Page 61 of The Best Men
This burst of French gets the attention of the two men. The chef smiles at me, which means I’ve won him over. So I can check that off my list.
But Mark’s eyes also widen. I put a hand on his back and guide him toward the door.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Mark says as soon as we’re outside.
I stop short and turn to him. “You mean . . .” I swallow hard. “Speaking French? Or touching you in public? I wasn’t trying to embarrass you.”
Mark squints at me. “Nah, I liked the French, and you can touch me all you want. But Chef Garnier has to fulfill his contractual obligations. That’s his issue to correct, and you don’t have to apologize. I get that it’s your style?you like making people happy. But all we owe that guy is a timely check and basic civility. Flip is paying him a small fortune for taking this job on short notice, right?”
“A large fortune,” I admit.
“Right,” Mark says. “So you can hold him to his obligation without apologizing. It’s quicker if you don’t bother turning everyone into a new friend. Just saying.” He shrugs, and walks toward the car. “Oh, and I’m driving now.”
But winning people overisimportant. When I played football, I didn’t gain the acceptance of teammates and fans by being an asshole. I pulled that off by giving a good word to everyone, and as one of the few out guys in the sport, I needed that tool at my disposal. But I tuck Mark’s comments away in a drawer, since his bossy style back there is winning overothertools?mine.
I follow him in slow steps, climbing into the passenger seat as docile as a well-trained Labrador Retriever. “That’s so hot,” I say, closing the car door with a sigh.
“What is?” He adjusts the mirrors.
“The way you handled that guy. With the contract right there on your phone.”
“Oh, it wasn’t.” He starts the engine. “I didn’t think he’d have it memorized. So I just winged it.”
He just winged it.Oh,baby. I chuckle. “It’s even hotter now, handsome. Do you have, like, a trainee I could steal to run my life? I need a keeper.”
“You’re fine, St. James. We all have different talents. Mine is negotiation. Yours is charm. Now tell me how to get to the cake place.”
Fine? I’m fine?“You mean big charm, right?”
“You and your need for compliments,” he says.
“You and your need to leave quickly. Turn right from here. Coco's Cakes is two miles down this road.” The wind rustles through my hair, and it calms me. “Seriously, though, did it freak you out when he thought we were a couple?”
“No. Why?”
“Well . . .” This is a tricky topic. He was so adamant that we not tell Flip and Hannah that we’re fooling around. And, sure, that’s probably the right move. But it made me wonder how Mark would handle it if they knew. “Let me ask you this?are you out to anyone?”
“Sure,” he says easily. “My parents, my sister. Some college friends? I don’t even remember at this point.”
“Your ex-wife?” I’m prying now.
“Oh, sure,” he says with another shrug. “But we never talked about it. She didn’t want me to.”
“Wait, what?” I hear this like the screech of tires on a road. “She had a problem with it? And youmarriedthis woman?”
“Easy,” Mark says. “That’s not how it was. She knew I was bisexual, and she didn’t care. Maybe she even thought it was sexy. But then she got pregnant. We got married. Our lives took a turn for the . . .” He’s quiet for a second. “We both sacrificed a lot. Neither one of us sowed any more wild oats, right? So we had, like, a stiff upper lip about it. We didn’t discuss the things that we’d given up.”
“Like hot single dudes.”
Mark gives me a smoldering look before he answers, “Yeah, like hot singleanything. She hated it when I pointed out anyone else’s attractiveness.Hated it. So I just didn’t talk like that. I kept my feelings about Luke Evans to myself. Along with my thing for Anna Kendrick.”
“Huh. I don’t have a thing for Anna Kendrick, but I take your meaning.” And I definitely have a thing for Mark Banks. It grows stronger by the hour.
But I’d better rein it in. The week will be over in a blink.
Tonight, though, is going to be amazing. I’m going to clear out a dozen items on this man’s sex spreadsheet.
And that will just be the appetizer.
