Page 71 of The Nanny and the Hothead
The man didn’t say a word, but his hardened expression spoke volumes. Whatever had transpired between the trio, it didn’t appear to be good.
Gwen checked her watch, then cleared her throat. “Mitch, I don’t have much time. I’ll get to the point. I don’t see a way forward for your book. Our lawyers will be in touch.”
“Gwen,” Ines pleaded. “Let’s table the discussion and hash it out in a few days when tempers have cooled.”
The publisher shook her head. “We don’t have a few days to keep running in circles, Ines. Your client doesn’t even have a rough idea for the book.”
With the publisher ready to bolt and Mitch and Oscar about to break out into round two of father versus son regarding the curious case of the mysterious spatula, this was about as bad as it could get. Charlotte observed the chaotic scene, her heart hammering as Gwen set off for the door.
They needed a breather.
“Time out!” she called, not knowing why she’d chosen to act like a referee at this moment, but that’s what came out. And all eyes fell on her. “Gwen, right?” she said, hustling over to the woman.
“Yes?” the lady barked, but she stopped. She hadn’t left yet.
Charlotte smashed a giant, nervous grin on her face as she scanned the garage, then peered at the photo in her hand. “Did Mitch mention his back to the beginning idea to you?” she continued. Her mouth was a damned desert, but she couldn’t stop the words from tumbling from her lips.
“Back to the beginning?” Gwen repeated with a sliver of interest woven into her reply.
Okay! This was better than the lady bolting.
“Yes, the back to the beginning idea for the book. This food truck was Mitch’s beginning. What could be better than a book chronicling the reboot of Say Cheese, Louise?” she finished.
What was she doing? This was not her call.
“Keep talking,” Gwen said, her icy demeanor defrosting a few degrees.
It was working! The stuffy publisher liked the idea.
A surge of confidence danced through her veins until she felt two eyes boring into the back of her head. She looked over her shoulder to find one very livid hothead.
She knew this look.
Hold on to your hats. The chef was about to blow.
Twelve
Mitch
He stared at Charlotte.Had the woman lost her damned mind?
“Gwen, Ines, can you give us a minute?” he bit out through gritted teeth, then pressed his hand to the small of Charlotte’s back and guided her away from the women. The muscles in his body tightened as he did his best to ignore the furious tingling in the pit of his stomach that erupted whenever he touched her.
Dammit, man!
This was not the time to untangle the tsunami of emotions that hit him like a Mack truck whenever he was close to this woman.
He had to put his maddening attraction to Charlotte on the back burner and focus—freaking focus! His reputation was on the line, for Christ’s sake! But he couldn’t cave to Gwen either. Forget the fact that she ran one of the top culinary publishing houses in the country. He wouldn’t stand there and bend to her will and kowtow to her ridiculous demands.
But were they that ridiculous?
The tingling in his belly gave way to a gut-wrenching twist. Shit! As a chef, he knew better than anyone the importance of following a set schedule and maximizing productivity. Every second in the kitchen counted. Structure and routine were paramount. Hell, he’d purchased software to increase the efficiency of ordering the staples for the restaurant. He lived and breathed timetables and agendas. But he’d screwed up. He’d allowed the shitstorm swirling around him to knock him off course. But this book catastrophe was his damned mess to clean up—not Charlotte’s cross to bear. And her idea—thisback to the beginningconcept was crazy—complete lunacy, right?
Perhaps not.
The blurry red haze let up a fraction, and the measured part of him regained a thread of control. Maybe it wasn’t a complete clusterfuck of a concept. If he removed the emotional scarring component that clawed in the darkest part of his mind anytime thoughts of Say Cheese, Louise crept up on him and considered Charlotte’s idea objectively, it wasn’t half bad. Millions of people across the globe watched his start into the culinary world via the Say Cheese, Louise reality TV show. Hell, the episodes were available to watch on-demand in the US, and there was talk of making them available in the UK. The buying power of that audience alone would sell a shit ton of books and catapult him back into the spotlight. Still, she shouldn’t have dropped it like that in front of his publisher without even consulting him. The scorching heat surging through his veins was near-boiling.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Charlotte?” he hissed.
