Max’s mouth fell open and then snapped shut.
He couldn’t have heard her right. Rarely was he thrown for a loop, but he’d been temporarily distracted by the insanely delicious aroma billowing out of the food truck. “Uh, did you just say that you were the owner of this business?”
She nodded. “I did.”
Well, shit. He hadn’t at all expected the owner to be female. Mostly because he figured that anyone who was callous enough to steal business ofrom an old man would have to be a real dickhead. This lovely, angel-faced redhead didn’t fit that description at all. But then he glanced up at the truck and sighed. Yeah, he looked like an idiot all right. The truck was called the Gypsy Cantina, and a woman’s face was plastered all over the side of it.
Her face, perhaps?
He stared at her in silence, letting his curious gaze roam over her. Yeah, it looked like her all right. Except the pretty, petite redhead standing in front of him was much more appealing than the picture on the truck.
She was curvaceous and feminine without being too girly. A deep amount of cleavage separated her full round breasts and was probably only visible to him because of their height difference and how closely he stood to her. But that rear end and those hips. Heaven help him, he’d gotten a good look at both earlier when she’d sashayed away from him.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Hager?”
With a gorgeous body like hers and a question like that, he could think of lots of delicious things she could do for him. Unfortunately, none of them had anything to do with her moving her fucking truck.
“Mr. Hager?”
Momentarily stunned by the pretty blue eyes that had lifted to his, Max blurted out, “Mr. Hager is my father. Please, call me Max.”
The second the words fell from his lips, he instantly regretted them. How the hell was he supposed to have any credibility as a health inspector when he was talking to her as if they’d just met in a bar? Lord, had he lost his damn mind?
But she smiled meekly at him and said, “Um, okay…Max.”
As strange as it was, he liked the sound of his name rolling off her tongue. That one little word said in that low, husky voice of hers had ignited a flame somewhere deep inside of him that sent sparks shooting straight to his groin.
It wasn’t like she was wearing anything too low-cut or provocative. Just a white V-neck top paired with khaki shorts and leather sandals. But the plastic apron cinching her waist made it easier to see the rounded curves of her voluptuous body. And her womanly figure held an underlying sexuality that stimulated much more than his brain.
Max swallowed hard, removing the lump from his throat.
He would do good to remember that she was nothing more than a customer-stealing vendor who just happened to look good enough to eat. He could ignore that last part of her though, couldn’t he? Yeah. Sure he could. Yet when she gave him another slight smile that sent shivers traveling down his spine, he knew his problems had only just begun.
“I guess it’s only fair that you call me Jessa then.”
Max frowned and blurted out, “Why not Jess?”
“Huh?”
“You said that your friends call you Jess.”
“Oh, they do. I’m sorry. I guess I was just thinking this was more official or something. But I wasn’t trying to imply that we couldn’t be friends.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” He smiled at her, while punching himself in the gut with a hard mental fist. Quit worrying about whether or not she wants to be friends with you, dipshit. She’s not your friend. She’s the enemy. Fuck.
She stood there fidgeting with her fingers, looking every bit as confused as he felt. Her full lips retained an almost childlike pink hue though she seemed to be pursing them together. God, she was beautiful.
“Well?” she asked. “You said you needed to speak with me.”
“I, ah…”
Nope. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t possibly dupe a woman. Especially one as sweet and innocent looking as her. Maybe it was the smooth, flawless, pale skin with a smattering of light-colored freckles running across the bridge of her nose, but she came across as young and vulnerable. And that only made him want to protect her from anyone who would dare think about upsetting her.
Unfortunately, at the moment, that person was him.
When he’d first come over there, he had been looking forward to doling out a little retribution on Pops’ behalf. Now he couldn’t stand the thought of saying anything negative to her that might hurt her feelings. Max was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a man who would mistreat a woman.
Yet it wasn’t like he could really back down now. It was too late. He’d already stuck his foot in his mouth by telling her that he was the damn health inspector. And she was standing there waiting nervously for him to elaborate on the infractions he’d mentioned. Shit.
Say something to her already, moron. “I, uh…uh…”
Oh yeah. That was worth hearing.
God. What the hell had he gotten himself into? This whole charade was about to blow up in his face, and he couldn’t seem to stop it from happening.
