Page 45 of Whisking It All

WhiskyBusiness: Who even likes peanuts in savory food?

DiceDiceBaby: Not you.

WhiskyBusiness: It’s a lovely dream.

Chapter 15

Jamie stood in the doorway to his kitchen, watching as his sauce pots were displaced in favor of a giant spotlight. As if the kitchen weren’t bright enough as it was. Kyla hoisted herself up on top of the steel workstation and he winced at the idea of the marks her sneakers would leave behind.

“How badly do you want to tell her to get down?” Gavin asked at his side.

He shot his friends a pained look. “Tell me again why this is necessary.”

“Fuck if I know,” Baz said. “Kyla and Tessa are the geniuses behind this one.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Did you seriously think I would miss this?” Baz asked with a smile. “Hell, Ethan made me promise to send him behind the scenes photos.”

“Don’t do that.”

“A promise is a promise, man,” Gavin said as Jamie shot daggers at him. They had no effect. Gavin was unflappable.

“Have you heard from him today?” Jamie asked.

Gavin shook his head. “He said he’ll call after the surgery.”

The surgery was supposed to start hours ago… Jamie sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that everything was going okay in that operating room.

Across the kitchen, Kyla instructed Brodie in the exact placement of yet another reflector, ignoring her boyfriend’s complaints as she adjusted the angle of the light she’d set up on his counter. “Jamie,” she called, waving him over, “Could you stand right over there so we can test the light?”

“Your adoring public awaits,” Baz snickered.

“Fuck you,” Jamie said with a laugh as he walked away, taking his place at the staged workstation as Kyla had instructed.

“I didn’t know you were a photographer,” Jamie said, holding up his hand to block out a particularly bright light aimed directly at his face.

Kyla made a few more adjustments to the reflectors. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It looks like a big deal,” Jamie said, gesturing to all the equipment.

“Kyla got her degree in photography. Graduated early. Last May,” Gavin said, smiling softly at his son’s girlfriend with pride. Kyla blushed, but kept fiddling with the lights without responding.

“I had no idea. I know you worked with Cheryl, and that Tessa was glad to have you sign on, but I didn’t know you did all this, too,” Jamie said.

“I am a woman of many talents,” Kyla deadpanned before hopping off the counter, pausing to wipe off the dirt left behind by her shoes. “Now we just need Tessa,” she said.

“I’m here!” Tessa burst through the kitchen doors, Natalia trailing behind her with a wardrobe bag. “Sorry. It took longer than I thought to get camera-ready.”

Kyla and Natalia chatted with Tessa as she dropped a to-go cup of coffee and her phone on the counter and made her way through the maze of wires and lights occupying his kitchen, but Jamie hardly heard any of it. He felt like he was in a wind tunnel, the blood whooshing past his ears and his vision hazy, except for the woman walking towards him. Her hair had been styled in loose waves around her shoulders, her eyes were done up with the kind of makeup that he’d only seen on movie stars, and her lips were painted a deep crimson.

“Doesn’t she look great, Jamie?” Gavin prompted.

“What? Oh, yeah,” he said, meeting her eyes. She smirked at him, a knowing gleam making her eyes sparkle. “You look amazing.”

“Damn,” Brodie said, appearing at Kyla’s side. He slung an arm over her shoulder. “Why don’t you dress up like that, babe?”

“Because I’m not the one being photographed,” Kyla said, slipping out from under his arm.

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