Making You Mine (10 page)

Angel stood up and put the pencil behind his ear. “Some of the restaurants are thinking maybe booze cruises, just on the weekends.”

Sal laughed. “I’ll tell you right now. You’re probably looking at a small fortune on the insurance alone for something like that.”

“Well, ask Carlos anyway.”

“I will.”

Sal spent the rest of the day interviewing. In light of what Angel had told him about customers walking out, he found himself lowering his standards a bit. At least when it came to the amount of experience he normally was comfortable with. If he had to be there to train the less experienced himself, he would.

In spite of staying busy most of the day, his mind kept wandering back to Grace and her two boyfriends. What the hell was that about? He reminded himself, that her personal life was none of his business yet the annoying thoughts continued to plague him through out the day.

~*~

Another day of showing up to work and finding out Sal wouldn’t be there. Nearly colliding with him last night, being that close—touching him, had Grace feeling things she knew she shouldn’t. She’d nearly forgotten all about it when she got home and her mother dropped the news about Frank on her. But as soon as her head hit her pillow those thoughts were in high gear again. So much, she actually dreamed of him—talking to him and staring in his eyes, like she was never quite able to do in real life, without looking away.

As disappointing as it was that he wasn’t there, it was better that way. This infatuation, if that’s what she was going to call it, was beginning to get out of hand. The man didn’t even care for her, much less see her in that way. Even if by some miracle he ever would, Melanie had told her about his love-em and leave-em tendencies. He seemed perfectly content with his bachelor status. In the short time she’d worked there, she’d witnessed his
action
with the ladies first hand. She knew better than to get caught up in that web.

Grace had just finished putting on her apron on when a girl she’d never met walked in the back room.

“Hey.” She smiled big.

Grace knew Sal was still working on hiring more people. This girl had long, thick, beautiful hair and was drop dead gorgeous.
Great
.

“Hey,” Grace smiled but not nearly as big as the girl had. “You new?”

“No, actually I’ve been helping out at the other restaurant for the past week. They had a few people call in sick. But I’m back now.” She pulled an apron out of one of the drawers in the cabinet. “I’m Sofia.” The big perfect smile was still draped across her face. She tied the apron behind her. “You must be the new bartender I heard about.”

Grace waited a second before responding. “I’m not the only bartender they hired recently.”

“No, it’s you. Sal spoke of a girl. I know he hired another guy but he didn’t mention much about him.”

And he had mentioned
her
? Trying not to sound too interested, Grace turned away from Sofia and placed her purse in the cabinet. “Really? What did he say?”

“That you’re good. And he said you’re fast. Which, let me tell you—we need fast, especially on the weekend.” Sofia pulled her ball cap on. “Sweet Sixteen starts this weekend. You’ll see what I’m talking about.”

“Sweet sixteen?”

“March Madness.” Sofia looked at her like she was from another planet. “The last sixteen college teams standing, they start battling it out this weekend. It’s gonna get busy in here.”

Grace was still thinking about Sal talking about her. Sofia said he’d hardly mentioned the other bartender. She shook it off, grabbing her cap out of the cabinet and began putting it on. “So uh, is Alex closing today?” That was one way of finding out if Sal would be there later or not. It was only either him or Alex who ever closed.

“No, he’ll be in for a few hours, but I’m closing.”

“You?”

“Yeah,” Sofia smiled at her. “She leaned over the desk and typed something into the keyboard of the computer. “Ugh, Sal has to be so damn anal about everything. Does he really think anyone has time to take their lunch and breaks when he schedules them?” She turned to Grace. “Seriously he does all this.” She motioned to the screen. “And no one even bothers to look at it.”

“Doesn’t he get it? After all these years?” She turned to Grace. “He still prints out recipes for the cooks that have been cooking here for years. I can just imagine the stuff he laid on the new cook.”

Alex laughed. “Oh yeah, poor sap has his homework cut out for him.”

“Homework?” Grace finally spoke up.

Alex sat down. “Just wait, Gracie. You’ll see when you get in the kitchen. Sal’s too much. I’m surprised he hasn’t been riding you about the Moreno way of making drinks.”

Sofia turned to Grace. “He hasn’t given you the whole speech yet, about the way things work around here?”

Grace shook her head. “No, the most he did was give me a tour of the restaurant.”

Alex and Sofia exchanged glances. “Maybe it was the way things went down with Grace. I hired her, not Sal,” Alex chuckled. “He wasn’t too happy about it either.”

Grace tried not to frown at that.

“Why?” Sofia turned back to Alex. “He even said she was good.”

“Ah.” Alex winked at Grace. “Minor details on her résumé. You know Sal. But it’s all good now. Gracie’s in, and we got ourselves a hell of a bartender.”

Sofia rolled her eyes then smiled at Grace. “Once you get used to Sal’s meticulous ways, he’s not so bad.”

It wasn’t until a few hours later that Grace got a revelation making her feel like an idiot. The whole time since Sofia had arrived, the way she spoke of Sal and how at home she made herself at the restaurant, Grace had begun to wonder about her relationship with Sal.

Then Sofia’s fiancé dropped by and asked her something about her brothers. When Sofia told him only Alex was there, Grace nearly slapped herself on the forehead. Of course. She’d been so preoccupied with how pretty Sofia was and how Sal, who obviously did most of the hiring, and was so
meticulous
, had not only hired her, but given someone so young the responsibility of closing the restaurant by herself, Grace missed the resemblance entirely. She didn’t even put it together when she saw the dimples Sofia flashed. Now it all made sense, even the way Alex had greeted her with a kiss.