Apparently, this Jessa woman had the patience of a saint because, after a full minute of awkward silence, she finally said, “Max, do you have a problem with me being a woman?”
Huh. Direct. Okay. He hadn’t really expected that out of her, but he liked it. Actually, he liked a lot of things about her. Although he didn’t mean to do it, his roving eyes raked over her shapely figure once more, and his pulse began to race. Damn it.
Maybe he wasn’t looking forward to this any longer, but he didn’t have a choice. Whether he liked it or not, he had to go through with it. “No, Jess. Not with that, specifically. But there are a few issues with your truck that we need to address.”
“Such as?”
Sonofabitch. I probably should’ve figured that out instead of watching her backside when she’d walked away earlier.
Glancing around, Max’s gaze fell on the food truck’s large back tires, hoping to think of something brilliant to say. “Well,” he said, giving himself a second to come up with something, anything. “I hate to inform you of this, but you’re parked too close to the curb.”
Yeah, that definitely wasn’t it.
She leaned around him and craned her neck to check the distance for herself. “Really?”
“Yep.” Max straightened his posture, hoping it would give him a more authoritative appearance. “Unfortunately, the city ordinance requires the tires of a food truck to be exactly ten and three-quarter inches away from the curb at all times. Your back wheel looks to be only about six inches from where I’m standing.”
“You’re serious?”
He forced himself to grin. “As a heart attack.”
“Okay, then. But why does the tire have to be that far away from the curb?”
Max felt his smile collapse. Jeez. Did she have to ask him a question he didn’t know the answer to? “Look, Jess, I don’t make the ordinances. I just enforce them.” Or make them up on the spot.
She stared blankly at him for a moment. “I—I’m sorry. I was just curious, that’s all.” She glanced at the tire once more. “It’s fine. If you say it’s too close, I’ll take your word for it and will avoid that problem in the future.”
He nodded and added some firmness to his tone. “By parking somewhere else, you mean?”
“What? No way!” She blinked at him and then shook her head adamantly. “Business is great here. There’s a nice breeze in the park, and my customers can sit at the picnic tables under the shade trees to relax and enjoy their lunch. It would be stupid of me to leave such a great location. But I promise next time I’ll be sure to check the distance to the curb to make sure I’m not violating any codes.”
Max ground his teeth together. “Might be easier to just move your truck somewhere else since…” He glanced around to find another issue and spotted a silver electrical box coming out of the ground. “You also need to be at least thirty feet away from the electrical box over there as well.”
She gazed past him at the large box sitting on top of the soil and then glanced at the backend of her truck. The distance couldn’t have even been half of what he said the made-up code required. “Hmm. Okay, well, I’ll check that next time too. Trust me, it won’t happen again. I don’t want to lose such a great spot.”
Damn. He sighed. “See that it doesn’t.”
Her voice turned bright and cheery. “So are we all done here?”
Nope. Not even close. Apparently, we’re just getting warmed up. “Not quite,” Max told her. “We still need to go over a few other issues.”
“Um, other issues?”
God, he hated this. But he needed to quit beating around the bush and put some real pressure on her if he was going to get her to actually leave, because she wasn’t budging as easily as he’d hoped.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff. His throat tightened, but he shoved the rest of the words through his teeth anyway. “I don’t want to close you down, but I will have to if these problems aren’t immediately resolved. As the health inspector, I take my job very seriously.”
Christ. Even he thought he sounded like a prick. He could only imagine what she thought of him. He hated to think that he might be frightening her with his fake power of authority, but he had to play that card in hopes it would be enough to motivate her. If he was going to help Pops, then this gal needed to pack up and leave town. The faster, the better.
But unfortunately, she didn’t look worried at all. And when she spoke, her voice held a calm, soothing quality. “That won’t be necessary, I assure you. Just let me know what problems I need to correct, and they’ll be taken care of as soon as possible. I take my job very seriously too.”
Max’s stomach tightened into a knot. The lovely Jessa was proving herself to be cooperative, responsive, and eager to please, which only had him wondering if that open-mindedness extended to the bedroom. Not that he would ever find out. “Okay,” he said in a strangled voice, mentally rearranging the bulge in his pants, “so why don’t we go over a few more things then.”
