Tempted (The Lottery Winners Book 2) Page 5

  He glared at her, irritated with her explanation. “So, you want a guy who brings you gifts all the time?”

  She sighed and instinctively, he knew that he’d messed up. If he hadn’t understood the expression in Daisy’s chocolate eyes, the kick from Betty under the table would have clued him in.

  “No! I don’t need presents from the man I’m dating,” she told him. Well, snapped at him actually. “I need a man who is thoughtful and sweet, and thinks about me when we’re not around each other. The jar of salsa is Ralph’s way of showing Laurie that he was thinking of her. He wasn’t around, but she was on his mind.” Daisy huffed a bit more and Betty nodded in agreement. “That’s what’s important, Rocco. Showing a woman that he’s thinking about her. Being thoughtful and sweet!”

  Before he could respond, Betty patted his arm. “I can tell that you haven’t really wanted to win the heart of a lady in the past.” She sighed. “Once you’re ready, come talk to me and I’ll set you straight.

  Daisy glanced at the older woman as she nodded, then glared at Rocco and he knew that he should have kept his mouth shut. And he really shouldn’t laugh, even though she looked absolutely adorable as she defended women’s apparently universal desire for romance.

  “Men need to understand that women can’t be bought!” she practically snarled.

  “But we can be wooed!” Betty explained with another “look” that told him that he’d better not laugh. Or misunderstand. So Rocco nodded obediently and kept silent.

  “More salsa?” Daisy asked when Laurie approached their table.

  Laurie looked over at the gentleman in question, who just happened to be looking right back at her. “Yeah,” she sighed dreamily, beaming at him.

  Rocco watched with amazement as the waitress practically melted at the gruff trucker’s wink. Rocco wondered if he’d ever understand the female mind. And salsa? What the hell is so special about salsa?

  “Give it to me later and I’ll finish it off fast so you can have the empty jar,” Betty told Laurie, adding a conspiratorial wink. Rocco’s eyes bounced back and forth between the two women, even more confused now. Why would Laurie give the “precious” jar of salsa to another woman if she was so thrilled about it?

  The waitress nodded with appreciation, finally tearing her gaze away from the trucker to focus on taking their orders. “What can I get you guys today?” she asked, pencil poised over her order pad.

  “I’ll have a veggie panini,” Daisy said. “And water.”

  Betty snorted. “Trying to go vegetarian again?”

  Daisy shrugged. “Well, the last time didn’t take too well. And it’s a very healthy lifestyle.”

  Laurie laughed. “Right. Veggie Panini with extra mustard. Betty? A ham and cheese panini with lettuce, tomato and mayo?”

  Betty chuckled as well, handing Laurie the menu. “Sounds perfect. And sweet tea, please.”

  Rocco’s eyes narrowed at the woman who had dared to order something without meat, trying not to look horrified. “I’ll have a turkey, roast beef, and ham sandwich,” he told the waitress who chuckled but he ignored it. “Double the meat and add meat to Daisy’s order, but put it on my sandwich.”

  The woman laughed outright with that order but wrote it all down. “I’ll get you sweet potato fries with that, just so you get a bit of nutrition.”

  A moment later, she left and Daisy leaned back in her chair, glaring across the table at him. “What?” he asked. “I’m a growing boy.”

  Daisy made an inelegant sound that might have been a laugh or maybe a snort. He wasn’t sure but even that sound turned him on.

  “So explain why you ladies got all googly eyed when Laurie’s man brought her salsa but then you offered to get rid of the salsa for her. How is that romantic?” he demanded, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. Waiting.

  “You really don’t understand?” Daisy asked incredulously.

  He glared at her for a long moment. “I don’t ask rhetorical questions,” he pointed out when their staring contest didn’t seem to intimidate her. Intelligent woman, he thought. He liked it when a woman didn’t back down.

  Daisy just about rolled her eyes. “Oooh! He’s more than a dumb jock,” she taunted.

  Rocco wanted to laugh. Or haul her across the table to spank her sexy butt. He wasn’t sure which reaction was better so he kept both to himself. “And you’re avoiding the question.”

