His Horizon - Con Riley Page 0,54

them? No.” Jude pulled more lengths from his duffle in shades of vivid blue, yellow, and orange. “She likes…liked souvenirs, kept every single one that Lou and I brought home from school trips, so I bought these for her; thought they’d be what she would have chosen to bring home. You know…. Bright and cheerful?” He didn’t use the words that Rob no doubt would have—gaudy tat—sure that he was thinking them regardless. “I’m not sure why I bothered. It’s not as if they’ll come to any use now.”

“I don’t know.” Rob fingered the fabric before Jude could stuff it back where it came from. “They are kind of eye-catching.” He asked quietly, “What would she have done with them? Worn them?”

“More likely, she would have made something from them.”

“Made something?”

“For the pub. To decorate it. To show where they’d been.”

“That sounds… jolly?”

“But not exactly five-star, I know.” It was a good reminder. There were still some last-minute touch-ups he needed to make with his pot of white paint. “Come on.”

He left Rob in the kitchen, but not before double-checking. “You sure you want to be stuck back here when he arrives?” Surely it made more sense to have Rob out front? Charming a critic’s socks off was much more his skillset.

“It’s got to be me who cooks for him.” Rob rolled up the sleeves of his white chef’s jacket as if he meant business. “He was one of the first reviewers when Dad opened in London. He wants to compare what I serve him to the meal that Dad served.”

“Seems a bit mean, pitting you against each other.”

“‘Mean’ sells lots of newspapers.” Rob surveyed the contents of the fridge. “Maybe lightning will strike twice.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are thousands of restaurants in London. That review got a lot of attention.”

“Because Guy Parsons slammed his cooking?”

“No. He loved it, and that happens so rarely that Dad’s first restaurant was sold out from the moment it opened. He was booked solid for months.”

“So that’s why he asked him to come to review us early? He wants to give you the same signal boost all of that early good publicity gave him?” That had to be the reason, but Rob acted like Jude hadn’t spoken.

He wiped down his counter rather than look up, speaking under his breath. “I’ve practised my menu enough times I could cook it with my eyes closed,” he said as if reading a checklist. “Lou’s got the atmosphere in the bar covered. She’s invited Marc and his friends, plus Carl and Susan, who are bringing their family as well, so it should look good and busy, even if the rest of the village is deserted.” He was so different like this; stern and laser-focussed when it turned out that Jude much preferred him soft and sleep rumpled. There was no sign of the clingy octopus he’d woken tangled up with as Rob checked another task off his list. “The bedrooms and bathrooms are shipshape?” he asked Jude, only slightly relaxing at Jude’s nod. “Then as long as what I cook goes exactly to plan, there’s very little that can go wrong.” He sounded sure but the hand he used to pick up a paring knife shook. Jude itched to take it from him.

“Let me prep for you,” Jude urged. He had far more patience for it than Rob, who had cut corners Jude wouldn’t have dreamed of at each stage of the contest.

“Nope,” Rob said, perhaps reading Jude’s mind. “I’m not going to cut a single corner. Besides, too many cooks, and all that.”

“Okay.” Jude mentally ran through his own chore list as he pushed the kitchen door open before Rob called him back.

“Hey. Aren’t you forgetting something?” He pointed to his chest, tip of the knife blade tapping right where it would say kiss-the-cook if he wore Jude’s mum’s apron. His expression cracked for a second, worry showing. “Just one for luck?”

Jude could spare more than one, he thought, as he crossed the kitchen. The knife clattered onto the counter when Jude did much more than peck the cheek Rob offered, his hands coming up to Jude’s nape and shoulder, holding on tight as Jude nudged his mouth open. Jude was the lucky one, he decided, as Rob melted as their kiss deepened. No judgement from some uptight London critic could change his opinion.

“Wow.” Rob was nicely breathless, his smile much more cheerful. “What was that for?”

“For luck, like you said.” Jude took another quick kiss, Lou