Chapter 10 #2
“The house in Malibu is that as well. I feel like this is just one more illusion,” she said. Knowing she meant her feelings. There was something inside of her that was so scared and unsure. And every move that Remy made just reinforced how out of control she really was.
“This is real,” he said. “Even though I’m out of work right now I have money.”
That knocked her back. Yet it made perfect sense. He was totally at ease in any situation. It was something that she’d noticed in wealthy friends before. “Oh, okay.”
“Staci, we are getting to know each other in carefully measured steps. You and I are creating a new dish and every time we get something right and try to move onto the next ingredient we have to readjust.”
She agreed. “I’m not wealthy, but the cupcake business has been good to me and Alysse. We have an investor interested in expanding Sweet Dreams into a chain of stores. If that happens, we’ll both be millionaires.”
“Good to know. Are you going to do it?”
Staci shrugged. “I’m not sure. I have been considering doing other things, but we’re both just so used to bakery...what would we do without Sweet Dreams.”
“I’m sure any new investor would love it if you both stayed on and worked there,” he said, coming over next to her and taking over chopping the vegetables.
“But we would be working for someone else. That doesn’t seem right.”
He laughed at her and she smiled back. “I know I’m bossy, what can I say?”
They worked together making a seafood gumbo that she’d been dying to try and with his input she thought it tasted very nice. When the cupcakes had cooled she set them on the countertop next to the icing she’d prepared.
“So we can decorate our own or decorate one for each other,” she said.
“I vote for each other. What do you have here?”
“Buttercream frosting, fondant, colored sugar...the usual suspects,” she said. Handing him an offset spatula.
“Is there a theme?” he asked.
“I think you’ve been a Premier Chef too long. It’s a dinner date, southern man. You make whatever you want,” she said.
“You’re right. Okay, prepare to be amazed,” he said.
“I’ve been amazed all day,” she admitted. “I think I was so grumpy earlier because I’d thought I’d figured you out, but once again you’ve made me re-evaluate you.”
“Good,” he said. “You’re still a big ol’ mystery to me, ma chère. No matter how much I think I know you I keep realizing I don’t.”
She was glad. She didn’t want to think that Remy had uncovered too many of her secrets.
There were parts of her that even she didn’t want to know.
They each took a cupcake to the galley table and sat down at opposite ends.
She worked with food coloring and the different frostings to do an image of Remy on top of her cupcake.
She’d won several awards for her artistic designs and she thought he’d be impressed.
She used an upside down bowl to hide the cupcake, so he couldn’t see the finished product until dessert time.
He took another bowl and put his cupcake in it. It had been hard but she’d resisted the temptation to look over at him several times while he’d been working. Finally they cleaned up the galley. Remy’s watch pinged and he glanced down at it.
“It’s almost time. I’ll get the crew to finish prepping our dinner and bring it up to the deck while we have a cocktail and watch the sun set.”
“Sounds good,” she said. And it did. Everything Remy said sounded just right. Soon they were on deck French martinis in hand, the Chambord flavored cocktail just right as a light breeze stirred around them.
She shivered and Remy wrapped an arm around her shoulder. They sipped their drinks as the sun slowly drifted down and disappeared beyond the horizon. The deck wasn’t dark for a second as twinkle lights came on and she heard the footsteps of the crew bringing their dinner up on deck.
It was a simple meal but she had seldom enjoyed one more.
Remy talked to her more about his travels and the people he’d met.
But he did it in such a way that she didn’t feel envious or jealous.
They talked about Paris and Staci felt that bittersweet pang she always did, but it faded as Remy and she compared favorite sites and meals they’d had there.
She was afraid to admit it even to herself but she knew as the meal ended and the slow, sexy music began, that she was falling in love with him.
He pulled her into his arms and danced her around the deck under the moon.
She rested her head on his shoulder, sure that this one night she could let him see that she wasn’t always a tough cookie.
Sure that she could allow herself to enjoy the moonlight, the man and the memories that felt as if they’d last forever.
But being Staci she couldn’t help but worry that tomorrow there would be another surprise like his wealth.
That niggled at the back of her happiness, stealing a little of it.
What if the next thing she found out about him wasn’t as pleasant as this one?
REMY WAS RELUCTANT TO leave the yacht. He wasn’t a man who normally hid from life, so today had been a refreshing change from the persona he’d been maintaining for the last few weeks. But he also knew that showing Staci he was a wealthy man was a far cry from telling her the truth about who he was.
He was doing all he could to prepare her for the truth once it came out. The more he cooked and the way things had gone lately, he was pretty sure he could win this thing. And when he did, and the episodes started to air his real name would be revealed.
“Thank you for a wonderful day,” she said, wrapping the Hermès scarf he’d given her around her shoulders.
“You’re welcome.” He felt so sure of himself with her that if it weren’t for the lie of his identity, he’d already have swept her off to his Garden District mansion in New Orleans.
