Passionate Chef, Ice Queen Boss / Rescued in a Wedding Dress

Wanted to deny a kiss that had lasted less than a second, a mere brush of lips against lips before she and Lorenzo had both…broken away. They’d each stepped back as though they’d been burnt. ‘I have to—’

She couldn’t make calm words come out, couldn’t do anything to downplay something that shouldn’t even need to be downplayed and yet, to Scarlett, the entire world had stopped and then started up again and now it was spinning strangely and nothing felt quite right because of Lorenzo’s kiss…

Barely even a kiss, Scarlett.

Somehow she got her key straight into the lock, twisted it and got the door open. Her feet carried her through and she closed the door. She didn’t look back, and then through the closed door she heard his footsteps taking him away in a rapid stride that went, and then half missed a step, and then kept going.

He’d hesitated.

And as that happened Scarlett had leaned her shoulder against the closed door and shut her eyes and silently willed…What? For him to stop? Keep walking away?

She should have said something. Scarlett shouldn’t have allowed that kiss to happen in the first place. And that was the problem. Scarlett didn’t believe either one of them had anticipated the kiss happening. It hadn’t been planned or thought about. How could she protect against the possibility of something she simply hadn’t expected?

For one little blink in time, five years had dropped away and they’d simply reached for each other. That should not, even for a second, have seemed the natural thing to do.

This had shocked her.

Perhaps it had also shocked Lorenzo.

Then maybe you should ask yourself how it’s affected you now that it’s happened?

Scarlett shook her head and went to the wardrobe to pull out her workout clothes of knee-length fitted black pants and lime-green vest-top and trainers. She clipped on her iPod, turned the music to a mind-numbing set, and began her Pilates routine.

Forget being kissed by a man who had no right to kiss her, before they both realised the insanity of their actions, and stopped. Forget how it had happened or why it had happened or anything else about it.

Scarlett was here for Rosa and her family and she only wanted to think about those issues. She forced her brain to the tricky issue of pulling Rosa into an utterly profitable financial position, and kept her thoughts there as she stretched and twisted and limbered away the tensions of her day.

Over the next five days, Scarlett forced aside what she chose to refer to in her thoughts when she couldn’t avoid acknowledging it altogether, as ‘that regrettable moment’. And indeed for the most part, she did a very good job of forgetting/ignoring/not confronting the issue in a tizzy of busyness at the restaurant.

She worked hard, visited often with Isabella and sometimes with other family members. She also co-operated with Lorenzo in terms of the running of Rosa where that co-operation was needed, and he co-operated with her. Scarlett felt quite certain that Lorenzo also didn’t give the matter of that one, tiny, completely insignificant slip that had occurred outside her bedsit a single thought.

She frowned and dipped her hand through the cool, clear swimming pool water. Today was Monday and the restaurant was closed during the main part of the day while the town observed a partial religious holiday. For those so inclined there’d been church services earlier. Rosa would staff up at four p.m. and open for business for the evening.

For now, Scarlett, Isabella and Scarlett’s sister Jackie were lazing in this sheltered swimming pool that was available to townsfolk who belonged either as students or teachers to the study faculty that owned it. It was a hot day, and quiet and restful here. Getting away for this had been a very welcome idea.

Scarlett dipped her shoulders beneath the cool water. Her hair was up in an untidy knot on top of her head, secured with a hair band and a thick red ribbon that exactly matched her high-cut one-piece red suit. She was not obsessive-compulsive about her ribbons. Scarlett simply enjoyed finding new ones and matching them to her clothing.

Lorenzo has looked at each change of ribbon. His gaze goes often to your hair. He used to enjoy sifting it through his fingers…

Oh! Scarlett pinched her lips together. She was having a rest. Thinking about the head chef of Rosa was not on her agenda for right now. For at all! She turned to Jackie and forced a smile. ‘This is nice. Thanks for talking me into joining you and Izzie.’

‘You’ve been hard to pin down for any one-on-one time since you came back to Monta Correnti.’ Jackie’s words were not accusatory, simply honest. ‘When Romano said he needed to come out here, I thought why not make a little pool party of it?’

Had Jackie chosen an event where Isabella would be present to make this a little easier for her sister? Scarlett didn’t know what to say. Of all the family, Jackie was the one she found it most difficult to spend time with.

