Chapter 2

Seth laughed. For someone only four feet, eleven inches, Karlee could raise the rafters if she wanted. Quiet was not usually her thing. Hell, even her hair was loud—a red that would rival anyone’s. She had the personality to pull it off, though. But with her delicate features, dimples, porcelain skin, and a smattering of freckles across her upturned nose, it was easy to get the wrong impression. Most people thought she was demure and sweet—until she spoke and shattered that image all to hell.

He grabbed one of the new pasta makers from a middle shelf and shifted it so he could carry it with his arms underneath. These things were heavier than he remembered from unloading them in the storeroom.

“You going to grow some balls and ask him out?”

Seth would have flipped her off again if his hands hadn’t been full, but he settled with shooting her a patented look-of-death that only made her cackle. It was a good thing they’d been friends since childhood and he loved her fiercely or he would have been pissed. He turned and pushed open the swinging door with his hip, then stuck his tongue out at her.

Karlee just laughed louder. “Mature.”

Seth rolled his eyes and concentrated on carrying the heavy pasta maker, but by the time he got to the counter, his arms felt like jelly and he knew he was close to dropping it.

“Here, let me help,” the sexy man offered, coming around the counter and lifting it from Seth’s arms as if it were made of feathers.

Seth stared at the muscles that flexed through the leather jacket and licked his lips. He watched as the guy settled the box onto the counter and walked back around to face him. When Seth raised his eyes to look into his face, his breath caught. Those blue eyes were looking back at him, expectantly.

Fuck. What am I doing again? Oh, yeah. My job.

“Um, cash again?”

The guy leaned across the counter. “No, Seth, I think I’m going to put this on my Visa today.”

Seth’s heart slammed against his ribs at the mention of his name coming from those gorgeous lips. “How-how did you…know my name?”

A slow grin spread across the man’s face as he reached across the counter and tapped Seth’s name tag with his index finger.

Seth felt his face heat and tried to cover his embarrassment with a cough. “Seth. Seth Robinson, actually.”

The guy only chuckled and leaned even closer. “This is new,” he whispered, bringing up his fingers and toying with Seth’s bangs for a second.

Seth’s eyes widened. “Um, yeah. Yesterday.” He shivered at the soft touch. “Purple,” he added needlessly.

Dream-guy shook his head. “Eggplant,” he countered, letting the strands fall through his fingers before dropping his hand.

Seth furrowed his brow. “Eggplant?”

He nodded. “I’m a chef. My life is food so I tend to look at colors from a food point of view. So to me, those look like eggplant highlights,” he explained, his eyes on Seth’s.

Seth cocked his head and looked him up and down as he thought about that. “So your jeans would be called ‘mustard yellow’?”

Dream-guy pulled away from the counter, looked down, and laughed. “Exactly!” His eyes danced as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and slipped out a credit card, passing it to Seth. “Interesting that you noticed my jeans rather than my blue shirt.” He winked.

Seth felt the heat in his cheeks again. Blueberry.Well, he wanted to say that, but he was too excited to look at the card and learn the guy’s name.

Chris Berger. Dream-guy is Chris Berger. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from shouting as he rang up the sale and handed back the credit card. “Thank you for shopping at Karlee’s Kitchen Essentials, Chris.”

Chris picked up the box and took the receipt. “Thanks. See you Thursday,” he said with another wink.

Seth tried not to gawk as he watched Chris walk out of the shop and into the sunshine, but damn, those mustard yellow jeans wrapped around an ass that Seth wanted to bite.

Chris turned to flash him a knowing grin, clearly aware that Seth had been ogling his ass.

Seth’s entire body flushed. But he kept his eyes on Chris until he couldn’t see him anymore

Karlee finally popped out of the back room and scanned the store. “He’s gone?”

Seth nodded. “And I know his name,” he told her in a rush. “Chris Berger. Isn’t that a perfect name?”

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Oh, God, am I going to get anywork out of you today?” 2

Two days later, when Thursday finally rolled around, Seth found himself distracted by the sound of the bell over the front door. Every time it wasn’t Chris, he grew more disappointed.