“How significant do you think it is that Candace is homing in on your territory? Or is this typical jostling for dominance? At newspapers and magazines everyone is trying to get their story on the front page or the cover. Seems like this is the same thing, no?”
She shrugged because he was right. It was dog-eat-dog in TV land. “It just feels like she’s trying to steal my life.”
“Given that she thinks you stole her husband, can you blame her?”
“I guess not.” The bottom line was Gina didn’t care whether Candace’s motives were revenge or ambition. Either way, she was in serious jeopardy of losing her time slot. Hell, she’d probably lose her show altogether.
When they got to the creek, Sawyer sat on the flat head of a boulder and pulled her down into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and they sat like that, swaying a little. There was a slight breeze coming from the west, tempering the heat.
“How do you know you’re not pregnant?”
“The same way every woman knows.” She glared at him.
“From peeing on a stick or because your period came?”
“The latter. But I’ll take a home-pregnancy test if it’ll make you feel better.”
“Not necessary.” He leaned down, picked up a stone, and flicked it with his wrist over the water. It skipped at least five times.
“How’d you do that?”
“Practice and mad skills.” He sorted through a small pile, found a flat rock, handed it to her, and held her wrist. “Like this.” He demonstrated a few times, then let go of her hand so she could try on her own.
She tossed the stone the way he’d shown her, but it made a loudplopand sunk to the bottom of the water. “You make it look easier than it is.”
“I used to sit out here for hours with Angie, skipping stones. She was even better at it than I was. Jace was the best, but Angie came in a close second.”
“No new news?”
“Still waiting for Cash’s friend to trace that email.” He leaned back and took her with him.
The air smelled green, like grass and sage and mulched leaves, with a trace of honey. The creek gurgled quietly, like a song. And for a few seconds Gina lost herself in the tranquility of nature and Sawyer’s arms.
“Tuff. That thing he said about a restaurant. You interested?” He skipped another stone. This time it bounced across the surface all the way to the other side.
“I don’t know the first thing about the hospitality industry.” She tilted her head back and rested it against his chest. “Fresh out of culinary school I went the home-chef route and worked for the Hollywood elite, thanks to my father’s contacts. And unlike Emeril, Gordon, Giada, and the slew of other celebrity chefs who opened restaurants, I went the prepared-food route. I steered away from frozen pizzas because Wolfgang had that market sewn up. But there was plenty of room for frozen Italian entrées. That’s where I excel. Restaurants? Uh-uh.”
“It seemed like a good idea when he brought it up. Our beef, the local bounty of produce, your cooking skills. You’d kill it.”
“So next to wine country with Keller…Chiarello…Morimoto, I’d be a laughingstock.”
He clasped her shoulders and forced her to turn around. “The hell you would.”
She looked away and muttered, “I thought you couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”
“Ah, I see you’re going for classic avoidance. Look, if you don’t want to do it, don’t think it’s your thing, don’t believe Dry Creek is the place for it, don’t want to take the risk—I get it. I really do. But this other crap…you not being good enough…me wanting to be rid of you…it’s bullshit, Gina. And you know it.”
It wasn’t bullshit, it was the God’s honest truth. There’s a reason she’d gone with frozen foods. Surrounded by mass-produced garbage that had been around since man walked on the moon, it wasn’t difficult to stand out. To be better than the rest. But a restaurant in Northern California, the food mecca of the country? Ha. It would be like a skating enthusiast competing in the winter Olympics.
She started to ask him if he was trying to benefit the ranch by riding on her famous—now infamous—coattails, but stopped herself. That was unfair. He’d never once taken advantage of her celebrity. Just the opposite, in fact. He’d shielded her from the public, helped her try to find the culprit who’d made up the lies about her, and believed her when most would’ve laughed her to kingdom come.
“I want my old life back.” Because even if she didn’t miss it now, she would. It was proof that contrary to Sadie DeRose’s pronouncement that Gina would never amount to much, she was a rock star. “A new restaurant is a full-time job. I can’t do that and run my other businesses and produce a thirteen-episode show a year. Not when Dry Creek Ranch is more than four-hundred miles away.”
“I get it.” Sawyer got to his feet, taking her with him. “Let’s go. It’s hot.” He didn’t wait for her, just walked away.
“Where are we going?” she called to his back.
“I’m going home. I have an article to write.” The context of those two sentences were clear.
