Sunday morning, Sal rushed in early to get the week's inventory done as quickly as possible. He wanted to be out of there before the closing shift came in. He'd already called Jason. Sal was meeting him for a round of golf, and then he was stopping by Alex's. His mother was preparing a Sunday dinner over at Alex's house since Valerie couldn't get out of bed, and she wanted everyone to drop by.

Staying busy was good. It helped keep his mind off of other things. He'd finally admitted to himself that maybe he was a little attracted to Grace, but after seeing her with boyfriend number two, it squashed any possibilities. Besides, it was out of the question. She was too young for him and she was an employee. It would never work. He was stupid to have even considered the thought.

He sat back, staring straight ahead at the cabinets against the wall. It was just a physical thing. Even though, at first, he hadn't been very impressed by Grace, after being around her, he noticed a few things about her that could be construed as attractive: her big innocent eyes, the curves he hadn't been privy to on their first meeting because of the unflattering dress, the way there was no hiding her excitement even over the smallest things—a ball cap, and that laugh ... There was no way he could hear it and not smile.

Alex walked into the back room. "What's with the cheesy smile?"

Sal straightened out. "I was just thinking about something." He spun his chair around to face the computer. "Are Angel and Sarah gonna be there tonight?"

Sofia walked in. "I heard dad on the phone last night, so they better be." She giggled. "Is Grace here yet?"

Sal turned around. "No, she's closing."

"Well, she was," Sofia said, grabbing an apron out of the drawer. "I told her to come in early. We're gonna give her a shot in the kitchen. I figured Sunday is a good day for her since—"

"Wait," Sal said, feeling uneasy. "Who okayed this?"

Alex laughed. "What do you mean? We said we were gonna give her shot, so we're giving her a shot."

Sal couldn't care less about her in the kitchen at this point. He'd figured this attraction thing would go away with a few days of not seeing her. He'd planned it, damn it. Easy peasy. Monday and Tuesday were her days off. If he scheduled a few more interviews Wednesday and Thursday at Angel's, it would be almost a week before he'd have to be around her again. He would've been home free by then. They'd thrown a wrench in his plans.

"Yeah, and you should've seen how excited she was last night when I told her." Sofia added. "Even her boyfriend was excited. He picked her up and spun her around. He's a cutie!"

Sal squeezed the armrest of his chair. "Which one?"

"What do you mean?" Sofia stopped tying her apron.

Before he could gather his thoughts to respond, Alex's words made him hold his breath. "Speak of the devil."

In walked Grace. It had only been one full day since he last saw her, and it felt like forever. Her hair was down. All this time he'd been witness to her hair in a bun or in a ponytail. Now it was down and hung loosely around her face, adding yet another thing he hadn't noticed about her before: how damn sexy she was. Of course.

~*~

They'd been talking about her. Grace felt her heart speed up at Alex's words, but seeing Sal when she walked in the back room pushed her nerves into overdrive. "Morning," she said to no one in particular.

"Good morning, Grace." Sofia was the first to respond.

"Ready to show us your stuff?" Alex asked with a smile. He turned back to Sal, "I'm curious about this. If she's even half as good at cooking as she is at putting drinks together, I think we got ourselves a cook."

"Good morning, Grace," Sal said.

His stoic expression said it all. He didn't share the same enthusiasm as his siblings about testing her cooking skills. He looked at Alex. "You'll have to tell me about it. I'll be leaving in a little while."

"What? You're not gonna stick around and see what she can do?"

Sal's eyes met hers for a lingering moment. Then he added to her disappointment. "Nah, I'm meeting someone in a couple hours. I'll get a chance to another time."

With that, he turned around to face the computer.

"You'll have to put your hair up though, Grace," Sofia said, as she pulled her own hair up.

"Oh, I was going to. I just wore it down so it could dry on my way here." Grace started digging in her bag for the band she used to pull her hair up in a ponytail. She gulped, trying not to think about Sal's aloof demeanor.

Her throat actually constricted, making her swallow hard. How could a few cold words from him actually make her feel like choking up? It was so stupid. She was so stupid. All night and all morning, it was all she had thought about—what he would think of her cooking.

She'd been a ball of nerves the whole bus ride there. Then hearing Alex's words stirred things up in her stomach even more, but seeing Sal had done it. All day yesterday, she'd longed to see him, even if it was for just a moment. Now here he was, and, as usual, his indifference for her was palpable. Even as anal as they'd made him sound about the cooks, he wasn't the least bit interested in seeing how she fared in his precious kitchen.

Of course not, why would he? God, she felt ridiculous. This restaurant, as important as it was to him, wasn't his life. He had a life outside of this place, and, apparently, whoever he was meeting today took precedence.

Alex stepped out of the office to take a call from his wife. Sofia finished with her hair and apron before Grace. "I'll go check what orders, if any, are in the kitchen. But it's rare that anyone orders off the menu during brunch, especially because all the breakfast stuff is already out there."

Grace nodded, hurrying to get her hair done. She didn't want to be left alone too long with Sal. As soon as Sofia walked out the door, Sal turned to Grace, almost as if he'd been waiting for Sofia to leave the room. "So which one is your boyfriend? Or are they both?"

His question came out of nowhere. She stopped what she was doing. "What?"

"The guys that pick you up after work." He stared at her, the apathy now replaced with significant interest. He shrugged. "Just curious. Sofie mentioned your boyfriend seemed real excited last night when he picked you up. Does he know about the other guy?"

His tone was anything but just curious. It was almost accusatory. Wow, he wasn't kidding when he'd said first impressions went a long way. He still had her pegged as a liar. "They're both just friends of mine. Neither is a boyfriend."

