Page 74 of Whisking It All

“You didn’t tell me you did that,” Ethan said. “It’s exactly what I would have done.”

“Only a lot more helpful,” Baz said, “since you can’t cook for shit.”

Ethan chuckled. “That’s true. But seriously, I had no idea. You never mentioned it. I didn’t realize how much time you two were spending together,” he continued, each word like the tightening of a vise around Jamie’s throat.

“It’s not that much time,” he choked out.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Baz asked, bringing them back to the topic at hand. “Am I sending this contract over to Norm or what?”

All eyes turned to Gavin. “Do it. I don’t think we’ll have a problem selling the tickets.”

“Great.” Baz signed the contract and set it aside. “Now about using the high school cafeteria for the cooking demonstrations.”

Jamie hardly heard as Baz and the guys debated the particulars of the next contract. Ethan had thanked him for spending so much time with Tessa. If he had any idea how Jamie had been spending that time with her over the last few days, the things they’d done…

His phone dinged as a message from Tessa popped up on his screen.

Tessa: Did I leave my phone charger at your place this morning?

He reached for his phone, flipping it face-side down, but not before Gavin’s gaze swung from Baz to Jamie’s screen, his brows drawing low as his eyes scanned the message. It wasn’t the most incriminating message. If he thought about it hard enough, he was sure he could come up with plenty of reasons for Tessa to have been at his cottage that morning and to have left her phone charger behind. But he was a shitty liar, and Gavin knew it.

He met Gavin’s eyes, soaking in the scrutiny he found there, the silent question slowly turning to disappointment.

“Guys!” Baz said. It clearly wasn’t the first time he’d tried to get their attention. “Are you confident we’ll have the volunteers for clean up or not?”

Jamie broke the staring contest with Gavin, turning to Baz. “We’ll have the volunteers. Sign the contract.”

He surveyed his friends, Ethan and Baz already off and talking about the logistics of volunteer management, Gavin staring at his hands. So he doesn’t have to look at me.

“Excuse me,” Jamie said, pocketing his phone and damn near sprinting from the room, leaving his friends to sort out the details.

He needed some air. Five seconds of quiet. Just a few minutes where he didn’t have to pretend he hadn’t betrayed his best friend twenty times over in the last few days alone. He paced to the end of the hallway and back, shaking his hands to dissipate the nervous energy coursing through him.

He doesn’t know you’ve betrayed him. He never has to know.

Jamie wanted to go up to the roof, to throw himself into planning the restaurant’s specials for the weekend, to get in his car and drive to Sugar Grapes just to see Tessa and prove to himself that she was his. But he couldn’t do any of those things. He’d made a commitment to the town when he took on the food and wine festival, and those men in his office—the greatest friends he’d ever had—had all jumped in with both feet to help him. He couldn’t bail on them now.

“Everything alright?” Gavin asked when Jamie pushed open the door and re-entered his office a few minutes later.

“Yeah. Sorry about that,” Jamie said.

“I think we’re done here for today anyway,” Baz said, swiping his tennis ball from the corner of Jamie’s desk and throwing it against the wall with a pointed look at Gavin as it ka-clunk-ed. “I’ve got to get to the office.”

“Your office is your guest room,” Gavin pointed out.

“It’s still an office,” Baz scowled. “Ethan, good to see you. I’ll have the vineyard’s month-end P and L to you by the end of the day.”

“Thanks, Baz. You’re the best damn finance manager around,” Ethan said.

“Don’t you forget it.” Ka-clunk. “You coming?” he asked Gavin on his way out the door.

“You go ahead without me. Brodie’s done with the lunch shift in a few minutes and he’s going to give me a ride to the university.”

Baz nodded and let himself out.

“Jamie,” Ethan piped up from the computer. “I want to thank you again. For everything. I know you and Tessa didn’t hit it off right away, but it means a lot to me that you’ve taken her under your wing. Made her feel welcome. Mrs. White tells me that you guys even invited her to fill my seat on the trivia team while I’m out of town.”

“You’re getting reports from Mrs. White about us?” Jamie asked, a chill creeping up his spine. What else had Mrs. White told Ethan?

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