhelming temptation to let her have her way, Will forced himself to give her a chiding look. “I do not put out on the first date,” he teased.
“Besides, we’re right out here in public. I guarantee you that our first time together is not going to be on the grass in the middle of the town green. What kind of guy would I be if I didn’t make our first time romantic?”

“I honestly don’t know,” she said. “But I think I’m ready to find out.”

That was the absolute best news Will had heard in years. He knew that changing their relationship wasn’t without its share of risks, but it was time. Past time, according to the way his blood was suddenly racing.

“Then we’ll have dinner as planned,” he said. “Brady’s or somewhere more discreet?”

She gave him a wry look. “Given that my family seems to have spies everywhere, we might as well go to Brady’s.”