Chapter 27
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
After coming back from his morning outing with Spike, Kyle found Madison chopping peppers and onions like a Top Chef candidate in the final minute of competition.
Head down. Total focus. Warp speed.
He told himself not to be alarmed. She was upset. She cut onions to cope. Dealing with burning eyes seemed like a small sacrifice.
She made him an epic BBQ-inspired breakfast but barely picked at her own food. Her mind was clearly elsewhere, so he let her lapse into quiet.
Later, when he suggested a walk, she took his hand and practically charged out into the cold winter streets as if she desperately needed to walk something off.
She had a lot on her mind. He knew that. But they couldn’t shut out the world today.
There was still a heaviness in the air between them when they arrived at Sawyer and Phoebe’s.
Their friends had a smaller setup, but they’d creatively set up low tables in their family room, along with pillows for everyone to sit on.
Seeing their roommates and their Plus Ones felt good, but he knew everyone was watching them. Including Nanine.
When she and Carl arrived, she sought him out first and kissed him warmly before embracing him with the kind of sweetness no other human being on earth had ever given him. He leaned in, hoping she would whisper something about the situation in his ear. But there was nothing.
Only her understanding brown eyes and enigmatic smile.
He remembered how she’d told them she would only speak of hurtful things once because the pain was too great for her to speak of it again. Was this one of those times? Had she spoken to Madison and then closed the door on the topic forever?
“You need another drink,” Phoebe announced, appearing beside him with a bottle of champagne.
“I’m your kneeling waiter, a special kind of server for today’s dinner.
Anything you need, I’m here for you. Comfortable?
Do you need a thicker pillow? Sawyer thought the guys needed more fluff since you don’t have as much padding on your backsides.
We ended up flipping a coin since I told him I disagreed. He won, unfortunately.”
Her usual bold, bright spirit made him smile.
She wore all orange today—Seville orange, she was quick to point out when Dean joked about it being prison orange—and she’d hugged him like an old friend.
“I do need a refill, but this pillow is perfect. I’ll have you know I gave Madison the fluffier pillow when she wasn’t looking. ”
“You’re a prince!” She poured the champagne carefully. “No wonder I like you. Madison? More bubbly?”
She paused mid-conversation with Jacqueline to respond with a clipped Sure. The two women had started talking about wine the moment they’d sat down. Technical talk. No fun, feel-good talk like the rest of them, he noted. Yeah, she was holding on by a thread.
Kyle turned toward Thea, who was seated on his other side. She was fingering the stem of her champagne, oddly quiet as well. Not good. He extended his flute. “To your bakery and all of your success.”
Her big brown eyes reminded him of Spike’s when he sensed Kyle had the blues—a rarity for him. But he’d had them plenty since learning the Michelin news.
“Thank you.” Thea took a sip of her champagne before turning toward him on her yellow throw pillow. “I think we need a Drink and Divulge night. I talked to Sawyer earlier. He agrees.”
Jean Luc was observing their conversation, a rather funny picture given he was dressed in one of his usual pinstriped suits while sitting on a purple pillow and drinking champagne. He looked like he was vacationing in Monte Carlo.
“Sure. It’s been a while. Everyone has been busy. We should find a time.”
She took a serious gulp of her bubbly. “How about tonight? After Sunday dinner?”
Concern lit up his nerve endings. “Thea, aren’t you tired? Le Mellieurs des Amis just opened. You’ve been getting up at three in the morning to start baking. We can do this in a couple of weeks once you’re more settled.”
“Nope.” She plucked at her green skirt. “Tonight. Everyone!”
Conversations continued, so she turned to Jean Luc and started frisking him until she found a Mont Blanc pen in his interior suit pocket. Tapping the pen to her flute didn’t attract the group’s attention like she’d hoped, so she downed her champagne and tapped the glass more aggressively.
“Chérie, I would have found you some cutlery if you’d asked,” Jean Luc said with amusement.
She waved a hand in response and knocked the pen to her empty flute again. “Hey! I’m talking here.”
The others’ conversations didn’t simply halt—they died like a book had dropped to the floor. She had their attention now.
“I’m calling for a Drink and Divulge game after dinner, and I’m not taking no for an answer,” she said as Phoebe arrived with another bottle of champagne.
“That’s telling us, little sister,” Dean shot back with a crack of laughter. “I hereby obey your summons.”
“Good,” she said smartly, “and don’t call me little sister. I’m a grown woman who’s married and is running her own business.”
Kyle’s jaw went slack. Thea wasn’t usually testy.
Dean gave a slow whistle. “Consider yourself Madame Thea to me from now on.”
Jacqueline uttered a very French bof while Brooke bit her lip, clearly doing her best not to smile.
“What’s the matter with Thea?” Madison whispered to Kyle, on alert now.
He shrugged. Work had a way of stressing people out. Maybe it was her turn.
Their meal was rife with Shakespeare-themed dishes.
No Man’s Pie from Henry VIII for their main course with lamb and vegetables.
A Renaissance Garden salad, because neither Phoebe nor Sawyer could come up with any real side dishes.
Finally, they served Gremio’s Cake from Taming of the Shrew for dessert with dried citrus and spices.
A warm and tasty Chamberlain’s Wassail from Macbeth helped wash it all down.
“An inspired meal,” Nanine decreed at the end when everyone had coupes dangling from their hands once again.
“I adore our new Sunday dinner tradition. Thank you both for hosting, Sawyer and Phoebe. Carl and I must depart so you can turn to your coveted game of Drink and Divulge. Good night, my loves.”
She rose with one of her benevolent smiles, their eyes meeting again across the room. Yeah, she knew he knew and wasn’t talking. Probably better. He was working hard enough to control his emotions and stay positive.