What bothered Grace now was how relieved she’d been. What business was it of hers to care about who Sal hired and what inspired him to, anyway? She was forgetting her whole purpose for being here—time in the kitchen. That’s what she should be focusing on. From that moment on, she vowed to stop with what was beginning to smother her every thought. But as much as she tried to stay busy and focus on doing her job, she couldn’t help looking up and hoping it was Sal every time someone walked in. Even after they were closed, she looked up, hopeful it was him who knocked on the locked door. She smiled when she saw Joey, but couldn’t help feeling let down.

Sofia unlocked the door and smiled at Joey as Grace walked out. “You working tomorrow, Grace?”

“Yeah, I close.”

“Alex said maybe we can get you in the kitchen this week. I think tomorrow would be good. Most of the day it’s a brunch but we do get some people ordering off the menu instead. Might be a good time to get you in there since menu orders are at their slowest on Sundays.”

Grace didn’t even wait for her to finish locking the door. She turned to Joey who looked ready to burst and jumped in his arms. He picked her up and spun her around. Grace saw Sofia laugh.

“I told you, Gracie! This is it. There’s no way they won’t be impressed with your cooking.”

Suddenly, everything she’d been obsessing about all day took a back seat. She was going to be cooking in Moreno’s kitchen tomorrow. This was a dream come true. She leaned her forehead against Joey’s. “Oh. My. God. How am I gonna get any sleep tonight?”

Joey laughed and she pulled away. They started walking to his car hand in hand. “You need to bring your A game tomorrow, so you
better
get some sleep. Don’t blow this Grace.” He squeezed her hand. “Oh, what am I talking about? You got this.”

The whole drive home she talked Joey’s ear off about the way she’d seen them prepare certain dishes and how Alex and Sofia had both said Sal was so anal about everything. She had her own way of cooking and she didn’t do recipes. What if Sal insisted she did? She almost wished he wouldn’t be there tomorrow, but at the same time she wanted him to taste her cooking.

By the time they got to her house, she was all talked out.

“Relax. You’re gonna do great.” Joey squeezed her hand then kissed it. “I’m so excited for you. Call me as soon as you get their first reaction. I’m sure they’re gonna be floored.”

That night Grace lay in bed, trying not to toss and turn too much. Her sister was sleeping soundly as usual. She’d told Rose about getting her chance in the kitchen tomorrow and she’d been just as excited about it as Joey had been.

As exciting as finally getting her opportunity to prove herself was, and as much as she tried to focus on that and that alone, her thoughts kept swaying in one direction. It wasn’t about would
they
be impressed? All she could think of was, would
Sal
be impressed? She reasoned that it was because he was the one who initially dismissed her as inexperienced but in her heart she knew there was more to it. For some reason the thought of impressing Sal Moreno in
any
way had suddenly become a priority.

~*~

Sunday morning Sal rushed in early to get the week’s inventory done as quickly as possible. He wanted to be out of there before the closing shift came in. He’d already called Jason. Sal was meeting him for a round of golf then he was stopping by Alex’s. His mother was preparing a Sunday dinner over at Alex’s house since Valerie couldn’t get out of bed and she wanted everyone to drop by.

Staying busy was good. It helped keep his mind off of
other
things. He’d finally admitted to himself that maybe he
was
a little attracted to Grace, but after seeing her with boyfriend number two, it squashed any possibilities. Besides, it was out of the question. She was too young for him
and
she was an employee, it would never work. He was stupid to have even considered the thought.

He sat back staring straight ahead at the cabinets against the wall. It was just a physical thing. Even though at first he hadn’t been very impressed by Grace, after being around her he noticed a few things about her that could be construed as attractive. Her big innocent eyes, the curves he hadn’t been privy to on their first meeting because of the unflattering dress. The way there was no hiding her excitement even over the smallest things—a ball cap. And that laugh… there was no way he could hear it and not smile.

Alex walked into the back room. “What’s with the cheesy smile?”

Sal straightened out. “I was just thinking about something.” He spun his chair around to face the computer. “Are Angel and Sarah gonna be there tonight?”

Sofia walked in. “I heard dad on the phone last night so they better be.” She giggled. “Is Grace here yet?”

Sal turned around. “No, she’s closing.”

“Well, she was,” Sofia said, grabbing an apron out of the drawer. “I told her to come in early. We’re gonna give her a shot in the kitchen. I figured Sunday is a good day for her since—”

“Wait,” Sal said, feeling uneasy. “Who okayed this?”

Alex laughed. “What do you mean? We said we were gonna give her shot so we’re giving her a shot.”

Sal couldn’t care less about her in the kitchen at this point. He’d figured this attraction thing would go away with a few days of not seeing her. He’d planned it, damn it. Easy peasy. Monday and Tuesday were her days off. If he scheduled a few more interviews Wednesday and Thursday at Angel’s, it would be almost a week before he’d have to be around her again. He would’ve been home free by then. Now they’d thrown a wrench in his plans.

“Yeah, and you should’ve seen how excited she was last night when I told her.” Sofia added. “Even her boyfriend was excited. He picked her up and spun her around. He’s a cutie!”

In walked Grace. It had only been one full day since he last saw her and it felt like forever. Her hair was down. All this time he’d been witness to her hair in a bun or in a ponytail. Now it was down and hung loosely around her face, adding yet another thing he hadn’t noticed about her before. How damn sexy she was.
Of course
.

They’d been talking about her. Grace felt her heart speed up at Alex’s words, but seeing Sal when she walked in the back room pushed her nerves into overdrive. “Morning,” she said, to no one in particular.

“Good morning, Grace.” Sofia was the first to respond.

“Ready to show us your stuff?” Alex asked, with a smile. He turned back to Sal, “I’m curious about this. If she’s even half as good at cooking as she is at putting drinks together, I think we got ourselves a cook.”