Page 48 of Sexy as Sin
Oh, no.
Willow’s face was chalk-white, the freckles standing out in sharp relief, and the hand in Brett’s trembled like she was standing in a hurricane. He could see movement under the blanket, too. Her legs were shaking.
He’d never met the woman who came through the door like she was somebody, and he’d never met the man behind her, either. She woman was put together well even at this hour, with sleek, shoulder-length blond hair and a simple outfit of cream-colored shirt and pants. Her face was taut with emotion, though, her gold hoop earrings swinging. The man, in jeans and a T-shirt that Willow’s ex Gordy would’ve worn, stood just inside the door and watched. The shirt saidOne Fifty Lashesand featured a whip, which wasn’t something you saw a middle-aged guy wearing every day. Brett looked closer. Oh. It saidPale Alebelow. It was some kind of beer. A frat-boy T-shirt all the way, meant to shock the parents. Interesting.
“Willow,” the woman said, her voice sharp. “What the bloody hell is going on? And why haven’t you been answering your phone?” She glanced at Brett and said, “Excuse us.”
“Hello,” he said, keeping his voice level and not letting go of Willow’s hand. “Brett Hunter.”
“Amanda Oldmarsh,” she said. “Senior partner in Nourish. My husband Tom. I need to talk to Willow alone. We have a crisis here. Or call it what it is. Disaster.”
Brett didn’t let go of Willow’s hand. He asked her, “Do you want me to leave?”
A long, long moment, and finally she said, “No. Please stay. You already know anyway.”
Amanda said, “Fine, then, if you want him to hear. I wouldn’t. I got the call an hour ago from Calvin Attenborough.”
“Groom,” Willow muttered, and Brett nodded.
“He wasn’t ill,” Amanda said, “but his mum was, and so was his daughter. Then somebody else rang him, he said, and they’re dropping like ninepins now. I need to know what you missed, Willow, before the Food Authority gets onto it. We need to put a story together. I thought you knew better. I took youonbecause you knew better, and now this? I only hope word doesn’t get around before the wedding today. By next week, though, they’ll know. If the Food Authority doesn’t shut us down, that is.”
“How do you know she missed anything?” Brett asked, keeping it mild with an effort. “They don’t even know what happened yet. Sounds like a supplier problem to me.”
Amanda eyed him and asked coldly, “And you would know this how?”
He kept his cool. It was his job. It was his life. “As a survivor of disasters large and small. Always unwise to jump to conclusions.”
He could nearly see her hackles rising. “I’ll jump to this conclusion,” she said. “That I’ve never had this happen in nearly twenty-five years in this business. I take a partner, and six months later, here we are, draggingmyhard-earned reputation,mytwenty-year company, into the dirt.” She switched her gaze to Willow. “I’ll expect you in the kitchen at eight. This time, wash your hands.”
“That’s a bit harsh, love.” The first thing the husband had said.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “How do you expect me to feel?”
“Darling,” he said. That was all, but at least she pressed her mouth shut. It looked like she was holding it there, but at least she’d stopped talking.
Brett was, somehow, standing up. On a crutch, but standing. “Willow’s not going anywhere today. Look at her. She’s in a hospital bed.”
“No, she’s not,” Amanda said. “She’s in A&E as a precaution, or an overreaction. Everybody’s being treated and released, except two people who were weak already. I took her on because she told me she was strong. Well, it’s time to be strong. She’s a chef, and chefscook.No matter how they’re feeling. No matter what’s crashing and burning around them. I need her to cook now. We’ve got over two hundred people coming this afternoon, and they all need to eat.”
“I don’t care what you need,” Brett said. “You’re not getting it. I’m sure the health department would have something to say about that. Stupidest idea I’ve heard in a lifetime of listening. You think you’ll convince them of your commitment to food safety if you let a sick woman prepare a meal for two hundred people?” He wasn’t doing so well on his cool and calm. Too bad. “Willow’s going home with me, and then she’s going to bed. Find somebody else to fill in.” A pregnant woman wasweak?He’d also be willing to bet that since Willow had bought in, Amanda hadn’t been starting work at seven in the morning and going home at eight in the evening, because she’d had somebody else to do that. He knew that type, too. They thought that being senior meant coasting, when in reality, the captain needed to be out there working the hardest, showing the way. That was how you inspired loyalty. That was how you built a team.
“You don’t fillin,”Amanda said. “There’s no filling in. Who’s going to do all the work for this wedding if she doesn’t, I’d like to know? I’m already down a waitress, because Martina’s ill as well.” Brett inclined his head at the door, and she turned as if she didn’t know what he was talking about and said, “What, Tom? He’s not helping in the kitchen. He does enough. And just who the bloody hell are you to be telling me how to run my business?”
“I’m the man who’s in love with your partner,” Brett said. “The one who’s going to take her away from here, if I can. You’ll have a fight on your hands to hang onto her, so if I were you, I’d go through that door again, come back in, and start over. Do it right this time. I’ll be listening, and so will she. Try harder.”
Yeah, he’d said it.
Amandadidn’tcome back in again. Willow wasn’t surprised. Of course Amanda was shocked. Of course she was disappointed. And of course Willow herself still wanted to curl up and die. Not from the sickness this time, but from knowing she’d caused it. With all her training and all her effort—still, somehow, it had happened, and it was her responsibility.
What was she meant to say to Brett? She had no clue. Her skin was prickly all over, and she couldn’t tell if it was from illness or emotion, or even what kind of emotion it was. She wanted to believe him, she wanted to pull up the sheet and hide from everything, and she was much too close to crying. Again. She needed to pull her head in and get herself under control, and it wasn’t feeling easy. A few bouts of breathing in and out, and she could finally say, “Thanks. That may help with whatever happens next.”
“No problem,” he said, and that was all. Clearly, hehadsaid it for effect, which was what she’d figured all along. Nothing new here. Nothing disappointing. Everybody had their own lives, and you weren’t front and center in them. She’d known that since she was twelve, and if she were honest with herself, she’d known it long before that. Men didn’t fall in love for keeps in a week, either, especially not men like Brett, and if they did, it wasn’t with women like her. He’d dated his wife for three years. His beautiful,brilliantwife. Nobody had ever called her brilliant in her life. The idea would have made her snort if she hadn’t been so tired. Besides, if she knew Brett at all, she knew that he was a cautious, controlled man who didn’t succumb to whims. And who’d brought six condoms on a short business trip in case he met somebody pretty. Call that a confident man.
“Do you think there’s a way to find out about those two people?” she asked him. None of the rest mattered now. “Except that I don’t know their names. The older lady will be Mrs., ah...”
“Attenborough,” Brett said, like a man who never forgot anything.
“But I don’t know the other one’s name,” she said. “The pregnant one.”
