The Bouquet List (4 page)

“Nice to meet you, Lane.” Grace held out her hand. “No wedding today so I can catch up a bit. I’ve always loved your restaurants and can’t wait ’til your new place is open. I’m really looking forward to your ideas for the Palace
.
”

Lane shook her hand, and they had a brief conversation about people they both knew, the fortunes of the wedding business, and how wonderful Lane’s new hotel restaurant would be. Suddenly, it struck Yasmin that Grace was probably the sort of girl Lane usually dated. Well-groomed and well-connected, confident but singularly business-minded. She was the sort of dependable and consistent woman Lane would be instantly attracted to. And he wouldn’t be out of her league at all.

“I’d appreciate you being involved in our decisions here, Grace,” Lane was saying. “After all, you’re the one who’ll have to make everything work.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” she said. “Excuse me for now, though. I have an important flower plan to check on for tomorrow.”

As Grace entered the office building and closed the door behind them, Lane turned to her. “Your dad says she does a great job here.”

“Yes, she’s amazing. We’d be completely lost without her. She’s been here for about five years and manages all the day-to-day running of the wedding business now.”

He nodded. “I’m taking all my best staff with me to the hotel. Good people are worth their weight in gold. I guess there are a few employees who’ll be worried that your parents aren’t here.”

Did he mean that they must be worried that she was in charge when she really knew nothing about this business at all?

“I guess. Grace is very aware of what’s happening, and Leo is family. Most of the others don’t know the full story yet, just that Dad’s gone to Greece to bring Mom home. I don’t want to tell them anything else just now so that we can keep things as stable as possible.”

Lane set his hands low on his hips. “And that’s the way it has to stay. The last thing we need is staff deserting us or spreading any rumors about there being issues. When people are shelling out the sort of money they do for a wedding, they wouldn’t want any hint that things weren’t going to be absolutely perfect and uninterrupted.”

Yasmin fingered the butterfly at her throat. “I really want to make a difference here, Lane. I’m not just doing this to kill time, or because I think it’s going to be a fun thing to have on my CV. I’m really committed to helping Mom and Dad put things back on track.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said as he picked his briefcase up again. “While I know plenty about what it takes to run a good restaurant, and you’ve grown up in this place, I don’t think either of us has a complete enough knowledge about the way a successful wedding hall should work, so we’re going to need to utilize the expertise of people like Grace.”

A few minutes later they entered the restaurant. As times had gotten tougher in the wedding business, her parents had decided to open it to the public when there wasn’t a wedding on—which was quite often these days. Her uncle Leo was an incredible chef, but had always deferred to her parents’ taste and style, and she was hoping that part of the changes they’d make would be to update the menu.

“Is here okay?” Yasmin indicated a couple of chairs and they both sat. “Leo shouldn’t be too far away.”

Lane put the briefcase and his coffee mug on the table, flicked the case open, and pulled out three glossy brochures. “Of course we’ll need to talk to Grace and all the key staff here before we make any changes, as our decisions will affect them, but it would make sense to try to work out what other wedding halls are doing that you aren’t. Here are three brochures from your competitors.”

Yasmin picked up one of the glossy documents and flicked through the pictures of beautiful brides and perfect table settings. “Yes, O’Malley Weddings, for example. That place has been Mom and Dad’s direct competition for years, and while things have been getting harder and harder here, they’ve recently expanded, and I’ve heard they’re fully booked for two years. It would be great to find out how they do it.”

“Yes, but you can bet the O’Malleys aren’t going to give up their secrets that easily. I know there’s been a feud between your families for years. By the way, how did it start?”

Yasmin sighed. “Apparently there was a big society wedding they were both hoping to get but the O’Malleys won. Dad said they cheated, but who knows.”

“If we want to find out why the O’Malleys are so successful, we’ll need to try to find people to talk to about their experiences there, or maybe get some video footage inside during a wedding.”

