Page 42 of 40 and (No Longer) Fighting It
“I requested that the school transfer Claire from the Prime to another restaurant for the remainder of her internship because…because I kissed her.” He cleared his throat. “And I wasn’t ready for that, not then.” He stared his friend down. “But I am now, and Claire and I have discussed this. She understands why I did what I did. And I understand the consequences that followed, the ones I didn’t pay enough attention to, to intervene. I understand all of it. And I have apologized. If there was something I could do to take it back, I would, but Claire understands that I didn’t do it on purpose.”
JD held his gaze for a long time. Linc waited, allowing his friend to process. And yet, as he waited, he realized what JD or Lily or their friends or anyone else thought wasn’t a concern to him. It was what Claire thought about this article that was threatening to close off his breathing. Not only had Shel dredged up their painful past, but she was doing so in front of the whole world, not just the two of them.
Linc grabbed his phone.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t glance up from his contact list. “Calling the bitch.”
JD didn’t say anything. Linc didn’t know if that was because he approved of what Linc was doing or because he knew arguing wasn’t going to have any effect. Maybe both. Linc didn’t care. All he cared about was making this right.
“Linc.” Shel sounded for all the world as if this were just a casual call. “I’m looking forward to seeing you in a few hours.”
I just bet you are.There were so many ways he could tear into her, but he chose the only words he thought might have any effect. “Why did you do it, Shel?”
“Do what?”
“You know what.” His grip tightened on the phone until it creaked. “Why did you print that story?”
Shel dropped the facade. “Because it was the story, darling. And that’s what I do.”
“No, it isn’t. You were here for a story about the resort.”
She chuckled. “And I got it. The story about the two people running the next great restaurant in the Smokies. Scandal sells, you know. It’ll get you plenty of press for the resort.”
At Claire’s expense? No way in hell would he take that deal. “You drew conclusions that weren’t true. If you’d asked me about them—”
“I asked plenty of people about them.” Shel’s voice took on a hard edge. “I also asked you to show me around Sunday night. We don’t always get what we ask for.”
He really did want to choke her. What, were they back in high school? “That’s what this is? You know I don’t date on a regular basis.”
“Until now. At least according to some of the folks around town. What makes her different, Linc?”
“Maybe the fact that she’d never do something like this to me.” He squeezed his eyes tight. “I expect a retraction.”
“You can expect anything you want. Doesn’t mean it’s happening.”
The line went dead, compounding the frustration boiling in his chest. When he closed the phone and faced his friend, he saw the same frustration in JD’s eyes. They were men who fixed things, not men who settled for what they were handed. But how did he fix this?
“Claire might understand what happened back then,” JD said, “but she won’t understand what she’s about to face out there. Or all the gossip when this goes viral. And it will; you know it will. Anything having to do with you does. We have to warn Claire before she hears this from someone else.”
JD was right. It wasn’t just the food world, in New York and beyond, that they had to worry about. Fan clubs had sprung up around the world after his first season onCulinary Combat. Fangirls examining his every move, dissecting every look at the festivals he attended, every photograph that got published. Viral might be an understatement. “I’ll go talk to her now.”
“Lily is going to talk with her before the ceremony.”
“No, that’s not Lily’s place. It’s mine.” He’d already be gone if he hadn’t felt the need to explain the past to his oldest and best friend.
As he strode toward the door, JD grabbed his arm. “There’s press out there already, Linc. They’ll be circling like sharks in the water.”
“I get that, but right now only Claire matters. Text Lily and tell her I’ve got this handled.”
He’d do anything to protect the woman he’d come to know, to care about, and right now he was about to prove it. He refused to let his actions ten years ago hurt her all over again.
Nineteen
Claire went through the menu in her head, her gaze scanning the various tables in the tent groaning with the abundance of food she’d labored over for the past three days. Well, she and Lincoln had labored over, along with her two new assistants, Layla and Sadie. The groundbreaking ceremony had drawn not only townspeople and officials, but the governor of Tennessee, a couple of senators, and even some well-known country stars from Nashville. She’d served food to important people many times in the past decade, but for some reason with this event, this group of people, she felt the driving need to get everything just right.
And she was pretty sure they had. But on the off chance she’d forgotten something, she went down her checklist and crossed off each item as she came to it. On the savory side of the tent, Tally was lining up the caviar and crème fraîche tartlets alongside the caramelized onion and feta pastry bites. The bacon “lollipops” came next, drizzled with a vanilla-bourbon sauce to complement their smokiness. Claire nudged a spinach and Swiss profiterole away from the edge of its platter, high on the repurposed cake stand, then nodded her approval as one of the hired servers added more skewered mini appetizers to the hundreds awaiting the hungry guests.