She saw the insolence in his smile. "So do your friends know about each other?"

Was he for real? Alex walked in just in time to hear her response. "As a matter of fact they do. We hang out together all the time." She wasn't about to get into Joey and Taylor's relationship with him. It was none of his business. How dare he pass judgment on her with all the women he had hanging all over him?

She finished with her hair and reached for her apron.

"Sounds interesting." He turned around to face the computer again. "You'll need a jacket if you're going to be in the kitchen."

He almost sounded mad. Having his reservations about her as an employee because of the lie on her résumé was one thing. She'd give him that, even if she'd already apologized for it. But getting haughty over something he found questionable about her personal life was crossing the line. He had no right, no matter how anal he was about his employees' integrity.

She took a deep breath, glancing at Alex and held in what she really wanted to say. "Where do I get a jacket?"

"In the stock room. Sofia can show you."

She finished with her apron and shoved her bag in the cabinet.

"Showtime," Alex said.

As excited as she'd been when she got there, she couldn't even muster a smile before walking past Alex out the door. If Sal had made up his mind about her already, then there was no need to even try to impress him. Apparently, the jerk had her all figured out.

~*~

Wait for it. Wait for it.

"What the hell was that about, Sal?"

And there it was. "What do you mean?"

Alex closed the door. "You know what I'm talking about. You pissed her off. What did you say to her?"

Sal turned around. Just a few weeks into it and Alex was already turning into the protective big brother. This was so like him. Sal shrugged. "Two different guys picked her up last week. I just asked her about them. She didn't seem mad to me."

"Are you kidding me? She looked ready to spit nails. What did you ask her?" Alex crossed his arms and stared at him.

Sal couldn't help frowning. Truth was she had been a little too defensive. "All I asked was if they knew about each other."

"What?" Alex looked even more disgusted. "Since when do you get all involved?"

"I don't. I was just curious."

"Bullshit, that's straight out nosy. No wonder she was so pissed."

"So I'll apologize." It wouldn't be the first time. "I didn't think she'd be so bothered by it."

"What's going on Sal? What is it with you and this girl? You still ticked off that I hired her even after you said she'd struck out?"

Sal stood up. He was done having this conversation. "Nope, I just asked her something that apparently rubbed her the wrong way. I'll go apologize, and then I'm out of here."

He walked to the door, aware that Alex was still staring at him. He opened the door and glanced back at him. Alex continued to stare at him, but the scowl softened. Then suddenly he smirked. "You're into her."

"What?" Sal did his best to appear incredulous.

"You're into Grace."

Sal shoved the door closed. "No, I'm not."

"Yeah, you are." Alex laughed. "Why else would you ask her about the guys picking her up? You jealous, Sal?"

"I'm not you, you idiot."

Alex laughed even more now. "Oh, this is rich. Sal's got the hots for the new hire."

"Will you shut up?" Sal peeked through the door to make sure no one was within hearing range. "She's attractive. I'll give her that. But you know I can't get involved with anyone that works here."

"Why not? Sarah worked here before she and Angel got married."

"That's different." He couldn't believe he was even discussing this. "They were already involved when she came to work here."

"Man, you must really be into her to ask her something so ballsy. So what did she say? Is she really seeing two guys?"

"No!" Sal was letting Alex get the best for him. He needed to regain his composure here. "She said they're just friends."

Alex laughed again. "I see. So that's when you asked her if they knew about each other. Good one. I would've asked the same thing."

Sal wasn't sure if he and his brother sharing the same mentality when it came to reacting to women was a good thing. It was never in his nature to just react. That was Alex and Angel—not him. But the question had just slipped out before he even knew it, just like his comment about Alex being married, her first day on the job. Now he was going to have to apologize again.

"I was out of line, Alex."

"Not really, Sofie said the guy picked her up and spun her around last night."

Sal worked his jaw. As much as that annoyed him, it still came down to one thing. "Friend or not, it's none of my business."

"Technically, I'm the boss here, Sal. I think she's pretty damn adorable. You wanna make it your business? Have at it. I don't have a problem with it."

Sal opened the door. That was impossible. There was no way it would work. Not only did she have guy friends who were a little too friendly for his liking but he'd managed to come across as a total asshole more than once now.

"Hey," Alex added.

Sal turned around.

"Just don't mess with her, man. That I'll have a problem with. I like her. She's a sweet girl and a damn good bartender. I don't want you giving her any reason to leave."

He almost walked out without responding then stopped and turned around. "Not a word about this to anyone, you hear me?"

Alex smirked.

That only panicked Sal further. "I'm serious, ass."

End of Sample! You can read Making You Mine in it's entirety (over 100k words with the epic series ending epilogue that'll include scenes in Sal, Alex, Sofie, Romero and Angel's POV!  PLUS a Sarah and Angel bonus short story at the end of the book! 

Grab it now!  http://elizabethreyes.com/books/moreno-brothers/making-you-mine/

Just like I added highlights of the rest of the story to all my other Moreno Brothers samples here on Wattpad, highlights for Making You Mine coming VERY soon!     

Stay tuned for Noah. My next full length upload to Wattpad. Yes I will be uploading the first in my 5th Street series here at Wattpad in it's ENTIRETY. Then follow up with samples of the rest in that series! =)

For a glimpse of what you're in for with Noah you can check out teasers, excerpts and the blurb along with purchase links if you can't wait to read it here. 

http://elizabethreyes.com/books/5th-street/noah/

Chapters will be uploaded over a matter of several weeks.