Page 35 of Turn Up The Heat

“You bet me she’d hyperventilate,” Holly said. “You haven’t won until she asks for a paper bag.”

Bellamy ignored their teasing and pressed on. “Carly di Matisse is only, oh, the most awe-inspiring human being on theplanet. Her show, Couples in the Kitchen, is where I got all of the recipes for my parents’ anniversary dinner.” She stopped to take a breath, her mind spinning. “There wasn’t a peep of publicity about this appearance on her show, although come to think of it, they’ve been doing a lot of reruns lately. Still, how the hell did I not know she’d be here this weekend?”

“Nobody knows.” Holly motioned for Bellamy to move over so she could sit down next to her, and Bellamy relegated her pile of notes to the nightstand, making room for both Holly and Jenna on the bed.

“Apparently, she just inked a deal to come run the kitchen in the restaurant they’re rebuilding on the west side of the resort,” Jenna said. “It’s part of some mission to restore the place to its former glory. I guess the old one was as bad as the room service, so the resort is overhauling the everything in the lull between ski season and the summer rush. Did you know a lot of people come for the spa and the lake when it’s nice out?”

Bellamy shook her head. She’d thought Pine Mountain Resort was exclusively for skiing.

Jenna continued. “Anyhow. This little soiree tonight is like an added bonus, sort of a kickoff party for her to introduce the new menu she’s planning to incorporate. But she wanted to keep her move on the down-low for some reason, so there was practically no publicity. Apparently, her husband…uh…what’s-his-name…”

“Travis,” Bellamy supplied. “They do the show together.”

“Well, apparently not anymore. The event coordinator said Travis is staying behind to run the restaurant in New York and Carly is coming here.”

“Whoa,” Bellamy said. That washuge. “Maybe that’s why it’s still hush-hush. Unless they’re going to maybe do a shorter season of the show.”

Holly shrugged. “Maybe. All we know is that it’s been billed as a private event up until last night. Andweare going!”

Bellamy blinked back her shock, convinced she’d taken up residence in some alternate universe where the world included things like tasting Carly di Matisse’s minestrone soup. Not just her recipe, mind you. But food the chef herself had prepared with her own two hands.

“Oh, my God.” Bellamy’s heart raced beneath her hoodie. “Do you realize that right now it’s quite possible I am breathing the same air as Carly-fricking-di Matisse?”

Holly laughed and looked at Jenna. “Okay, so you weren’t kidding about the fangirl thing.”

Tears sprang into Bellamy’s eyes, sudden and hot, and she split her gaze between her two best friends. “This is seriously perfect. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank us,” Jenna said, hugging Bellamy from one side while Holly closed in on the other for a great, big group hug. “We wanted to do something to help you forget the horrible week you’ve had.”

“If anything will distract me from Shane’s kiss and run, it’s definitely this.”

She went to hold up the tickets in a jubilant wave, only to see both of her friends staring at her with enough wide-eyed surpriseto sink a ship.

Well, crap.

“Looks like the boss from hell isn’t the only thing putting your panties in a kink,” Jenna noted, waiting. The irony of her words caught in Bellamy’s chest. Forget a kink, her panties had been downright double-knotted. In the best possible way.

Right up until Shane lame-excused her all the way home.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she hadn’t been able to stop her mind from wandering back to Shane since she’d walked away from him in a huff last night. A well-deserved huff, but still. Maybe if she talked about it, she’d be able to forget him, once and for all.

Twenty minutes and a giant bag of chocolate chip cookies later, she’d gotten the whole story out, and the only thing she felt was sugar high.

“Wow. He really used the ‘it’s not you’ line?” Holly shook her head in a wordless paraphrase ofwhat a dumbass.

Bellamy’s nod sent a wisp of hair from the loose knot on top of her head. “Yup. Not that it really matters in the grander scheme of things.”

“Except for the fact that you like him.”

Jenna’s weird sixth sense for this kind of thing reared its perceptive little head, and Bellamy gave herself a mental kick in the ass for opening her yap in the first place.

“I don’t like him,” she countered.

But Jenna wasn’t going down without a fight. “You’re more upset about him than Derek.”

“I still don’t like him,” her pride made her say. “And the feeling is mutual, obviously. So, now that we’re all up to speed on my abysmal love life, or lack thereof, can we drop the whole thing? In fact, it would really make my day if I could just pretend that Shane Griffin didn’t exist.”

As Bellamy brushed the cookie crumbs from her hands and marched her no-nonsense self to the bathroom to start getting ready for her evening, she came to the realization that just because you liked to lay it all out on the table didn’t mean you couldn’t bend the truth while you were doing it.

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