No Funny Business (The Lennox Brothers Romantic Comedy)

for.”
I shot him a frown. My twin brother knew my history with Nat. Sure the two of us liked to play jokes on each other, but Asher should know where the line was. My past with Nat wasn’t something I was willing to joke about.
“Like I said, I’d help if I could.” I made my tone regretful but firm, turning back to the frying pan to stir the vegetables.
Still Carlotta persisted. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t a bad situation. Natalie’s really stuck. Her dad’s in an assisted living center, and she’s been paying his bills. She can’t afford to close the café.” She leaned in, her expression earnest. “If you won’t do it for Natalie, will you do it for Mack?”
I winced. Mack had been my mentor, and the things he’d taught me had launched my career. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for Mack.
“You’d have to be heartless to say no,” Asher remarked. “Mack was like a second father to you.”
I frowned at him again, because I suspected he was enjoying this.
“Mason would give his shirt to anyone who needed it, and I’m pretty sure you two are the same.” Carlotta looked from Asher to me. “Nat really does need your help, Kade. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
I let out a sigh. My resolve to refuse was weakening.
Spending time with Nat would be painful, but nobody needed to know how much she’d hurt me. Maybe I wasn’t quite as good as hiding my feelings as Asher, but our past had made me better at it than most. And after three seasons of Kade Cooks, I’d learned a few things about acting.
Besides, maybe Asher was right, and working in the place where I’d learned how to cook would help me get back the inspiration I so badly needed.
“All right.” I sounded as reluctant as I felt. “You win.”
Carlotta grinned and jumped off her stool. “Great. Let’s go over there now and give Nat the good news.”
Asher’s lips twitched up, which for him was as good as a belly laugh. If I stuck around, he’d probably smirk annoyingly at me for the rest of the day.
Turning off the stove, I dumped the frying pan in the sink and ran cold water into it so the fat would congeal into a nasty mess.
“Sure.” I turned to my brother. “You don’t mind cleaning all this up while I’m gone, do you Ash?”
At least I made his smirk disappear.
I took the brief drive to the café as a chance to brace myself to see Nat again. Not that I still had feelings for her, or was even likely to still be attracted to her after all these years. Seeing her again would probably turn out to be what I needed to get her out of my head for good. And even if I did feel some kind of residual sentiment left over from our time together, I could put on a smile so casual, nobody would ever guess.
No need to make a big deal out of this.
Carlotta led the way into the café, where Nat was cleaning the cabinet that usually held cakes.
She was wearing a face mask, rubber gloves, and baggy coveralls splattered with grime that disguised her luscious figure. Her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, but long wisps had come loose and were waving around her head like alien antennae. Her glasses were smeared with grease, and she had dirty black smudges on her face.
She straightened, turning toward us and squinting like she could barely see us. At the same time, a large black hole opened up in my chest and my heart sank slowly into it.
In Nat’s disheveled state, only an idiot would be painfully attracted to her.
Which officially made me dumber than a box of broken crayons.

Chapter Three


Natalie
I blinked at the shapes who’d come into the café. I’d managed to smear so many cleaning products onto my glasses, they were both indistinct blurs.
“Nat, I’ve solved your problem.” It was Carlotta’s voice.
Pulling my rubber gloves off, I squinted at the blur behind her. It was definitely a dark haired man. And he had a scent so delicious, I could even detect it over the astringent smell of the cleaning products.
It was a scent I recognized.
My heart sped up and I fumbled with my glasses, my fingers suddenly clumsy. When I pulled the smeared lenses away from my eyes, the man was less blurry.
My fears were confirmed.
“Ta da!” Carlotta lifted both arms in a theatrical flourish. “I’ve brought you a chef and he’s here to save the day!”
“Hey Nat.” Kade gave me a friendly smile.
I gaped back at him.
Even without my glasses, he was undeniably gorgeous. And the sight of his smooth, angular jaw took me instantly back to when I was twenty. Though Kade was almost clean shaven now, my fingers prickled as I remembered running them over his short beard. Back then, my hands had wandered freely over the curves of his biceps, traced the lines of his shoulders, and explored the ridges in his stomach.
Kade wasn’t just a regular memory for me, but a muscle memory of the most vivid kind. One that had been kept painfully fresh by my masochistic need to watch his show.
“Aren’t you going to say anything, Nat?” Carlotta was examining my expression curiously. I must have been gaping silently at Kade for an awkwardly long time.
“Um. Hi,” I said hoarsely, and cleared my throat. Remembering my glasses, I tried cleaning them on my dirty coveralls.
“I hear you need a chef.” Kade leaned against one of the café's tables, as relaxed as if he barely remembered me and hadn’t thought of me in years. Which was almost certainly the case, especially if he’d been busy dating all the women he was constantly being photographed with.
“He’s going to cook for you tomorrow,” said Carlotta.
“Oh no.” I shook my head firmly, horrified by the thought of having to spend an entire day being reminded of how much I used to