Her guilt over her sister’s loss of her daughter, Kate, for so many years ate at her. Scarlett…didn’t know how to deal with that. And she realised now, as she looked into Jackie’s eyes, that she had been avoiding her sister because of this issue.

Before Scarlett could speak, and she didn’t know what she would have said anyway, Jackie went on.

‘Romano had to come out here anyway for a meeting. He only teaches an evening class once a week, but now that he’s on the board of teachers things like that come up periodically.’ Her voice softened as she spoke of the man who’d been her teenage lover and also the father of the baby that Jackie had given up for adoption. ‘I figured we’d all be grateful for some time in the water, anyway.’

That was true. It was a hot day.

‘Do you suppose we should actually make some appearance of swimming, just so we look like we belong in here?’ Isabella asked the question without moving a muscle.

‘Oh, I think somnolent suits us fairly well, don’t you?’ Scarlett inserted this quip and was proud of her effort. She wanted…to feel closer to Jackie, and to feel comfortable with her sister overall. That would be nice, but it wasn’t going to happen while Scarlett kept putting off self-protective prickle vibes every time they were near each other.

Isabella seemed to have dealt with any guilt that she felt over Jackie’s loss. Why couldn’t Scarlett do the same and put all that behind her?

‘Well, I’m not moving an inch until Romano finishes his meeting with the others and comes to join us.’ Jackie laughed and settled her arms more firmly back against the edge of the pool.

Isabella raised her brows in Scarlett’s direction. ‘You never said what the phone call was about from your mother yesterday at the restaurant, Scarlett. Is it anything I should know about, or tell Papa? I know we’ve put you in charge but I wouldn’t want you to think you have to deal with everything all by yourself. If there are any issues with Sorella—’

‘No, it wasn’t about either of the restaurants.’ Her mother and her uncle Luca owned a restaurant each. Their rivalry when it came to those restaurants was long-standing, though from the viewpoint of the staff actually working at Rosa, at least, Scarlett wasn’t really picking up that vibe. They just wanted to get on with the job. It wouldn’t surprise her too much to learn that the staff at Sorella felt the same way.

‘As predicted, Izzie, Mamma wasn’t happy to know that I’d moved out of her home.’ Scarlett shrugged. ‘She wasn’t pleased initially to know that I was going to work at Rosa, either. I thought, when she invited me to stay at her villa while I was here, that she’d got over that.’

‘I wish she and my father could just get along.’ Isabella shook her head. ‘I hope her call didn’t upset you too much, Scarlett.’

‘No. That’s just Mamma. Her reaction just concreted it in for me that I’d made the right decision in moving out of her villa.’ Scarlett let her glance encompass Jackie. ‘As for my working at Rosa, that’s my decision. It’s got nothing to do with our mother.’

Jackie dipped her chin in acknowledgement. ‘That sounds very fair to me.’

It was. And Scarlett appreciated the support. ‘Mamma said that Elizabeth would never move out of her own mother’s home making the entire town assume that home wasn’t good enough for her.’

Jackie stared for a moment and then threw her head back and laughed.

Scarlett shook her head in bewilderment. ‘What?’

‘Lizzie might be the one of us who gets on the best with our mother, but Lizzie is also living in Australia! It’s not as though she’s right in Mamma’s pocket all the time to test the friendship, so to speak.’ Jackie’s smile widened. ‘It’s just that you’re the one who looks exactly like Mamma when you pull that intolerant, fed-up-to-the-gills expression.’

‘Oh, thanks very much!’ Scarlett flicked water at her sister and received the same treatment back.

Izzie, caught in the middle, squealed and ducked right under the water, which somewhat defeated the purpose if she’d been trying to avoid being splashed.

Scarlett and Jackie grinned at each other over Izzie’s head as she resurfaced, and Scarlett’s grin faded as that inexplicable ache started up in her chest again. She forced the smile to return and said as lightly as she could manage, ‘I spent a little time getting to know Lizzie better over the past few months. We exchanged some emails and spent some time together in Melbourne one weekend.’

Scarlett and her eldest sister had sort of bonded. ‘I wish I’d connected with her a lot sooner. We were both living in Australia. It would have been nice—’ She broke off, not wanting to make Jackie feel left out.

