Page 14 of Thank you, Next

“I’m sorry.” Alex wasn’t quite sure what to say, but that seemed appropriate after walking in here and dredging up ancient history.

Andrew smiled and looked down at a frame on his desk that Alex guessed held a picture of his wife. “It’s all right. Things worked out for the best.”

“For you.” She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Andrew looked her in the eye and said, “They’ll work out for you, too.” She didn’t know how he could seem so sure of that, but part of her wanted to believe him. Maybe seeing Jason on that show was a wake-up call of some kind. She wasn’t sure yet what she was meant to wake up to, but she was starting to think that fucking and running wasn’t good for her. She wasn’t sure she could hack it at celibacy, so she might actually have to open up.

She opened her mouth to thank Andrew but didn’t get the words out.

The door to Andrew’s office opened, and the last person she expected to see there walked in.

Immediately, Will Harkness looked at her, and his face screwed up. He crossed his beefy arms across his chest and said, “Alex, what the hell are you doing here?”

Alex could never stop herself from talking back at Will Harkness. It was a disease. So she responded in kind. “I could ask the same thing of you, but you’re always devising new ways to ingratiate yourself into my life and annoy me. I presume you had a tail on me and followed me here.”

“Why on earth would I do that, when you just show up wherever I happen to be?” He stepped closer to her, much closer than someone who was practically related to her would step. She could smell him. He must have been cooking today because the scents of lemongrass and sage filled her nostrils. Or maybe that was just how he smelled, clean and earthy. It was both intoxicating and infuriating.

“I do not show up wherever you happen to be.” And then she realized that she might have to explain what she was doing here, and that would be unacceptable. The last person on earth that she could show any doubt or weakness to couldn’t know that she was doubting a whole a lot about herself. He’d made it very clear years ago that he was not attracted to her, and nothing he’d done in the interim indicated that he’d changed his mind.

“Well then, what are you doing here?”

Andrew saved her from answering. “She came here on business.”

Will looked at Andrew then. “I’m sorry, man,” Will said, reasonably assuming that Alex would only be here on business if Andrew was getting divorced.

“No, this was an information-seeking mission.” Alex didn’t want to have any rumors starting about Andrew, given that he’d been pretty gracious in not kicking her out once he’d realized why she was here. “For another client.”

Will looked puzzled by that explanation, but he just grunted in response. He was the master of the manly grunt, which could mean any number of things coming from him. Back when she’d been a smitten teen, she’d learn to decipher most of his grunts. And even after she’d forced herself not to think about Will as The One, all the various grunts were ingrained too deeply to root out. The one he’d just given her was the “I don’t believe you, but I’m letting this go—for now” grunt.

She’d take it.

“What are you doing here?”

And he looked annoyed that he was going to have to come up with a response that was more than a grunt. “I’m supposed to be meeting Andrew about a possible project. And I just saw that your assistant canceled, and she wasn’t outside. Sorry for barging in.” Will’s reason for being there surprised Alex. He seemed ill at ease about his newfound social media fame, and a reality show would bring even more of the same.

Will was so not LA that Alex had often wondered why he stayed here. If she had to picture it, she pictured him in New York. Someplace dirty and loud, where he could disappear. Someplace where the energy would match his shitty personality. He stuck out in Los Angeles like a misanthropic sore thumb.

She patted his arm in a pantomime of the long-standing friendship they allegedly had. “Try to look happier about making money, Will.”

He grunted again, and Alex turned to Andrew. “Thanks.”

Andrew winked at her. “Anytime.”

SIX

Will didn’t like the way this fucker looked at Alex. He remembered that they’d dated for about a minute a few years ago, but he’d been willing to put it out of his mind to take this meeting. And he knew he was projecting, but he thought that wink before Alex left crossed a line. It said, “I’ve seen you naked, and it was pretty fucking great.” Will would never be able to look at this guy and not see him looking at Alex like she was his afternoon snack. Even though everyone had told him that Andrew was maybe the only good guy in reality television, Will wasn’t sure he could work with him.

But Will got a handle on his irritation when the door finally closed behind Alex. He couldn’t manage it when she was sashaying toward the door on the high heels that put her at almost his eye level. He didn’t watch her leave, but he knew the cadence and curve of her hips as surely as he knew the timing on poaching the perfect egg. It was in his head as much as anything that he’d gotten screamed at about in his job just out of culinary school.

There was nothing about Alex that he’d ever known that he’d forgotten. And when he’d walked in and seen her talking to that slick—admittedly good-looking—guy, Will hadn’t been able to keep himself from seeing red. Andrew had been smiling at her in a way that was too familiar, and Will couldn’t help but hate him for that.

After talking to him, Will had confirmed for himself that the guy wouldn’t have been good enough for Alex, even if he weren’t married. And Will didn’t believe Alex’s excuse for being there for a second. She was too familiar with this guy for this to have been a simple information-gathering exercise.

Will sat there and tried to hear Andrew out, because he’d promised his publicist that he would. And the money and recognition from going on reality TV could sustain interest in his new restaurant after the hype within the industry died down. Sure, Will hated the idea of becoming a franchise or a personality more than a working chef, but he needed to make a living. And after all this publicity was over, hopefully he could disappear back into the kitchen on the strength of his food. He needed to be thinking about the future, not how he’d started thinking of Alex as his.

Will intended to make it through the whole meeting without asking. But he couldn’t even get through a few minutes. He didn’t even sit down before he asked, “What was Alex really doing here?”

Will knew that he’d caught the other man off guard, because Andrew actually rocked back on his heels. “How do you know her?”