For Never & Always by Helena Greer

Author:Helena Greer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2023-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Hannah

The Davenport engagement party had gone better than she’d feared—in fact, better than she’d hoped. Levi had been professional, present, charming. He’d been the person she’d only ever seen him be on TV (watching Australia’s Next Star Chef every week was an exercise in heartbreak, as she saw the version of her greatest love and oldest friend that he’d never been able—or willing—to show her). She’d been telling herself he would never be his whole self at Carrigan’s, but he was proving her wrong.

And maybe proving himself wrong. She wondered if he noticed.

Carrigan’s All Year was still a precariously growing business, even with the governor as a client. So, they had to participate in things around the Adirondacks that would raise their profile, and the week after the engagement party was ADK Restaurant Week, seven days of highlighting food from all over the region.

To join, restaurants around the Adirondacks offered special prix fixe menus. The Christmasland Inn had never participated before, both because it was outside the scope of what the inn did while Cass was alive and because it wasn’t in Mrs. Matthews’s wheelhouse. It was, however, very much in Levi’s wheelhouse.

He’d asked if he could do something, even though it was last minute—suggesting a special dinner for the tourists who were staying at the inn, one he could open up to anyone in the area. Since it was fine with Mrs. Matthews, and dinner was her area, Hannah said yes.

“He’s doing an event,” Noelle said, bursting into Hannah’s office the day they announced the event on social media. “Just like that? You gave him an event?”

“Blue is a famous chef who is currently here and was bored, so he is making dinner,” Hannah said slowly, “which his mother, whose kitchen he’s using, agreed to.”

“Blue?” Noelle closed the door behind her a little more violently than necessary. “Blue is cooking? Not Levi?”

“Is there a difference?” Hannah asked, not making eye contact, because she knew there was, and she didn’t know why she’d called him that.

“You know there’s a difference. Blue is the boy you used to love. Levi is the man you’re divorcing.”

“Slip of the tongue,” Hannah lied, to both of them.

Noelle crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you remember six months ago, when you almost murdered your cousin for infringing on your Carrigan’s events territory?”

“It’s not the same thing, NoNo. He’s here. He cooks. There’s a local cooking event. We need to participate in local tourist events. It’s an easy call to make. Also, you both wanted me to chill out about being so territorial. So I did! We all rejoice.” She straightened the Post-it pad on her desk, lining it up with the edge of her desk calendar.

“I would be thrilled that you were letting someone else take point on an event if it were not Levi. Because it’s not just cooking dinner. He’s making space for himself in his mother’s kitchen, doing the things he was supposed to do before he abandoned you, supporting your dreams for Carrigan’s All Year.

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