When she searched her sister’s face, Scarlett couldn’t help but comment on something else she’d noticed about Jackie. ‘You have a real glow about you, Jackie. Every time you fall silent your face gets this soft look.’

It was as though when her sister disappeared inside her own thoughts, whatever she found in there lit her up like a thousand candles all burning at once.

‘Romano’s a big part of the reason for that, of course.’ Jackie’s smile was indeed soft and glowing as she spoke of him, but it wasn’t…all that Scarlett had seen in her sister.

‘But Romano tells me the same thing any time I’ve been to visit with our daughter or we’ve had her over to spend time with us.’ Jackie’s mouth softened and love and happiness poured out of her. ‘We know we can’t take the place of the parents who’ve raised her. We wouldn’t try. We’re thrilled that Kate has been happy!

‘But Kate has such a generous heart. She’s let us in, let us be a second set of people who love her. I’m so happy to finally have even a “piece” of my daughter. The only problem is one of her sets of adopted grandparents. They’re having a hard time accepting me, or Romano, as part of Kate’s life.’

A fierce expression crossed Jackie’s face. ‘I wouldn’t trade anything for having Kate back in my life, and just let anyone try to get in the way of that. I’m being polite but if anyone messed this up for me now and somehow took Kate out of my life again, I’d never forgive it.’

She cast a horrified glance at Scarlett. ‘I didn’t mean that to sound as though I can’t—’

Forgive Scarlett for taking Kate out of her life?

‘It’s all right.’ Scarlett’s tummy twisted. ‘I understand what you meant.’

But why shouldn’t Jackie be angry anyway? And stay that way for as long as she wanted? Maybe never truly be able to forgive Scarlett way deep down where it mattered? Scarlett was the one whom Jackie had entrusted many years ago with a letter to Romano telling him about her pregnancy. And Scarlett had let that letter go into the river and never told…

Jackie bit her lip. ‘I’m so happy. A part of me sometimes fears I could lose it all again. It’s just that I don’t think I could cope with that.’

‘It won’t happen, Jackie. Of course it won’t.’ It was Izzie who reached out and took Jackie’s hand, who held it and seemed able to keep Jackie’s words in some kind of perspective that Scarlett, in this moment, tried to but couldn’t.

All Scarlett could do was feel her sister’s loss, deep down inside her soul, and acknowledge that loss was her, Scarlett’s, fault. She’d run from truly acknowledging that for a long time.

Izzie went on. ‘Kate loves you way too much to let that happen. You have to remember she’s a grown-up girl with a mind of her own, just like you.’

Jackie shook her head as though to shake the dark thoughts away. ‘I know. I get silly over it sometimes, too protective of what I’ve been given back, I guess.’

Izzie nodded. ‘And you’ve had a lot of emotional ground to cover, getting back together with Romano after all this time as well, him learning of Kate’s existence.’

And Jackie having to deal with being told that Scarlett and Izzie had caused all those barren years in her life by throwing her letter away that day instead of delivering it as Jackie had asked Scarlett to do.

A part of Scarlett wanted, quite desperately, to climb out of the swimming pool, claim some urgent and only just remembered prior engagement or something, and…run away. But she’d done that once already, had run all the way to Australia.

She’d gone to see her father. To get to know her father.

No, Scarlett. You ran away from the emotional upheaval of what you’d done. Getting to know Dad, being loved by him, was an unanticipated bonus.

‘I’ve got some lovely photos of Kate, Scarlett.’ Animation swept back into Jackie’s face as she said this.

Beyond them, the door of the nearest building swung open and a small group of men stepped out. Scarlett’s glance caught on one of them, half hidden from her view behind the others.

She was dreaming up Lorenzo’s presence everywhere. Just because whoever that was was dark-haired and had a slender build and looked about the same height. Oh, maybe she just felt too overwhelmed in too many ways at the moment. And she couldn’t just ignore what Jackie had said.

Scarlett had to stop this nonsense, otherwise Jackie might start to think she wasn’t happy for her and that truly would be awful. ‘Izzie mentioned that you’d got some great photos of–of—Kate.’

