In Over Her Head: An Anchor Island Novel by Terri Osburn (reading eggs books .TXT) 📗

back against the chair. “Everyone has their quirks. That’s what Nota says anyway.”

“Nota sounds like a wise woman.”

“There has to be some benefit that comes from eight plus decades on this planet. Do you want to tell me what happened?”

This was the reason she was here. Lauren knew that now.

“I went to a girls’ night thing with Roxie tonight. When I made an off-the-cuff comment that I wished I could try the food on a few customers before we opened the doors, they all volunteered.”

“Volunteered?” he repeated.

“Yeah. I agreed to serve fourteen adults and four kids a full tasting menu on Thursday night.”

Saying the words aloud brought the anxiety back.

“That’s good. You can get some feedback before Saturday and have a day in between to make any changes.”

If only it was that easy. “There’s one problem.”

“What? Is the staff not ready?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “I’m not ready.”

A warm hand wrapped around hers. “Lauren, if you aren’t ready in two days, you aren’t going to be ready in four.”

“What if I’m never ready?”

Nick kissed the back of her hand. “You’re an amazing chef, and you’ve put together a talented team. Now all you have to do is share your food. That’s it. We don’t save peoples’ lives or right the wrongs of the world. We feed people. So do that, Lauren. Feed people.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“It can be.”

He had a point. “What was it you promised the other night? To unstress me?”

Nick glanced up to the stars. “I did.”

“Then now would be a good time to do that.”

His deep laughter made her smile. “I thought I just did.”

Lauren tossed off the blanket and rose to her feet. “Not as thoroughly as you did on Sunday.” After setting her glass in the sand, she lowered onto his lap. “I’m still feeling a bit tense in places.”

A dark brow arched high. “Really? I should do something about that then.”

Leaning in for a kiss, she said, “Yes. Yes, you should.”

Nick could get used to this. A thought that scared the shit out of him. He’d never been the cuddle-after-sex type, but that’s exactly what he was doing. And doing it willingly. If Lauren knew what he was thinking, he might never see her again.

The purpose for taking their conversation to the bedroom had been for Nick to help relieve her stress, but the treatment had gone both ways. If Lauren practically purring in his arms was any indication, she’d forgotten—at least temporarily—about her earlier fears. But Nick was feeling pretty relaxed himself. And content. Something he couldn’t recall ever experiencing before. At least not since his father died.

Between the revelations Nota had shared and his growing feelings for Lauren, Nick found himself picturing a real future, with all the possibilities he’d never allowed himself to dream of. A development he needed to keep to himself for now.

“What did you do after your restaurant closed?” Lauren asked.

He considered giving a vague answer, but was truthful instead. “I didn’t know what to call it at the time, but now I know that I grieved the loss the same way that I grieved for Dad. Only losing his business brought an added layer of guilt.” Nick twirled a lock of her hair between his fingers. “I drank. A lot. Mia would say I became unbearable, and she’d be right.”

“But you’re still cooking so you didn’t give up,” Lauren pointed out.

“By then there wasn’t much else I could do. I had one marketable skill and once I crawled out of my own pity party, I went back to the kitchen.” Working for someone else had been an eye-opening experience, and he’d wanted to quit every day for the first year. Eventually, he stopped looking back and began moving forward. “I worked my way up until I finally landed an executive chef position in Atlantic City.”

Lauren leaned up on her elbow. “You were an executive chef?”

She didn’t have to sound so surprised. “I was. Three kitchens and fifty or so staff. I oversaw the daily operations for all of them, and I don’t think I slept for three years.”

“That sounds like a dream.”

Did she miss the no sleep part?

“You’re nuts if you think that sounds like a dream. I lost twenty pounds, my hair thinned, and I had zero social life.” He pulled her back into the crook of his arm. “When Mia came to me about moving down here to take care of Nota—already armed with the offer to run Dempsey’s kitchen—I couldn’t pack fast enough.”

“You left all of that for here?” she whispered.

“I left all of that for Nota,” Nick corrected. “The island took some getting used to, but once you take a few deep breaths and realize life can move at a normal pace, you adjust.”

“I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to it.” She leaned closer and slid a leg over his. “My whole life has been a constant hustle. Roxie told me I need to relax, but how do you do that?”

To this he had an answer. “When I first got here, I had the same thought. People would be headed somewhere, and then stop to talk to every person they passed as if they had all the time in the world. But you know what I figured out?”

“What?”

“They do.”

She looked up at him. “They do what?”

“Have all the time in the world.”

“No one has all the time in the world,” she argued.

“They do if they have their priorities straight.”

Lauren was not giving up. “If something is a priority, then you bust your ass to get it done. Acting like you have nothing to do is the complete opposite of that.”

“Taking your time doesn’t mean acting like you have nothing to do. It means knowing that the world is not going to stop spinning because you take an hour to do something comfortably instead of killing yourself to get it done in half the time.” She opened her mouth to argue, and Nick cut her off. “Take