When the applause died down, he said, “I have to tell a story on someone tonight. She and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but she has taught me a lot since I’ve been in Savannah. The most important lesson I’ve learned from Wila’s executive pastry chef, Jane Clark—” The crowd interrupted with another exuberant round of applause for her. He waited for them to finish and loved the way her cheeks flushed with the attention focused on her.
“She taught me the art of second chances and drawing the best out of people by allowing them the room to make mistakes. As I said, she and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, and this fact inspired a challenge. The rum baba challenge. I thought my recipe was better. She was convinced that her recipe was better. You voted and she was right. You loved her rum baba hands down. Jane, I promise, only new mistakes from here on out.” The crowd laughed. “Unfortunately, for us, Jane is leaving Wila for an exciting new venture. So, we will have to talk about whether or not she will allow us to feature her rum baba recipe on the Wila dessert menu. We can figure that out later. Because right now, I have a very special surprise for her.”
Someone catcalled. The crowd laughed again.
Little do they know.
Or maybe they did. Maybe it was obvious. He didn’t care, because he was falling for her. Scratch that. He’d already fallen. It scared him to death, but he was tired of hiding it.
“Charles has known Jane most of her life. I’m going to turn this over to him, since he is the one responsible for this surprise.”
There was more applause from the rapt audience as they turned their collective gaze on Charles. But Liam only had eyes for Jane. The color in her cheeks was high and she was half smiling, half giving him the stink eye as she mouthed, What’s going on? What are you doing?
Liam walked over and stood next to Jane.
“What in the world is happening right now?” she whispered.
He reached down and gave her hand a quick squeeze. “You’ll see.”
“Hello, everyone,” Charles said. “Thanks so much for being here tonight to celebrate the start of this new era at Wila. I’ve always believed you’re only as strong as the people with whom you surround yourself. Not too long ago, I took a chance and created an executive pastry chef position because Jane Clark had decided to come home to Savannah. She is so talented, I figured I’d better snap her up before someone else did.
“It was a good choice because the industry is noticing her. She’s doing such a good job that I decided to nominate her for an Oscar Hurd Foundation Award. It’s a prestigious award that celebrates upcoming talent and those in the culinary business who make a difference. Jane, I’m happy to announce that yesterday, I received word that you are a finalist. I am on the board, so I got to see an advance list of the nominees. You will be getting the official word tomorrow. But I thought it would be fun to share the news since your friends and family are all gathered around. Congratulations, my dear. Oh, and mark your calendar. There is a dinner next week in New York City at which the award winner will be announced. Jane, no matter what happens, you are a winner in the eyes of everyone in Savannah and the restaurant industry.”
As the crowd erupted into applause, Jane’s hands flew to her mouth. Then she turned to Liam and he engulfed her in a hug.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“How long have you known about this?” she asked.
“Charles told me yesterday.”
“At least I know you have a good poker face. You’re coming to New York with me, right?”
* * *
When Jane’s eyes fluttered open the next morning, the first thing she saw was Liam’s handsome face. He propped himself up on his elbow and smiled down at her. With a finger, she traced the tattoo sleeve on his arm. His dark hair was disheveled and sexy, his coffee-colored eyes were hooded with sleep. Jane couldn’t remember a time when he’d looked more delicious.
After the party last night, they’d taken a bottle of Veuve Clicquot back to his place and celebrated by making love until they were both spent.
Jane stretched. “Good morning.” Her voice was hoarse with sleep. She sat up and kissed him. He pulled her body to his and the feel of his warm, naked skin against hers made her want him all over again, but they only had one day off to rest up before Wila opened to the public on Tuesday, and she had plans for them.
“Want to get out of town?” she asked. “I was thinking it would be fun to go over to Tybee Island and go to the beach today. And there’s this great divey place on the way that serves the best low-country boil in the southeast. Last night you introduced Savannah to ‘elevated low-country boil.’ I thought you might enjoy getting your hands dirty and digging into the basics.”
They showered and made the thirty-minute drive out to the beach on Tybee Island to relax and get away from the city.
“I hear Charles and Gigi are going to the awards dinner in New York,” Liam said as he rubbed sunscreen on Jane’s back. The sun was high in the cloudless blue sky and the gulls serenaded them with a maritime chorus. Thanks to the briny breeze blowing in from the ocean, the temperature was just about perfect.
“They are,” Jane said. “As a finalist, I get four tickets to the dinner—in addition to myself. I asked my mom to go, but she’s had this tour of Peru booked for months. She offered to cancel, but I told her that would be crazy. I promised to call her after they announce the winner. So, if you know of anyone else we should take, let me know.”
“What about your sisters?”
She turned so she was facing him and used a hand to hold back a strand of hair the wind kept whipping into her eyes.
“Are you kidding? I have one ticket left. I will not be responsible for the war that would ensue if I chose one of them over the other. For the sake of family peace, neither of them gets to go.”
He frowned. “You can have my ticket. Then you can ask both of them.”
She leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. “Nope. But thank you. If it makes you feel any better, Ellie has art classes scheduled and her tours are booked solid—she’d have to cancel them. And Kate is still looking in on Aidan, and taking care of Chloe when Aidan goes to physical therapy.”
Liam nodded. “That’s right.”
“Besides, I think there’s more going on between them and she probably wouldn’t want be away from him.”
Liam’s brow furrowed. “But this is a special occasion. I’m surprised she wouldn’t want to be there for you. Your family seems so close.”
Jane waved away his words. “I mean if I wanted her to be there, she would be. I have no doubt. And it’s not that I don’t want her to be there, I guess it’s just simpler if it’s the four of us—you, me, Gigi and Charles.
“Besides, Gigi is the one who should be there. She was the one who inspired me to go to culinary school. I guess I’m being a little selfish wanting to have her all to myself. In addition to you and Charles, of course. The four of us understand the industry. We know what this means. Not that my sisters wouldn’t get it, but it wouldn’t mean as much to them.”
“The restaurant biz is Gigi’s thing?”
“Yeah, she went to culinary school back in the day. She didn’t graduate because she had to come back and run the Forsyth, but she’s always been so supportive of my choice to go to culinary school. I want to share this experience with her.”
She told Liam all about the history of the Forsyth. About how her dad died and about Zelda’s disastrous second marriage to Fred, who hadn’t cared at all about the Forsyth and had almost destroyed their family’s legacy. But he hadn’t succeeded. She segued into Gigi and Ellie running it and mentioned her mother’s reluctance to take over the reins because she thought she didn’t have the business sense after almost losing the place to Fred. However, in reality, that was what had spurred on her idea for the art classes, the tearoom and eventually the spa.
“My
mom wasn’t keen on running the place by herself, but she as long as she has her daughters there to run the place with her, she believes she can do it. Of course, it also gives her more flexibility to run off to places like Peru when she wants.”
Jane laughed and reveled in Liam’s smile.
“That’s basically my family in a nutshell. We’re not super big on personal space. We’re always up in each other’s business, but we wouldn’t have it any other way... Except sometimes. That’s why I’m being a little selfish about who I bring to the dinner. If it’s just the four of us, it’s fewer people to coordinate. You know how that goes. But the cool thing is that my sisters understand and won’t take offense.”
Liam gave a half shrug. “I understand in theory. It makes sense. I’ve never had to contend with that since it was just my dad and me after my mom died. He was never very supportive of my decision to be a chef,” Liam laughed. “It embarrassed him that his son wanted to cook for a living. To him, that was woman’s work.”
Jane cringed.
“Sorry,” Liam said. “Now you know what I was dealing with. Being a chef wasn’t macho enough for a cop’s son.”
“Macho?” Jane laughed.
Liam held up his hands. “His word, not mine. I believe he also used the words sissy and girly.”
Jane ran a hand up Liam’s thigh. “I think you’re looking pretty macho and manly in those swim trunks.”
Liam leaned in and kissed her.
But Jane couldn’t stop thinking about it. Her entire family not only supported her career choice, they celebrated it as part of who she was. Just like she supported what made them happy. It dawned on her that it was a testament to the strength of their relationship that she didn’t feel pressured to invite them to New York and they would still be thrilled for her no matter the outcome of the awards.
“Surely, he has to be proud of all your success,” Jane said.
Liam shrugged off her words and took a bottle of water out of the cooler. “Who knows? I haven’t talked to him in a long time.”
“Didn’t he congratulate you after you won America’s Best Chef? Come on, it was on national television.”
Liam snorted and made a low scoffing noise before sipping his water.
“I doubt he watched the show. Reality TV isn’t his thing. I wasn’t going to call and tell him—” Liam flicked some sand off his arm. His lips were a thin line and the muscle in his jaw twitched.
Finally, he looked up. The way he was squinting suggested it was a reaction to whatever he’d been thinking about more so than the glare of sun off the white sand.
“What is it?” Jane asked.
He shook his head and she was willing to let it go because she didn’t want to badger him into confiding in her.
“Have you ever seen the show?” he asked.
“Of course. I haven’t missed a season, which means I saw you win.”
She smiled, hoping to lighten the mood.
“Do you remember the episode where they surprised us and brought in our families? At that point in the competition most of the chefs had been away from their families for about two months and were missing them. It’s supposed to be a treat for the contestants. I think there were five or six of us left.”
At first, Jane didn’t remember.
“Remember, it was the one where we had to cook with them but they blindfolded us. They had to describe the food items to us and we had to give them directions on how to cook—”
“Oh, right! I remember. Did your dad—?” She stopped midsentence and bit her bottom lip. Of course, his dad hadn’t been there. Liam had as much as said so.
As if reading her mind, “Yeah, I don’t know if they called him, but they ended up bringing in my sous chef at the time, Will Langford, to stand in as family because good ole Malcom, badass Brooklyn cop, couldn’t be bothered.”
