Making You Mine

Chapter - 8

Sunday morning, Sal rushed in early to get the week's inventory done as quickly as possible. He wanted to be out of there before the closing shift came in. He'd already called Jason. Sal was meeting him for a round of golf, and then he was stopping by Alex's. His mother was preparing a Sunday dinner over at Alex's house since Valerie couldn't get out of bed, and she wanted everyone to drop by.

Staying busy was good. It helped keep his mind off of other things. He'd finally admitted to himself that maybe he was a little attracted to Grace, but after seeing her with boyfriend number two, it squashed any possibilities. Besides, it was out of the question. She was too young for him and she was an employee. It would never work. He was stupid to have even considered the thought.

He sat back, staring straight ahead at the cabinets against the wall. It was just a physical thing. Even though, at first, he hadn't been very impressed by Grace, after being around her, he noticed a few things about her that could be construed as attractive: her big innocent eyes, the curves he hadn't been privy to on their first meeting because of the unflattering dress, the way there was no hiding her excitement even over the smallest things—a ball cap, and that laugh ... There was no way he could hear it and not smile.

Alex walked into the back room. "What's with the cheesy smile?"

Sal straightened out. "I was just thinking about something." He spun his chair around to face the computer. "Are Angel and Sarah gonna be there tonight?"

Sofia walked in. "I heard dad on the phone last night, so they better be." She giggled. "Is Grace here yet?"

Sal turned around. "No, she's closing."

"Well, she was," Sofia said, grabbing an apron out of the drawer. "I told her to come in early. We're gonna give her a shot in the kitchen. I figured Sunday is a good day for her since—"

"Wait," Sal said, feeling uneasy. "Who okayed this?"

Alex laughed. "What do you mean? We said we were gonna give her shot, so we're giving her a shot."

Sal couldn't care less about her in the kitchen at this point. He'd figured this attraction thing would go away with a few days of not seeing her. He'd planned it, damn it. Easy peasy. Monday and Tuesday were her days off. If he scheduled a few more interviews Wednesday and Thursday at Angel's, it would be almost a week before he'd have to be around her again. He would've been home free by then. They'd thrown a wrench in his plans.

"Yeah, and you should've seen how excited she was last night when I told her." Sofia added. "Even her boyfriend was excited. He picked her up and spun her around. He's a cutie!"

Sal squeezed the armrest of his chair. "Which one?"

"What do you mean?" Sofia stopped tying her apron.

Before he could gather his thoughts to respond, Alex's words made him hold his breath. "Speak of the devil."

In walked Grace. It had only been one full day since he last saw her, and it felt like forever. Her hair was down. All this time he'd been witness to her hair in a bun or in a ponytail. Now it was down and hung loosely around her face, adding yet another thing he hadn't noticed about her before: how damn sexy she was. Of course.

~*~

They'd been talking about her. Grace felt her heart speed up at Alex's words, but seeing Sal when she walked in the back room pushed her nerves into overdrive. "Morning," she said to no one in particular.

"Good morning, Grace." Sofia was the first to respond.

"Ready to show us your stuff?" Alex asked with a smile. He turned back to Sal, "I'm curious about this. If she's even half as good at cooking as she is at putting drinks together, I think we got ourselves a cook."