Love Knows No Bounds (10 page)

Chapter Six

I watched Gianna gently pushing Bowen back and forth as he lay face down in a netted swing at the therapy gym. His red sweatshirt poked through the holes, making Bo look like a boy-sized Christmas ham. I’d spent the past two weeks observing Leo during his cooking sessions with Bowen, and finally came to the conclusion that I was never going to understand why his moods could go from flirtatious and fun to cold and aggravated in the blink of an eye.

In the four afternoons we’d spent with him, Bowen had helped make cinnamon meringue, pumpkin extract, almond and espresso biscotti, and a hazelnut mousse that made my toes curl just remembering the taste. Bowen had even smiled while Leo showed him to open and then chop nuts carefully, not minding the mess and dust that coated his hands. He’d taken to asking me if it was a “Leo Day” when he got off the bus in the afternoons, and frankly, I’d begun to look forward to Leo Days, mood swings and all.

I’d never been attracted to the bad boy type before. My ex-husband was a car salesman who’d owned an extensive collection of polo shirts in every earth tone imaginable. And men post-divorce? Well, the few there had worked in jobs like accounting and quality assurance. There’d never been a bartender or a bodybuilder, and for heaven’s sake, there’d never been a motorcycle-riding chef, either. Of course not. Those choices would have been too dangerous to my and Bowen’s perfect little world. Men like that came with sharp edges that could pop the bubble I’d so carefully built around us.

Maybe it was time for me to take a risk? After all, Bowen was getting older, and his dependence on me became smaller—albeit fractionally—every day. The fact that I may, one day, find myself alone weighed on my shoulders. He made me think that companionship wasn’t such a far-fetched need.

It wasn’t like our time with Leo was all cooking and scowling, though. Every time Bowen excused himself to wash his hands or use the restroom at the end of the lesson, that’s when Leo turned on the charm. Our interactions were getting more and more intimate, leaving my stomach tied into knots by the time we left the resort every afternoon. One day he’d used this thumb to swipe a stray piece of meringue off my lip, and I’d damn near passed out. When I moved past him by the stovetop to observe whatever Bowen was stirring or glazing, Leo’s hand would brush the small of my back and linger for a split second longer than necessary.

I should have stopped it. I should have been a responsible parent and made Leo focus on my son. But…I couldn’t. I didn’t know if it was because it’d been so long since I’d received male attention that didn’t come from my father or the benign dentist who worked in my office, or because there was a legitimate spark between Leo and me. I didn’t want to stop the flirting. Not only did it feel good, it felt sort of…
right
.

A little flirting was harmless, wasn’t it? Maybe I should ask Leo out. After all, he was flirting with me.
Flirting with me
, and it was just one date. It’s not like we were going to pick out a china pattern. One date. Just to get my feet back in the water. My mind was screaming at me to just do it.

“So how are the cooking classes going? Is my brother treating you okay?”

I startled, bringing my focus back to Gianna, who was sitting cross-legged on a mat beside the swing. “
Fine
” My voice came out loud and unnaturally shrill, so I took a breath to calm myself.
Chill, Anna
.
Gianna doesn’t know that you keep picturing her brother shirtless.
“I mean, fine. We, er,
Bowen
loves his time in the kitchen with Leo.”

Gianna looked at me with a sly smile teasing her lips. “My brother has a weird effect on women.”

I feigned shock. “What? No. Not me. I mean, he’s nice, and all, but you know. He’s Bowen’s teacher, so I don’t think about him that way.” I was talking too fast, and I knew it. I couldn’t stop myself; it was 100 percent pure verbal vomit.

“Oh, well, he asked about you.” She casually pushed Bo again, and I noticed that the corner of her mouth twitched the same way Leo’s always did.

“No, he didn’t.” I pretended to go back to my book in the corner of the room, but watched her through the corner of my eye. “Did he?”

Gianna’s shoulders rose and dropped. “Yeah. He said that you and Bowen are turning into his favorite part of the week.”

I beamed. “Well, we’re enjoying it, too. Aren’t we, buddy?”

Bowen looked up at me. “Cooking with Leo rules.”

“That’s good to hear.” Gianna laughed, tucking her dark curls behind her ear. “Leo’s been having a hard time acclimating to our Idaho town. He misses the big city a lot. I told him that he should ask you to show him around.”

I’m pretty sure my face turned about seven shades of red. “Oh, I’m sure he can find someone much cooler to hang around with. I’m not much for the nightlife. You’re younger than I am. Why haven’t you done it?”

