Page 12 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

He nodded agreeably. “And I completely understand that.” God, he was about to sound like such an ass, but at least it was for the right reasons.

“I was filming this season of Ultimate Chef . I won,” he said, self-deprecatingly, like he was also just as shocked, “but I couldn’t tell anyone until the episode aired last week.

I was supposed to be in Los Angeles for a few television appearances, which is why Jim originally had to drop out. Champagne problems, right?”

He wanted to punch himself in the face. But he resisted, because for the first time, it looked like he had her full attention. “ Ultimate Chef –like the tv show? My daughter loves that show.”

“That very one.” God, he hoped this was working. “And I wouldn’t be the chef I am today without Jim Pierce. It’s my fault we had to drop out, so I’m here to do whatever I need to get us back on the program.”

Now, the woman looked slightly panicked. “The programs have already been printed.” Which was good. It meant that she was seriously considering giving them a vendor spot. Success was so close he could taste it.

He waved her off and shot her a confident grin. “Makes sense, and it’s not a problem. I’m sure our food will speak for itself.”

“Grace,” she called to a woman who was working at a narrow table in the hallway with focused attention.

It looked like she was staring at a large diagram of the event space, the booths drawn on a whiteboard.

“Can you bring me that tablet? I need to check something.” Grace, a woman about Cam’s age, wearing a shirt with the word ‘volunteer’ emblazoned across it, scurried over with the tablet that Cam noticed sitting at the corner of the table.

Grace handed over the tablet, her eyes locking on Cam before they went absurdly wide. “Oh my god. You’re Cam Devers. Mom, you know I love Ultimate Chef ,” Grace said excitedly, bouncing from foot to foot. It was clear now, maybe not in behavior, but in looks, that the two women were related.

“Guilty,” he drawled, smiling broadly. Put that saddle on him and trot him around the ring. He was committed.

“He’s the one I kept talking about all season.” It was clear that Grace was trying to be quiet when she leaned over and whispered in her mom’s ear, but her exuberance got the best of her. She sounded like she was whispering into a microphone.

“Don’t believe everything you see on tv.” And then, in a moment he’d lock up somewhere in his brain like Fort Knox and never think about it again, he winked. He goddamn winked, and if he needed to, he’d do it again.

“You’re like… a bonafide celebrity.” Grace looked like she was going to pass out, but shockingly, she was able to find the fortitude to keep going.

“Winner of season ten of Ultimate Chef . Executive Chef at Gossamer in Boston. I’ve been there.

It took me six months to get reservations.

You’re originally from Rock Harbor, though you didn’t mention that on the show.

I found it in a magazine write-up from when you were at XYZ .

I’ve been there, too.” Finally, she paused, taking a deep inhale.

Her cheeks were flushed, matching her fiery red hair.

At the restaurant, women would slip him their numbers when he’d come out to see their tables and check in on their experience.

He’d encountered people who liked his food before, though never to this degree.

No one had ever repeated his Wikipedia profile to him.

A fan of him , maybe more than his cooking.

“Seems like you’re a foodie, huh?” Cam asked, only pulling his attention away briefly to see whether Sandy was still working her magic.

“There is nothing sexier than a man in the kitchen.” She said it with as much conviction as someone pleading their innocence after being accused of murder. She looked him up and down, and for a second, Cam wondered if she was going to jump him.

Sandy looked up from the tablet, then. “Seriously, Grace?”

“It’s not just me,” Grace argued, not a hint of embarrassment in her voice. “He has, like, a hundred social media fan accounts dedicated to him.”

That stopped Cam in his tracks. He had an Instagram where he sometimes posted new menu items, but generally, he kept a low profile. He didn’t even know what these people would have to talk about if it wasn’t his food.

He’d already made a name for himself among Boston chefs, and had won the coveted Thomas Stone Award as the best New England chef last year. The year before that, Gossamer had won for best new restaurant.

And though he’d done a few local appearances in Boston the week after he’d won, he’d declined anything bigger.

He was already getting too far away from the food, Michael continually pushing him to schmooze and delegate and become ‘the face’ of the brand–whatever the hell that meant.

He was a chef, and that’s all he wanted to be.

Except for today, when he’d already committed to doing anything to help Pierce’s Lobster Co. survive another year. Which was the sobering thought that anchored him as he pasted on another smile. He resisted rubbing his jaw, aching from playing the part.

Grace, seemingly needing to be believed, pulled out her phone and held it next to Cam. “I follow the good ones. No one’s going to believe you’re in Rock Harbor,” she gushed.

He glanced at the phone, where she’d pulled up a list of accounts, all with some version of ‘Cam Devers’ in the name. Some were more… overt than the others, like the one with his Ultimate Chef photo named ‘He Can Whip Me Up Anytime.’

He didn’t comment on that one. God, he hoped that Wyatt never found these pages. Cam would never hear the end of it.

“Whatever gets people interested in food,” he said with as much restraint as he could manage. Just then, Sandy looked up from the tablet and he let out an audible sigh of relief that he wouldn’t have to look through any more of the profiles dedicated to him. “Any luck?”

Sandy put the tablet to sleep and gave him a no nonsense look that he appreciated. “We can fit you back in.”

Thank fuck this hadn’t all been for nothing. “That’s great news.”

“You won’t be in the program, but you’ll have a full booth in your original spot.”

“Sandy, you are incredible,” he said, meaning it. “And if there’s anything you need from me, please let me know.”

Sandy looked at him thoughtfully, her lips pursed together. “I may just do that. Tell Jim I said hello.”

“Will do.” He was out of the building as fast as he could, but not before Grace asked for a picture of the two of them, which there was nothing he could do but oblige .

As he walked back outside into the warm day, he thought of the Pierces and what him playing up his celebrity status could mean to them.

Shockingly, he didn’t feel the normal twinge of embarrassment when he was recognized or talked about as the idea of a person instead of an actual human being.

And when he thought about Elle, and what helping her dad would mean to her, well… he didn’t hate that either.