Cale was thinking that perhaps he should arrange an outing for her to try both activities, when she said, "I'm sorry about roping you into work tonight when you're here to visit family."
"Not at all," he said at once. "I merely would have been sitting in my hotel tonight anyway." It wasn't true of course. Cale probably would have been having a powwow with Marguerite and Lucian, and most likely Sam and Mortimer, trying to figure out a different way to get close to Alex. In fact, her bad luck had actually been his good fortune ... even if he couldn't cook.
"I doubt you would have been sitting in a hotel," Alex said at once. "Your family is probably eager to see you and ..." She paused and quit painting to frown down at him. "Working for me would prevent your seeing them."
"They all have jobs," he said quickly. "Working would fill my time while they were unavailable."
"Oh, yes, I hadn't thought of that," she said, but her hand had slowed and she glanced down to ask, "You're staying in a hotel rather than with your relatives?"
Cale chuckled at the question. "I had several offers to stay with relatives, but since most of them just got married, I thought they might not really appreciate my intruding."
"Most of them just got married?" Alex glanced down at him sharply. "You aren't related to that family Sam is always talking about, are you? The Argeneaus? Theyjust had some big multicouple wedding in New York last weekend."
Cale nodded. "I flew to New York for the wedding, stayed in the city for several days to do some business and see a Broadway show or two, and then flew up here."
"When are you flying home?" she asked.
Cale paused. He hadn't actually set a date. He'd left his return date open because he hadn't been sure how long he'd wish to stay. He'd wanted to look into business opportunities here while visiting. Mind you, he hadn't expected to be taking on a job in such short order but was happy to go with what fate was presently offering if it allowed him a chance to win Alex. The question was, how long would that take?
Frowning, he rubbed his stomach absently as he tried to figure it out. He knew mortals expected a courtship. But how long would that take? A week? Two weeks? Months?
"Two months," he answered, just to be on the safe side.
"You can take that much time away from your businesses?" Alex asked with surprise.
"Good bosses understand that working themselves to exhaustion does no one any good," he said meaningfully, glancing at his watch. When Alex grimaced at the gentle reprimand, he added, "I have good employees working for me, ones I trust to handle the day-today issues. They will call if anything important comes up, but otherwise, probably won't even miss me."
"Huh," Alex muttered. "It must be nice."
"You have good people working for you," Cale said quietly. "I suspect Peter wasn't, but Bev is a jewel, and Bobby and Rebecca seem quite competent."
"They are," she agreed. "Bev has been a surprise. She held Bobby's job before, and I've always known she was good, but she's slid into the sous-chef position as smoothly as if she's always been doing it. I actually considered promoting her to head chef and looking for her replacement."
"Why didn't you?" Cale asked.
Alex hesitated, then admitted wryly, "Because I'm hoping to return to the position of head chef myself eventually and would feel bad about demoting her when I did."
"Ah," Cale said with understanding. Rubbing his stomach, he paused to peer at their work. He was finished with the lower portion of the wall all the way to the end and ready to start on the next wall. Alex was a little further behind, but that was a good thing. He could get started on the next wall and be out of the way of her ladder by the time she got there. He shifted his tray to get started.
"So, what got you into cooking?" Cale asked as he set back to work.
Alex smiled faintly and admitted, "Believe it or not, it was my grandfather."
"Really?" he asked with interest and glanced around to see her nod.
"He was a cook in the army when he was young, and then a line cook when he came back. He loved to cook and sort of infected me with it." She paused to run herroller in paint and then said, "He was my best friend."
Cale raised an eyebrow. "Your grandfather?"
"Yeah." Alex laughed at his expression, and then shrugged. "My family moved every year until I was about ten. It made it hard to make and keep friends."
"Why did your family move so much?"
Alex blew her breath out, but said, "My dad was a mechanic who wanted his own shop and was also handy around the house, and my mom was a secretary with a good eye for interior design who supported his dream. The year I was born, they bought an old heap of a house, spent a year fixing it up around their jobs, and then sold it and bought another. They did that every year until I was about ten, when they finally had enough money to start Dad's garage.
"That's when Gramps, my mother's father, moved in. Mom and Dad worked long hours to make a go of the garage, and Gramps had just retired. His health wasn't very good, so he moved in to help out with us kids. I have two younger sisters," she paused to explain. "Sam you've met, and the baby of the family is Jo, who's traveling in Europe right now with her boyfriend."
"Anyway, the years Gramps lived with us were the best ever," she said with a fond smile. "Every day after school, we'd come home to find him whistling as he pulled cookies or some other small treat from the oven. He'd say, 'Do your homework, girls, and you can have one ... But only one each. We don't want to spoil your appetite for dinner.' " She chuckled. "We used to rush through our homework in record time, and then he'd bring the treats out and sit down with us at the table,and we'd all eat one with a glass of milk while we told him about our day."