The Wedding Gift (2 page)

Five minutes later, Julie found a truck selling one of the best falafels she’d tasted in a long while. She enjoyed sitting on a bench in a nearby park that looked out over the San Francisco Bay. Still, she didn’t linger long over lunch, and when she returned to the Rose Chalet in thirty minutes, Julie was surprised to see that Rose was also returning from her lunch date with the doctor.

If this was how fast Rose always moved, Julie mused, no wonder RJ had to scheme to get her to stand still for a few minutes.

RJ was working on the frames for a couple of the flower beds with his sleeves rolled up and nodded a hello to them. “How was lunch?”

“Great, thanks,” Julie said.

Instead of answering him, Rose turned to Julie. “Our guests will be here soon. Julie, is the food ready?”

“It’s all prepped,” Julie said. “I just have to finish it off when the bride and groom get here.”

Rose nodded, clearly making check marks on a long mental list. “I’ll phone you on your cell the moment they arrive, and we can go from there. Oh, and could you make sure that everything is fine in the dining room? I checked the layout, but—”

But a small tornado might have hit in the meantime?

Julie shook off her snarky thought. Rose was right–everything should be perfect for a bride and groom on their wedding day.

After verifying that everything in the dining room was indeed perfect, Julie headed for the kitchen. She was almost at the swinging door when she realized, with no small amount of horror, that she’d forgotten about the duck. Thank God she hadn’t lingered over lunch!

She was just salvaging the bird from the oven with only mild burns to her fingers when Rose rang her cell phone. Julie picked up, barely remembering to mumble a “hello” as she sliced into the bird and confirmed with a loud sigh of relief that it was fine.

All of which was why it took her a few beats longer than it should have to register what Rose was saying to her. “They’re here already?”

“
He
is,” Rose corrected.

“The bride sent the groom over alone?” Julie couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. What bride wouldn’t be there for the planning of her own wedding?

“The groom’s brother, actually,” Rose said. “We’ll be through to the dining room in about fifteen minutes.”

The groom’s brother?

Julie pushed the question aside as she hurriedly got to work putting the finishing touches to the food. When she was finished, she balanced the plates as best she could for the short walk out to the dining area.

Rose and the groom’s brother were just coming in, giving Julie a quick glimpse of a well-dressed, dark haired man who looked to be in his early thirties. She bent over her plates for a few moments to make sure there were no errant splashes of sauce or seasoning along the rims.

“This is Julie, who will be handling the catering for your brother’s wedding. Julie, I’d like you to meet Andrew.”

Julie looked up, her best smile in place as she met the newcomer’s dark eyes. She was instantly aware of his strong, handsome features with just a trace of stubble, his dimples, and how his well-tailored suit showcased his athletic frame. Normally, Julie’s smile would have widened at least a little in feminine appreciation.

Instead, it faltered on her lips, and it was only by the faintest thread of control that she managed to hold it in place at all.

Julie recognized those features. It was hard not to, really, when she had spent so much time staring at them. After all, this was the face that beamed out at her from the Cuisine Channel. They were the features of a man that practically any chef would have dreaded having in her dining room.

And…they just so happened to be the picture-perfect features that had been staring out over the restaurant review that had ruined her life.

“You’re Andrew Kyle.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Julie.”

Of course, Julie had to take hold of his outstretched hand. She couldn’t just ignore the brother of a potential customer, especially not with Rose watching.

That was no excuse, however, for noticing how strong his hands were, his palm and fingers slightly scarred from the old burns and cuts that anyone who cooked for a living acquired.

“Have you been working here long?” he asked.

How could Julie answer that? “
Ever since a two star review wrecked my life”
lacked a certain something. The same went for the silent-movie version of simply dumping a plate of salad over his head.

In the end, she had to settle for a tame, “No, not very long.”

“Julie has graciously agreed to help us out with this one wedding now that her aunt has retired,” Rose supplied, obviously determined to make up for Julie’s lack of social skills.

Julie managed to nod. “Sorry,” she said. “I need to get back to the kitchen to check on the main courses. Enjoy the first course.”

