Flavor Of The Month (Kiss & Tell Book 2) by Tori Carrington

get bruised when things get hot and sticky, if you know what I mean.”
    Unfortunately she did. And she found that she’d like to do some more of the hot and sticky stuff right then.
    “Open.”
    She eyed the octopus on the end of the fork. Now this she could easily say she didn’t eat. “Sorry. I don’t do octopus.”
    “You’ll like this.”
    She shook her head again. No matter how delicious, the eight-legged bottom feeder wasn’t worth the calories she’d be putting on her hips. “Go for something else.” She reached for her own fork. “In fact, I think I’m capable of feeding myself from here on out.”
    “Oh.”
    Ben looked so disappointed that she nearly tucked the linen napkin inside the top of her black dress and told him to have at it. Eating the entire contents of the table would be worth it if only it would wipe away that expression.
    His grin made a quick return. “And here I was having so much fun.”
    She settled in a little more comfortably across the table from him now that she had control of the fork firmly back in her court. “So tell me, is the place always this crowded?”
    She pretended to eat a piece of green lettuce as he looked around, seeming surprised to discover where they were. “It didn’t use to be. In the beginning barely half the tables would fill up.”
    “And now you’re all the rage.”
    He crossed his arms on top of the table. “Hollywood’s a bit fickle.”
    “But you’ve managed to maintain a pretty steady reputation.”
    “I’m doing all right.”
    All right? From where she sat he was doing phenomenally well. You couldn’t open a magazine or a newspaper without seeing Benardo’s Hideaway mentioned somewhere. Either by stars that had been photographed leaving the restaurant or by food critics who raved about the cuisine.
    He looked up from where he’d been contemplating the table. “By the way, I talked to my father today. I did what you suggested and invited him to dinner next Monday.”
    Reilly realized she had shoveled a good portion of a stuffed mushroom into her mouth and stopped chewing. “And?”
    Ben’s blue eyes sparkled. “He’s coming.”
    Reilly quickly smiled and reached for his hand. “Oh, Ben, that’s great!”
    “Of course, he requested that I have a special kind of beer on hand that isn’t on the menu.”
    “Something imported?”
    “Something cheap.”
    She laughed. “So you make him happy. What’s the big deal?”
    He shook his head. “With his request? Nothing. But…I don’t know. I’ve had the doors to the place open for seven years and he decides to come now. I don’t get it. It has to be more than just the day of the week.”
    Reilly looked over the place. He had a point. She guessed that Benardo’s was busy every night of the week.
    “I’ve also been wondering how I’ll react if he hates the place.”
    “How could he possibly hate it?” she asked, forcing herself to put her hands in her lap before she demolished the contents of every plate in front of her then used the bread to mop up whatever gravy, sauce or oil remained.
    Ben shrugged and leaned back. “I don’t know. It’s not one of his hot-dog stands, I guess.”
    “Do you have hot dogs on the menu?”
    He chuckled good-naturedly. “No.”
    “Maybe you should think about adding one hot dog type plate to the lunch menu.”
    He looked thoughtful for a minute.
    “Not anything cheesy. Something a little more up-scale with special toppings. Like black beans—they appear to be popular now although I could do without them, thank you. Different cheeses. And you could use some kind of sausage, like kielbasa. You know. Something more gourmet, but when it comes down to it it’s really just a hot dog under all the toppings.”
    He seemed to be looking at her a little too closely. Reilly resisted the urge to ask if she had something on her face. A bit of spinach between her teeth, even though she was pretty sure that’s not what was on Ben’s mind.
    “What?”