Read Heat 1 (Heat: Master Chefs #1) for Free Online Page B

dreaded rose was tossed aside.”
    “So
beautiful, yet with the capacity to cause such pain,” I whispered.  My eyes
were riveted to his, as if staring at him would extract the real Bobby, bring
him to light… warn me of the potential dangers of being so close to such a man.
    I
pulled my hand away before he could kiss the pain away.  I couldn’t allow it. 
Already the touch of his hand over mine was enough to make me dizzy.  What
would the touch of his lips do?
    “You
have to see the vegetable garden,” I said.  Pulling away, I walked to the rows
of cabbage.  “Such a versatile vegetable, don’t you think?”
    “Cabbage? 
I guess.”
    “You
can eat it hot in a soup, chop it coarsely and throw it in a stew, or shred it
and serve it cold in a slaw.”
    “Don’t
forget sauerkraut.”
    “Ah,
yes.  My favorite.  I can’t have a hot dog without it.”
    “You
eat hot dogs?”
    “Just
because I work at a culinary institute doesn’t mean I eat gourmet food all the
time.”
    He
shrugged.  “Yeah.  I know where you're coming from.  I do love my slice of
pizza every now and then, and not some asparagus, béchamel fancy thing.  Real
pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms… the whole deal.”
    “Speaking
of asparagus, we have some growing here.  Did you know it takes four years for
them to go from seed to this stage?”
    “Four
years?  Who has four years to wait around for a vegetable to grow?”
    I
laughed as we came to the zucchini plants that climbed up a trellis.  A few
bright yellow flowers remained, but most of them had fallen, leaving a small,
growing zucchini in its place.  “Did you know that the blossom is edible?”
    “Another
lesson learned.  You know, I’m enjoying my first lesson very much,” he said in
a low tone that seemed to imply so much more.
    I
stared down the row of zucchini filled trellis and tried to get a hold of the
jumble of emotions churning inside me.  A chill traveled up my spine, but at
the same time, a ball of heat burned through my belly.
    I
took a final sip of my iced-tea and tossed the plastic cup in a nearby
recycling bin.
    Bobby
slipped his hand over mine and let it linger there, his fingers brushing lightly
along mine while he looked at me.  “You okay?”
    “Yeah. 
I’m fine.  This is lovely.”
    “You
look sad all of a sudden.”
    Did
I?  I shrugged.  “There was a garden very much like this at the convent.  Oh,
it wasn’t surrounded by such austerity, and it wasn’t very high tech, but it
was functional and productive.  We had cabbage and tomatoes and radishes;
carrots, snow peas, red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers.  We had some
flowers thrown into the mix; flowers that were supposed to deter certain
insects.  Some cosmos, capucchinos, moonbeams.  It was great.  A lot of hard
work, but well worth it.”
    It
was the first time I’d felt so homesick since arriving in Paris, but I didn’t
want that homesickness to weigh over our lovely stroll.  Forcing a smile, I
sniffed the cool night air and walked on.  I was rattled by so many emotions,
or maybe it’d simply been a long day.  No, a part of me longed to go back home,
but at the same time I was excited by the future the institute offered me.  I’d
met so many new and exciting people since my arrival in Paris… at the institute;
people from all over the world, from all walks of life… People from a life so
far removed from the sheltered life I’d known.
    And
of course there was Bobby.  I didn’t know what to make of him.  He’d been a
drunken mess when I’d first found him, but I’d still brought him to my
apartment.  Despite having told him I would have helped any lost tourist, I
certainly wouldn’t have brought any lost tourist home with me. And I wasn’t
really sure what had pushed me to bring him home with me.  I guess there’d simply
been nothing threatening about him; just a poor little lost boy who needed to
be sheltered for the night. But then there was this