Wrapped Up in You - Jill Shalvis Page 0,32
down and inside out.
The event was not much different than any of the others she’d catered for Caleb and his associates. Huge, gorgeous house that had probably cost more money than most developing countries’ annual yield. Important people milling around in their couture finery; men in costly suits, women in gowns looking like they hadn’t eaten in weeks to fit into said gowns.
But as she’d learned the hard way, people at these things tended to eat like ravished vultures no matter how they looked, so she always doubled her per person portions when figuring out how much food to cook.
The following hours flew by in a whirlwind of restocking trays and keeping everything fresh and looking good. Before Ivy knew it, it was ten o’clock and the party was winding down. She was gathering her now empty trays when Kel reappeared in the kitchen.
She hadn’t seen him since he’d dropped her off. She’d assumed he hadn’t stayed. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s the second time you’ve asked me that tonight alone. Not exactly trusting, are you.” He took the huge stack of trays from her and turned to the back door.
“I already told you that trusting isn’t in my vocabulary,” she said to his back.
“We’ll work on that,” he said without slowing down or turning to face her. “And I’m here for you, to take you home.”
His calm thoughtfulness made her feel curmudgeonly. “Caleb needs to mind his own business.”
“Caleb didn’t ask me. I’m here of my own free will.” And then he walked out the door, only to return a minute later, arms empty. He took another stack of trays and gave her a challenging look, like what would you like to fight about now?
She gave another heavy sigh. “I’m sorry.”
“For what, your sweet, sunshine-like nature? For assuming the worst of me? For apparently not knowing how to retract your claws?”
She had to laugh. “All of the above.”
He smiled, and she got the feeling he liked the sound of her laugh, which also made her all warm and fuzzy again. Dammit.
He merely bowed his head in acceptance of her apology and vanished outside again. She followed with the last of the load and got into his truck. She’d just buckled her seatbelt and he’d done the same when her stomach rumbled so loudly it echoed off the windshield.
Kel turned to her, brow up.
Horrified, she pressed her hands to her belly and pressed hard. “Ignore that.”
Kel flashed a grin. “You made all that amazing food and didn’t feed yourself, did you.”
“I was busy.”
He started driving. Ten minutes later, he parked at an all-night diner in the Marina District.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“Feeding the beast.”
The diner was mostly empty at this time of night. It looked like it’d been opened in the 1950s and not renovated since. Black-and-white linoleum, steel tables, bright red booths. It was, however, done up for the holidays within an inch of its life. The walls and every available surface were twinkling with multicolored strings of lights and decorations.
It was a seat yourself sort of situation, so Kel gestured for her to pick a spot and she headed toward a booth, stopping short when she realized that hanging in front of each booth was a sprig of mistletoe.
Kel stopped too, and toe-to-toe with her, they both looked up.
“Don’t even think about kissing me again,” she warned.
He grinned.
“Because I’m not thinking about it,” she said. “So you shouldn’t either.”
“Honey, I’ve done nothing but think of it.”
Something deep inside her hummed in pleasure at that, but she ignored it and slid into the booth. Grabbing two menus sticking out of a holder, she tossed him one. “Have you been here before?” she asked.
“No. But the flashing sign in the window says Best Pancakes Ever, and I’m planning on testing out that promise.”
“Do you eat a lot of pancakes?”
“Whenever I can. None as good as yours though.”
She tried and failed to not be secretly pleased by that and eyed his leanly muscular build. “Where do you put it?”
“Good metabolism,” he said.
“Plus hard work,” she guessed. “You, Spence, and Jake go for miles every morning.”
“Do you ever run?”
“Only if I’m on fire.”
He laughed. “A coworker and I used to run in the mornings, then hit up a local diner. We won the pancake eating contest three years in a row.”
“If I ate pancakes every day, I’d weigh two tons. Is your coworker off work for these two weeks too?”
Kel looked at her for a long moment. “My coworker’s in jail,”