Page 28 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CAM

F or the first night since Cam had come back to Rock Harbor, he’d slept in Wyatt’s apartment alone.

After the country club, Elle had gone straight to her parents’ house.

It had been for the best. Cam knew that, on some level.

There was no good to come from staying in the apartment alone with Elle, who was becoming a temptation too hard to resist.

Cam knew that he shouldn’t have slept with her, but somehow, he couldn’t really regret it. And that was a big, big problem. Because it meant that it had a probability of happening again.

He shook the thoughts away and continued prepping his breakfast, nowhere to be and no one to look at like he was undressing them with his mind. Which was a much needed respite, honestly.

But still, Jim Pierce was having his surgery today, and that definitely warranted a few check-ins with Elle to make sure she was okay and that the surgery was going as expected.

He scrambled his eggs with one hand and texted Elle with the other.

Cam

How’s everything going? Make it to the hospital okay?

Elle

So far so good. He was taken back for pre-op about an hour ago. Surgery should be starting soon.

Cam

How long is the surgery?

Elle

About four hours. Give or take. And then he’ll be in the hospital for at least a few days to recover.

Cam

You doing okay?

Elle

Trying to be here for my mom. No breaking down and sobbing on anyone’s shoulders this time…

Cam

These shoulders are free for the day on an as-needed basis.

Elle

I’ll let you know.

Cam

Would you mind keeping me updated? On your dad I mean. Just want to make sure he’s okay.

Elle

Absolutely.

You can let me know if you need a shoulder, too.

Cam

Thanks, Elle.

He put down his phone. Since finding out about Mr. Pierce’s surgery, he hadn’t let himself consider the possibility that it wouldn’t go well. He knew that the world was an unfair place, but Jim Pierce not being in it would tip the scales into something that Cam refused to consider.

His phone buzzed, and he picked it up without checking to see who was calling. It could be Elle.

“It’s about time. Are you done with all this nonsense, Cam?” Michael’s voice came through the receiver, surprisingly calm given that Cam had been dodging his calls for over a week.

A month ago, Cam’s life had been on a very different trajectory.

Michael had wanted to open a second restaurant with Cam at the helm, where Cam was promised the ability to ideate on his vision from end-to-end.

And appearing on Ultimate Chef would elevate his profile, according to Michael, to give Cam the opportunity.

Which is why Cam had found himself on that insufferable excuse for a cooking show at all.

So, when Michael had wanted him to go on the show, he’d done it. And when Michael had started having investors and high profile people coming through Gossamer most nights of the week after filming had wrapped, Cam schmoozed with them just like he’d been asked .

Cam put the phone on speaker so that he could scoop his eggs onto a plate. “You fired me last week.” He’d looked up to Michael, which was the worst part of everything that had happened. His dad had always been an asshole. With Michael, he hadn’t seen it coming.

“I want to open a line of communication, Cam. It’s stupid for both of us to throw away a business relationship because of a little disagreement.”

They had very different interpretations of what a little disagreement actually was.

Cam had walked into the back room at the restaurant to see a terrified twenty-something waitress who was working her way through college.

Michael had her pinned against one of the shelves, his hand underneath her shirt.

Cam had snapped. He could still remember how the disgust had coursed through him, that someone who had everything just wanted to keep taking because they could. His lip curled, thinking about it now.

Ten days ago, his life had blindingly come into focus.

He, and the people around him at the restaurant, were nothing more than pawns to someone like Michael Vittori.

And that had been spelled out for him like a neon flashing sign when Michael had slurred, “Get out, Devers. This is my restaurant and you didn’t see shit.

I made you, and I can end you just as easily. ”

Then, Cam had started swinging.

“Cam?” Michael asked, and Cam could picture him looking stupidly down at his cell phone to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

Cam kept his voice neutral. “I accepted your termination, Michael. I don’t think that there’s anything else left for us to talk about.”

“Except that I heard you’re considering opening your own spot.”

Cam blinked and stared down at his phone.

Wow, news sure did travel fast. He’d woefully underestimated the gossip grapevine ensnarling the Rock Harbor Country Club.