Gianna smiled, but didn’t look at me. “I doubt he wants to hang around with his kid sister. I’m sure he’d want to spend the evening with a pretty woman instead.”

Was Gianna trying to set me up with her brother? I gripped my book tightly, trying not to show the excitement bubbling beneath my surface like a percolator. I’d been playing the part of the completely unsexual, devoted mother for so long, being attracted to someone felt like something I might get in trouble for.

“Your brother doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who struggles to find a pretty woman.” I moved closer to where she and Bowen were working.

She helped Bowen climb out of the swing, and handed him a vibrating toy ball that he immediately grimaced at. “He’s always been popular with girls. It’s finding the
right
girl that he seems to have a hard time with.”

I laughed softly. “Leo seems more like the ‘right now girl’ type.”

Gianna shook her head and her curls danced, making me wonder if Leo’s hair would curl that way if he didn’t slick it into its rockabilly style every day. “No,” she said. “Leo’s always been a one-woman-man, despite his chick-magnet exterior. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to pick one-man-women.”

I processed her words while she and Bowen played with a puzzle. For the past month, I’d been judging Leo completely wrong. Instead of a skirt-chasing player, he was a fan of monogamy? I never would have guessed it. The way he winked at the waitresses and the restaurant manager, Gretchen, when they crossed through the kitchen said otherwise. But he and I did have a pretty good friendship developing.

“So…what’s the deal with Leo? When I ask him about his restaurant in Seattle, he sort of…well…” I bit my lip. Maybe needling his sister for information was a tacky thing to do. Oh hell, I knew it was a tacky thing to do, but couldn’t help myself.

“Turns into a jerk?” Gianna raised an eyebrow in my direction.

“Well, yeah.” My cheeks heated. They were probably red now. Curse this Irish skin. “He tends to freak out a little bit when I ask him about it.”

She put the vibrating ball against the puzzle, so that Bowen could feel the pieces humming against his tensed fingers. “That’s because Leo lost everything but his motorcycle and the clothes on his back in that deal.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

“Bo, I want you to put all of these pieces into the puzzle while this ball shakes it. If you can do it without stopping, we’ll go grab a snack for you.” She gave my son the thumbs-up sign and turned to me. “Leo was going to open a couture dessert bar in the Loganwood Tower.”

“The Loganwood Tower?” My mouth dropped open. “That’s one of the nicest hotels in Seattle. I saw a feature on it in
Better Homes and Gardens
. They’ve had members of the royal family stay there.”

Gianna nodded proudly. “Yeah. It was a big deal. He invested every penny he had in the place. He also had some of our parents’ retirement fund, one of his former mentors invested, and I put up my savings.”

“You did?”

Nodding, she brushed her hair behind her ears. “I’d been saving for years to buy a house. I lived at home with my parents, so ninety percent of my paychecks went into savings. Leo didn’t want me to, but he was still coming up short. So I put in over eighty grand.”

Bowen finished the puzzle, rubbing his hands off on his jeans, and Gianna removed the vibrating ball. “Great job, kiddo. Now try it again without the wiggly ball.” She turned back to me. “Leo had a business partner named Kevin. It was a guy he’d met in culinary school who quit to pursue finance. Leo did most of the work getting the restaurant up on its feet. He picked out the wall colors, the tables, the chairs, the flatware, the kitchen equipment…everything. And Kevin managed the financial side of things. Or so Leo thought. About a month before Délicieux—that was going to be its name—opened, the whole deal fell apart, and he lost everything. It wasn’t until afterward that he discovered the worst part.”

“What could be worse than that?” I asked.

When she looked at me, I saw Gianna’s temper bubbling just below the surface. “Kevin was sleeping with Leo’s girlfriend. When Kevin took off, Macie moved out and joined him in California. They live together in L.A. now.”

My heart tugged. Poor, poor Leo.

“Leo sued Kevin, but only got part of the money back. Most of mine and my parents’ money was considered gifts, and the court judged in Kevin’s favor.” Gianna high-fived Bowen, stood up, then returned with a package of crackers for his snack. “My parents refuse to let Leo pay them back, but Leo is determined to make my money back. He wants to see me in my own house. He’s been beating himself up for months, which is why he came to Coeur d’Alene.”

“He feels guilty.” I said this more to myself than to Gianna. No wonder Leo turned into a jerk when the subject of his own restaurant came up. He not only got screwed out of a boatload of money, but he’d also lost his girlfriend in the process. My heart thumped, and I rubbed at my chest absently. I had an undeniable urge to comfort him that baffled and annoyed me. I’d only known Leo for a few weeks, and now I was completely engrossed in the tattered remains of his personal life.