Even if that were possible Staci wouldn’t blindly go where he wanted her to go. He admired her strength and independence. A part of him feared these six weeks in Malibu might be all the two of them ever had together.
“We haven’t had dessert,” she said.
“You are right. I’m having coffee brought up and then we can sit on the deck and enjoy our dessert.”
The staff brought a silver coffee service and placed a cup in front of each of them.
Then their dishes with cupcakes were set on the table.
Remy was the first to admit he didn’t know anything about decorating cakes.
They had a head pastry chef at Gastrophile—his cousin Helene who was a genius at desserts, but he’d wanted to impress Staci.
Did he always? There was something about her...or maybe it was something about him and the fact that he knew he couldn’t be totally truthful with her, that made him strive to always impress her.
She smiled as she handed him her covered cupcake. “Open it.”
“Okay,” he said, and then sat staring at the cupcake. She’d captured his likeness on the small dessert. It was amazing and a little bit unnerving. “I’m supposed to eat my own face?”
She laughed. “I know it’s weird. You can lift the fondant off and save it, if you can’t do it.”
“Why haven’t you made a dessert in the competition?” he asked. “You have a lot of talent.”
“I know I do. But there hasn’t been an appropriate task for it yet. If there is, I’ll try my best to win.”
“I’m pretty sure you will win hands down,” he said. “Now, open mine. Keeping in mind I’m not a pastry chef.”
She gave him one of those enigmatic looks of hers from under eyelashes. “Are you nervous? Say it isn’t so, southern man. I thought you had ego to spare.”
“I do, but I’m also a realist and let’s face it I don’t have your skills at dessert.”
She raised the makeshift lid and caught her breath. She slowly lifted the cupcake out and set it on the plate in front of her. “You made me a water lily.”
“Yes, I did. It wasn’t until dinner that I learned you liked Monet. So I think we are going to have to put this down to really good chemistry between us.”
She reached over and took his hand as she looked up at him with those pretty gray eyes of hers. “It’s perfect. And I don’t think you should worry about any dessert rounds in the competition.”
“As long as I can do something simple I’ll be okay,” he said. But he didn’t want to talk about Premier Chef. He wanted this day and night to be about them. “Do you really like it?”
She lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed his knuckles before letting it go. “Yes, I do.”
They ate their desserts both of them lingering over them.
“Why did you do my cupcake like that?” he asked.
“Something to remember me by,” she said, glancing over at him.
He met her gaze. It seemed as if time itself was standing still. He wasn’t a romantic, not really, but tonight he thought he could be. “I’d rather have you instead of having to remember you.”
Something flickered across her face and she looked away before turning back to him with a tight smile. “But we both know I won’t last. With you.”
“Why?” he asked, afraid he knew the answer.
Still, he wanted to hear it from her own lips.
He wanted to have a chance to defend himself.
To show her he was different from the other men in her life.
But then he was afraid that no matter how different he was his outcome in her life might be the same. He was determined it wouldn’t be.
“You said it earlier. The Premier Chef house is an illusion. Win or lose we are both going back to our real lives. And I live here. My friends and family are here and I’m not sure I’d ever really trust you enough to give that up.”
“What if I were the one who gave up New Orleans?” he asked.
“Would you?” she asked. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know. That’s a lot to put on a relationship. If you moved out here and things didn’t work out...I think it’s more likely that this is a sweet affair that will end when the competition does.”
He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. He knew he should say something to lighten the mood.
He didn’t want the day to end on a sour note, but he couldn’t accept her version of things.
He knew she was right, he thought, that was why it made him so angry that she had put it so plainly.
Because she didn’t know who he was and that leaving New Orleans was impossible for him.
“I never pegged you for a quitter. I’ve seen you bring dishes back from the edge that should have been thrown away,” he said. “Why would you live your life with less passion?”
She put her napkin on the table after folding it carefully. “Food hasn’t ripped my heart out.”
“I haven’t either,” he said.
“Not yet,” she said, getting to her feet.
He almost let her go but he couldn’t. And that was the part that bothered him. He wasn’t willing to say this was just an affair, a part of him wanted more with this complex and sexy woman.
He stood up quickly, knocking his chair over in the process. She stopped and turned back to him.
“Remy—”
“Don’t say it. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ve promised you I wouldn’t. True, there are things about me you don’t know. But everything I have shown you...it’s more than I’ve given any other woman. I’m not playing a game with you, Staci.”
He picked the chair up and stood to see if she’d left but instead she’d come back to his side. “You frighten me. I can’t be as open to this as you are. I know that’s not fair but that’s what life has taught me.”
He tugged her into his arms because he was very much afraid no matter how well he prepared her now, when the truth was revealed about him it would hurt her greatly. If he was a stronger man—a better man—he knew he would have let her walk away.
And since he only had these six weeks in Malibu he was determined to make them the best six weeks of her life.