Interesting. Then again, Comfort Food is her family’s restaurant. She probably feels allegiance to them. But to give up the chance to work at the best restaurant in town to stay at the family diner seems foolish.
“Okay, but what do you know about her?” I ask, hoping to get more than this scratching the surface bullshit.
“For the longest time nobody knew it was even a her,” Kane says. “A few local food bloggers got a hold of her treats and asked the owners of the restaurant, but they didn’t tell them it was their daughter who made them. Only when the bloggers went snooping around did they find out it was a young woman named Hailey Canton, the daughter of the owners of the restaurant.”
“Do you know anything else?”
Kane looks at me like he can’t understand why I’d be asking about this woman at all. Clearly, he hasn’t seen her.
“Like what? What else is there to know? Have you tasted any of her desserts? It’s not an exaggeration to say they’re the best most people around here have ever had. That’s why we wanted her to come work for us, but she said no. Or more correctly, her father told us she wasn’t even interested in talking about it.”
“Alex says she’s some kind of artist. He was raving about her like she was the Michelangelo of cookies yesterday.”
Cassian laughs at his son’s over-the-top response to that dessert. “I saw the pics of the cookies she made. The lace ones. I don’t think he was wrong to rave. He told me they were delicious.”
“They were,” I admit with a shrug. “I mean, as far as cookies go, I guess. So she makes nice cookies. Why does she act like some kind of diva? She wouldn’t even talk to either of us yesterday when Alex asked to meet her to compliment her on the cookie. It was weird. Then when she came out, it felt like she didn’t even want to bother talking with us.”
“Artists are like that, Cade. We’ve had some chefs who act like her. They’re passionate about what they create. You have to give them that,” Kane says as he stands from behind his desk.
“Artists. The way you guys talk like these people are DaVinci or something…I don’t get it. Does that give people license to act like dicks?”
Both my uncles look at one another and laugh. “Sounds like she got under your skin a little bit. Not used to having women not interested in you?” Cassian asks with a chuckle.
Well, at least I got a little information out of them before they started busting my balls. Leave it to my family. Too bad Olivia and Abbi weren’t the ones I could ask about Hailey. They’d give me chapter and verse, every detail from what she does in her spare time to how long she’s been single.
Or maybe she’s not single. Is that why she was so cool yesterday?
No, that doesn’t work because she was fine with Alex.
I stand from my chair and push it back against the wall where I got it from. “Well, thanks guys. I better get going.”
As I turn to walk toward the door, Cassian asks, “Why do you want to know about this pastry chef?”
His tone says he knows exactly why I want to know about her. Alex probably told him everything that happened yesterday.
When I don’t answer his question, Kane chuckles. “Alex told us what she looks like, Cade. Guess the whole diva thing isn’t that much of a turn off.”
I look back over my shoulder and throw him a cocky smile. “I’m not against a challenge.”
“Oh yeah? Turn over a new leaf or something?”
He’s not wrong mocking me on that. I do have a history that indicates the exact opposite of liking a challenge when it comes to women. I’ll admit that.
But something about Hailey makes me think I might be interested in one with her.
“I actually like the idea of having to work through whatever she has going on. Personally, I’m not sure it’s not a shy thing instead of a diva thing, and if that’s the case, I’m all in.”
My uncles look at one another in disbelief. So maybe my history more than indicates challenging women haven’t been my thing. Fine. A guy can change, can’t he?
“You know what they say about shy girls, don’t you?” I ask them.
Kane stares at me blankly, and Cassian shrugs. “No idea.”
I shake my head at the state of the two men I thought were the coolest guys in the world growing up. “You two need to get out of this office more. Seriously.”
“Well, I’m wondering if you aren’t aiming above your level, Cade. Alex couldn’t say enough about how gorgeous she is. Good looking and talented? Maybe she was cool because she’s just not into you,” Kane says with a laugh.
“Yeah. I mean, she might have told you everything you need to know yesterday. You just don’t want to see it,” Cassian adds.
Before they have a chance to bust my balls about trying to date out of my sphere, I head toward the back door of CK. Leave it to family to act like I’m the one who can’t get her and not vice versa.
So she’s beautiful and talented? So what? I’m not exactly some loser walking around without any skills here. True, I don’t have my entire life planned out like nearly everyone else in my family. It’s not because I can’t do that.
It’s because I won’t.
Anyway, what woman wants a guy who’s all settled down at the age of twenty-three? Women want excitement and fun, and that’s what I offer in spades.
Leave that life all planned out shit for guys as old as my uncles. I’m way too young to be dealing with that yet.
And I’m betting that Hailey is a woman who could use some excitement in her life.
Chapter Five
Hailey
Poking my head into the kitchen, I give my father a smile. “Hey, what’s new?”
He shakes his head and sighs. “What’s new is it’s your day off. You don’t have to be here every day, honey. You made more than enough desserts yesterday, so why don’t you go out and enjoy yourself on such a beautiful day?”
“Coming through!” Ginger announces as she practically barrels through the kitchen doors, nearly taking me with her.
I quickly step out of the way so the doors don’t come back and slam into my face. After a few seconds, I walk back to where my father is working near my area and answer his question.
“Don’t worry. I’m not here for long. I just wanted to see how the lemon tartelettes did, and it seems they went over pretty big. There are only a few left, and it’s only two o’clock in the afternoon. Did one of those food bloggers post about them and that’s why people came in to grab them?”
He gives me his usual confused look that he always wears when I start talking about the food bloggers. My father simply doesn’t understand why anyone would write about my desserts like they do. When they first started featuring my creations, he read a few of their posts and complained the entire time that they said almost nothing about the restaurant or how good my desserts are but instead talked about their childhoods the whole time.
I tried to explain that’s how they do it, but he wouldn’t listen. Since then, whenever I mention them, he looks at me like I’ve switched from English to Greek and he doesn’t comprehend a word I’m saying.