A clear and perfectly formed idea slunk its way into Yasmin’s head. Something that could help in the renovation and guarantee her some time away from the Palace with Lane. “What if we went as guests? I’ve been invited to my friend Paul’s wedding there the weekend after next. The bride’s mother is friends with Mrs. O’Malley. You could come as my date, and we could treat it like an undercover investigation.”

“They’ll recognize you, of course,” he said with the inscrutable gaze that made the skin at the back of her neck heat.

“If Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley are there they might, but I’d imagine they mostly have managers running things. And if any of the other family members see us there it’ll be too late to change or hide anything. What do you say?”

He scrubbed his hand across his chin. “Maybe.”

Lane as her date at a wedding, where she’d have the chance to get dressed up, and possibly even dance with him? She shivered a little with excitement. Maybe the seduction of Lane Griffiths had a chance after all. But that was more than a week away, and she couldn’t wait that long. “Of course they’re not going to have the Greek choices on their menu that we have here, so I also think it’s important for us to visit some contemporary Greek restaurants.”

He nodded. “There’s a good one near me, Costa’s Cuizina.”

“How about we go there tomorrow night?” She felt a little light-headed as all the possible ways she could get closer to him materialized. She might not have him hooked yet, but at least they were heading in the right direction now, and when the time was right she’d reel him in.

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I can’t tomorrow night. I have an appointment.”

An appointment, or a date? Suddenly, stage one in her plan to seduce Lane Griffiths began to unravel in front of her.

…

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Yasmin’s face slackened and she twirled a piece of her Day-Glo hair between her fingers. “Here’s me inviting you out for dinner and attempting to commandeer your weekend, and your whole life for the next month, without considering what else you might have going on.” She bit her lip and looked at him with those big brown eyes…as though he’d asked her out and then decided he had something better to do.

“No problem.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and flicked to the calendar so she’d think he could keep his eyes off her. Even though he couldn’t. He was pretty sure tomorrow night’s meeting was the only thing he had all week, but Yasmin didn’t need to know that. “How about tonight?”

The rose tint that he’d seen yesterday crawled up her neck, and Yasmin waved the air with her hand. He’d never considered that a blush could be so sexy until he’d seen one on Yasmin. “No, I was just getting carried away. You’re the restaurant professional. I’m sure you know enough about Greek food already, or else you can talk to your friends about it.” She picked up another of the brochures and flipped through it. “And I’m going to Paul’s wedding anyway, there’s no reason you have to come with me to that.”

Surprised by the hurt tone in her voice, he stopped scrolling through the calendar and looked at her. “Actually, I don’t know a lot about Greek food—apart from your mom’s cooking. Hers was the only home-cooked food I had when I was young. My mother always took me out for dinner after she left my father, and Dad was clueless about cooking, so when I was with him we lived off takeout.”

Yasmin tipped her head to one side and frowned. “Then how on earth did you get into the restaurant business? I just pictured all restaurateurs having grown up with good food and home cooking.”

“When I was sixteen, I’d gotten sick of the to-ing and fro-ing between my parents, and I wanted to avoid it all so I started washing dishes in a local restaurant. I’d known from watching your parents that running a food joint took a lot of time and energy, but I also liked being around lots of people all the time. I never had that at home.”

“Things must have been hard for you.”

Her eyes had softened and he cleared his throat, not wanting to go down that road with her. Or anyone. “I think you’re right,” he said as he went back to looking at his calendar. “We should take a look at some fresh ideas, and tonight works for me. We don’t have a lot of time for this. I only have a month until construction begins on my new restaurant complex, so the sooner we get on it the better.”

“Then you could go with Leo. He’ll need to be involved with the changes to the menu,” she said as if she was having second thoughts about spending time with him.

He rubbed his hand at the back of his neck. A minute ago she was excited and making constructive plans about how they should tackle this, and now she was backing off. Maybe he’d given her the impression that he didn’t take her or this project seriously enough. It was true that his project in Manhattan was his lifelong dream—being the best of the best and being in charge of his own destiny. He wouldn’t let anything get in the way of achieving that, but he wanted her to know what this renovation meant to him, too.