Unfortunately, the odds on Andrew Kyle enjoying anything she cooked were so remote that they probably had Ozark mountain men living in them.

Back in the kitchen, she leaned against the door and took a deep breath. The worst part, it turned out, wasn’t being surprised by Andrew’s sudden appearance at her new job.

It was that he hadn’t even recognized her.

However, as Julie realized exactly how much there still was to do to both the main courses and the desserts, she knew the
worst
part would be yet to come if she served unfinished food to one of the biggest celebrity chefs on the west coast.

Not only would Andrew know he’d been right about her substandard cooking, but Rose would undoubtedly fire her.

Chapter Two

It wasn’t easy trying to finish off the main courses and desserts, knowing all the while that Andrew Kyle was probably out there telling Rose exactly how awful Julie’s food was. And Rose would listen, of course, because what else would she be able to do in the face of a triple whammy: celebrity chef, the groom’s brother, and great dimples?

Enough about the dimples
, Julie ordered herself.
Just remember what he did
.

It was pretty hard to forget. One review from the city’s most prominent TV chef, and her business had come crashing down around her ears. The faint trickle of new customers Julie had hoped would widen into a stream dried up completely. Her entire dream went south in a matter of weeks, all thanks to the man who was currently sampling Julie’s seafood platter.

Well, she couldn’t let him ruin this dream too. Which meant Julie couldn’t do anything horrible to his food, even if a small part of her wanted the revenge.

The truth was, the best revenge would be to show him just how wrong he had been. All she had to do was present him with the best plates of food in her life, and then force him to eat his words.

Easy.

Though if it was that easy, why was her hand shaking while she finished the duck? She needed to focus, take her time, and—

“Is everything okay?”

Julie jumped at the sound of Andrew’s voice, almost slicing a finger open in the process.

What was he doing in her kitchen? Had he finally realized who she was? Had he come to gloat?

Or, maybe, to apologize for what he’d done?

Knowing anything she really wanted to say to him would get her instantly fired by Rose, Julie settled for, “I’m not sure you should be in here.”

“No, it’s fine—”

“Julie,” she reminded him, like he hadn’t just been told her name a few minutes ago. “Julie Delgado.”

Was there a flicker of recognition in his eyes? Did he even vaguely remember her name?

Then again, why would he? He was a famous chef. She was a nobody who couldn’t keep her own kitchen open and was now cooking for scraps at a wedding venue.

“I asked Rose before I came in to see the kitchen where the food for the wedding might be prepared.”

“
Might
be?”

“My brother and his fiancé deserve the best. I promised I’d cast my chef’s eye over it. Which is why I’d appreciate it if you could bring the desserts out with the main courses and stay with us as we go through everything.” He flashed that brilliant smile of his. “After all, I’m sure the two of us will have a lot to talk about.”

For a moment, Julie wondered if he meant the review, but those darn dimples of his were turning her brain just enough to mush so that all she could manage was, “Will we?”

“Sure,” Andrew replied, with another smile.

Oh my God, after all he’d done, was he actually flirting with her?

Julie just barely resisted the urge to hit him with the nearest thing on hand, but only because it happened to be a saucepan full of steadily reducing plum sauce. Of all the arrogant…

Again, Julie forced herself to take a deep breath and reminded herself that since she obviously wasn’t important enough for the big star to remember, why
wouldn’t
he try out the charm that had everybody else fooled?

“I’d be happy to bring out everything at once,” Julie said, if only because it seemed like the quickest way to get him out of her kitchen. “Just give me a minute or two.”

Actually, it was more like ten, but at least for those blissful minutes, Julie didn’t have to worry about anything more serious than whether her gateaux had set properly, and how she was possibly going to balance everything. As fun as it might be to dream of ‘accidentally’ tripping and covering Andrew Kyle with food, Julie knew perfectly well that she wasn’t going to do it.

In the end, she was surprised when Andrew got up to help her with the plates and even made a trip to the kitchen to carry out the desserts.

