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  Taking the paper from Gus, she winked and stuck it in her pocket. “Sounds like a solid plan.”

  I grabbed Gus and pulled him toward the interior of the restaurant. We were all to meet in the small dining room and then go to the kitchen as one unit. At least that’s what the brochure said would happen. “Jesus, don’t you ever get tired of this game, Gus?”

  “What game?” he asked with a shrug.

  A blonde walked by and I thought Gus was going to break his neck as he watched her. “This game of hooking up with random women and having sex with them.”

  “Bite your tongue. There will never be a day I get tired of this. Are you kidding me? Right now I’m in my prime.”

  Snarling my lip, I slowly shook my head. “In your prime, huh?”

  “Yep. I mean look at me. What woman wouldn’t want me between their legs?”

  Two women turned and looked at us. One smiled and the other one frowned. This was going to be a hard crowd to crack, especially with Gus already acting like a dick.

  Gus took a drink of my coffee and asked, “What are we cooking?”

  “Breakfast and a smoothie or something,” I said as I looked around the room full of women. Of all the cooking classes, this one seemed like the easiest one. How hard could it be to fry up some eggs and blend some fruit together?

  A few more women walked in, each one zeroing in on us. I was pretty sure the redhead moaned when she looked at us.

  “Yeah. In my prime. Endless pussy,” Gus said as he looked around. “Jesus, I’ve died and gone to fucking heaven. And we get breakfast out of it. Score.”

  The door to the kitchen area opened and a woman about my age, twenty-seven or so, walked out with a huge smile on her face.

  “Good morning, cookers!”

  “Good morning, Claire!” everyone said in unison.

  Gus and I smiled and looked around the room before my eyes landed on the instructor. Tilting her head, she asked, “Were you boys looking for the gym next door?”

  Holy shit. Did she really just stereotype us? With a grin, I responded to her question. “No. We’re here to improve our cooking skills. Learn how to do more for the special women in our lives.” She didn’t have to know my mother had me in the kitchen cooking from the time I learned to talk.

  Gus snapped his head and glared at me.

  Someone standing behind me whispered, “My ovaries just exploded.”

  Gus cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Thano, but speak for yourself. I’m single, ladies, and yes I am a man. That doesn’t mean I’m only a gym rat. I’m looking to enhance my cooking skills so I can cook a meal for a beautiful woman that will have her begging for more.”

  Okay. He one-upped me on that one.

  Bastard.

  The instructor let a small chuckle slip from her lips. “Okay, ladies . . . and gentlemen . . . follow me into the kitchen.”

  As she walked, she gave us a brief intro into the class and started rattling off everything we were going to make.

  “We’re going to start with our smoothie. I like to call it the woman’s . . . or man’s . . . happy skeleton blast! We’ve got spinach and flax seeds with a bit of molasses and other goodies.”

  Gus dropped his mouth open. “I’m not drinking that shit.”

  Hitting him on the chest, we walked up to a cooking station and looked at everything set out.

  “What is this stuff?” Gus asked in a whispered voice.

  With a shrug, I replied, “I have no idea.”

  “If you boys need any help, I’m more than happy to assist.”

  Glancing up, there was a woman who looked to be a few years older than me. Her tits were practically spilling out of her shirt. She stood there waiting for our response.

  “Julian, please head on over to your station. Kilyn will be here soon to help out.”

  Claire looked at me and winked. “Kilyn is my assistant. She’s notoriously late. She can help you boys out.”

  With a nod, I smiled.

  Clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention, Claire kept talking. “After we make the smoothie, it’s on to the eggs benedict.”

  “The what?” Gus mumbled.

  Oh. Shit. I think I signed up for the wrong cooking class.

  “We’ll start with the hollandaise sauce.”

  “The what?” Gus asked with a panicked look. “Holiday sauce? Which holiday is coming up? Thanksgiving, right?”

  I looked down at the ingredients Claire set at our station on a blue tray.

  Eggs, lemon juice, butter, salt, and pepper. That seemed easy enough.