  “No, I’m not,” she replied sassily. “Just sitting in awe of your vocabulary for a moment, since you’ve been basically ignoring me for the past two weeks except for work stuff.”

  He wasn’t about to explain that having a conversation with her was out of the question. Primarily because he knew he was already too fascinated with the lovely designer. Getting to know her would serve no purpose.

  “And you’re still not explaining. Could it be that the gesture wasn’t overly romantic?” he offered up. Damn, he loved the sparkle that jumped into her eyes at his challenge.

  “Laurie is allergic to capsaicin, which is the chemical in jalapenos that makes them spicy.”

  “I know what capsaicin is,” he growled. “Stop trying to rile me, woman.”

  Betty laughed but he maintained his focus on Daisy, enjoying the way her shoulders shifted when he challenged her.

  “Anyway,” she said, making it sound like he was really putting her out. “Ralph doesn’t know that Laurie is allergic to capsaicin, but he brings her back salsa from all over the country.”

  “So, he’s trying to poison her?”

  Another snort from Betty’s side of the table.

  Daisy’s eyes flashed chocolate fire. How that was possible, he wasn’t sure but that was the only way to describe the anger in her pretty eyes at the moment.

  “No! Why is it so hard for you to understand that the gesture is romantic because it shows Laurie that Ralph has been thinking of her? The first time he came into the diner, he was hauling salsa in his rig. She was immediately attracted to him and listened to all he’d learned about salsa while hauling the jars from one place to another. Ralph thought she was interested in the salsa, but in reality, she only wanted an excuse to talk to him, and that was the only thing they knew about each other at the time.”

  Betty leaned forward as well. “Ever since, Ralph has gone out of his way to find different kinds of salsa that he thought she might enjoy. Laurie just doesn’t have the heart to tell him that she can’t eat any of the stuff he brings her. And she doesn’t want to hurt his feelings.”

  Rocco thought these women were sweet, defending a clueless guy. But he still wanted to tease Daisy. “So, she’s forcing him to spend his money on something she will never use.”’ He burst out laughing when those pretty eyes narrowed on him yet again.

  Thankfully, he was saved from a violent response when Laurie brought out three plates filled with huge sandwiches. Rocco would have laughed again when Daisy looked down at the panini filled with roasted vegetables that Laurie set in front of her. It actually looked pretty good, but then Laurie set down his own plate and Daisy was practically drooling over the meat-stuffed sandwich. It was huge, looked juicy and delicious, and even had a bit of cheese melting off to the side onto the crispy, sweet potato fries.

  “Want a bite?” he offered as he turned the plate around to get a better grip on the enormous sandwich.

  Daisy looked at it longingly, then down at her own sandwich, that looked more than a little anemic in comparison even though it was stuffed as well. “No. This is fine. I know that Jeremy does an excellent job marinating the vegetables.”

  He shrugged and lifted half of his sandwich to his mouth, taking a huge bite, then wiping his mouth with the paper napkin as the juice started to roll down his mouth. “This is great!” he gushed, taking a sweet potato fry and dipping it in the hot meat juices.

  Betty chuckled, but when Daisy glared at her friend, the older woman lowered her head and took a bite of her own sandwich.

  “Keep it
up, Betty,” Daisy threatened, “and I’ll tell George who is planting all of the flowers around his house.”

  Betty’s face turned an interesting shade of pink. Rocco had no idea who George was, but he suspected that Betty was the anonymous flower planter.

  This town just kept getting more and more interesting, he thought. A little bizarre, totally quirky, but everyone seemed to care for one another. Very odd.

  Chapter 4

  “You’re late,” Ivy said as soon as Daisy stepped into the huge kitchen. The smell of something wonderful was in the air, but she was too nervous to investigate as she normally would.

  Daisy dropped her purse down on the stool right by the door, then walked over to the pantry. “I’m not late, you’re early,” she countered as she took in the mess of Marilee’s pantry. For a moment, panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she knew that Marilee wouldn’t mind if she fixed the pantry and the thought of organizing all of the cans and other foods sent a wave of soothing calm over her whole body. Immediately, she started sorting the cans, organizing them alphabetically.

