“It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.” Reagan put the back of her hand to her forehead, as dramatic as always. Then she sat up and pointed a finger at Kai. “I still want in on the rescue missions.” Before Kai could object, she spoke again. “So, tell me about the cute baker and her crazy dog.”
“She is not cute.” Sexy, hot, gorgeous worked butnot cute.
“Kai?”
Jenny stood in his doorway, a worried look on her face. He’d only been at this job for less than six hours and he already recognized her “we have a problem face. “What’s up?”
“Sawyer usually asks the Mercy Inn to deliver lunch out here to our clients, but when I called them to double check, they told me that their chef has pneumonia, that they have back-to-back conferences, and they can’t help us out. The other hotels are fully booked too and don’t do outside catering anyway.”
Right. Plan B. Except that he didn’t have a plan B. He didn’t think that he could toss their clients a couple of MREs and some sodas. Sawyer would, undoubtedly, frown on that.
“No catering companies in Mercy?” Reagan asked.
“Not that I know of,” Jenny replied.
Except that Flick had been talking about starting one. He glanced at the pastry box, saw the number of the bakery underneath the logo, and punched in the number. He ignored his thumping heart rate as he asked to talk to Flick.
“I need lunch for ten people tomorrow,” he told her after a quick greeting. This was business, he reminded himself; there was no reason to get excited about hearing her voice. God, a week in Mercy and he was turning into a wimp.
Flick was silent for a minute before speaking. “I can do that. What type of lunch? Cooked, cold, starters, desserts? Should I supply any drinks?”
Hell, he didn’t know. Rolling his eyes at his own incompetence, he shrugged before remembering that Flick couldn’t see him. “I haven’t a freakin’ clue. Speak to Jenny, and have it here by twelve thirty tomorrow—lunch is scheduled for one.”
“Yes, sir!” Flick snapped and Kai grinned at her smart mouth.
“And Kai?”
“Yeah?”
“Because it’s such short notice, I’ll have to charge Caswallawn an extra ten percent.” The amusement he heard in her voice punched him in the gut.
But still…huh.The shark.“It’s not like I have much of a choice.” he grumbled.
“But because you’re my first client, I’ll give you a ten percent discount. Before I talk to Jenny, who actually knows what she’s doing, I want to hear whether that young girl found you today.”
“Reagan told me that someone was looking for Cas,” Kai said, happy to stay on the phone. He felt strangely reluctant to hand the call over to Jenny.
“No, she asked directions to Caswallawn, but she was looking for you.”
Now that really didn’t make sense, Kai thought as he transferred the call to Jenny. He didn’t know any teenagers and he definitely didn’t know any teenage girls. Why would one be looking for him?
Weird.
The next day, in the slick Caswallawn boardroom, Flick arranged her platters on the conference table. After a brief discussion, she and Jenny had agreed on assorted sandwiches, mini baguettes, mini croissant sandwiches, a seasonal green salad, a pasta salad, and assorted mini cookies and brownies. It wasn’t Michelin star cooking but it was nice to do something different, she thought, pulling out sets of utensils wrapped in a pretty paper napkin.
Cas, as Kai and Sawyer called their business, was her first client, and she was determined to do a good job for them. It had nothing to do with impressing Kai. This was purely business, the first step on a new career journey. But if this had nothing to do with impressing Kai, then why had she spent far too much time deciding what she was going to wear, taking time to apply her make-up so that she looked like she wasn’t wearing any at all, and pinning her hair up into a messy style that took the best part of an hour?
And why did her head fly up every time she heard footsteps in the passage beyond the open door? She’d done it so often in the past half hour that she was in danger of getting a repetitive strain injury in her neck.
Because she was utterly absurd, that was why.
Bus. I. Ness.
Flick gritted her teeth. Be professional, play it cool. Unfortunately, cool went out of the window when Kai strode into the boardroom a minute later. Flick had to grip the back of the closest chair as the blood drained from her brain and headed south, fast. Dear God, he shouldn’t be allowed to walk around looking that hot. Her second thought was that he should always wear solid black.
His spotless long-sleeved black henley was tight across his chest and arms but skimmed his abdomen, and his cargo pants emphasized the length of his legs and would show off his spectacular butt to perfection, she was sure.Turn around. Please, please turn around.
His hair was pushed off his forehead and he looked harassed and pissed off.