  Leaning over, I said, “Dude, don’t worry. We’ve got this shit. I cook with my mother all the time.”

  He moaned and scrubbed his hands down his face. “I’m hungover, I’m surrounded by hot women, and now we’re baking desserts for the holidays! It’s too much. I’m on overload.”

  Claire continued to talk. “After we make the hollandaise sauce, we’ll make the eggs benedict. Then we’ll finish it off with a creamy strawberry crepe.”

  Gus and I snapped our heads and looked at each other. “French shit? What the fuck did you get us into, dude? I’m telling your mother you brought us to a French cooking class!”

  “Shh!” I said as I pushed his shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, boys, you’ll have help as soon as Kilyn gets here. She is our crepe specialist. Makes them all the time.”

  I forced a smile. Great. Just what I need. Some old French woman yelling at me while trying to tell me how to make fucking crepes.

  “Okay, let’s heat up those pans and get our butter melting.”

  Gus placed the wide pan on the small portable stove as I took the butter and dropped it into the pan.

  “If you feel like getting fancy, clarify the butter by skimming some of the milk solids off. It will make the sauce thicker, but less rich.”

  Claire looked at what I was sure was a holy fuck what did she just say look on my face.

  She was about to say something when the door to the kitchen flew open and someone came running in.

  “Shit! Sorry! I thought sneaking in that yoga class might be a mistake and it was!”

  I kept my eyes focused on the butter as I tried to figure out what the hell I had to do to skim the milk.

  “Dude, I found the woman I’m going to marry,” Gus whispered to me as I looked at the girl next to me to see what she was doing with her butter. I gave her a grin as she smiled back.

  “First time?” she asked.

  Taking in a deep breath through my nose, I nodded and said, “Yep. It said breakfast. I thought fried eggs or something.”

  She gave me a huge smile and replied, “You won’t find Claire or Kilyn cooking anything easy like plain eggs.”

  Gus hit me on the arm. “Dude, I’m serious. I’m in love.”

  Looking back at him like he was nuts, I shook my head. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

  Gus pointed with his mouth to the floor. “Dude, my future wife is standing next to our French chef.”

  Looking over to Claire, I watched as a girl was bent over pulling her hair into a ponytail. When she stood back up, our eyes met. My mouth dropped open at the same time as hers.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered as Claire called out to me.

  “Dark-haired dreamy man in the back, stop staring at Kilyn or your butter will burn.”

  Kilyn.

  Her green eyes sparkled as she shook her head and made a tsking motion with her finger and winked. Walking up to us, she grinned and my breath was taken away. What in the hell? That hasn’t happened in one hell of a long time.

  “Are you following me?”

  Pulling my head back, I gave her a fake as hell stunned look. “That would be hard to do considering I was here first.”

  She flashed me a drop-me-to-my-knees smile.

  “We’re here for research,” I said.

  She lifted her brows and turned to Gus. “Research, huh?”

  Gus slowly no
dded his head. “Marketing. Pots and pans. Women.”

  Turning to look at Gus, I mumbled, “Women?”

  Kilyn tried to hide her chuckle, but she failed.

  “I see. Well, it looks like you need some help with that sauce.”

  “Yes. God, yes. What holiday are we making this for?” Gus asked.

  Rolling my eyes, I looked away. Kilyn laughed and I was stunned by how it affected me. It rolled over my body like a warm blanket. I found myself wanting to hear her laugh again.

  “Hollandaise sauce—not holiday,” she said with a grin.

  “Oh. Well, hell, I feel stupid.”

  “Nonsense. Let’s grab a double boiler and get this moving along.”

  For the next two hours, Kilyn showed us how to make a kick-ass sauce, eggs benedict, which I instantly loved, and finished it all off with showing me how to make the perfect light and fluffy crepe. Gus had long given up and moved over to the table next to us and sat on his ass and flirted non-stop with the two women. Every now and then, I would hear him ask about why they liked a certain pot or pan. At least the bastard was working.

