Secret Ingredient: Love. Teresa Southwick

why you would feel you couldn’t count on your family.”

      “I can count on them. I just choose not to. Because I would hear about how if I was married, I wouldn’t have to ask them for help because I’d have a man to take care of me.”

      “And you don’t want a man in your life?”

      “That’s oversimplifying.”

      “How?”

      She clasped her hands together and rested her forearms on the table. “My family is big on following in footsteps. My four brothers followed my father into the construction business. A lot like your family. The difference is yours seems to accept Rosie’s decision to be an independent businesswoman.”

      “Your family hasn’t accepted your career?”

      She shook her head. “I don’t think my father knows what to do with me. He’s never gotten over the fact that I wasn’t a boy. Plus girls can’t work construction. I was supposed to do what my mother did—marry and have babies. He wants me to find a man so he won’t have to worry about me anymore. I feel a lot like the Olympic torch, getting handed off to become someone else’s responsibility.” She sighed. “He would want me in a nunnery if he knew about the jerk in cooking school. But that’s a sad, boring story,” she said, looking as if she would like to call back those words.

      Alex laughed. “What’s wrong with allowing someone the privilege of looking after you?”

      “I’m not a responsibility. I can take care of myself. A man would quadruple the home-front workload. My career would suffer.”

      “And your career is important to you?”

      “You bet your corporate office it is. I love what I do. A good thing, since culinary school was no picnic for a woman. I didn’t go through that so I could play second fiddle to a guy and his laundry.”

      “So a job with Marchetti’s is important to you?”

      She nodded. “You said it yourself. I don’t have experience with entrées. This job would give me that and, with a little luck, put me on a course closer to my ultimate goal.”

      “Which is?”

      “A restaurant of my own.” She met his gaze. “You’re wondering why I’ve taken a detour from that.”

      “Yeah.” She’d read his mind. He hoped she couldn’t read the rest of his thoughts as easily. Or she would know how interested he was in her mouth and how it would feel and taste. He forced himself to concentrate on what she was saying.

      “I’m sure you’re aware that there’s a certain prejudice against women in this business.”

      “I’ve seen some,” he admitted.

      “School was tough, but I was naive and thought when I finished it would be behind me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a position I wanted in the restaurant field. When I was offered a consulting job, I took it, even though it veered away from my objective.”

      “So you want me to hire and train my competition?”

      She laughed. “When you put it like that, it wouldn’t be very smart. But realistically, my goal is quite a way down the road. And it doesn’t matter what my future plans are. You need someone now. And I’m the best person for the job.”

      “You certainly are cocky.”

      “That implies you don’t think I can do what I say.”

      He shook his head. “Let’s just call me skeptical.”

      “So give me a chance to prove myself.”

      “That’s tempting.”

      She frowned. “Let me ask you something now.”

      “Okay.”

      “Would your reluctance to hire me have anything to do with the fact that I’m a woman?”

      Yes, he admitted to himself. But not for the reason she thought. There was something about Fran. She’d made him notice her. And he didn’t want to notice any woman. But he was as dedicated to his career as she was to hers. He wasn’t going to just turn this project over to her. He intended to oversee it. That meant he would see her—a lot. What would it be like to work closely with her?

      But, as she’d pointed out, he was out of options. “No,” he lied. “The fact that you’re a woman in no way impacts my decision about whether or not to offer you the job.”

      “Then what’s the problem?”

      “You’re inexperienced. I don’t want to say no out of hand. But I’m not sure what my next step should be.”

      “I’ll cook for you,” she offered. “Let me put my money where my mouth is.”

      He’d like to put his mouth where her mouth was. That thought took him by surprise again. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t surprised. He’d been semi-obsessed with her mouth since he’d met her almost twenty-four hours ago. And that was the main reason he hesitated to hire her.

      “I thought your father didn’t want you cooking for strange men,” he said.

      “Strangers,” she clarified. “Besides, he doesn’t get a vote. And I really want this job.”

      “Something to prove to your family?”

      “Maybe. As I said, it would look great on my résumé. And the bottom line is you haven’t found anyone yet. Time’s awasting. I’m good at my job and I’d like the opportunity to prove it to you.”

      “Fair enough. When and where?”

      “Tomorrow night. My apartment.”

      “I’ll be there.”

      Chapter Three

      This time Fran was ready for him. And getting ready for a man like Alex Marchetti was no small feat.

      She didn’t just mean ready as in food preparation and presentation, either. Although she had to admit she’d done herself proud. Surveying her modest circular oak table with the four surrounding ladder-back chairs, she nodded with satisfaction. A white linen cloth covered the small round surface. Her grandmother’s flatware was arranged to leave space for her supermarket-special dishes. In her dollar-store water goblet, the cloth napkin fanned out, exotically folded the way she’d so painstakingly learned. And there was extra glassware on the table just to show that she knew how it should look.

      In the center of everything was a vase filled with flowers from the grocery store hothouse. Rust-colored mums, yellow carnations, baby’s breath and greens mingled their perfume with the aroma of her two favorite entrées. Presentation was as important as taste, and she’d done the very best she could with what she had for maximum visual appeal. Now her culinary skills had to stand on their own. For reasons she could neither understand nor explain, she wanted to impress Alex Marchetti. And, unfortunately, getting hired for the job wasn’t her only motivation.

      But dazzling Alex Marchetti with food and atmosphere wasn’t the only thing she was ready for. Resisting his electric effect on her senses was going to be touchier than getting a soufflé to stand at attention. If she was right, and she was sure she was, he’d wowed her with the element of surprise.

      She had told herself repeatedly that good looks and a physique that made her palms tingle to touch him were just his presentation. She had no intention of digging deeper to find out if his ingredients—looks, charm and temptation—blended into a dish with substance. He was dishy, all right, but she was on a restricted diet. Once burned, twice shy. So bring on his sex appeal, animal magnetism and magazine-cover backside. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t even tempted. She wasn’t going to let anything, especially a good-looking man, come between her and the job she wanted.

      She glanced at the clock on the stove. He was due at seven. It was six fifty-five. Her palms