Page 44 of You Had Me at Chocolate

He shrugged. “It’s not the way I like to run a kitchen but it does make you efficient.” He glanced at the backlog of things to be wrapped and took a skeleton she’d just slipped into a bag out of her hands. “You bag ’em, I’ll tie ’em.”

“Yes, Chef,” she mimicked and he groaned.

“Very funny.”

“You don’t like it?” she asked with faux innocence.

“I do not.”

She’d been teasing but his voice had an edge to it. “You regret going on the show?”

“No.” He shook his head. “It launched my career. Gave me a lot of opportunities, brought me a lot of accolades I wouldn’t have had without it but…”

Clem waited for him to elaborate and prompted him when it appeared he wasn’t going to finish his thought. “But?”

“I wasn’t necessarily any better than any other chef on that show. With hindsight, I can see that it was a lot about timing and luck and a lot of benefiting from others screwing up. But that didn’t stop my ego from exploding or walking around with a giant hard-on over myself thinking I was some kind of cooking wunderkind.” He pulled the ribbon he’d been tying, tight, staring at his handiwork. “I don’t think I liked that guy very much.”

Trying not to get stuck on the giant hard-on bit and her acquaintance with it, Clem nudged his arm with her shoulder and said, “And what about this guy?”

He came out of his reverie to look down at her. “I don’t know.” He smiled. “What about this guy?”

His gaze seemed to burrow into hers and Clem’s breath caught. What about him? He was just Jude to her—even when he’d been a distant celebrity. And right here, right now, standing side by side in her kitchen with the passage of time and one night of intimacy she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about between them, he was still just Jude. Even if her feelings toward him were far more mature, far more nuanced now.

But that wasn’t what he was asking and despite her instigating the question, Clem sought to lighten the mood. It was four thirty trick or treaters would be arriving soon and they needed to finish this so she could go slip into her costume. Not to mention they were entering murky waters.

“He’s okay,” she said flippantly.

Jude laughed. “Gee thanks. With friends like you I don’t need enemies.”

Friends—yes, right. Jesus, Clem… friends. Not whatever was causing the slight bump in her pulse.

And then he returned his attention to the bagging. “Tell me about the job in New York. You’ve barely mentioned it.”

Clem grabbed the new conversational direction with both hands. “My friend, Sondra, the one I told you about at the Met?” He nodded and she continued. “She recommended me to this woman, Eliza Redgold, who’s a private art collector who regularly buys and sells in the international market. She has several paintings coming to her in January with uncertain origins and she wants me to research their provenance.”

“You know about art?” He whistled.

His forearm brushed against hers, as he reached for some more ribbon, skittering goose bumps all the way to Clem’s shoulder. “Good lord, no. I’ve not got the first idea. But she’s not hiring me for my artistic qualifications. She’s hiring me for research capabilities. Provenance involves discovering the history of the ownership of a piece of art from the time it was produced until present day.”

“And you know how to do that?”

She laughed at the streak of admiration in his voice. It felt good to be able to impress someone whose CV was pretty damn impressive, too. “No, not really but it’s basically a research job so I’ll figure it out. And Sondra will be a great resource.”

“It sounds fascinating.”

“I’m sure it would be.”

“Would?”

“I called Elizabeth and pulled out of the job a couple of weeks ago.”

Clem watched as his hands stilled and felt his eyes cut to her. “What? Why? January is still a couple of months away.”

“I know. I just…” She shrugged as she continued to stuff skeletons into bags. “There’s still so much unknown about the pace of Mom’s recovery right now. If one thing my incessant research has taught me is that recovery is so very individual. If she continues on her current trajectory she’ll be home and having day therapy before we know it. But it’s too early to tell right now and I want to be there for her and Dad until things are more certain. That could be next month or six months away and I don’t want to dick Eliza around in the meantime. I wanted to give her plenty of time to find a replacement.”

It was the responsible thing to do. And Clem had always been responsible.

“Okay, that’s admirable. But… it’s not about the guilt thing, is it?”

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