Chapter Seven

“Okay, Bowen, now drizzle the caramel over the tops of the beignets, just like this.” Leo watched as my son’s small hands expertly squeezed the white bag, making loops of the amber-colored liquid across the tops of the fried pastries. It was all I could do to keep from drooling as I gazed down at the plate of glorious French desserts.

Once the drizzles were complete, Bowen sat frozen, his sticky hands extended uncomfortably.

Leo laughed gently, the sound rolling over me like warm syrup. “It’s okay, buddy. Why don’t you go wash your hands now?”

My son nodded firmly and headed straight for the kitchen door.

“Typical Bo,” I mused, watching him. “Once the cooking’s done, it’s right back to his normal neuroticisms.”

“Oh, he’s not so bad.” Leo turned the plate around and held it up to look at the banana beignets with caramel drizzle. “Look what he created today. I’d call that a success.”

I watched Bowen push through the door and disappear. “He doesn’t look pale to you?”

Leo shook his head and chuckled. “I think you’re a good mom. A bit overprotective, but good nonetheless.”

“I’m not overprotective.” I frowned. “Okay, so maybe I am. Aren’t you protective of anything? Your sister? Your recipe book?” I raised an eyebrow at him, and reached for a beignet.

Leo’s brown eyes danced. “Not my recipes. They’re all in here.” He tapped his temple. “But my sister? Yes. I’m very protective of her. She’s part of the reason I’m here in Idaho. So I can keep an eye on her.”

My ears perked up. “Does she need you to keep an eye on her? Gianna seems pretty capable of caring for herself.”

“I’ve spent a long time living apart from my family. Gianna was out here in Coeur d’Alene alone. It was time for me to be closer to her.” He looked up from the metal bowls he was stacking, and winked. “Even if it meant plopping myself into the middle of an Idaho forest.”

I helped him by picking up all of the spoons, pastry bags, and spatulas. “You’re here to look out for Gianna.” I licked at a drop of batter that had fallen onto my finger from the spoon, and noticed Leo watching me. “So…you went into business with your sister, right?”

When he stopped moving, his eyes darkened. A few beats passed before Leo took a breath and spoke in a tight voice. “How did you know about that?”

I swallowed thickly. “Gianna told me. Bowen had therapy yesterday.”

Leo’s mouth turned downward. “Anna, has anybody ever told you that you are extremely nosy?”

Heat grew on my cheeks, spreading its way down my neck. “No. Well, yes. But I…” I trailed off, and immediately felt stupid.

Leo took a step closer to me, and the cold rim of the mixing bowl he was holding touched my arm. “But nothing. You’re snooping into my personal business, when you should be minding your own business.” He turned and stomped to the oversize sink, letting the bowls fall with a loud clatter.

My stomach clenched and my knees wobbled. It was such a strange conundrum to be attracted to someone who could tick me off and curl my toes in one sentence. I should have walked out of the kitchen and let him cool off in time for Bowen’s next lesson. I knew that. But…there was an inexplicable magnetic pull, which caused my feet stalk toward Leo at the sink, despite my brain’s warning of,
Danger! Danger!

“Listen, you don’t have to be so defensive,” I said, placing the spoons in the sink, where he stood with his hands on the edge of the basin, looking down into the soapy water in silence. “Leo, your sister explained everything. What happened to you…” I hesitated before reaching out and touching his arm, just below the rolled-up cuff that exposed the bottom of what looked like blue and orange flames. “It wasn’t your fault.”

He turned and looked at me, his eyes earnest. I was surprised when he didn’t shake my hand off his arm. “I should have been smarter. When my pop told me that it was suspect that my business partner was keeping our funds in his personal account, I blew him off. I told him that Kevin would never screw me over. I promised my parents that everyone’s money was safe.”

He turned so that our bodies were facing each other. The electricity between the two of us rattled my insides, making it almost impossible to hold still. It was clear how much Leo’s guilt weighed on him. Instead of jutting his chin out and widening his stance like he usually did when his indignation kicked in, his broad shoulders hung low, and his wet, soapy hands hung limply at his sides. “My folks won’t let me pay them back—they refuse. But I’ll pay Gianna back. Every cent.”

My voice was shaky, but I pressed on. This was a family drama I had an undeniable need to get to the bottom of. “But you insist on paying her back. Why is that?”

Leo’s eyes liquefied, and my heart squeezed as we stared at each other. Never in my life had I felt such an urge to wrap my arms around and comfort someone other than Bowen as I did right then. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t pull him to my chest and cradle him.

