Page 10 of Whisking It All

Gavin frowned, visibly confused. “Was it bad?”

“What? God, no. It was… No, it was definitely not bad.” Jamie lowered his voice, pushing away thoughts of just how not bad the night before had been. “You cannot say a word to anyone. Helen White will have me tarred and feathered and run out of town if she knows I left a date with her granddaughter and went back to another woman’s hotel room.”

“Hotel room?” Gavin’s eyes lit up at the new bit of gossip.

“Not a word.”

Baz appeared in the hotel doorway, his dark features pulled into his usual scowl. “Are you two coming?”

“Jamie hooked up with someone last night. In a hotel,” Gavin said, flashing one of those all-American smiles that made his students in the marketing program at the university swoon.

“What happened to not a word?” Jamie asked, shoving his friend, who only laughed in response.

“The guys don’t count,” Gavin protested.

“Weren’t you out with Trisha White last night?” Baz asked.

“I was, but—”

“But that’s not who he went back to a hotel with,” Gavin gleefully offered.

Baz huffed out a laugh. “Don’t tell Mrs. White.”

Chapter 4

“Planning your escape already?” Ethan asked, leaning in the doorway to his guest room.

Tessa looked over her shoulder at her father, a handful of push pins balanced precariously between her lips. She stood on the bed, her feet sunken into the mattress and her hands pressed to the world map on the wall.

“Jesus, TJ, don’t put push pins in your mouth,” he said, coming into the room and holding his hand out beneath her chin. She rolled her eyes and spit the pins into his palm. “Not something I expected to have to say to my twenty-five-year-old.”

“I was fine. And I go by Tessa now. Remember?” She selected a pin from his outstretched hand and jammed it into the corner of the map.

“Right. Sorry. I keep forgetting.”

“It’s okay,” she said as she pinned down another corner.

She knew he was trying. She wouldn’t even be there if he wasn’t trying. But she hadn’t used the nickname since she started working in professional kitchens a decade ago. You also haven’t seen your father more than a handful of times in the last ten years.

Guilt coursed through her veins, a familiar sensation ever since she’d admitted to herself that she hadn’t done her part to meet him halfway. It was one thing when she was a kid, but she was an adult now. She could have tried harder to rebuild their relationship. Should have.

You’re here now, she reminded herself as she jabbed another pin into the wall. You’re trying.

“What are all the ‘x’s?” Ethan asked, gesturing to the map. It was covered in tiny red ‘x’s—Sri Lanka and Portugal, Peru and Denmark, Belgium and Thailand. “Places you’ve been?”

She huffed out an amused breath. “Places I want to go.” She turned to him with her brightest, most charming smile. “Some of which I’ll actually get to visit now. Thanks to you.”

Ethan scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck, ruffling the short hairs there. “Not me. Your grandparents are the ones who set up that trust for you, Teej—Tessa. I don’t know how far twenty grand will get you, though.”

Tessa hopped off the bed and surveyed her work. The map was slightly crooked, but it was good enough. “Farther than I’ve been.”

“You know you don’t need to do this to get the money,” he said, his brow crinkling with concern. “Work here, I mean. The rules of the trust are clear. You turn twenty-five, the money’s yours. No strings attached.”

“You trying to get rid of me?” she asked. She’d meant it as a joke, but her smile slipped and for a moment, she was flooded with fear that maybe he didn’t actually want her there.

“No! Of course not. I’m so glad you’re here, T. I’m afraid I’m gonna wake up and realize it’s all a dream.” Ethan sank down on the edge of her bed and she took a seat next to him, waiting for him to continue. “I just don’t want you to think you are under any obligation to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“I know. But like I told you on the phone, I want to spend some time with you, work together on this pop-up. I’m sorry I haven’t come back before now—”

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