Carl made his goodbyes alongside Nanine, ending with a long hug for his daughter. Brooke had tears in her eyes when they left, but she reached for her flute again and punched up her smile.
Phoebe and Sawyer led the couple out, and when they returned, Thea smacked her lips. “All right, let’s get started, shall we?”
“Should we clean up first?” Brooke asked, still standing.
Thea’s head shake was emphatic. “Nope. We can do that afterward. Okay, I won last time, so I get to start.”
“Wait!” Dean called, resituating himself on his pink pillow—one he’d claimed he wasn’t afraid of because he was cool with his feminine side. “How do you remember that?”
“Because I do, Dean,” she ground out, shoving her chestnut hair behind her ear. “Now, here’s my question. Kyle, it goes to you first since your birthday is coming up.”
“His is in August,” Dean corrected before Thea shushed him. “Never mind. Go ahead, Madame Thea.”
She shot their funny friend a look before shifting her attention to Kyle. “Kyle, when were you planning on telling me that that horrible Chef Dassault had blackballed Nanine’s again?”
Terrific.
“Now her attitude makes sense,” Dean announced before Brooke shushed him. “Jeez, seriously? Can I not talk at all?”
“Not right now you can’t,” Madison delivered dryly. “Thea, it’s my fault as much as Kyle’s. You were opening your bakery.”
“You just got married,” he added, his heart thumping with gratitude at the way Madison had dived in like a good partner and taken some of the blame. “We’ve never seen you happier.”
She bounced on her pillow, her champagne sloshing. “So you were keeping something vital about The Paris Roommates Group from me because I’m happy? You cut me out of being your friend when you were upset. God—”
“Oh no!” Brooke moaned. “She said ‘God.’”
“And I’ll say canard—because I can swear in French too.”
“Oh chérie,” Jean Luc groaned, caressing her back.
“Why is she talking about a duck?” Jacqueline whispered to Dean.
“I am not talking about a duck!” she exploded, her pearl earrings bobbing. “I was calling him an a-hole.” Then her face fell. “Oh no! Did I mispronounce the word again?”
Jean Luc stroked her arm. “It is no problem, ma Thea. I am sure un canard can be un connard too.”
“They can in France,” Dean muttered darkly.
“Exactly!” She pointed her flute out. “Forget my bad pronunciation. My point is no one told me. I thought everyone had noticed how much I’ve changed. I can handle things now. I faced down Sawyer’s demon of a mother. Sorry, Sawyer, but her nails still give me nightmares.”
“Me too,” Sawyer mumbled, taking Phoebe’s hand.
Brooke leaned forward on her pillow, her green eyes entreating. “Oh, Thea, take a breath, sweetie.”
“I am not a sweetie!” Thea pressed her hand to her chest. “I’m angry and frustrated and hurt. You should have told me! I understand why you didn’t tell Nanine, but everyone else knew. This news is important. It’s awful, and I let myself cry for twenty minutes because I’m trying to cry less too.”
Kyle’s throat locked when she angrily swiped at a tear falling down her cheek. “Thea, I’m so sorry. I didn’t keep it from you to hurt you. The opposite, in fact. I should also set the record straight. Nanine knows, too.”
A few gasps sounded around the room, but he couldn’t focus on them now. Not when Thea was so upset.
He felt Madison slide around his back on the floor, and then she was taking Thea by the shoulders. “Hey! I know this hurts, and I’m sorry it hurt you. We didn’t mean that. I’d rather use my cleaver on myself than make you cry.”
“This situation affects me too.” Thea clutched Madison’s black shirt.
“Those are our breads. Our menu. Do you remember how we came back from seeing Nanine in the hospital and immediately got started on the menu she asked for? You told me your idea for the bread pairing, and then we volleyed ideas. I can still see delighted Nanine’s face the day we presented our draft menu to her.
She was days out of the hospital, and I felt like we’d healed part of her heart.
And that a-hole is going to keep the Michelin people away, just like he did with Nanine! It’s not fair.”
Madison’s face was tight with anguish. “No, it’s not. In the history of culinary excellence, it’s some of the dirtiest pool I know of. But we can’t change it—”
“Hey!” Kyle almost shouted. “That’s not—”
Her golden eyes swung to him. “Don’t you dare give her false hope, Kyle.”
She might as well have sliced him open with her cleaver.
“I can protect myself,” she continued, her voice cracking him open.
“I can fall back on a lifetime of disappointment and disillusionment. But not Thea. She’s everything good in this world.
Unicorns run down her street. Rainbows appear in the sky.
Despite her new cred for facing down Sawyer’s scary mother. ”
He could feel his control slipping out of his hand. “I’m tired of all this negativity and talk of this a-hole winning. You all just have to let me do my thing.”
Madison stood up, her fists clenched at her sides.
“Kyle, I love you with all my heart, but you need to be open to the fact that you cannot do your thing here. Nanine, William Silver, my old mentor, Rico—the whole culinary world—knows this situation is impossible. Sometimes even you can’t change the cards you’re dealt. ”
Her breath was coming in harsh pants. They stared at each other before she finally looked away.
The deepest cut of all.
“I asked you to believe in me,” he said, trying to stay calm even though he felt like he was being ripped to shreds. “If you’ve lost faith in me and my word about helping you win your star, you need to say it.”
“Kyle, this is out of your control.” Her golden eyes found him again and turned bright with unshed tears.
“More than anyone, I understand how hard that is to hear. You made me want to believe it could be done. Given what you know of me, that’s a miracle.
But it’s time to face facts. We never had a chance. Excuse me, I need to go.”
She rushed from the room.
He pursed his lips, fighting to keep his shattered control.
Thea laid her head against his shoulder as the door slammed, saying, “I’m so sorry.”
So was he.