Flirting with Temptation - By Kelley St. John Page 0,67
it without flirting, then he has to talk to Kitty, and I get to keep my hundred percent rating, and Kitty’s money.”
“What I don’t understand is why you don’t just meet with him, do your people reading thing, like you’re going to do for us, and then tell him why he and Kitty should be together,” Tillie said, making it all sound so easy. And it would be, if Jeff was like any normal Love Doctor assignment. But he wasn’t. And that was the problem.
“She can’t,” Rose said flatly, running a hand over the rolled biscuit dough and patting the yeast bubbles as she did. “Did you see how I did this, Babette? You roll gently. If you bear down too hard, you’ll make the dough too flat, and the biscuits will be harder than rocks.”
“I saw,” Babette said. “But I probably still need to do some myself, don’t you think?”
“Oh, definitely. I just knew you were busy with the gravy this time. We’ll do biscuits again another day.”
“What do you mean she can’t?” Tillie asked, unswayed by the cooking instruction in the middle of their conversation. “Why can’t you just get them together the way you do everyone else?” She turned an accusing eye toward Rose. “You told all of us that she never misses, that she could help us with the guys at Sunny Beaches, and all we had to do was teach her how to cook.”
Rose pursed her lips. “She doesn’t miss.” Then she opened Babette’s cabinets until she found the glasses, got one and turned it upside down, then pressed it in the rolled dough to cut the first biscuit. Babette watched with awe, and promptly got a hand slap from Tillie.
“You can’t stop stirring the gravy.”
“Right. Sorry,” Babette said, then turned her attention back to her own project.
“And why can’t you do the normal Love Doctor thing with Jeff?” Tillie pressed.
“I can’t read him,” Babette said honestly. “Or I forget to, or something. But I’ve been with him a few times since I got here, and not once have I even thought to check for body language, or signals when he says Kitty’s name, or anything. It’s like I totally blank out when I’m around him. He’s not like anyone else I’ve ever talked to.”
“Wonder why that is,” Rose muttered from the other side of the kitchen.
“So, are you just going to ignore him the rest of the time you’re here?” Tillie asked. “And what good will that do?”
“I know I can’t ignore him the whole time, but I’m going to keep it up as long as I can. If he doesn’t see me, he can’t see me flirting. And if I can pull off not flirting until next week, then he’ll have to see her, talk to Kitty, and I’ll keep my business thriving. Better than thriving, with Kitty Carelle on my list of satisfied clients.”
“And you won’t even have to read him,” Tillie surmised.
“That’s the plan, though there is the problem of Kitty wanting to know something now. She wants me to tell her something about Jeff’s comments regarding her.”
“And if you don’t talk to him about her, you’ve got nil, right?” Tillie asked.
Babette nodded.
Rose mumbled something else, but Babette didn’t catch it.
“What are you saying over there?” Babette asked, while Tillie popped her wrist, and then she promptly picked back up with her stirring in progress.
“I’m saying that he’s not the one who needs reading around here. You are.”
“What?” Babette asked, while the phone rang again. “Rose, can you get it this time?”
“I’m not lying to him,” she said, the same way she had every other time he’d called.
Babette looked at Tillie. “Will you finish stirring it for me? I get the gist of it now. Keep it on low heat, and stir it forever.”
Tillie smirked, took over control of the wooden spoon. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Okay, go get in the bed,” she said, shooing Babette out of the kitchen.
Babette dashed through the condo and dived into the bed at the very moment that Rose picked up the phone.
“Hello,” Rose said sweetly. “Oh, hi, Jeff. Yeah, I couldn’t get to the phone a little bit ago, busy cooking some dinner for Babette. We’re having breakfast for supper. I always like having breakfast for supper. Kind of changes things up, you know.” She was rambling, and Babette listened appreciatively. Thanks to the Lidocaine, aloe and Ibuprofen, she’d felt relatively normal by Sunday afternoon. Monday was even better, and today even more.