truck. A half an hour later, two more vehicles pulled up alongside Ryan’s, and she watched four strong-looking men in dusty jeans make their way inside. It took everything she had not to race over there just to watch, but she vowed to give them some time to get settled. Instead, she focused on her lunch service. Today, seventeen-year-old Chelsea would be her sous chef in the truck. Whisper Wall High School had a growing culinary program, and Gabriella had eagerly signed up to be a spotlight professional as well as a mentor. Interested students applied to work in the truck for a small wage, class credit, and the experience of working alongside an established career chef. Currently, she had about four or five students who rotated as part of the official internship program, and they had wildly different personalities and skill sets. Chelsea was a talkative firecracker with knife skills that needed some work.
“The thing is, guys are, like, dumb anyway,” Chelsea exclaimed exuberantly as she sliced zucchini into strips that could have been a little more uniform in Gabriella’s opinion. “Geoffrey Johnson, he’s this one guy. He acts like he’s into you one minute, and then the next, he’s staring at Rachel Marie’s ass and your heart is on the floor like a loser, you know?”
“Oh, that’s awful. High school isn’t easy, but you have to know that everything is temporary,” Gabriella said, as she seasoned the batter for the zucchini fritti. “About six more,” she said with a nod to the cutting board.
“I mostly like Brandon Newton, though, who runs track and likes to draw, because he doesn’t care about things like labels or name brands. I feel like we could go to the mall and really live our lives.”
Gabriella nodded obligatorily. “Mall living. So important. Maybe a little thinner on those slices.”
“God, I love the mall,” Chelsea opined, swinging her knife wistfully. “I wish it were closer because clothes sold in a big group is the only way to go. You have to comparison shop to have any hope in this world.”
“Yep. Just watch that knife. It should be below your shoulders at all times.”
“Oh, sorry. Have I told you about Chase Henderson? He’s insane. There was this one time with mice when things really got out of control.”
The conversation went on like that through lunch service, and though Gabriella was grateful for Chelsea’s help, the teenager could maybe brush up on her professionalism in the kitchen. Something they could delicately address when it came time for class evaluations, a thought she didn’t relish. She much preferred giving praise, but if her culinary education had taught her anything, it was that criticism was more attention getting.
However, on the bright side, the constant chatter had kept Gabriella’s curiosity about the construction just a hundred yards away tamped down. Didn’t mean she didn’t plan to peek in on the progress once she closed shop for the day at four. Just casually breeze by like a lookie-loo at an open house.
“Hope I’m not interrupting,” she called into the space that now resembled an actual construction site. Whoa. Chunks of drywall lay all over the floor, which was covered in plastic sheeting. The dividing wall, which luckily had not been load bearing, was halfway gone. Ryan grabbed a loose piece of the wall with her bare hands and tossed it to the floor, removed her mask, and grinned. Okay, that was a look right there. Gabriella’s breath caught as Ryan stood before her in soft-looking faded jeans, a gray and white ringer T-shirt, and a really sexy ponytail that showcased a gentle wave in her medium-length dark hair, shorter than Gabriella’s and maybe two touches lighter. The dimples that appeared in both her damn cheeks were not to be glossed over either, nor was the sparkle in her blue eyes. She carried a passion for her job, and it showed.
“Not interrupting. What do you think?” Ryan held out her arms to showcase the utter destruction. “Not exactly pretty, but demo day rarely is.”
“No, no. I would say not. So, that’s where the bar will go?”
“Yep.” Ryan ran her forearm across her forehead, and Gabriella swallowed at the pleasant hum it sent to her midsection. That was too sexy for the afternoon. “I have an order in to a carpenter I know. She’s already secured a gorgeous shipment of mahogany that she’s setting aside for us. Knock-you-over beautiful. I think you’ll love it.”
“I do already.” She shifted her weight, wildly aware