Seth quickly moved into sales mode. Karlee would never forgive him if he lost a sale because of his hormones. “I agree with you on that. This is made of chrome-plated steel and includes a lot of extras.” He stepped closer to the pasta maker, pointing at an attachment. “Even comes with a ravioli tray with a depth made for anything.”
“I’ve been reading up on it and was hoping it would be available in America soon.” He side-eyed Seth as he shot him a sly smile. “When I saw it had arrived at your store, I nearly passed out I was so excited.”
Seth felt himself blush as thoughts of seeing him excited for a variety of other reasons ran through hishead. “Are you interested? In the…pasta maker…I mean.” Crap. Why do I always get tongue-tied aroundthis guy?
“Yes, I definitely want this,” he said, grinning at Seth. “I feel like a kid at Christmas.”
Seth beamed back. “That’s great. I’ll go pull one from the back room and meet you at the register.” He waved toward the checkout counter.
The guy nodded and Seth hurried toward the storeroom, heaving a sigh as soon as he was safe behind the door.
“Well?” Karlee asked.
“He’s buying the new pasta maker.”
“Seriously? Oh, wow!” She bounced on the balls of her feet and quietly squealed.
Seth laughed. For someone only four feet, eleven inches, Karlee could raise the rafters if she wanted. Quiet was not usually her thing. Hell, even her hair was loud—a red that would rival anyone’s. She hadthe personality to pull it off, though. But with her delicate features, dimples, porcelain skin, and a smattering of freckles across her upturned nose, it was easy to get the wrong impression. Most people thought she was demure and sweet—until she spoke and shattered that image all to hell.
He grabbed one of the new pasta makers from a middle shelf and shifted it so he could carry it with his arms underneath. These things were heavier than he remembered from unloading them in the storeroom.
“You going to grow some balls and ask him out?”
Seth would have flipped her off again if his hands hadn’t been full, but he settled with shooting her a patented look-of-death that only made her cackle. It was a good thing they’d been friends since childhood and he loved her fiercely or he would have been pissed. He turned and pushed open the swingingdoor with his hip, then stuck his tongue out at her.
Karlee just laughed louder. “Mature.”
Seth rolled his eyes and concentrated on carrying the heavy pasta maker, but by the time he got to the counter, his arms felt like jelly and he knew he was close to dropping it.
“Here, let me help,” the sexy man offered, coming around the counter and lifting it from Seth’s arms as if it were made of feathers.
Seth stared at the muscles that flexed through the leather jacket and licked his lips. He watched as theguy settled the box onto the counter and walked back around to face him. When Seth raised his eyes to look into his face, his breath caught. Those blue eyes were looking back at him, expectantly.
Fuck. What am I doing again? Oh, yeah. My job.
“Um, cash again?”
The guy leaned across the counter. “No, Seth, I think I’m going to put this on my Visa today.”
Seth’s heart slammed against his ribs at the mention of his name coming from those gorgeous lips. “How-how did you…know my name?”
A slow grin spread across the man’s face as he reached across the counter and tapped Seth’s name tag with his index finger.
Seth felt his face heat and tried to cover his embarrassment with a cough. “Seth. Seth Robinson, actually.”
The guy only chuckled and leaned even closer. “This is new,” he whispered, bringing up his fingers and toying with Seth’s bangs for a second.
Seth’s eyes widened. “Um, yeah. Yesterday.” He shivered at the soft touch. “Purple,” he added needlessly.
Dream-guy shook his head. “Eggplant,” he countered, letting the strands fall through his fingers before dropping his hand.
Seth furrowed his brow. “Eggplant?”
He nodded. “I’m a chef. My life is food so I tend to look at colors from a food point of view. So to me, those look like eggplant highlights,” he explained, his eyes on Seth’s.
Seth cocked his head and looked him up and down as he thought about that. “So your jeans would be called‘mustard yellow’?”
Dream-guy pulled away from the counter, looked down, and laughed. “Exactly!” His eyes danced as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and slipped out a credit card, passing it to Seth. “Interesting that you noticed my jeans rather than my blue shirt.” He winked.