She didn't get a chance to talk to him right away, though. Cash, Jackson, and Kade were in his booth, and she didn't feel comfortable going over. She wanted to talk to him alone, but by the time they left the customers started coming. Oddly enough, Nick had not come over to her booth, nor had she been able to catch his eye the many times she looked over at him.
Her feeling of apprehension deepened.
Was he avoiding her? The fact that he hadn't said goodbye the day before or texted or called didn't settle well. Nick seemed like a nice guy, the kind of guy that would make it a point to say hello to her, especially considering what had been going on between them.
Then again, she hadn't said hello, texted or called him, either. She didn't want to seem over-eager or controlling. Maybe he was thinking the same thing.
Cash, Jackson, and Kade had been in his booth earlier and then he'd probably just gotten busy making sure he had his chili set up for the day.
Something which she should also be doing.
She glanced up at the scoreboard. The score which had been so important to her at the start of the contest was barely on her radar now. She and Nick had been so close each day she was sure one of them would win.
She squinted at the board. Nick had pulled ahead, but it didn't matter who won the contest now, especially since she was hoping to use the winnings to invest in Nick's restaurant. But it was a matter of pride. She had her grandmother's recipe and reputation to uphold.
She wanted to be the one to win.
Not only that, but the winnings would be added insurance for her. What if Nick didn't want her at the restaurant? It would be in her best interest to win the money. Then if her doubts turned out to be just her own lack of self-confidence, she would give the money to Nick as she planned. If not, then she'd have it for her own restaurant.
It was the smart thing to do. The thing an organized planner would do.
She glanced over at Nick and found him looking back, but instead of the friendly, sexy gleam she usually saw in his eye, this time, his eyes were filled with something dark.
He looked away without even a nod.
What was up with that?
Last time they'd been together things had been fine. He'd mentioned he needed a pastry chef. She'd assumed he'd been about to ask her, but then he seemed hesitant. Maybe he'd just been nervous...or maybe that wasn't what he was going to ask her at all.
Her thoughts turned to the blonde. The way she'd talked about the menu sounded like she knew something about restaurants. Was she the pastry chef Nick was going to hire? And was there more going on between them?
It all came crashing down on her. Painful memories of Lizette and Eddie came flooding back and Sam's eyes stung.
Had Nick done the same exact thing to her?
That would explain why he was ignoring her right now. Just like Eddie had done before he dumped her. Didn't want to lead her on.
But Nick hadn't been in the bar last night meeting with the blonde. Had he seen Sam in there and quickly left so as to avoid a scene?
And to think, she was excited about telling Nick about her decision to stay in Sweetrock thinking he'd be happy. Sam's cheeks burned with embarrassment. What a fool she'd been. She thought they'd had something. Something real. That she'd finally found a place to put down roots. But she'd just been a blip on the radar, apparently easy enough to replace.
The blonde had won, just like Lizette had won at the restaurant and with Eddie, except losing Nick hurt so much more.
It didn't matter that she was partly to blame because she'd never told Nick she was going to stay. He could have at least waited until she left to replace her with another girl—and a blonde, no less! He could have at least asked her to stay. But maybe she hadn't meant that much to him.
Fine. If she didn't mean that much, then screw him. It didn't matter that Nick was ahead today. She could still win.
She was going to make the best damn chili Sweetrock had ever seen and win that ten thousand dollars. And if she never saw Nick Bradford again, it would be too soon.
Nick had to force himself not to look over at Sam’s tent. Every time he did, the ache in his heart grew more intense. He couldn’t believe everything he’d thought they’d had was a lie.
Throwing an onion on the cutting board, he took his sharpest knife and sliced off the end.
Chop, chop, chop.
He slammed the knife down harder with each chop, the mindlessness of the task distracting him from the pain in his heart. The sulfur fumes wafting up caused his eyes to tear…or at least that’s what he wanted people, including himself, to think.