‘I’d like you to see them.’ Jackie’s eyes softened. ‘At least that way you can start to feel as though you know her a little. Do you know, I can see Romano in her eyes and the shape of her nose.’

Jackie went on, enthusing about her daughter’s physical features. To hear Jackie tell it, her daughter was the most beautiful girl ever to exist.

It hurt Scarlett to hear it, even though it made her happy for Jackie, too. ‘I’d…love to see the photos, Jackie.’ What else could she say?

‘I’ll put a CD together for you.’ Jackie glanced towards the approaching men and raised her voice. ‘Romano. Come swim!’ She started to swim towards the other end of the pool to greet the love of her life.

Izzie laid her hand on Scarlett’s arm. ‘Are you okay, Scarlett? Jackie’s fine, you know. She’s bound to have these moments, but you heard her. Her life is so happy overall.’

‘I can see that.’ And Scarlett was happy for Jackie for that. Of course she was. ‘But she’s also dealing with old grief, and with feelings about family that you and I can only try to understand. She’s got a very generous heart, to be able or even willing to brush aside my part in all that the way she is.’

‘And mine.’ Isabella’s face tightened. ‘I was as much to blame.’

‘Not really. I’m the one Jackie entrusted that letter to.’

Isabella drew a breath and the tension faded from her face. She raised her arm to wave. ‘Lorenzo, I didn’t know you were out here. Come join us.’

Scarlett froze. She wanted to look, but she didn’t want him to know that she was interested.

Excuse me, you’re not interested!

But Scarlett turned her head just as there was a quiet splash. And there was Lorenzo slicing through the water towards them. Vaguely, Scarlett registered Romano and Jackie and another man in the water at the other end of the pool, talking. And Isabella talking.

‘We should do this more often, Scarlett. I could talk to Jackie about another visit here.’ Isabella’s voice went on.

But Scarlett wasn’t really listening. And all she could see was Lorenzo. Bare-chested, his lithe body slicing through the water as he moved with neat strokes until he surfaced at their end of the pool, a little to Isabella’s left.

He seemed…more comfortable with his body nowadays. Maybe maturity had brought that to him? Because back then he’d never liked to swim publicly, or even take his shirt off in front of others. He’d hated Scarlett to even see it if he’d had one of his spills and had a bruise or a scratch. At other times he’d been fine…

‘Scarlett? Did you hear me?’ Izzie asked the question in a puzzled tone.

What her cousin might have said prior to that, well, actually Scarlett had no idea. ‘Sorry, Izzie?’ Scarlett dredged her mind. ‘Oh, yes, it would be fun to come here again.’ The pool was shaded with beautiful trees and the whole complex was set halfway up a quiet hillside with a beautiful view over a lush green valley.

Scarlett had to act normally. She had already seemed quite out of it to her cousin. And she could be normal around Lorenzo. Of course she could. He was just a man!

He’s the man you had an affair with five years ago when he was still married.

Well, yes, but Scarlett hadn’t known about that until it was too late.

And she didn’t have those feelings about him any more. Being in his company simply made her uneasy because of past history, that was all.

‘Hello, Lorenzo.’ There. You see? She sounded perfectly normal.

Scarlett’s hand rose to pat at the ribbon in her hair. It got halfway to its goal before she stopped herself and let her arm fall back into the water.

It wasn’t helping that Lorenzo was practically naked, and look how tanned he was, and muscular, and he was wearing the medallion…

‘It’s a lovely day for a swim.’ Scarlett pushed her lips up into a very, very natural and completely relaxed and not at all overly conscious of him smile. ‘Do you teach classes out here or something?’

‘The board wanted to discuss that possibility with me.’ His eyes were narrowed.

Against the sun, Scarlett told herself, and refused to acknowledge that his gaze had followed the movement of her hand, had tracked the rest of the way to touch on her messy knot of hair before it travelled gently over her face and bare shoulders.

‘Um, well, that sounds interesting.’ She glanced at her cousin, whose gaze was passing from her to Lorenzo and back again.

‘With what they wanted, I’d have considered it a conflict of interest against my work at Rosa.’ He gave a shrug. ‘So unfortunately I had to turn the offer down.’

‘I see.’ Scarlett should have thought of the possible threat to Rosa straight away.

