The bottom fell out of her stomach as her head was filled with images of working alongside Mason. Too much time near him, and she was going to lose her head. “No.” She shook her head vehemently. “That isn’t what I said.”
“Sure it is.” His smile, already wide and bright, got impossibly wider and brighter. “You’ve just complained that you don’t have any staff and that you’re lucky to have a cook most days. Hire me.” He pointed at the center of his chest with a big cheesy grin on his dumb, hot face.
“I can’t hire you,” she snapped at him as she walked around the counter to put distance between them. “You’re a hazard.”
He chuckled. “Now, how could you possibly know that?” he asked, following her.
“You’ve got a beard. I don’t think my paying customers want a waiter or a cook who has a bunch of hair growing on his face.”
“I’ll wear a hair net on my beard when I deliver food if that’s the only problem you have with me.”
“No.”
“Why not? If that was your big problem with hiring me, then it’s a non-issue. I fixed it.”
She noticed he didn’t offer to shave it off, and she was weirdly pleased about that.
“You have no experience in the service industry,” she quickly replied.
Mason stepped in front of her. She had a hard time telling if he was insulted or amused. Maybe he was somewhere caught in the middle of both those things. His eyes darkened, and he took a step closer to her.
“You have no idea if I have experience as a waiter.”
“Sure I do.” She surprised both of them when she reached out and took his hand in hers. She tried to ignore the zing of awareness that blossomed in her chest when their fingers touched. It meant nothing. “See?” she said, her voice cracking. “You don’t have a single callus on your fingers. That tells me you are not used to hard work.”
He arched a brow. “There is more than one way to work hard,” he argued. “I am no stranger to long hours, early starts, and late nights.”
If he was trying to be suggestive, he was succeeding wonderfully. Everything out of the man’s mouth was pure sex and temptation. Two things Lilaknewshe had no time for. Besides, her heart couldn’t take any more risks, and Mason Pierce was nothing but a big, fat risk.
“I am not hiring you,” she insisted, passing by him on her way to the counter.
“Sure you are,” he pressed, following behind her. His wide steps allowed him to step in front of her as he tried to block her passage.
“No.” She walked around him again and retreated to the kitchen.
Of course, it would be just her luck that Bobbie was standing by the door with her arms crossed, her spatula gripped tightly in one hand. “Lila Ford, do not tell me that someone is here for a job and that you denied them.”
“I did,” she said as she bustled around the kitchen, doing a bunch of things at the same time. Some of it was weird. She moved the carrot bowl about three times before Bobbie took her out of her hands and replaced it on the counter. It was obvious that Lila was only doing that to keep from going back into the dining room, but she would have to go again and soon. She was the only waitress, and the orders were going to get cold if she didn’t take them to the patrons soon.
Bobbie continued to shake her head as Lila continued to find things to keep her hands busy. “You have been running this place all by yourself since your grandmother got sick. You need the help.”
“He’s an outsider,” Lila whispered under her breath, knowing that Mason was probably waiting for her by the door.
“And?” Bobbie insisted with a frown. “Help is help.”
“I don’t feel like training some new guy. He is a new city guy who won’t pull his weight and will most likely complain about his work and his shift the entire time he is here.”
“You don’t know that’s how he’ll be,” Bobbie argued.
“It won’t be,” Mason declared, coming right into the kitchen like he owned the damned place. His swagger was annoying, and it had no business being hot as hell.
Lila wanted to hate herself for being attracted to a man like Mason, but how was she supposed to help it? He was basicallymadeto be admired.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Lila hissed, trying to suppress all of her attraction. “You can’t be back here. It’s for staff only.”
“Good thing I’m about to be staff, then.” He gave her a smile that would have made her weak in the knees if she wasn’t so mad. Her knees were definitely only shaking with fury. Not because she was so close to Mason. That simply couldn’t be true.
“Welcome aboard,” Bobbie announced, throwing him a Moony’s Cafe blue apron.