Happy Ever After

Chapter 15

After her lunch with Gavin Alana went back to Jo's to pack up her stuff say goodbye to her friend. Jo had just gotten home from running errands and thanked her for stepping in. For some reason, Jo was avoiding eye contact. Alana puzzled over Jo's strange behavior but didn't say anything. Her friend was entitled to her secrets. She had wanted to discuss Gavin's proposal and about Matt's involvement with the network, Jo had seemed in a hurry and Alana wanted to turn it around in her headfirst before voicing her concerns.

Matt was waiting for her when she came back. She used the extra card key he'd given her to enter the suite. Instead of working he was staring out the window. For a moment he looked so sad and unbearably alone. Feeling like a voyeur she was about to step back when he turned, and his eyes zeroed in on her. The melancholy cleared and he smiled, holding out his hand to her. She went and stood in his arms, looking out at the street below.

"How was your meeting?"

"It was interesting."

"Well?" he prompted when she didn't expound on the statement. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Someday. For now, I need to play around with it in my head first," she explained. She wanted to ask him then and there about his connection to Food Now and the offer she'd received, but the moment didn't feel right.

"Fair enough. Are you ready to leave?"

She and Matt made good time to the airport and were wheels up in no time. Thinking they might talk or something on the long flight home, she was disappointed when he powered up his laptop to finish some pending work. He had mentioned something last night about dropping everything to fly in. She thought he'd been exaggerating, but apparently not.

Listening to him talk on the plane's phone she got a whole new perspective on what his life was now. He appeared to have at least three active deals he was working on and someone named Ronan was messing up somewhere in the world. From what she could gather, Tony was on top of it, but Matthew sounded like a very hands-on CEO.

Curled up in her seat, going through the Food Now information package, Alana thought back to the strange conversation she'd had with Gavin. She'd told Matthew in their first phone call which network was producing the special show this week. Why hadn't he mentioned his connection to the network? She wanted to ask the question but wasn't ready for what she knew would lead to a bigger discussion about her continued relationship with Food Now.

Not that she'd made a decision. Fact was with everything that had happened the past two days, there simply hadn't been any time to think about Gavin's proposal or what the ramifications would be on her time. She was scheduled to be in Vienna next month, to prepare the wedding cake and desserts for the second marriage of a member of Austria's minor nobility. It was a lucrative commission, not to mention a prestigious one. After the event in France last month, she'd received at least four requests for proposals. Time was just one factor. If she signed a contract, she would essentially be working for Matt. Sleeping with him was one, working for him would change the dynamic of their relationship.

She needed her shop and kitchen up and running soon so that she had a place to work for her local baking jobs. Laura had called while she was in LA to inform her that the owners had signed the papers and that she was now the proud owner of a converted brownstone storefront. She wondered if the offer to have Tony's brother-in-law work on her shop was still open. At this point she needed all the help she could get. If he did good work and didn't quibble over the timelines or the budget, then he had himself a client.

"Sorry," Matt's apology broke through her thoughts.

"About what?"

"This," he said pointing to his laptop. "I had a different plan for what we'd be doing on the flight home, and it didn't involve trying to fan out flames via email. Well, that's not precisely true. I had different flames in mind."