Until I kneweverything.
Until I knew him.
“But you still ownthe restaurant with her?” There, that wasnosey as hellsubtle.
His expressionhardened, thunderclouds rolling in, lightning flashing, tornado sirens wailing.“When I met Elena she was in the process of developing the idea. She waspassionate and fiery. She wanted to bring good Mexican food to Durham, but shewanted to do it with old world style. I fell in love with the idea immediatelyand almost just as quickly with her. We were married six months after we metand once she’d secured my last name and my money, we opened the restaurant together.A year after Quince opened, we divorced.”
The deep sadness inhis eyes stabbed at my heart, breaking my chest open for this man and his pastso it had room to hemorrhage for him. “It was too hard to run a businesstogether?”
He looked up at me,hitting me with the entire force of his past grief. My breath caught in mythroat when he said, “She had an affair with our head chef. They’re marriednow.” He looked away, thoughtful, subdued. “They have three kids together.”
“Ohmy god, Ezra.”
His chin jerked tothe side. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m just as much to blame. I’m hard to putup with. Especially back then. I… I can be closed off, hyper focused on workand you know, all those things that send women running to other men. She… we…Iam better because of what happened.Thanks to Elena, I found my love for restaurants. I found a life I ampassionate about and a pursuit that I am happy to spend my time chasing. I wasangry for a while, but out of that dark timeLilouwas born. I asked Killian to take the helm and the rest is history. That wasten years ago. Since then I’ve moved on and now with the three independent restaurantsdoing so well, it’s hard to be bitter at a time that pressed out so much good.”
“So, Elena stillruns Quince?”
“She’s part owner,but she has little to do with the business side of things. She manages therestaurant and I’ve let her keep her menu choices and style. But I’m the reasonit makes money.”
There was noarrogance to his tone. It was simple truth.
Our food appeared,carried over by an army of waiters. We moved apart, straightening in our seatsand moving cutlery and glasses out of the way to accommodate all the food.
David, the samewaiter that had taken our order, explained all of the dishes for my benefit andpoured wine. We spent the next ten minutes tasting food, and sipping wine, andhaving our minds basically blown.
Or at least minewas blown. The food was just as good as when I’d shared that incredible mealwith Vera at Lilou, or the extensive menu Wyatt had prepared for the engagementparty, or any of the meals Vera had made for me to taste.
“This isincredible,” I moaned with a bite of medium rare steak and thin French frydoused in delicious sauce at the end of my fork. “I know you’re having chefproblems, but I’m very sure your kitchen is not suffering.”
He smiled at hisplate. When he looked up at me, his eyes were darkened and secretive again.“These are old recipes,” he explained. “The kitchen can serve these with onehand tied behind their back. But I haven’t had a menu change in months. I needsomeone to step in and take the reins. I need leadership. I need inspiration. Ican only do so much.”
Now I understood.“What are you going to do?”
He held my gaze,his confidence never wavering. “I’m going to update my website, develop akickass social media strategy and paint a fucking gorgeous mural on that wall.”He pointed at said wall. “I’m going to make Bianca irresistible.”
A piece of duck gotlodged in my throat and for a second I was positive I was going to need theHeimlich. Which of course would have been too humiliating in front of Ezra andhis dining room full of posh customers. The only alternative to having Ezrabeat a hunk of poultry out of my windpipe was to just die.
So that’s how mylife was going currently.
I reached for mywater glass andmade a total fool out of myselfdid what I could to savethe situation from complete mortification.
It didn’t totallywork. “Are you okay?”
I held up a fingerto let him know I needed a minute and continued to gulp the life-saving liquid.It wasn’t my most graceful moment and I might have needed to wipe my mouth witha napkin as soon as it was over, but I survived.
I was a survivor.
“Fine,” I squeaked.“I just didn’t realize… that… I didn’t know that was what I was doing for you.”
He raised aneyebrow. “If you’d known would that have changed anything?”
Did he mean, wouldI have still demanded that he get out of my way? Obviously. I could only handleso many micromanaging men in my life. Instead, I decided sarcasm was the bestpolicy. “Well, I probably would have tried harder.”
Half his mouthlifted, amused. “Is that so?”
“It is so. Oh,well, I guess we’ll just have to make do with what we have. Which is a not thatgreat to be honest.”
“You’re so full ofshit, Maverick.”