“I always loved sitting around your family’s dinner table.” And he didn’t mean Pia’s perfect cheese pies, or the desserts running with honey and nuts; he meant the warmth and the noise, and the good-humored banter that he still looked forward to every time he visited here. “I used to dream about your noisy family dinners and the way every problem could be solved by a good meal.” He had a clearer memory of her as a kid now; she always seemed kind of shy when she was around him and Nick, but with her whole family, she was just as loud and confident as they were. “So, I’m off to dinner with Leo?”

Her face fell and she held her hands out. “Actually, no, I’ve just remembered, Leo
can’t
go with you tonight. Because of the award for his bread business, Grace is hoping for extra bookings in the restaurant, so she’ll want him to be here.”

Lane nodded. “Then it’ll just be you and me. Eating a whole pile of dolmas and coming up with our plan.”

…

Lane checked his messages while he waited in his car for Yasmin to come downstairs early that evening. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d been roped into being with her around food again—watching her savor a whole three courses could be dangerous to his health. He was gambling his survival on the fact that a Greek restaurant wouldn’t serve whipped cream.

She’d tried to convince him to meet her at Costa’s, but he’d been around the Katsalos family long enough to know what were the right and wrong ways to call on a woman, whether it was a business meeting or not, and she’d agreed to his waiting outside. Treating a woman with respect had been one of Mano’s mantras.

He’d learned way more about those sorts of life lessons from Mano Katsalos than he had from his own father. His dad was more interested in scoring points from his mom as they passed him back and forth from week to week. They split when he was two, so he had no real memory of happy family times until he’d met Nick and been welcomed into his family. Of course his future would be filled with many happy times now, running his own restaurant in the most modern hotel in the world. He’d create his own memories from now on.

Hearing a door shut, he looked up through the windshield. As soon as he saw Yasmin walking toward him, his breathing stopped. She looked like a style icon from a midcentury movie, all color and shine and heart-seizing beauty. He got out of the car and went to open the door for her, still watching her every move.

She was wearing the most shockingly green dress he’d ever seen. It was an Amy Winehouse 1950s sort of thing, with a tight waist and a flared skirt, and it absolutely, 100 percent clashed with the purple of her hair. Enormous hoop earrings swayed against her neck as she walked. The look on her face suggested she didn’t give a damn about anything, a grin stretching from ear to ear.

“Thanks,” she said as she slid into the passenger seat before he moved around to the driver’s side.

“So is this the way you treat all your dates?” She grinned as he got in. “Opening doors like an old movie star?”

While this might look like a date—and the feeling when he’d first seen her might make it feel like one—they both needed to remember that it was anything but. “Only the ones with fathers who would line me up against a wall and shoot me if I didn’t treat their little girls right.” He started the engine and pulled out into the street.

“But Dad is miles across the Atlantic,” Yasmin said. “I’m going to pretend you did it because that’s the way you always like to treat a girl.” She brushed the fabric of the skirt across her knees. “I’m glad we could do this tonight, on account of the date you have tomorrow.”

“Yes, it worked out well.” He wasn’t sure what had given her the idea his meeting tomorrow was a date. “What sort of things were you hoping to look at tonight?”

She frowned, then shifted on her seat. “I’m hoping we’ll get inspiration for new things to put on the menu, but I also want to get new ideas for decor. We don’t want to change the special Greek atmosphere of the Palace’s restaurant, but there must be ways to make it more fresh.”

“I agree. According to my research, there are still plenty of families who hold on to their Greek traditions but who aren’t having their weddings at the Palace. Why do you think that is?”

Yasmin shrugged and the puffy sleeve of her dress slipped a little, baring a shoulder, and he imagined reaching over and touching her smooth skin.

“I don’t know. I suspect it’s because Mom and Dad haven’t moved with the times,” she said, oblivious to his distraction. “The first- and second-generation kids still want to hold on to some of the old traditions, but they want to incorporate American things too. I think if we can get a balance, we’ll be on the right track.”