Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT the house, there was no time for a long goodbye, which was fine, Staci thought. Jack was waiting in the living room with two of the other finalists, Christian and Will.
“What’s up?” Remy asked as they settled into chairs.
“A special announcement,” Jack replied. “We’re waiting for the last few contestants to show up. By the way, did you enjoy your day off?” Jack asked them.
Staci would have liked to have gotten changed and been in her normal jeans and T-shirt in front of the other competitors. She didn’t want them to see her dressed up and it was making her uncomfortable.
“It was very nice and relaxing,” she said, hoping she was playing it cool. “Can I go change?” she asked the producer.
“No, I’m sorry you can’t,” Jack said.
“Just be glad you weren’t skate boarding all day and smell like sweat,” Christian remarked.
Everyone laughed at the way he’d spoken. Staci noticed Remy’s hands resting on his knees. She so wanted to reach out to him to remind her of his touch.
Eventually, the rest of the group arrived and when they were all seated in the living room Jack stood up.
“Now that we’ve reached the halfway point in the contest we will be upping the stakes.
Cars will be here for you at six tomorrow morning.
You will all need to pack your bags and bring along your formal wear—men that’s suits and ties for you, ladies that’s dresses.
We are taking you to New York City. I suggest you get a good night’s sleep because you will hit the ground running with a Quick Cook as soon as you land. ”
“How long will we be in New York?” Remy asked.
“One week. We’ll fly back here for Judges Table and Elimination on Friday night,” Jack said. “So you don’t have to pack everything.”
“Will there be any guest judges?” Christian asked.
“Yes. But I can’t give you any names. I will say this, there is more than one guest judge and they are both world famous. Any other questions?”
A million but none she thought she’d get the answers for tonight.
“Good. We’ll see everyone in the morning. As always, good luck.”
Jack left the room and as soon as he did there was muttering from everyone.
“New York...have you been back since the visit with your mother?” Remy asked her.
“No. Unless you count a stop-over when I flew to Paris. But I didn’t leave JFK so I don’t think anyone would count that,” she said. She wondered who the guest judges would be but now that Jack was gone, she wanted to get back to her room and have some time alone.
“I was just there before I came out here to audition. Should be nice to be back there,” he said.
“I’m sure it will be. I’m going to pack and get ready for bed,” she said.
“I’ll walk up with you.”
She shook her head. “Gossip.”
“Everyone here knows you two hooked up,” Sarah called out. “It’s no big deal and kind of sweet.”
Staci groaned. “Fine. You can walk up with me.”
Remy laughed but she knew his mind wasn’t on this house. “Are you worried about New York?”
He shook his head. “Just not sure who the guest judges will be. It bothers me that they didn’t tell us who they are.”
“Why?”
“There are some chefs I’d rather not see,” he said.
“Bad blood?” she asked. The gourmet cooking world was full of its share of.
..well, divas for lack of a better word.
Prima donnas who’d always been told they were the best and had rarely heard the word no.
In a way that was what Jean-Luc Renard had been.
But Staci had been young and he’d been so passionate that she’d easily mistaken lust for love.
She was only now realizing how mistaken she’d been about her ex. The feelings that she had for Remy were a hundred times more powerful than those she’d had for Jean-Luc.
That should upset her more than it did. Remy seemed distracted as he sat quietly in her room. Something was obviously bothering him.
“Sort of,” he said at last. “I just don’t know if I’m imagining trouble where there will be none or what.”
That sounded vaguely ominous. She wondered what kind of trouble he was talking about and reminded herself she only knew about Remy based on what he’d told her. She wanted to believe he was the man he’d shown himself to be but what if he was doing something to fool her.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked. “I’m told that I am a really good listener.”
“I can see that. One of the things I’ve noticed about you during the competition is how adept you are at helping the other contestants. And that comes from paying attention to people.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” she said. “That’s also how I know what is going on with people. If you pay attention to people they can’t shock you.”
“Truly?” he asked. “Does that work?”
“Usually...so do you want to talk about whatever is on your mind?”
“No.”