  “What’s up with you guys?” she asked, glancing at her friends over her shoulder.

  Marilee, Ivy, and Tony looked at each other, then at Daisy’s back as their friend continued to pull cans out of the pantry, filling her arms with the disorganized mess.

  “What’s wrong?” Tony demanded, flipping the potato cakes in the pan of oil, then reducing the heat so he could focus on Daisy and whatever was bothering her.

  Ivy took the remaining wine glass and poured white wine into it, grabbing Daisy’s wrist before she could grab another can and placing the wine in it instead. “Drink. Talk. Then organize.”

  Ivy walked back to the kitchen island and resumed her seat at the marble countertop, waiting for Daisy to explain.

  Daisy took a long sip of the wine, then placed it on the pantry shelf and continued to sort. “Nothing is wrong,” she stated firmly. Setting one can, then the other on the shelf, she focused all of her attention on the cans. “He’s just a big, giant jerk who doesn’t talk.” She took three of the cans down and arranged them in a different order. “He doesn’t talk about anything other than work.” She shifted the cans so they were exactly in line with each other. “He has great ideas about how to renovate the houses we’re working on, but…” more cans came down and she sorted them carefully, aligning the edges of the bottoms so that they were perfectly in place next to the others. “The man is driving me crazy!” she blurted out, bowing her head slightly in defeat.

  “The man?” Marilee asked, as the three of them exchanged another look, worry in their eyes.

  Daisy lifted the glass of wine and guzzled half of the glass, then extended her hand behind her as she continued to contemplate the cans in the pantry. Marilee immediately lifted the bottle of wine and refilled Daisy’s glass.

  “Are you talking about the new guy you hired to manage the renovations?” Tony asked hesitantly.

  Daisy slammed a can of green beans down on the shelf. “Yes! Is there another annoying, obnoxious, enormous brute who laughs at the sweetest gestures, ignores me most of the day, and only talks to me when he wants to irritate me?”

  Tony bit his lip, and turned back to the stove so that Daisy wouldn’t see the amusement on his face. “Well, not that I’ve heard of,” he finally managed to reply.

  Daisy turned around when she heard Ivy and Marilee snort with laughter.

  “I don’t see what’s so funny here,” she snapped. She looked over at Tony and realized that his shoulders were shaking, indicating that he was laughing as well.

  “The man is so big, he can’t even fit in my car! So, when we have to drive into Louisville to get supplies or for meetings, he steers me towards his truck.”

  “You hate the long drive into Louisville. You always make one of us drive, then sit in the backseat and talk,” Tony pointed out. “So, how is this a problem?”

  Daisy rolled her eyes. “Because he never asks me if I want to drive!” she explained as if it should be beyond obvious. “And he doesn’t talk to me! I sit in the truck discussing…whatever!” she threw her hands into the air. “And he grunts every once in a while. He’ll nod or shake his head, but I have no idea if he’s answering a question of mine or having a conversation in his own head and ignoring me.”

  Marilee hid a smile behind her wine glass. “He is the strong, silent type,” she commented.

  “Strong, yes! Silent? He’s…well, yes. Silent! And you know how much that makes me crazy! I have to have conversations with people! And he always looks like he’s laughing at me!”

  “You’ve never complained about your dates not talking to you in the past,” Tony commented.

  She threw her hands up in the air, unaware of the can of peas in one hand and corn in the other, since she was too focused on her frustration with her project manager. “Because they talked!”

  “Not true!” Marilee pointed out. “Me and that…” she snapped her fingers, trying to remember the guy that had met her at a bar. “You know, the one that…”

  “Don’t bring him up!” Daisy snapped, “pointing” her wine glass at Marilee. “We don’t talk about that one!”

  Ivy laughed. “Yeah, well, you’ve never really complained about any of your dates before.”

  Daisy stared at her friends. “I’m not dating Rocco!” she gasped. “I’d never date a man that laughed at me all the time, only speaks to tease me about something and…”

  “And you’re fascinated by him,” Tony interrupted. He turned off the heat and slid the potato pancakes onto a tray, then wiped his hands on the towel draped over his shoulder. “Admit it, Daisy. This man fascinates you and you are just irritated because he isn’t groveling at your feet like all the other men in your past.”