She nodded in agreement. “Sure. I’m guessing you want to know all about my operation. For starters, my truck abides by the strictest sanitizing procedures. In fact, if you’d like to take a look inside the kitchen, I’d be happy to show you around.”
Max shook his head furiously. “Maybe later,” he said, worrying that one of the customers might recognize him and out him before he could finish what he started. “Right now, I’m more concerned with the other things I’m seeing out here.”
She shifted nervously. “Like?”
He gazed around quickly and then motioned toward the entire park with one arm. “Like how you don’t have tablecloths on all the surrounding picnic tables. That’s unsafe and unsanitary.”
“Oh no,” she said with a jubilant giggle and a shake of her head. “Those aren’t my picnic tables. They belong to the city.”
“Doesn’t matter. Your customers are the ones using them. That is what you just said, after all. And that makes you responsible for their condition.”
She squinted at him with uncertainty. “I’ve never heard of such a thing before. Are you sure?”
It pissed him off that she was questioning his authority…even if it was as fake as the stupid violation that he’d just come up with. “Are you insinuating that I don’t know how to do my job?”
Her eyes widened at his harsh tone. “Oh, definitely not. I was just…um, asking a question, that’s all. Seems a little strange that I’d be responsible for structures in the park that I didn’t even put here.”
“I don’t know why you think it’s strange. Your customers eat their food on them, don’t they?”
She gazed up at him with a weird expression on her face. “Well, yeah. But my food comes in either a container or wrapped in parchment paper. Besides, it’s not like I tell my customers where to eat.”
Damn good point. He sighed inwardly. “Yeah, maybe. But your truck is in Windsor Park. Where else are they supposed to sit—on the ground? You want them to get ants in their food?”
Ants? Christ. Where the hell did that come from?
She blinked at him incredulously, probably thinking he was as crazy as he sounded. “Um, no. Of course I don’t. Okay, I’ll make sure I get some tablecloths or something to cover the picnic tables with.”
“You do that.”
“Anything else?” she asked softly.
He nodded. “There’s also not enough trash cans. You’ll need a couple more big ones out there in front.”
“But the trash cans belong to the…” Her words trailed off and she waved her hand through the air, dismissing whatever thought she had. “Never mind. I’ll buy a couple more to put out for my customers. What else?”
A faint scent wafted toward his direction, and he inhaled deeply. Damn. That scent was too much. “The…uh, bug spray you’re wearing.”
“Bug spray?” She chewed on her bottom lip in total confusion.
Man, it was adorable. “Yeah, you really shouldn’t wear it while you’re cooking. It could contaminate the food.”
He struggled to keep his face neutral and stop his lips from curving. The lovely fragrance she wore wasn’t even close to being a pungent odor. It was more like the scent of ripe strawberries on a warm summer day. Bright. Heavenly. Distracting as hell. How was he supposed to stay focused on the task at hand with something like that pumping all of his blood to lower parts of his anatomy?
She blinked at him in rapid succession, as if he’d just told her that he was pregnant with a litter of puppies. “You mean my…perfume?”
Max faked his surprise and let his mouth fall open slightly. “Oh. Is that what that horrible odor is? Sorry. I hope I didn’t offend you or anything. You might want to think about switching to a new brand.”
He cringed inwardly at his insulting dig and waited for her to be outraged by his comment. But she stood there blinking at him as the seconds ticked by. Then, after a few moments, she did something he hadn’t expected at all.
She burst out laughing.
And that only made Max feel like an even bigger jerk than he already was.
Wonderful.
One thing was perfectly clear though. He wouldn’t be able to upset this woman by using her vanity against her. Apparently she didn’t have a vain bone in that lush body of hers. And looking at her again, he should’ve realized that she wasn’t the high-maintenance type from the beginning.
Her clothes weren’t anything name-brand or expensive. There wasn’t a lick of makeup on her dewy face. And her fiery red hair was held off her neck by a clip that resembled a brown tarantula. The lucky woman just had a natural beauty that most women would kill for, even if she didn’t play it up to meet society’s standards. Good for her.
But that didn’t help him with his problem. The problem being her. She was too calm and cool for his liking. He needed to find something to throw her off kilter, and he needed to do it now.
Max cleared his throat, and she finally stopped giggling. “If you’re done, we need to move on and talk about your…er, gloves.”
She was still smiling as she wiped the tears from her eyes and held up the pair of disposable plastic gloves in her hand. “You mean these? What about them?”
