The Wedding Gift by Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online

lunch,” he said, still smiling at her as if he found her adorable.
    Julie frowned. She didn’t do adorable. Not even for a gorgeous TV chef who made her stupid insides melt like butter.
    “I don’t have a lot of time.”
    Any other guy would have fled from her hard tone, but Andrew simply asked, “When are the clients coming around?”
    She knew she was cornered even as she said, “Four o’clock.”
    “That will leave plenty of time for you to work some of the magic you showed yesterday,” Andrew said with another one of those gorgeous grins. “And if you’re worried about that boss of yours wondering where you are, I’ll phone to tell her that this is an essential research lunch, and without it, I’m not going to be able to work with you anymore.”
    Julie’s eyes widened. “Please don’t do that. You wouldn’t, would you? Pull out of the wedding like that? She’d kill me.”
    Instead of answering her question, he simply said, “I’d really love for you to join me for lunch at The Glass Square. Say yes.”
    He dropped in the name like it was nothing, rather than a restaurant with both a Michelin star and a waiting list that was so long most people couldn’t ever hope to eat there. As for the prices…Julie didn’t even want to contemplate how much a lunch for two could run.
    Not to mention the way his simply seductive, “Say yes,” had her heart pounding like a hard-rock drum beat.
    “ The Glass Square? Seriously?”
    “Phillipe keeps telling me to drop in and I know he’d love to meet you.” He gave her a smile that brought his dimples to the fore.
    Julie wasn’t sure what was more impressive, the fact that Andrew could talk about the head chef of such an important place so casually, or the fact that he was willing to go to that effort for lunch with her. Even so…
    “Andrew,” she said as she very reluctantly shook her head, “I—”
    “I’m not taking no for an answer,” Andrew warned before his expression softened. “I want to make up for dragging you onto the set of my show. One lunch at a nice restaurant is the least I can do.”
    Put like that, Julie couldn’t say no, even if it wasn’t quite the apology she really wanted for the terrible review he’d given her restaurant. Still, it would do. For now.
    She stashed her cold groceries in the cooler Andrew kept in his trunk, then let him drive them over to the restaurant, since Aunt Evie had needed her car and Julie had taken the bus to work. He drove a tad more sedately than he had the day before, but even so he pushed at the edge of the speed limits.
    Yes, she thought as the wind whipped through her hair in the passenger seat of his shiny convertible, Andrew Kyle was definitely a man who liked to push past limits.
    He obviously hadn’t phoned ahead and Julie knew anyone else would have been turned away at the door. Instead, a rotund man in his fifties came out of the kitchen to greet Andrew with such enthusiasm that it spilled over onto a bear hug for Julie. A moment later Phillipe clapped his hands and ordered the wait staff to set a table up in the kitchen, where Andrew and Julie could see him at work.
    “Typical Phillipe,” Andrew said softly. “A total showman. Especially in front of a beautiful woman.”
    Julie laughed at the idea of Andrew Kyle calling someone else a showman…and flushed at being called beautiful.
    Phillipe already had a bottle of wine open in the kitchen. Andrew pointed out that he was driving, but Julie was too bowled over by being in The Glass Square to possibly say no to the glass Phillipe handed her with a flourish.
    “I’d almost think that you’d planned to get me drunk,” Julie whispered to Andrew, “if there was any way you could have planned it.”
    “Do you think it will work?” he whispered back, clearly enjoying teasing her.
    Julie shook her head, enjoying his playfulness far too much. “I’m having one glass with lunch. That’s it.”
    Andrew raised his eyebrows. “I see