Page 9 of Mariah

Earl shook his head. “Nope. I’m a Las Vegas native. Born and bred. I’m excited about his place though, and look forward to spending lots of time here, outside the kitchen once the resort is up and running.”

The look he shot her was so darkly dominant and full of innuendo that Mariah instantly felt threatened. Her heart skipped a beat and her palms got sticky. She put the knife down and wiped them on her apron just in time to look up and see Earl give the same look to Chef Graham. What was that about? Was she imagining things? Did she just have Daddy on the brain? Had her friends gotten her so backwards with their teasing and innuendos that she was going to turn into them, seeing Daddies everywhere she looked?

Earl had definitely just given a Daddy vibe, and an interested one at that, but he was not her type. Of course, Chef Graham who was totally her type, didn’t give off Daddy vibes and seemed totally unavailable. She’d caught the bouquet at Luna and Baze’s wedding, a fact that her friends hadn’t let her forget, but it seemed just her luck to be interested in a Daddy who wasn’t interested in her or just wasn’t a Daddy at all, and to catch the interest of one who she was certainly not interested in.

At least, she consoled herself, according to Graham, she and Earl wouldn’t be working together often, and she and Graham would. She just had to grit her teeth and make it through today.

Concentrating on a pineapple that needed to be cored and cut into chunks, Mariah ignored Earl’s hungry look. “It will be really cool when Utopia is up and running,” she said, to agree with him, while still effectively changing the subject. “But Baze said it’s going to be a while. Everything they are doing now is fairly simple, but in a month or so, that’s when the real construction will start.”

“It’s an ambitious project, that’s for sure,” Chef Graham agreed. “But I’m excited for when it’s finally open to the public and I have my own restaurant.”

“Consider this my pre-application for the sous chef position when the time comes. I’d love an opportunity to work in a fancy establishment with a classically trained chef such as yourself,” Earl said, clearly kissing butt.

Mariah held back a scowl. She’d like that opportunity too. But Chef Graham would probably give it to Earl because Earl was an ass-kisser, a guy, and not a Little. She was still trying to decide whether to speak up and put her own hat in the ring when Chef Graham’s voice cut through her thoughts.

“Understood. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. As Mariah said, it’s a long way off and we haven’t even gotten through our first day working together yet.”

His voice was light and his tone jovial enough, but when Mariah caught a glimpse of his face out of the corner of her eye, his expression was flat and closed off. She silently cheered. It was the same expression he often wore with her, and while that sucked, at least Earl wasn’t earning any preferential treatment or brownie points with all the butt kissing he was doing.

“Understood, Chef.” Earl gave a sharp nod, wiped his work station before moving onto the next fruit—strawberries—and turning his attention to her.

“So, Mariah. You live with the owner of the joint, right? Mr. Patrick? You’re one of his band of Littles?”

The question and the way it was phrased instantly put her hackles up, and she was about to respond in kind when she noticed that Chef Graham had stopped what he was doing and appeared to be listening with interest. Huh.

With Chef Graham in mind, she took a deep breath, evened her tone and chose her words carefully. “Baze took me and my friends in when he met and fell for my friend Luna,” she explained. “He provides for us and takes care of us, and we are in a way, his, but not in the way you were implying.”

Again, she cut a quick side eye at Graham and noticed his shoulders had relaxed and the tension around his eyes seemed to be gone. Very curious. Only for that reason—watching Chef’s reactions—did she hope that Earl would continue with his line of questioning.

To her amusement, he did, and his next question played right into her hand.

“So, that means the rest of you are free to find Daddies of your own?”

She sucked in her breath before answering and snuck another peek at Chef. His expression was odd. She couldn’t place it. There was interest, but there was also something else.

With her eye trained on him, she answered. “We are free to do that, yes, but so far only Margo has. And a lot of us aren’t ready to look quite yet.”

Chef’s expression didn’t change, but he grabbed a pile of peppers and started to clean them.

Mariah chewed her bottom lip and waited for the next question.

Earl didn’t disappoint. The guy really had no sense of boundaries and apparently had no qualms about posing very personal questions to someone he’d just barely met.

“What about you? Are you looking?”

Mariah shifted her body slightly to grab for a new container of strawberries and froze while she answered, in the perfect position to see Chef Graham’s face up close. “I’m not not looking,” she answered. “Ideally, that’s the dream. But I’m not going to parties or hunting on apps or anything like that. More like being open to the idea if the universe sees fit to put the perfect Daddy right in my path.”

Chef Graham’s flat expression changed instantly. His eyes darkened and the corners of his mouth turned into a frown. But it was more than that—Chef Graham looked like he wanted to throw up, and finally he spoke.

“That’s enough chit-chat,” he barked. “No more personal questions. We’ve got work to do. And we certainly aren’t here to hookup or play matchmaker.”

Earl furrowed his brows, jerked his head down, and got back to work. Her stomach knotted, Mariah did the same. At least she’d gotten what she needed. Confirmation that Chef Graham was definitely not interested in being her Daddy. It was time for her to get over the notion her friends kept trying to put back in her head and move on. She was just here to work.

Chapter 6

Mariah

“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Mariah, happy birthday to you!”