Well, it would be nice if she could think anything beyond wanting to swim over to him and speak at a much closer level, wouldn’t it? One that involved ignoring the presence of the others in the pool, and preferably allowing their lips to meet…

So much for telling herself that first kiss had been some random thing, like tripping over and falling onto his mouth or something. Maybe she should have examined that first kiss and its impact on her, rather than trying to pretend it hadn’t happened. Would that have better equipped her for now?

Failing that, Scarlett had another highly appropriate plan to implement. ‘I must take advantage and do some laps before we have to leave.’

She uttered the words as though to Isabella, and made an odd waving motion with one hand. ‘Excuse me. Do feel free to talk amongst yourselves.’

And with this obscure blessing handed to Izzie and Lorenzo, who both probably stared after her as though she’d lost her mind at the bottom of the swimming pool, Scarlett set off to do laps.

Perhaps until she swam herself into oblivion.

At least until she would no longer be conscious of Lorenzo’s presence in such an everything-else-fades-to-black kind of way.

Izzie wouldn’t have noticed anything all that odd in Scarlett’s reactions to Lorenzo, would she?

Scarlett increased her pace, churning through the water as though by doing so she might somehow escape all of her thoughts.

She decided Izzie would not have noticed, and, not only that, Scarlett didn’t have to think about anything. Not Lorenzo, not family, not her guilt over Jackie, not sending herself to Australia for years and years and then coming back here with all sorts of hopes apparently tucked away inside her like unexpected add-ons that she shouldn’t have stuffed into her mental suitcases.

Stroke, breathe. Stroke, breathe.

Scarlett focused one hundred, no, two hundred per cent of her attention on her movements through the water.

And pushed every other distraction right out!

Chapter Five

‘THERE has to be an answer somewhere. I just know it’s there, but I can’t zero in on it.’ Scarlett murmured the words beneath her breath, mostly in the hopes of getting them out of her head.

Her swim earlier this afternoon felt aeons away. Night had fallen outside the restaurant while she slaved away in Luca’s office inputting financial information onto a computer system to bring Rosa’s paperwork side of things—kicking and screaming if necessary—into the twenty-first century.

Well, it had been a big day. Scarlett had come out onto the terrace that adjoined with Sorella’s terrace for a breath of air, even if that air was still quite warm and balmy.

There was nobody out here at this time of night, and in fact, though the terraces joined, there was an air of disuse about both of them.

She had to stop this nonsense when it came to Rosa’s head chef. She had to stop it right now, if not sooner. It just wasn’t right that she still could react to him that way when he’d broken her heart, let her down so badly.

Yes, but he’s also been the epitome of a fabulous head chef since you’ve been at Rosa. He’s committed to the restaurant. You saw how wonderful he was with Dante and that whole situation. Isabella thinks the world of him.

Maybe Lorenzo had changed.

And, well, five years on…

She’d heard on the rumour-mill, during her last trip over here that the new head chef at Rosa was single, so he’d done the right thing in the end and got out of that loveless relationship. That meant he was free now.

Just what do you mean by that, Scarlett? Free for you to get involved with a second time? Are you nuts?

She wasn’t crazy but Scarlett was still somewhat attracted to Lorenzo. That didn’t have to be an issue, though!

‘Here you are. I thought you might have still been holed up in Luca’s office.’

Lorenzo’s words were low-pitched, in tune with the quiet atmosphere out here. Scarlett’s reaction was for her pulse to skip before she turned slowly to face him.

‘I came out for a breath of air.’ She had been working in Luca’s office for a lot of hours.

‘Well, now you can have something to refresh you at the same time. Don’t worry.’ He pressed one of two glasses of red wine into her hand.

Their fingers brushed as Scarlett automatically took the drink from him. She tried not to notice the warmth of his fingers, the familiarity of taking a glass from him. The quiet of the night around them or how it felt good to stand here with him, just the two of them. ‘Worry?’

‘About the expense.’ He gestured with his glass. ‘I’m not costing the restaurant money. A patron bought this whole bottle, had us uncork it, and then ended up leaving without touching it.’

‘Oh. Yes. Very good. Well, thank you for the drink.’ She said it rather assertively and took a sip. Scarlett would not reach for the ribbon in her hair. It was navy blue this evening, velvet and soft and…comforting.