Once they sat back down, Andrew examined the plates with a critical eye. Beside him, Rose’s expression was indecipherable. Of course, she was probably as concerned as Julie was that this should go well, and if she’d ever watched
Edgy Eats
–or read one of Andrew’s restaurant reviews–Rose would know how harsh his judgments could be.

Taking a spare seat at the table, Julie looked at the plates that held the first course. What reception had Andrew given them?

It was impossible to tell with any certainty. He hadn’t eaten much of each dish, but he’d clearly eaten
some
of everything, so maybe that was a good sign. Julie fidgeted, then clasped her hands under the table to keep them still. She risked another glance at Rose, but there were no clues there.

“I’ve already tried the seafood and salad, but let’s finish trying everything else and then I’ll give you my thoughts at the end.”

Watching Andrew Kyle eat was an experience. He didn’t talk between bites, as though that would in some way spoil his concentration. Instead he assembled the food carefully on his fork, closing his eyes and letting his nose take in the scent of it for a moment before he finally pushed it into that sensuous mouth.

Julie found herself briefly entranced by the way he clearly wanted to involve as many of his senses as possible, by the fact that he seemed to treat food as something truly important.

Of course, that didn’t make up for the way he kept Julie and Rose waiting while he tasted everything. In fact, the only time he spoke at all was about halfway through, when he glanced up and raised an eyebrow.

“Aren’t you going to join in, Julie?”

“Worried I might have done something to the food?”

Andrew laughed at that although Rose was clearly less than pleased by the barely veiled testiness in Julie’s question.

“Come on, join me. I always feel weird tasting things alone. Rose?”

Rose held up her hands. “I just had lunch.”

Andrew returned his gaze to Julie. “Looks like it’s just you and me, then.”

It was clearly a challenge. Besides, Julie knew she was never going to get away with the same excuse as Rose.

She picked up a fork and attacked the sample dishes she had produced as best she could. She’d always eaten like that; Aunt Evie sometimes laughingly asked if she thought her food was going to be snatched away in a minute.

Julie worked to concentrate on the taste of everything, looking for anything that the celebrity chef might try to pick up on. Were the scallops perfectly seared? Was the texture of the cake right? Was there any little mistake at all that was going to cause a problem?

She almost sighed with relief as she tasted the results of her efforts. As far as she could tell, everything had come out without any problems at all.

Poke holes in that, Andrew Kyle.

Apparently, Rose was as eager to know the outcome as Julie was. “What do you think?” she asked Andrew.

Julie couldn’t help noticing the way Rose’s tone became so much more formal around an important client.

“Is everything to your satisfaction?”

Andrew put his fork down carefully. “It’s all well cooked,” he said. “The scallops are nicely done and the fish goes well with them. The salad is crisp and fresh. The plum sauce with the duck is just right, and I like the richness of the gateaux.”

“Well, that’s great,” Rose said. “I’m sure that Julie can produce everything to exactly the same standards come the actual wedding day.”

“I’m sure of that too,” Andrew said.

But, somehow, the compliment didn’t make Julie feel as warm and fuzzy inside as it should have. Maybe it was the tone in which he said it.

Rose seemed determined to ignore his less than thrilled tone. Or maybe she just hoped that if she pressed on, everything would be fine. “Why don’t you sign off on the menu, then, Mr. Kyle, and we’ll—”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that,” Andrew said, shaking his head.

“But you just said—”

“The food is well prepared,” he said, “but, unfortunately, it’s too bland.”

Bland.

It was the same word he’d used about her restaurant.

Julie’s hands closed on the tablecloth. “Bland?” she repeated.

Andrew nodded. “As I said, it’s fine, it’s just…frankly, it’s wedding food.”

“That’s what this food is for,” Julie had to point out. “A
wedding.
”

“Yes, but it’s for my brother’s wedding, and I’m sorry, this menu won’t work. It’s been done. There’s nothing exciting here. There’s no twist on any of the classic dishes, and there isn’t anything innovative, either. This is my wedding gift to my brother and his fiancée. It needs to be special. But nothing about this menu makes it clear that their wedding is a really special occasion.”