Without thinking, Max took her hand into his much larger one. Her entire body jolted, and the smile melted from her face. Hmm. Interesting. “You need some new ones.”
“I…ah…these are disposable. When I get back inside the truck, I’ll grab a pair of fresh gloves from the carton.”
“No. What I mean is that you need to purchase new ones.”
Her chin lifted, and her eyes probed his. “Why? What’s wrong with the ones I already have?”
“They’re pink,” he said, rubbing his thumb in a slow circle on her palm to see if he could get another reaction out of her.
Her hand trembled beneath his, along with her voice. “If that’s supposed to be some sort of chauvinistic remark—”
He raised his free hand to stop her, wondering if his touch had caused her unease or if it was indeed the fact that she thought he was being sexist. “It’s not at all. Though if you have a male employee, he might think you’re the one being sexist by making him wear pink gloves. Clear disposable gloves are the standard to use in this type of a business. They’re gender neutral too.”
She cocked her head. “I don’t have a male employee on the truck right now, and as long as I’m using gloves, what does it matter what color they are?”
“Well, for one, the customers can see through the clear ones better to make sure your hands and nails are clean.”
“But if I’m wearing gloves, then what does it matter if they can see that my hands are clean or not?”
Max raised one arrogant brow. “So you’re admitting that you serve food to your customers with dirty hands?”
“What? No, of course not. Don’t be silly. I’m just trying to point out the obvious. I mean, if you think about it, the whole thing sounds really stup—” Her words cut off.
“Go on.”
“Ah, I…uh, never mind,” she said with a polite smile and an even softer tone.
Judging by the heated daggers shooting from her brilliant blue eyes, Max could’ve sworn he’d upset her and that she was about to tell him off. Not that he blamed her after the hard time he was giving her. Hell, he definitely deserved it. But now she was back to showing a painfully submissive side that seemed to override her irritation. Strange.
He didn’t know why she had stopped herself from saying whatever was on her mind, but it frustrated the hell out of him. What in the hell does it take to rile this sensible woman up?
* * *
Jessa gave Max a cheeky smile.
She was more than happy to comply and correct any health code violations he had insisted she’d breached…if only they made any sense. Parking too close to the curb or an electrical box was one thing, but since when had it become such a crime to serve food in pink gloves rather than clear ones? Even though she knew ordinances varied widely in every town, this one seemed strange and…well, downright stupid.
But the last thing she wanted to do was to get on the new health inspector’s bad side. She couldn’t bring herself to question Max’s authority, because arguing with the temperamental health inspector—even if he was a little finicky—could mean losing the chance to make her lifelong dreams of owning a restaurant come true.
The food truck, though it was a lot of fun, was only a temporary gig. Jessa planned to use the profits she earned from her gourmet kitchen on wheels to eventually open her own brick-and-mortar fancy dining establishment. That had always been the end goal, and there was no way she would give up on making it happen. Especially just so that she could tell Max where to shove his idiotic regulations.
The man was as frustrating as he was good looking, but arguing with him would only make things worse for her in the long run. So if that meant having to play nice with the annoying health inspector to keep him from shutting down her food truck business over something silly, then that was exactly what she would do. Put on her best smile, bite her tongue, and take care of business as usual.
Because Jessa damn sure wasn’t going anywhere.
She smiled at that, knowing her mother would be thrilled. The carefree woman had always said that Granite would be the perfect place to live. It had all of the small-town charm that you didn’t always find in the larger, bustling cities: a welcoming community, friendly neighbors who waved at each other in passing, seasonal festivals that weren’t overly crowded due to the small town population, and best of all, very little crime.
Yet there were also still plenty of places to shop, eat, or even grab a drink after work. Actually, this town had almost everything a person would need. There was a small movie theater, a locally owned art gallery, a corner bookstore, a thrift store, a small park for children to play in, hiking trails, and even a concrete amphitheater for the occasional musical performance.
Jessa sighed though. She knew it had all been too good to be true. This town had been way too perfect. But who in their right mind would’ve guessed that the city officials in Granite had gone crazy and imposed dumb ordinances that made absolutely no sense? Go figure.