Earlier that morning, Cash had sensed something was wrong, but Nick hadn’t been able to tell the guys what had happened. He was too embarrassed to admit how he’d been taken in. And here he thought Sam was ‘the one.’ Heck, he’d even been so enamored with the whole idea of her that he tried to fix Cash up with that blonde so he could find the same happiness.
Nick snorted. Happiness? What a joke.
In retrospect, it was a good thing Cash had not taken a fancy to the blonde. Nick had thought it was kind of strange. She was pretty enough and Cash didn’t often turn down a pretty blonde. Now that he was thinking about it, Cash had toned it down in the woman-chasing department lately. Maybe Cash was the smart one. He knew better than to fall for a pretty face.
He wondered if Cash had already known the painful truth that Nick had just discovered—that the fantasy of true love and finding ‘the one’ was just a cruel illusion.
Nick chanced a glance over at Sam, and his heart lurched as their eyes crashed into each other. The look of betrayal and anger in her eyes caused a hitch in his heart for a split second. What did she have to be mad about? Probably mad that he’d discovered her true intentions.
Slowly as the day wore on, the painful yearning in his heart turned to anger.
He wasn’t going to let any city slicker steal his restaurant right out from under his nose. He made a damn good chili, and he was going to win this contest fair and square and stop the foreclosure.
Nick thanked his lucky stars that this was the last day of actually cooking the chili at the fair. The last day he would have to suffer in his tent across from Sam Dunn.
Tomorrow they were to bring a crock pot full of chili to the judging tent and drop it off. The judges would taste during the morning and then the award ceremony would happen around noon. If Nick played his cards right, he’d never have to see Sam again.
And that was just fine with him.
He tore his eyes away and went back to chopping. Never mind that Sam had come up with the menu suggestions that seemed to be attracting customers to the restaurant or that her re-arrangement of the kitchen made cooking more efficient. The Chuckwagon had survived for a hundred years without Sam Dunn, and it could survive for a hundred more.
He didn’t need her.
Nick packed the hole where his heart had been with ice cold resolve and turned his back on Sam for the last time.
21
As far as Sam was concerned, the only good thing about the chili contest that day was that she got her car back from the tow truck company. They were nice enough to drop it off in the parking lot at the fair, so she worked on cleaning out her area in between cooking and serving chili. It was the last day, and she had to remove all her own stuff by the end of the day. Since she was an adept planner, she’d managed to make it so that she had just enough ingredients to ride out the day with very little left over.
She closed up a little early, pulling her cooler out through the back of the tent and rushing to the parking lot, eager to get out of there fast so she could avoid running into Nick. She'd debated confronting him, but was too embarrassed. She didn’t need the drama. It was fine with her if she got out of town without ever seeing him again.
Luckily, Tessa had been out on a late-night trail ride and Sam didn’t have to face her when she got home. She didn’t know what she was going to tell her friend now. Tessa would be
disappointed that she wasn’t staying, but she couldn’t possibly stay—not with what had happened. Hopefully, Tessa would understand.
Sam had spent the night cooking the best batch of chili she could make and by the time she slipped into bed she was exhausted. Almost too tired to cry herself to sleep. Almost.
The next morning, she woke early and showered. She couldn’t drop the chili off until later on, so she had nothing else to do but pack. She still wanted to win the contest but planned to be on her way out of town when the judging happened. If she won, Tessa could mail the check to her.
She dragged out her suitcase, opened it up and stared inside. Empty. Like her life was now. Funny thing, when she’d come to Sweetrock, she couldn’t wait to get back home to Boston. But in the past few days, she’d come to love Sweetrock. She’d come to think of it as home.
I will not cry.
Grabbing a pair of jeans out of the bureau drawer, she wadded them up and slammed them into her suitcase. It was so unlike her normally organized manner of packing that it jolted her a bit. At the same time, it felt good. She needed to get some frustration out. She tore an ivory silk blouse off the hanger and threw that in, too. A pair of shoes went in next. She threw them on top of the silk blouse, not caring that the dirt on the bottom of the shoes smudged onto the expensive silk.
