Page 16 of Whisking It All

Jamie cursed under his breath. “See, that’s what I mean. You want her to be here so badly, you wouldn’t even see it if she was playing you.”

“Is it so unbelievable that she actually wants to be here?” Ethan asked, hurt cutting through his voice.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

Jamie shook his head, reaching for the coffee mugs. Even if Tessa was taking advantage of him, Ethan would never hear it, and pushing the issue would just drive him away. Jamie’s stomach lurched. He would not lose Ethan’s friendship over this. If it meant he had to keep an eye on Tessa himself, he would.

“Nothing. I’m sorry. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

Ethan exhaled, a wary smile sliding across his face. “I’m hoping you two will get along. From what I understand, she’s been working under some impressive chefs on the West Coast but they’ve kept her name off most things.” Jamie nodded. It was typical behavior for a certain type of superstar chef. “She wants to open her own place. I’m hoping I can convince her to do it here.”

“You think that’s something she’d want to do?” Jamie asked, avoiding Ethan’s eyes under the guise of shaking more glitter out of his hair, hoping the movement masked his panic at the idea of Tessa becoming part of Aster Bay on a permanent basis.

“Not today, it’s not. She’s got a head full of Steph’s bitterness. Decades of those old hurts between Steph and her parents. She seems to think everyone in town thinks like them, that she’s got a scarlet letter on her chest or something. But if she can work with you on the food and wine festival and make a mark on this town that’s all her own, I think she’d see that there are more people who want her here than don’t.”

Jamie nodded. It was a good plan, and exactly the kind of thing Ethan would come up with—helping his daughter, his best friend, and his town in one clean sweep, with a side of healing family trauma for good measure. Jamie wanted to get on board, he did, but he also wanted to scrub his skin until it was raw and he no longer remembered the way it felt to sleep pressed against Tessa.

Ethan sighed. “This feels like my chance to actually get to know my kid, maybe convince her to come home for real, ya know?”

Jamie’s grip on the handle of the coffee mug he was retrieving faltered, the mug slipping through his fingers and clattering on the counter. “How long is she staying?”

“Through the holidays.”

“That long?” Jamie winced, knowing as soon as the words had left his mouth that they were the worst words he could have chosen in that moment.

Except maybe, hey, I fucked your daughter last night. Jesus fucking Christ.

“She’s my daughter,” Ethan bristled. “Her mother’s been gone for three years now and who knows where the hell the rest of the Cordeiros are. My family is the only family she has left and I’ve been waiting for years for a chance to be there for her. She can stay as long as she fucking wants.”

Jamie waited, knowing Ethan well enough to know there was something he wasn’t saying.

“She’s just here until Christmas. She’ll make a salary while she works for me, and I’ll sign the trust over to her before she leaves. She’s always wanted to travel. Now she can do that without taking on any debt. And if the next few months go well, maybe she’ll come back when the wanderlust wears off.”

“Sounds like she’s getting more out of this deal than you are.”

“She’s my kid—that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Besides, it’s the first time she’s wanted to know me and not the version of me that Steph filled her head with for all those years. I don’t know… I’m not expecting us to become close overnight, but maybe with a few months in the same place…”

“I get it,” Jamie said.

He just didn’t trust her not to break his best friend’s heart. And he wished he hadn’t slept with her before he’d found out who she was.

Tessa reappeared carrying a small stainless-steel container, frosty wisps rising into the air above the container. “What are you guys still doing in here?” she asked. “Shoo. I’ll be out in a minute.”

“You did not just shoo me out of my own kitchen,” Jamie said, narrowing his eyes.

She cocked a hip and an eyebrow at him, the corner of her lip quirking up. “No, Chef.”

Fuck me.

Chapter 6

Tessa took her time plating. While pristine plating might not be her style, Ethan had been very clear that it was Jamie’s and, if she wanted to prove herself, she needed every advantage she could get. Most men weren’t inclined to partner with women they’d seen in pigtails, never mind someone who’d ghosted them after earth-shattering sex, but from everything Ethan had told her, working on this festival with Jamie could help her start to make a name for herself, separate from the temperamental chefs she’d worked under for the last few years. Besides, it was important to Ethan that she and Jamie get along, that she work with his friend on this festival. It was too early in their relationship for her to start letting her father down already. She didn’t want either of them to hand her this job—she wanted to earn it, and their respect. Both of them.

She only had vague recollections of Jamie from when she was a kid, but she knew he’d been around back then, the guy Ethan called when he and her mom were fighting again. The one who would show up at the house in the middle of the night if Ethan needed to take a walk through the grapes and blow off some steam. She thought she would have had at least a twinge of recognition for the man before she’d pulled him into her bed.

The dining room of Lemon and Thyme was sparsely decorated in creams and sage green, three walls of floor to ceiling windows proudly displaying the view of the ocean. She’d missed that view. When she’d last lived in town, the building had been more of a pub than the upscale restaurant Jamie had turned it into, but it still offered its patrons a stunning view of the bay. It was like you weren’t even on land anymore, surrounded by the waves and the bobbing boats on three sides. It was like floating.

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