For the last few minutes, she’d feigned listening as Max went on and on about how there wasn’t enough shade in the area around the truck and how she should move it to keep from killing her customers. Or some crazy bullshit like that. She let him ramble on, but all she kept thinking was how if he asked her to plant some trees, she was going to bury the aggravating man beneath one.
As he continued his rant, Jessa glanced over at the truck and noticed that the order line was getting a lot longer.
The health inspector cleared his throat, and with irritation coloring his tone, he asked, “Do you have somewhere you need to be, miss?”
Crap. She hadn’t meant to upset him further. “Um, yeah. I hate to say it, but I actually do. I don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful by rushing this, but I need to get back to work. I have two fairly new employees, and I can’t leave them unattended for too long in case they need my help with something. Are we done here?”
His hazel eyes clouded over like a fogged-up mirror. “Nope,” he said, letting the P sound pop off his tongue as if he were demonstrating his frustration with her. “Not even close.”
Great, Jess. Piss the guy off some more. Smart. “Sorry. It’s just that this is one of our busiest times of the day. Maybe we could continue this after the afternoon rush is over.”
His tone turned even more sour than it was already. “Because I look like I have time to wait around on you?”
Shit. But well…if she was being honest, yeah. Technically, he did.
His lazy stance suggested a certain unhurried, casual demeanor, and his relaxed shoulders gave her a sense that he was fairly comfortable standing there. Besides, he was a young, healthy, virile-looking man who didn’t seem in any danger of dying today. Unless, of course, she pushed him out into oncoming traffic…which was becoming a real possibility if he kept using that overbearing attitude and patronizing tone with her. The handsome prick.
Jessa blew out a slow, calming breath. She really needed to keep a cool head when dealing with the prickly health inspector or she was going to lose it. Her business, namely. She tried to keep in mind the old saying about how you can kill more flies with honey. Okay, so maybe it was “catch more flies with honey.” But somehow this guy’s death seemed a hell of a lot more imminent than a fly’s short life cycle.
“Look, I’m terribly sorry. I’m not trying to brush you off, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she said sweetly. “I know you are just doing your job, Max. But I have one to do too. So if we could schedule this at a more convenient time for both of us, that would be most helpful.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
Yep, he’s pissed.
But before he had a chance to respond, a voice rang out. “Hey, Max. How’s it going?”
Jessa twisted her neck at the interruption and watched as a construction worker in paint-covered overalls waved to them from one of the picnic tables across the way. Then the uniformed man flipped Max off with a huge smile on his face. Clearly, the two of them were friends and knew each other well.
When she glanced back at Max, she could’ve sworn that she saw a flash of panic briefly cross his face, but he gained his composure so quickly that she wasn’t entirely certain of it.
“Hi, Jim. Nice to see you,” Max replied, although he shifted sideways and transferred all of his weight from one foot to the other.
She didn’t know why, but she got the distinct impression that Max didn’t want to talk to the painter. Maybe there was some bad blood between them or something. Guess that made sense. After all, the guy did give Max the middle finger.
“You know what, Jess. I think you’re absolutely right. Maybe coming back another time would be a good idea. You clearly have things to be doing right now, and I have my own stuff to take care of. So why don’t we just reschedule this visit for another day?”
“That would be wonderful. Thank you.”
Jessa started to offer a new time and date, but before she could, Max said, “Good. I’ll see you around.” Then he abruptly turned and walked away.
Only briefly did she wonder why he was in such a blatant hurry to get out of there. But honestly, she really didn’t give a damn about why he’d left. Just that he’d left.
Thank God. I thought that annoying man would never leave.
Never had anyone looked so good walking in the opposite direction from her…and she wasn’t saying that because of his tight jeans covering his muscled rear end. Though that was pretty nice too.
Still a little flustered with her run-in with the sexy new inspector, Jessa closed her eyes and blew out a long, slow breath. After being in that man’s vicinity, she needed a minute to collect herself. Otherwise, she’d be going back to work with nipples so hard and pointy that she was liable to take someone’s eye out with them.
But something Max had said stuck eerily in the corner of her mind, and her eyes snapped open and she’d stared incredulously at the empty spot where Max had stood. At first, she hadn’t noticed the slight undercurrent of his words that still hung in the air around her like an ominous warning or some kind of bad omen.
What the hell did he mean he’d see her around? And why did those few short words sound so much like a threat?