A Taste of You Read Online Free PDF Page B

already told him. Plus, he’ll be here.”
    Carlo played back all the words from the last few minutes in his head to make sure he had them right. Nope. Still didn’t make sense.
    “Garrett.” He forced his hands to unclench. “Sweets, sit down, start at the beginning, and tell me exactly what is going on. Everything. Or, I swear, we really are finished.”
    So Garrett did.
    And it was worse. Much worse.
    After Garrett left Carlo paced the apartment, too upset to sit still.
    I needed to break up with him. Because a lasting relationship was outside Garrett’s skill-set. Because Matt had inconveniently turned out to be the son of a network executive. Messy breakups were right behind “food genius” as one of Garrett’s talents, but even he couldn’t afford one this messy.
    If I hire him, he’s off-limits. Clever Garrett had offered Matt the choice. Garrett not only got rid of an inconvenient lover, he got to be the injured party.
    And all of that was just the tip of the iceberg. Was it going be awkward to work every day with one of Garrett’s ex-boyfriends? Yeah, not his favorite thing, but he was an adult, not a twelve-year-old girl. He would get over it.
    Garrett forgot to take his basil. His mind twisted, not wanting to review the final point.
    Plus, he’ll be here. Matt would be here, and Garrett wouldn’t. Garrett had decided to move forward with plans to open Ransom West in L.A., and he intended to run the kitchen there. So, instead of being gone three months out of the year, he would be gone. . .more.
    Permanently . His hands were shaking. Face it, he’ll live in L.A. and visit here. You’ll hardly ever see him.
    Garrett had been so excited about the new restaurant, the one that put him as far away from Carlo as he could get without falling off the continent. And he expected Carlo to be just as excited about “their” expansion.
    Carlo felt cold. Abandoned.
    He tried to tell himself that nothing had changed. Garrett hadn’t loved him yesterday, and he still didn’t love him today. Nothing was different.
    Except now he found himself wondering at what point he should cut his losses and move on with his life. He couldn’t call Ransom a loss, but, without Garrett, the restaurant they had built would be a constant reminder of what he didn’t have. And it wasn’t as if he didn’t have options.
    He reached for his tablet. Thanks to Garrett and Ransom, his business contact list looked like a Who’s Who of the New York culinary world. If he wanted to move on, he could have his pick of new partners. But as he scrolled through the names, he realized none of them represented a real change. He didn’t know if he wanted to stay in the upper stratosphere of the restaurant world.
    He loved Ransom because he loved Garrett, but he was tired of being a destination. He missed having customers who were his friends and neighbors. He missed knowing their families, seeing the same faces every week, and knowing what they would order as soon as they walked in.
    He tapped the screen, changing the contact sort from “business” to “family.” His finger hovered over one name for a long time.
    A few feelers didn’t equal a commitment, he told himself.
    He sent a text.
    Drinks after-hours?
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    Two weeks later, Garrett stood at the far end of the line and watched as the kitchen turned out an array of picture-perfect dishes. They better be picture-perfect. As each dish was completed to his approval, it was whisked away to the dining room, not to be eaten and enjoyed, but to be staged and photographed by one of the top food photographers in the city.
    He remembered when it felt odd to be an observer, not part of the actual kitchen brigade. But after months of training and judging young chefs on the set of Ransom Me , he no longer felt compelled to touch every plate personally. The urge to make minute adjustments still pushed at him, but he had learned to content himself with corrections at a higher