“Gianna didn’t tell you about when we were kids, did she?” His voice was much softer than it had been just a moment before.

I shook my head. “No.”

“When we were kids, I got sick. Started getting fevers, and was sick for an entire summer break. That was when we found out it was leukemia.”

My eyes widened. “Oh my gosh.”

Leo nodded somberly. “She was seven, and I was ten. After testing all of my older siblings, they found out that Gianna’s bone marrow was a perfect match to mine. We both had to miss the whole first month of school that year, because of the transplant. Gianna was so sick it took her forever to recover, and for years afterward, her immune system was crap. All of a sudden, our roles were reversed. She was the sick one, and I was the healthy one.”

He brought his hand up to mine, enclosing it, and making my heart skitter.

“So you feel guilty.” My voice was hoarse, and my mouth was dry with Leo this close.

“My kid sister has done so much for me. I owe her my life.” He pressed his lips together tensely. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Gianna. When Kevin took all of the money she’d saved up to buy herself a house, I knew that I’d spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to her. And I’ll do it, too. I’ll stay here in the middle of Idaho as long as it takes to earn every cent back. It’s the least I can do.”

My eyes welled up unexpectedly. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Leo shook his head, and a lock of his nearly black hair fell across his forehead. “You’d do the same thing for one of your siblings.”

It was my turn to shake my head. “I’m an only child.” When Leo looked up at me with his glossy brown eyes, my stomach whirled, and I continued. “I always wanted a brother or a sister so badly, I would ask for a baby for Christmas. When I had Bowen, I never expected that he would wind up being an only child. I always planned on having more kids. I wanted Bowen to have the connection that you have with Gianna.”

“He will.” His eyes wrinkled in the corners when he smiled mildly. “He will someday, Anna.”

Something between us shifted, and suddenly the air in the room was thick. The sounds coming from the dining room where Gretchen the restaurant manager was calling orders to her wait staff as they set up the tables for dinner service faded away, and all I could hear was my own lungs expanding and contracting.

His hand moved down my arm so slowly, I almost didn’t realize it was happening until our fingers were laced together. Leo’s other hand came up to my hair and tucked it behind my ear. Then he placed it on the side of my face. His palm on my skin felt incredible, and every nerve ending in my entire body started to hum. It’d been so long since I’d been touched by a man, let alone a man was so indescribably connected to, and my body came alive in a way I’d never experienced before. I buzzed like a live wire strewn across the tile floor.

When he moved closer to me, the front of his starched white chef’s coat brushed against the waist of my jeans, creating a fire deep in my belly. Was Leo going to kiss me? Time slowed down and it felt like I was standing across the room, observing as our faces glided closer and closer together. When he gently tugged my face forward, and his head tilted to the side a fraction, fireworks went off in my mind, creating a deafening buzz in my ears, and causing my eyelids to close.

Leo stroked his thumb methodically across my bottom lip before he pressed his mouth to mine, and my knees melted into buttercream. The moment my body leaned into his with a soft
thud
, he moved his hand to cup the small of my back, scalding my skin through the cotton of my shirt. His lips parted mine, warmth spreading from him to me when he deepened the kiss, and I gripped the sides of his chef coat to keep him close. This moment was so amazing, I didn’t want it to end. Leo’s mouth felt like the warmest, softest silk against mine, and when his tongue tickled the inside of my upper lip, a contented sigh escaped my lungs.

The sound of a hand banging against the stainless steel door as it swung open jolted us apart. I opened my eyes carefully, blinking once or twice to clear the fog that clouded them. Leo’s hand dropped from my face and back, but his lips remained parted, a look of bewilderment plastered all over his chiseled face. It looked like he wanted to say something, and I was waiting on his words like a junkie waiting for a fix. Did he approve? Disapprove? Had he wanted to kiss me, or was he on some sort of sugar high that caused him to act irrationally? Did he feel as turned on as was, or was I the only one who was on the verge of burning their clothing right off of their body?

The silence was deafening, and driving me crazy. Suddenly I had a deep need to fill the space with words…
any
words. “Leo, I…”

“M-mom?” Bowen’s little voice croaked as he stepped into the kitchen. “My stomach hurts.”

I stepped away from Leo. “Bo? Honey? What’s wrong?” The lingering sexual tension made my legs wobble as I crossed around the metal table between us, and pressed my hand to his forehead.

The desire in the air rushed from the room and out the window the moment Bowen bent over and vomited down the leg of my jeans.