“Well that was definitive,” she said. “I’d say that you are afraid of something or someone. Am I right?”
“Perhaps,” he said. “But if that were true I’d never admit it to the one chef in this competition who could actually beat me.”
“You think I could win?” she asked, interested to hear what he thought unguarded about her cooking. It was the one thing that she thought really defined her.
“Yes. You know you could, too.”
She knew better than to get cocky. “Do you think you might lose?”
He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, tousling it and making the curls spike up before he smoothed them back into place. “I’m not sure, but I just don’t like not knowing.”
“I agree it’s unnerving, which is probably why they did it. It’s probably some chef who’s friends with Hamilton,” she said. “It’ll probably be someone with a show on this network. You know how incestuous these things can be”
“Why are you so calm about it?”
She smiled at him. “Because you’re not. Anything that rattles our current champ has to be good. Sort of levels the playing field for me.”
“Brat,” he said.
“Whatever. There is one thing I’m not looking forward to,” she said, as her gazed strayed to Remy. It was hard to concentrate on anything other than him. He sat on the bed that had been Vivian’s and though they were talking as friends, she could still sense their underlying physical chemistry.
“What is it? That we’ll get stopped at airport security for trying to carry through our knives?” he asked, smiling.
“No, but that would be funny. You should totally go and tell Jack to consider it. We could cross promo with the cop show.” She could just imagine Jack weighing the idea as if it were a serious option.
She’d learned the producer spent most of his time analyzing ratings and trying to figure out how to get a bigger share of the audience.
Hence him letting them leave the house for the day.
Remy laughed. “You’re learning that this is all about ratings.”
“Aren’t you? It’s all that they seem motivated by. The judges are here for the food and the cooking but the producers obviously want good TV.”
“Yes, they do,” Remy said, getting up and coming over to sit down next to her. “You were about to tell me what you weren’t looking forward to.”
That’s right, she was. “Um...I kind of like having the upper hand on you. “
“I won’t tell anyone whatever it is that’s bothering you,” he said.
“I don’t like flying. Normally I’d take a travel sickness pill that would knock me out, but since Jack said we’d be doing a quick cook when we land...”
Remy reached for her hand and held it in his. “I’ll be there next to you.”
The words shouldn’t have been as soothing as they were but she knew that if Remy were beside her she could succeed at anything.
REMY HELD STACI’S HAND as they sat next to each other on the bed and knew that it was time for him to tell her the truth about who he really was. He knew there was a pretty good chance that the guest judge in New York could end up being his uncle or one of his other assorted relatives.
He also had the feeling that he should go and talk to Jack about it, too. He didn’t want his uncle to be waiting at the Quick Cook, see him and reveal who Remy actually was. He knew that good TV aside, that type of thing would really hurt Staci and probably his chances of winning the show.
But she curled next to him tucking her head on his shoulder and the very last thing he wanted to do was to disturb her. Yeah, right, he thought. Since when did he start lying to himself? Maybe this new persona was having a bad influence over him.
“Everyone was nice about us being a...”
“A couple?” he asked.
She nodded, but didn’t say anything else.
God, this woman with all her skepticism and trust issues needed a man who was honest with her.
She couldn’t even say they were in a relationship because it possibly wouldn’t last and he was.
..well, he was just holding her and staying silent because he knew that if he mentioned his last name wasn’t Stephens he’d lose her.
It was that simple. He could pretend that he’d told her enough truths about himself to make up for the one lie and that lie had been told before he’d ever even met her, but he knew that he was making excuses for himself. And they were excuses she wouldn’t buy.
He shifted around on the bed so that he was leaning against the headboard with two pillows stacked behind his back and drew Staci into his arms. He couldn’t help but notice that she actually let him and that she cuddled next to him so trustingly.
“Thanks for today.”
“You already thanked me,” he said. This day was going to be one he cherished for the rest of his life.
In his mind this was the day he first made love to Staci.
It had been more than sex and had changed him in many different ways.
Prior to today he would have been able to keep up the illusion that he was just an out-of-work cook, but now he wanted her to know everything about him. Truly, he needed her to.