“What are you doing?” Tessa stood in the doorway, her red curls mussed from sleeping, wearing a fuzzy pink bathrobe and holding a cup of coffee in her hand. She regarded Sam with curious, concerned eyes.
“I’m packing.”
“I can see that. Why? I thought you were staying.” Tessa handed the cup over to Sam, who took it gratefully. The warm bitter taste matched her mood.
Sam choked back a sob. “I just can’t stay after what Nick did to me.”
Tessa sat on the bed, a look of confusion on her face. “What are you talking about? What did Nick do?”
Sam collapsed down on the bed beside her and nodded, unable to get the words out through the rock lodged in her throat.
Tessa rubbed her back. “I can’t imagine what could be so bad. Did you have a fight? If you did, I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding. We can fix it. Please tell me what it is. I’ll help.”
The dam broke inside Sam, and the words tumbled out in a jumbled rush. In between sobs, she told Tessa everything. How she’d thought Nick might have been about to ask her to stay and work in the restaurant. How much she wanted to stay with him and even how she’d told her parents the lie about buying a foreclosed restaurant so that they’d approve of her moving to Sweetrock. And then of how devastated she was when she’d discovered Nick had another girlfriend waiting in the wings and couldn't even tell her to her face.
“I feel so embarrassed. I guess I didn't mean as much to him as he did to me.” Sam sniffled.
Tessa pulled a tissue out of her pocket and handed it to Sam. “Wait a minute. This doesn't make any sense. I know you mean a lot to Nick. There's no other girl. Why do you think that?"
“But, he wouldn’t even talk to me yesterday. He acted mad and…” Had he acted mad, or was it just her imagination? “That girl said she was meeting him and she didn't like the menus.”
“So what? Some people resist change and the menus are change. You're not still touchy about that Lizette person, are you?” Tessa said. “And what girl?”
“That blonde. She was in the bar last night. I saw them together at the fair and I’m sure she was going to meet him there. You might have seen her in the bar, too.”
“The one with the long blonde hair and the turquoise cowboy boots?”
“Yes! You suspected there was something going on with them, too, didn’t you?” Sam felt vindicated. At least Tessa had noticed, and she wasn’t just acting like a crazy person.
Tessa cocked her head and put her hands on her hips. “Yeah, I noticed something going on, too. Nick has been talking to her. Because he’s been trying to fix her up with Cash. That’s why she was at O’Toole’s last night. She was there to meet Cash. Remember? He was there, too.”
Sam stared at Tessa incredulously, her brain unable to process the information. Nick wasn’t hooking up with the blonde. He was trying to fix her up with Cash. Was she really still touchy about Lizette? So touchy that she'd mistakenly thought Nick was trying to dump her for the blonde?
Sam’s world crashed. If all that was true, she’d just made the biggest mistake of her entire life.
“See, it was all a big misunderstanding,” Tessa said cheerfully. “You can call Nick, and you guys can talk it out. And then you can stay.”
Panic shot through Sam. She couldn’t possibly talk to Nick. Not after what she’d thought of him. She’d screwed up big time, and now it was too late.
Why would he want a jealous, neurotic girlfriend who didn’t even trust him?
“Tessa, I can’t do that. It’s too late.”
“Too late? Don’t be a stubborn idiot. You and Nick are a perfect match. I’ll call him right now.” Tessa pulled her phone out of her robe pocket and then frowned down at it as she thumbed in the code to read the full message that was apparently causing her frown.
“No, please don’t. I can’t face him.”
“Huh?” Tessa looked up, clearly distracted. “Well, then, what are you going to do?”
“The only thing I can think of to make it right.”
Tessa stared down at her phone. The text from Rena sounded urgent. There was some sort of trouble with Nick at The Chuckwagon. Tessa didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that whatever was wrong with Nick had something to do with Sam.
