Page 73 of Sinfully Shameless Chef

“It's the same night.”

Grant tenses, his whole demeanor hardening almost instantly. “You told me she wasn't going to be a problem.”

I finally lift my head to meet his gaze. “She's not.”

“I would beg to differ when you're sitting here, asking me to change the opening date of our damn restaurant because she decided to schedule hers to compete with ours.”

“No.” I shift forward in my chair and throw up a hand. “It's not like that. It wasn't intentional.”

He snorts and shakes his head, releasing a heavy sigh. “Jesus…you're really in deep with this girl, aren't you? You really believe she wouldn't do this to piggyback off our opening?”

“Not when I know it's her dead grandmother's birthday.”

She chose that date because it’s important to her, because her grandmother was the single most influential person in her life. She wants to honor her. It has nothing to do with our place. I never questioned that for a moment.

But Grant doesn’t know her the way I do. He’s a shrewd businessman who is always on guard and looking for people to stab him in the back. It’s good to be careful in business, to keep your eyes open for snakes in the grass. This isn’t that, though. Isabella is far from a snake, and she isn’t trying to sneak up on us to strike.

He eyes me for a moment and raps his knuckles against his desk. “Even if that's the case and it’s completely coincidental, this won't fly. You need to get her to change her opening.”

“What?” I push up out of my chair and press my palms flat against the top of his desk, leaning forward toward him. “You can't be serious.”

He reclines back in his chair. “I warned you that she would be a problem, Jameson. I told you not to let her become one. But you apparently ignored me—my guess is more than once considering the way you're defending her right now. If you can't get her to move her opening date, I'll have to make a call to a friend of mine down at City Hall and get her license pulled so she can't move forward yet.”

“You can't do that.”

“I can, and I will. This is a business for me, Jameson, and you need to treat it that way, too.”

The fact that he can question my commitment to this makes anger flare in my veins. Fisting my hands, I issue a low growl and slam one on the desk. “You don't have to be so heartless.”

“It's kind of what I'm known for. Isn’t that one of the reasons you wanted me as a partner?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

He holds up a hand. “But nothing. You have to separate business from pleasure. You can't let a little twinge of guilt stop you from advancing toward our ultimate goal.”

Jesus, he can be cold…

“That’s a hard way to live your life.” It also contradicts so much I’ve seen when he’s with Sylvie. It’s like he’s a different person here in his office than he is when his wife is around. She somehow helps calm the ruthless beast in him.

“I thought we were on the same page when we started this endeavor, Jameson.”

“We were. We are.”

“You just let a woman get you all fucked up.”

“Shit.” I shove off his desk and jerk my hands back through my hair, ignoring the soreness in my body from both the hockey game and what I did with Isabella last night.

That woman does have me fucked up.

She’s thrown me off my game since that first day she yelled at me in the rain.

I thought I could handle her, manage her the same way I have all the other women who have come in and out of my life. I believed I could give in to the attraction to her and then go on with my life like I always had.

Fuck was I wrong.

Grant rises from his chair and adjusts his watch, visible with his rolled-up sleeves. “It's not that I'm not sympathetic, Jameson. Because believe me,” he chuckles, “I've been there. But it doesn't mean I'm going to change my stance on this. We cannot let her open on the same day we do. Get her to change it. There isn't any other option.”

Shit.

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