And regardless of whether it was true or not, it was none of Michael’s fucking business.

“Good for you, having your ear pressed to the ground. It keeps your face away from any unsuspecting waitresses.”

“Look, Cam,” Michael warned, “whatever you think you saw, you’re wrong. You’ve known me for half-a-decade. I’m not that guy.”

“Except you were that guy. And even if I believe you and you’d never been that guy before, it doesn’t change shit.”

“Look, Cam, I don’t owe you any explanations.” He could hear the exasperation seeping into Michael’s tone. Historically, Cam had been much easier to control. He’d looked at Michael as a mentor, as someone who he trusted more than almost anyone in his life.

What’s the saying? The higher they rise, the harder they fall. Well, Michael Vittori was now subterranean in Cam’s eyes. “I wasn’t asking for one. That would imply I wanted to work through this, which I don’t.”

Michael’s tone changed then, his voice dripping with superiority. “Your non-compete still stands. You can’t open a new restaurant in Rock Harbor or anywhere else in the goddamn state. Hell, I should have your ass if you even set foot in another commercial kitchen, but I’m trying to be nice here.”

Cam scoffed. “Good luck enforcing that.”

“You don’t get where I am, kid, without knowing when it pays to bite back.”

Cam felt like he was talking to a stranger, so different from the man who he’d thought would always go to bat for him. “And you think everyone would be proud of you bullying an up-and-coming chef out of the industry because he caught you sexually assaulting someone and quit his job on the spot?”

“No one but you is talking, Cam, and if I do, I’ll paint a very clear-cut case of a young chef who’s gotten too big for his britches, high on fame and probably too much cocaine, flaming out before he ever really became something.”

Cam let out an indignant sound. “Who needs enemies with friends like you. Am I right, Mike?”

“You’re throwing away your future, Cam. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

” And maybe that was true. But Cam also knew that Gossamer had been struggling before Cam had come on board five years ago, and now it was considered one of the best restaurants in Boston.

So for whatever shitty comments Michael wanted to make, Cam had done Michael just as many favors as he’d gotten in return.

And most importantly, there was no way that Cam would ever work for that prick again. “Lose this number, Michael.”

He hung up and looked down at his eggs, which had grown cold.

After he threw the plate’s contents in the trash, no longer hungry, he decided to go downstairs to the restaurant and blow off some steam.

Elle would update him in a few hours, and then he’d head over to the hospital and spend his time with people who actually deserved his time and effort.

Arms full, Cam walked into the Ada Dalton Memorial Hospital.

It was the largest–well, only– hospital within twenty miles of their town limits.

There were closer urgent cares and medical clinics, and it wasn’t as decked out as some of the hospitals in Boston, but with the number of monied patients spending copious amounts of time in Rock Harbor, it was an excellent medical facility that millionaires and paupers alike could benefit from.

Cam thought the Pierces were probably somewhere in the middle. Working class down to their bones. He had no idea what a surgery like this would do to Mr. and Mrs. Pierce’s finances.

But he was going to do everything he could to make sure that Mr. Pierce got the best care possible.

Which is why on top of the meals he’d prepared for Elle and Mrs. Pierce, he’d also put together two separate trays of mini cupcakes.

Baking wasn’t really his forte, but he’d had time on his hands today, and he thought they’d turned out pretty well.

A variety of vanilla, chocolate, red velvet flavors, all with a cream cheese icing that he’d thrown batches of away before it had come out just right. And after a quick trip to the craft store, he’d had the final element he needed to make his vision a reality.

He walked up to the nurse’s station on the third floor, where he’d been directed upon arrival. “I’m looking for Jim Pierce’s room. He’s recovering from surgery.”

The nurse, with her half-moon glasses, peered at him from the desk, shooting a glance at the two large boxes he carried.

He smiled as she looked at the computer to find the room number.

“Room 335,” she said. “But there are already two visitors in his room, which is our maximum. Do you want to switch out with one of them?”

“I wouldn’t want to take time from his wife and daughter,” Cam said, sliding the boxes closer to her. “I just wanted to sneak back and deliver them both dinner, along with these cupcakes for the nurses.”