Just then, her stomach let out a loud grumble. She laughed as she told him, “I need at least five meals a day to keep chugging along, and I’m afraid I was talking so much that I skipped most of lunch. I’ve actually been hankering for Irish steak with potato scones. If you’ve got thirty minutes or so, I can make enough for both of us in the café’s kitchen.”
Duncan was more than happy to stay for as long as she wanted him around, even if he had only her hunger pangs to thank for it. As they headed down the block to the café, he tried not to ogle her spectacular figure, but it wasn’t easy when every inch of her was perfect, from her glossy dark hair, to her luscious curves, all the way down her long legs to her stiletto heels. Compared to Lola, the size-zero blondes with Botoxed faces from his Boston hometown looked pale and insignificant.
The guy who convinced Lola to give him a chance would be very lucky indeed. And even though he knew she deserved to be with a far better man, one without dark skeletons in his past, Duncan still couldn’t help but wish he could be that guy.
Other men on the street didn’t bother trying to disguise their interest in her. Duncan had noticed the same thing when they’d gone to the café for lunch—people’s eyes constantly followed Lola. Without exception, men drooled. And the women with those men frequently shot Lola jealous glares. Lola didn’t seem to take any notice, but Duncan knew she must be aware of the way people reacted to her. Yet again, it struck him that being gawked at everywhere she went had to be disconcerting. Hugely so.
In the café’s kitchen, she introduced him to the staff, then set them up in a corner by an unoccupied stovetop. She gestured for him to sit on a nearby stool while she took out a frying pan and myriad ingredients from the industrial fridge, then began to chop potatoes deftly after turning down his offer to help, saying she was happy to cook.
Noting how comfortable she was in the commercial kitchen, he asked, “Did you ever think of being a chef like your mother?”
“No, although I have spent a lot of time in this kitchen. All seven of us have worked here at one time or another when our parents needed us to help out.”
He thought back to the lovely woman he’d met at lunch. “Your mother looks so calm, and so youthful, I can barely wrap my head around her having raised seven kids.”
“She’s actually quite the firecracker,” Lola informed him with a smile. “It’s the lilting Irish accent that fools everyone.”
Her smile was so stunning, he forgot what they were talking about for a moment. All he could do was stare at her, drinking in her incredible beauty. Until her quizzical glance, and then her slight frown as she realized he was staring at her, snapped him out of it. Still, while he had invited Lola for coffee to talk business, now that he had a chance, he couldn’t resist finding out more about her. “What was it like to grow up as one of seven?”
“Honestly,” she said as she finished peeling and chopping, then steamed the potatoes, “there have been times when I’ve wished I was an only child. Usually when one of my brothers or sisters is hitting me over the head with something. But the rest of the time, I’m really glad to be a part of such a big family.”
“Where are you in the lineup?” She didn’t seem like either the oldest or youngest. On the contrary, she seemed more like a middle child who refused to be forgotten.
“Are you sure you want the full rundown of my family members? There are so many of us that it could take all night. And you’re here to talk about my business, not to draw the Maine branch of the Sullivan family tree.”
Duncan couldn’t think of anything better than sitting in this warm and cozy café kitchen listening to Lola tell him about herself. And if it took all night…well, he’d be more than willing to stay up until sunrise with her. “After meeting you and your mother, I’m curious about the rest of your family.” Lola and Beth were obviously close. It was the kind of tight-knit relationship he’d only ever had with his brother.
Until he’d learned the truth about Alastair’s crimes.
Lola’s voice broke Duncan out of his dark thoughts. “Okay, but when you start to lose track of names, don’t say I didn’t warn you. As you’ve probably already guessed, Mom grew up in Ireland. She came to America after she met my dad, Ethan, in County Cork. Dad is one of four brothers, although my Uncle Jack passed away quite a while ago. And we have Sullivan relatives all over the world. My brother Hudson is the firstborn. He’s married to Larissa, and they live in Boston.”
“Do you get to Boston often to see them?” Duncan shouldn’t be hoping Lola was a regular visitor to his hometown, when he had no business setting his sights on her. But he couldn’t help wanting to see more of her anyway.
She looked a little sad as she shook her head. “When Hudson and Larissa were first married, we used to spend a lot of time together. But these past few years, I don’t see nearly as much of them as I’d like to. Lately, he’s been coming up here without her for family events, which is a bummer.” She frowned as she stirred onions in the pan. “My brother Brandon is next in the lineup. He opens hotels all over the world. We don’t see enough of him either, although he can be a little bit of a you-know-what, so that’s not all bad.”
But Duncan could tell she didn’t mean it. She would have loved to see Brandon more often. That’s when it hit him. “Is your brother the founder of the SLVN hotel brand?”
Lola’s pride in her brother’s achievements was evident as she grinned. “That’s him. He works too hard, though,” she added, the grin fading. “Then there’s my brother Rory, who lives nearby and is a furniture maker. Although saying he makes furniture is like saying Louis Armstrong simply played in a band. Rory is also madly in love with Zara, who makes fantastic glasses frames.”
“It sounds like there are a lot of makers and entrepreneurs in your family.”
“Our parents always encouraged us to follow our hearts and to trust that money would follow passion.”
“That’s pretty rare.” Duncan hadn’t known his father well enough by the time he died to know what he would have encouraged Duncan to do, but his brother, who’d raised him from the age of six, had ended up being more concerned with money and power than anything else.
“My dad had a whole other life before he met my mom,” Lola told him. “To hear him tell it, he made all the wrong choices, for all the wrong reasons, for a really long time. I’m sure it was more nuanced than that, but he ended up completely changing his life after going to Ireland and meeting my mom. Which is probably why he always says the only thing he truly wants is to know that we’re happy.”
“Are you? Happy, I mean.” Duncan knew he shouldn’t ask Lola such an intimate question. Just because she was making him something to eat and telling him about her siblings didn’t mean she was inviting him into the inner recesses of her heart.
But he needed to know the answer. Though he had known her for only a handful of hours, Duncan was surprised to realize that Lola’s happiness already meant a great deal to him. He’d hated seeing her frown so deeply during her business call today—a call that hadn’t actually been about business at all.