Malcom. That was his father’s name. Malcom Wright.
“I guess they invited him and he declined.” Liam flicked at a shell. “I have no idea. Frankly, I don’t care. Will and I cleaned up on that challenge. I ended up winning an extra ten grand, which I split with Will.”
Liam brushed the sand off his hands before raking his fingers through his hair. “Everyone else had family show up to support them—one guy spent five minutes trying to explain to his little brother how to use a can opener to open a can of tomatoes. Meanwhile, Will and I are whipping through the recipe because he’d fixed it more often than I had. I guess it was an unfair advantage, but no one seemed to care. They were all so happy to see their families, they were fine with me walking off with the win and the ten-grand consolation prize.”
He made a low grunting sound, picked up a shell and tossed it out toward the water.
Jane’s heart broke for him, because it seemed like he would’ve traded the win and the ten thousand dollars for his dad to recognize that he was a good chef—that he had talent.
“When was the last time you talked to him?” Jane asked.
Liam laughed, but it sounded humorless.
“I don’t know. A long time ago.” He rubbed a hand over his face and gave his head a quick shake. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I guess meeting your family and seeing how close you are made me realize that there’s a part of me that wishes for that. But...you know... Oh, well. It is what it is.”
He shrugged again.
“Why don’t you see him while we’re in NY?”
Liam laughed and frowned at the same time.
“Remember, I live in New York. So does he. We live within twelve miles of each other, but we’ve lived separate lives for the past fifteen years. It’s not like a phone call will change anything. Besides, this is your weekend. I don’t want to muddy the waters with him.”
Jane touched his arm and made an empathetic noise. “Family bonds are more resilient than you might think.”
He slanted her a dubious look. “That’s assuming there was a bond to start with.”
“No, I’m serious, Liam. A lot can change in fifteen years. Maybe your dad doesn’t know how to reach out? Maybe he sees you now—you’re successful. You’re a celebrity. By all accounts, you’ve made something of yourself. You’re kind of a big deal. Don’t you think it would be a little intimidating to make the first move?”
He lifted his shoulders in a gesture that wasn’t quite a yes but wasn’t a no.
“When we’re there this weekend, why don’t you extend the olive branch?”
He started to object—she could tell by the look on his face—but she silenced him.
“This would be a perfect time to do it. You could tell him you’ve been in Savannah and you’re going back, but you were in town for the weekend and you wanted to say hello while you were there. That way, there’s more of an urgency for the two of you to get together—”
“Jane. No. Please stop. This is your weekend. This trip is about you. I do want to work things out with my dad, but I’ll have plenty of time to do that when I get back to NYC. Think about it—you don’t even want to deal with the drama of organizing your family. And you get along with them. You don’t need the burden of lugging around my family baggage. But you make a good point. And, yeah, I do want to talk to him. You know, try to talk things out. Eventually.”
“Good. And the sooner the better, because it’s important,” she said. “If you don’t have family, you don’t have anything.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I get it.”
Jane beamed and sat a little straighter.
He laughed. “You do love being right, don’t you?”
“I do.” Her smile faded too soon. “You said you’d work on things when you get back to New York.”
He nodded.
“That means you’re definitely going back?”
“Yes. La Bula’s in New York.”
She sig
hed. “I don’t want you to leave.”
He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “The other side of that coin is that Wila is in Savannah. So that means I’ll be back. I’ll probably be spending more time in Savannah than NYC because Wila will need me.”
Her heart ached at the thought of being without him.
“What if I need you?”
“Yeah, ya do?”
She nodded.
“Good, because I could get used to this.”
Chapter Eight
Later that evening after they got back from the beach, Liam spent some time at Jane’s place. They lingered in the shower, helping each other wash away the salt and sand from their day at the beach and making love under the rain-showerhead until they ran out of hot water.
The sun and fresh air had relaxed them, but the chemistry that never seemed to turn cold threatened to keep them up all night. Since tomorrow’s call-time was early because it was the first day that Wila would open to the public, they’d decided to call it an early night so they both could get their rest. It was already close to nine thirty when Liam kissed her goodbye and walked out into humid night.
That’s when Jane realized the depth of her exhaustion. Her body experienced a physical ache at the thought of spending the night without him, but now all she wanted to do was sleep.
She went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and moisturize her sun-bronzed skin. As she brushed her teeth, she gathered up an armload of wet towels off the vanity. Her hand brushed something hard. When she lifted the towels, she saw the trim black-leather case that held Liam’s cell phone.
She grabbed it and hurried outside, power-walking across the back courtyard out to the street where she looked for him, to no avail. He’d gotten too much of a head start.
She thought about taking it to him at his apartment, but it was dark outside and she was tired. Surely, by now he’d realized the phone was missing. He hadn’t come back to get it. That meant either he didn’t need it tonight or he figured they’d see each other in the morning and she’d bring it to work.
Southern Charm & Second Chances Page 14