  I took the crepe out of the pan and set it on a serving plate. Kilyn jumped and clapped her hands. “That’s perfect! Now take a quarter cup of the strawberries and one third cup of cream cheese and fill the crepes. You’ll roll it up and top with a small dollop of the cream cheese filling and a few sliced berries.” I did everything as she said it, dropping a few fresh strawberries on the top of our beautiful creation to finish it off.

  “And voilà! Your strawberry and cream cheese crepe.”

  Cutting into the crepe, I brought it to my mouth while Kilyn watched intently. Her eyes turned dark as they roamed across my body. I was almost positive I saw something in them that resembled lust. When she focused back on my lips, she licked her own.

  “Holy shit. This is amazing!”

  Kilyn chuckled and began cleaning up. “I’m glad you liked it. I hope you learned something about cooking this morning.”

  “I learned having a beautiful woman by my side to cook with is a benefit.”

  She smiled bigger. “Well, having a cute guy next to me isn’t so bad either.”

  “Gorgeous. Last night you said I was gorgeous.”

  Scrunching her nose up in the most adorable way, I couldn’t help but take in every single thing about her. Her brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail with a few curls hanging down. She didn’t have a stitch of makeup on and sure as hell didn’t need any. Her green eyes looked tired, but her skin seemed to glow.

  “Oh, that’s right. How could I forget?” she replied sarcastically.

  With a shrug, I helped her carry the dishes over to the restaurant’s massive sink where two young guys were working. “How did you like the class? Claire is my best friend and teaches it.”

  “I really enjoyed it.”

  Kilyn motioned with her head over to Gus. “It looks like your friend did as well.”

  Sighing, I apologized for him. “I’m really sorry about him. If he thinks he even has a chance, he’ll pounce.”

  Waving my comment off with her hand, she headed back to our station. It was about then Gus turned and jumped up.

  He pushed me out of the way as he stuck his hand out to shake Kilyn’s hand. “I’m not really sure how you know my good friend Thano here, but I’m Gus. We neglected to introduce ourselves before we got lost in the world of cooking.”

  Oh brother.

  Kilyn shook Gus’s hand and said, “Pleasure.” She motioned over to me and said, “We met last night at a bar.”

  Gus snapped his eyes over to mine and then back to Kilyn.

  Tilting her head and giving me the sexiest look I’d ever seen, she practically purred, “Thano? What an unusual name.”

  I couldn’t believe we had stood next to each other for two hours and never introduced ourselves.

  Gus waved me off. “Yeah, yeah, it’s Greek. So, what do you say I take you to breakfast? We can ditch Thano and get to know each other better.”

  Kilyn pulled her eyes from mine as she took Gus in. “Um . . . we just ate breakfast.”

  Gus pinched his eyebrows together. “Well, how about coffee?”

  Was this asshole really moving in on my turf?

  My turf? What in the hell makes me think Kilyn is my turf?

  Kilyn gave a polite smile and replied, “Thanks, but I have a meeting in a few minutes. It was great seeing you again, Thano. Have a great day, guys.”

  And just like that, she was walking away from me again. Stopping to talk to Claire, Kilyn kissed her on the cheek and rushed out the door.

  “What I wouldn’t do to get that girl’s number. Holy shit. She was hot.”

  My body felt as if a heatwave rushed through it as I thought of Gus and Kilyn together. “Yeah. She was cute,” I said as I took off quickly toward the door Kilyn walked out of.

  Gus came up next to me as we made our way through the restaurant and outside. Dragging in a deep breath, I pushed aside those hauntingly beautiful green eyes.

  “I’m going home to change and then going for a run.”

  Running was the only thing that cleared my head, and I needed my head cleared. Fast.

  “PENNY FOR YOUR thoughts.”

  I pulled my eyes away from the Rocky Mountains and turned toward Claire. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Thano for the last week. The way he looked at me and caused my heartbeat to quicken. His smile seemed to invade my thoughts every time I closed my eyes. I wasn’t used to a man making me feel like this. “Trying to get into the zone with the Peterson design.”