  “All the men who you decided were too weak because they groveled at your feet,” Ivy pointed out.

  Marilee laughed, nodding. “All the men you called wimps because they agreed or disagreed with you too readily. You hate that. How many times have you lambasted them for not having an original opinion?”

  “They don’t count!” she argued, grabbing the bottle of wine and filling her glass up again. “And meat! Good grief, the man consumes enough meat to fund Texas for the next decade!”

  The three others stared at Daisy, not sure what that was about. “You’re angry with a guy who likes meat?”

  “He doesn’t eat anything but meat!” she told them.

  “Not true,” Tony argued. “He came into the shop the other day and had a huge spinach salad along with a…”

  Daisy closed her eyes and waved her hands in the air, not wanting to hear what Rocco had eaten for lunch when she wasn’t around. “It doesn’t matter! This isn’t about meat anyway!” she growled. “This is about a man who is driving me nuts! He just silently works away, doing all the stuff around the house to make sure that we finish on time. And all of the other guys? They love him! But they love him because he talks to them! He gives them instructions! He…”

  “You’d hate it if a man gave you instructions,” Ivy interrupted, then took a long sip of her wine when Marilee chuckled.

  Daisy glared at her and Ivy lifted her wine glass, shielding herself from Daisy’s wrath.

  “Besides, you do the decorating. He is in charge of the renovations. Those are two distinct areas of expertise, Daisy,” Marilee argued logically. “What would he…”

  Daisy turned back to the pantry, grabbing up boxes of pasta and setting them onto the shelf by size, tallest to shortest. “It doesn’t matter! I hate him!” The boxes weren’t right so she rearranged them by color.

  Tony laughed, but the timer went off so he bent to pull something out of the oven. When he stood up, there was a perfect, golden brown Beef Wellington in his hands.

  “You don’t hate him,” Tony disagreed, with the same logical, patient voice. “I think there’s just a bit too much sexual tension between the two of you for your comfort.”

  Daisy gasped,
horrified at the mere thought. “I do not want to have sex with the man! Have you seen him?” She shook her head. “He’s sooo not my type!”

  “He’s your type,” Tony laughed. He took four plates down from the shelf above him. “Get the salad out of the fridge, woman,” he ordered, pointing the meat fork in the direction of the fridge.

  Daisy turned to pull open the fridge, then groaned when she saw the salad. “You had to do it, didn’t you?” she snapped.

  Tony winked at her. “Of course I did,” he teased. “Because I love you. And Marilee has been trying to lose weight so she’s starving herself, and Ivy…” they all turned to look at Ivy who was sipping her wine. When three pairs of eyes looked over at her, she lifted her hands into the air. “I’m not trying to diet!”

  They all laughed. “No, you haven’t been eating anything, woman,” Tony argued.

  Her only response was to roll her eyes. “Yeah, well, you know how I hate to cook,” she said and leaned forward, only to get her hand smacked when she tried to steal a piece of crust. “Ow!” she laughed, but Tony knew that he hadn’t hurt her.

  “Don’t let Gunner see you do that,” Daisy warned Tony, grinning when Ivy’s pale skin pinkened. Marilee laughed softly, then stopped when Ivy glared at her.

  Marilee and Tony both laughed, not intimidated by the willowy brunette. “What’s your brother up to lately?” Marilee asked. They all knew that Ivy had a huge thing for Daisy’s brother, Gunner, which was why the willowy brunette headed out of town whenever the big Navy SEAL came home to visit his sister. Daisy suspected that her brother was equally fascinated, but he was better able to hide it.

  Marilee glanced at Daisy who smothered a laugh. “He’s fine,” she told everyone as she set the big bowl of beautifully cut fruit on the marble countertop. “He’s home in Norfolk at the moment but,” she shrugged, trying to hide her worry. “You know how things go. Gunner could be wheels up at a moment’s notice and I never know where the Navy will send him next,” she said, referring to the term that meant they would be flying out of the country at any moment.