Cara Colter - Passionate Chef, Ice Queen Boss / Rescued in a Wedding Dress

‘You’re growing up, Dante.’ Lorenzo said this with a careful air of mild interest. ‘Maybe you should think about moving out of home, spread your wings a little, eh?’ He forced a laugh. ‘You might meet a nice girl. You won’t want to have your mamma looking over your shoulder when you do that.’ He drew a breath. ‘In fact, I know of a woman who takes in boarders. If they’re willing to help her out around the place she’ll board them cheaply.’

‘I’d be interested, if I could afford it.’ The boy all but jumped on the suggestion. ‘If she didn’t want too much.’

Lorenzo shrugged as though he’d already lost most of his interest in the topic. ‘She’s always up early. You could see her now, before you have to come back for your shift later.’

Dante nodded. ‘Yes, that would be good, if I could see her now.’

‘I’ll write the name and address down for you.’ Lorenzo walked to the bench and took an order pad and stub of pencil and started to scribble on it.

Scarlett realised her presence would be noted very soon if she didn’t move. It was too late to disappear so her best bet was to pretend she was just arriving. She gave the door a push behind her and allowed it to bump against her back.

A couple of noisy steps forward and both their heads turned. Chirpiness was beyond her. Lorenzo’s hurtful words still echoed inside her, as did concern for Dante. Scarlett felt sick, too. If Dante was being abused, that was a terrible thing.

‘Lorenzo.’ She nodded towards Dante, too, but for his sake didn’t make any attempt at eye contact before she turned back to the head chef.

‘I just thought I’d let you know my plans for today. I want to observe, speak with employees as I see fit, and start my study of the account books.’ There would be times they would have to liaise, but Scarlett had made the decision in the past few minutes to ensure those times were kept to the absolute minimum.

Let Lorenzo think she was cold and emotionless and say ‘just like her mother’. Scarlett knew her heart. She wasn’t about to let Lorenzo stomp all over it, though! ‘Please ensure any receipts, requisitions forms and any other money-related paperwork you might have lying around is delivered to my office. Can you do that before noon?’

She’d intended to apologise for yesterday’s assumptions about his work commitments. A concession to his need for time was the closest he would now get.

Lorenzo’s gaze locked on her face and searched her eyes, her expression. Scarlett knew what he would see. She’d seen it enough times herself in a mirror. A somewhat different version of Lisa’s facial features in full chill-mode. How else could she protect herself?

Scarlett heaved a deep breath and slowly released it.

‘I’ll bring you everything I have.’ Lorenzo handed the written note to Dante, but his gaze didn’t leave Scarlett’s face. ‘Did you hear—?’

‘Thank you. I’ve only just arrived but I really need to get to work so I hope you’ll understand if I don’t hang about right now. Excuse me.’ She walked away before Lorenzo could do a thing about it. Not that she wanted to speak to the man now.

He might have helped Dante, and Scarlett was genuinely glad this had happened. By the sounds of it the boy needed all the help he could get.

But Lorenzo had also said some cutting things about Scarlett’s personality in the process.

She didn’t feel like dwelling on that, or discussing it, or anything else other than getting on with the job here and ignoring the existence of one Lorenzo Nesta and his capacity to upset her.

He shouldn’t even possess that capacity.

Not at all any more!

‘THANK you all for staying back for this meeting.’ Scarlett uttered the words and let her gaze travel over each of the employees present. It was the end of her second day at Rosa’s restaurant. The dinner hour was over, tables and chairs stacked, the kitchen clean and tidy. For the next few minutes it would be the site of their meeting.

Scarlett’s office was not tidy. It was covered with bookwork, sheaves of account invoices and receipts. Amongst it were Lorenzo’s records of kitchen expenditure. He was very thorough, and in fact so far his bookkeeping was the easiest to understand of all of this.

When Lorenzo had delivered his bookkeeping records to the office, he’d apologised for his words about her that morning. He’d clearly figured out she’d been standing there, had heard it all. He’d explained he’d wanted to scare the boy into behaving better but not make him feel as if he didn’t have a friend in Lorenzo if he needed one.

Scarlett had…admired him for that and realised he hadn’t been out to hurt her feelings with his words. She’d suggested the police needed to be called in to try to make sure the mother was safe. Lorenzo had surprised her with his wisdom in the matter.

Let Dante get out of there first. Once he’s safe, I will make the call to the police myself. I’ll ask them to check on Dante’s mother when they’re certain the boyfriend won’t be around, though it’s quite possible he isn’t harming her.

He had seemed extremely uncomfortable with the topic.

Well, this understanding man was part of the Lorenzo Scarlett had known and…

Scarlett reached behind her and twisted her hair ribbon through her ponytail before she forced her hand back to her side. What she’d felt or hadn’t felt about Lorenzo in the past was irrelevant now.

‘I know it’s late and I’m sure you’d all rather be at home now so I’ll keep this as brief as possible.’ When she felt certain she had the absolute attention of everyone there, she went on. ‘I’ll repeat this meeting with the remaining staff tomorrow.’

Scarlett reached for a small sheaf of papers on the bench and handed it to the nearest person. ‘If you’d take one of those and pass the rest down the line?’

While her printouts circulated, Scarlett drew a breath and squared her shoulders. Her gaze, whether she wanted it to or not, shifted to Lorenzo. He stood right at the end of the group and was the last to receive his copy of her printout.

Why did he get to look not even slightly dishevelled after a long shift at work? And why was she noticing how Lorenzo looked anyway?

‘Everyone, what you have in your hands is a new streamlined roster, and two pages outlining expectations of you as a staff member of Rosa.’ From her discussions today with Isabella, Scarlett suspected much of the necessity for change in these areas came down to Luca being too lenient in certain respects.

In the end, the how of it didn’t really matter. Scarlett had Luca’s agreement that she was to set things straight here, and she would.

Her gaze fell briefly on Dante. She wished the boy had got his bruises falling off his bicycle, as Lorenzo had done taking spills from his motorcycle years ago. At least Lorenzo had worked out Dante’s problem. He’d done his best to give Dante a lifeline without harming the boy’s pride. That had been kind.

You mustn’t soften towards Lorenzo just because of that act of kindness. He’s still a love rat.

‘Work conditions, pay conditions, holidays and negotiation of time off in this establishment have all been extremely generous to this point.’ Scarlett made a concerted effort to keep her thoughts on the task at hand. ‘The conditions have been far more generous than the accepted norm in restaurants in this country.’

If there’d ever been written employment contracts Scarlett hadn’t been able to find them. She suspected Luca would have made verbal arrangements and felt those were enough. Only by studying the rosters and what people were getting paid for hours of work, what paid holidays they received and so on, had Scarlett pieced together that her uncle had indeed been giving away too much too easily around here in his commitment to ‘treating his staff well’.