  With a regarding look, she folded her arms across her chest and gave me the same look my mother used to when I had told a lie.

  “The Peterson house? Seriously, that was the best you could do?”

  Dropping my feet to the floor, I walked over to my desk and flopped down. “Yep.”

  “You were taken with him.”

  “With who?” I asked, knowing damn well she meant Thano.

  Thano. What an interesting name.

  Pulling up my computer, I typed in Meaning of the Greek name Thano.

  “The hotty from cooking class. What was his name again?”

  “Thano,” I replied a little too quickly.

  Peeking up at her, she shook her head. I swear it was as if Claire had an inside line to my thoughts. We were practically sisters, so I shouldn’t be surprised she would be on to me. “You knew damn well who I was talking about. How in the hell do you remember a name like Thano if he didn’t make some sort of impression on you?”

  “Pesh. Please, it’s an unusual name. How could I forget it? Besides, I wasn’t taken with him.”

  She leaned back in the chair and stared at me. Her brown hair was pulled up into a tight bun and her makeup done perfectly. The tight white blouse she was wearing was open enough to give a small taste at what could be underneath. The whole outfit was finished off with a pencil skirt and black pumps. Let’s not forget all the jewelry she was draped in. Claire always made sure she was put together. She’d been like that since seventh grade when George McDoogle told her she dressed like a boy. That’s when we both discovered what the power of a dress and makeup could do to a boy.

  “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  Tilting her head, she gave me a slight smile. “Kilyn, when are you going to open your heart to the idea of someone?”

  With a shrug of my shoulders, I replied, “When that someone comes along. I’m in no rush to settle down. I’m having too much fun.”

  Looking back at my computer, I quickly scanned the search results.

  The name Athanasios was at the top. Greek meaning for immortal.

  Huh. If only a person could be immortal.

  “Kilyn, I know a lot of terrible shit happened to you, but not all guys are scumbags like he was.”

  Swallowing hard, I closed my eyes. I needed to get refocused and get Thano out of my mind. “I don’t want to talk about it, Claire. I
think I’m going to head home. Go for a run and clear my head. I’ll have some sketches of the kitchen for you by tonight.”

  Running was something I had started up in high school as a way to escape reality for a bit. Something about it felt as if it freed my soul.

  With a sigh, she stood. “Don’t rush. I won’t be back on my computer until tomorrow afternoon. It’s date night with Blake.”

  Forcing a smile, I replied, “Have fun tonight and behave.”

  She laughed and grabbed her phone and began typing. I imagined she was sending her husband another dirty text. I swear, Claire had more action sexting Blake than I’ve had in my entire adult life.

  “I don’t know the meaning of that word.”

  Laughing, I gathered up a few things and headed out the door to my car. My best friend Claire was an overachiever. She always had been. Not only was she business partners with me in my interior design company, but she co-owned Onion Creek Gardens.

  I was good to just get by in college. My life was nothing like Claire’s. I loved her like she was my sister, but we were opposites in every way. She was daring, I was cautious. She took chances. I researched the shit out of things. But there was one thing we had in common. We loved life and didn’t take a day for granted.

  Pulling my jacket around me tighter, I smiled at the young couple walking toward me holding hands.

  I loved love. I was just not lucky in it.

  Ever since my parents passed away, I wasn’t lucky in anything.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. Reaching in, I pulled it out and answered it without looking.

  Huge mistake.

  “Hello?”

  “Kilyn. Baby, how are you?”

  Ugh. It was Jack. We met at a cooking class and I agreed to go out with him one time. Worst two hours of my life.

  “I’m doing well, Jack. How are you?”

  “I’d be better if you were here next to me.”

  With an internal groan, I opened the door to my car and slid in. “Jack, we talked about this. I’m not interested in you like that.”

  He laughed. “I know! I know! Listen, I’m in the mood to get my shake on. Please say you’ll go with me. I’ve had a hell of a shit week.”