She debated telling Sam, who had pushed past her into the kitchen and was fiddling with her chili, but in Sam’s state of mind, she knew it probably wasn’t the best time. It would be smarter to head on out to The Chuckwagon and see what was going on. With any luck she could hear Nick’s side, have a chat and get the two of them back together before lunch.
She didn’t dare tell Sam that, though. Best to give her some time to cool down and think things over. Tessa headed out the front door, leaving Sam to her own devices in the kitchen.
She hopped in her car and sped over toward The Chuckwagon. She knew if she could just get the two of them together they would realize that they were meant to be together. It was as plain as day to her. Couldn’t they see it, too?
Though she only knew Sam’s side of the story, she was sure that whatever Nick was upset about was just as much of a misunderstanding. And Tessa couldn’t just stand by and not try to make things right between them. If Nick and Sam were too pig-headed to get together and talk things out, then she’d have to help them along.
Despite everything that had happened to her, Tessa still believed in true love. Not for herself, though. Her one chance at true love had died when her childhood sweetheart, Derek, had betrayed her trust. Her fragile heart had been damaged beyond repair, and now she would never be able to trust anyone enough to fall in love again.
But Nick and Sam still had that chance. And they had that spark that all great loves were born from. Tessa had recognized it the first time they laid eyes on each other. And she’d be damned if she’d stand by and let her two best friends lose their chance at love because they were both acting like stubborn idiots.
22
Nick shoved the stainless steel salad prep station against the wall, smashing it into the side of the fridge. He didn’t care how much noise he made. He was on a mission to put the kitchen back the way it had been and obliterate any evidence of Sam.
It didn’t matter that the new arrangement had made it more efficient and faster to get food out. He didn’t want anything to do with any ideas from that lying, backstabbing cheater.
Turning his attention to the pantry, he swiped his arm across the spice containers, sending them scattering on the floor. Then he picked them up and tossed them onto the counter on the opposite side of the room.
“What are you doing?” Rena stood in the doorway, a look of confused concern on her face.
“I’m putting this place back the way it should be.”
“But Sam arranged it this way on purpose. I thought it was working out.”
Nick whirled on her. “Nothing is working out when it comes to Sam.”
“Oh. So, that’s what this is about.”
Nick noticed her thumbing something into her phone. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve called for reinforcements. Should be here any second.” Rena leaned back and looked out into the restaurant.
“Reinforcements? What are you talking about?” Nick pulled a stack of pots out from under a cabinet and tossed them on the floor with a clatter.
“Obviously, something’s gone wrong, and you need help. You can’t just be in here trashing the kitchen.”
“The hell I can’t!” But Nick stopped his tirade and ran his hand through his hair. Rena was right. It wouldn’t do any good to trash the kitchen. That would only hurt business, no matter how good it felt to work his frustrations off.
“Okay, what’s the problem?” Now Tessa stood beside Rena in the doorway.
What the heck?
“What brings you here?” Nick asked.
Rena and Tessa exchanged a glance. Right, Tessa was the reinforcement. Rena new that Nick and Tessa were close. This wasn’t the first time she’d texted one or the other to smooth over rough times. When their parents had died, Rena had called Tessa in to pick up Nick’s spirits many times. Nick’s demeanor softened. He owed a lot to Tessa. She was a good friend, though right now her motives were a little suspicious.
“What’s going on? What’s really wrong?” Tessa persisted.
“You don’t already know?” Nick couldn’t help his snippy tone. Sam was staying with Tessa. How could she not know what the woman had been up to?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nick, but I think whatever you think is happening is really just a misunderstanding.”
“What did she tell you? That she was going to help me out? Well, whatever she told you, it’s a lie. I’m not selling my restaurant to her.”
Some Like It Hot (Sweetrock Cowboy Romance Book 1) Page 14
