Page 92 of Falling for the Grumpy Bad Boy

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RHETT

Iwas absolutely fucking livid. After walking Clem to her room, I went to mine. I should have been exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t believe they showed up like that.

How did they even know where to find me?

I paced like a caged animal with my phone in hand. The damn thing had been buzzing incessantly with notifications. Every few seconds, another tag, another post, another goddamn photo from tonight’s event.

I scrolled through Instagram with growing dread, watching the damage unfold in real time.

Amazing night at @ChefRhettVoss popup! Food was incredible but who were those mysterious guests?

OMG did anyone else see those Italian guys at the Rhett Voss event? They looked like they stepped out of Goodfellas!

Chef Rhett’s “family friends” made quite an impression tonight. Mamma mia!

Hundreds of posts. Thousands of views. And it was only getting worse.

“Fucking idiots,” I muttered, throwing my phone onto the bed. “Couldn’t just stay away for one goddamn night.”

My family was notorious. Never mind they weren’t actual mob. Yeah, yeah, in the past there had been some unsavory characters and maybe some illegal activities, but we were over it. Mostly. I had nothing to do with the family business. Never had and never would. I kept all of them at arm’s length, except my mom.

And she wasn’t whacking anyone. People watched too many movies. My family wasn’t like the mobster movies.

Anymore.

It was only a big deal in Chicago right now, but once the New York news picked up on the story, it was going to be even bigger. My family was still something back home. Chicago people had very little idea about their history. But New York remembered.

And none of it was great. Of course there had been a lot of embellishments added to the stories. My family was blamed for missing people they never actually met. It was just easier to point the finger at easy targets.

Unfortunately, public perception meant a lot in my world. It felt like the last few weeks had gone up in smoke with one visit from my family. I didn’t blame them for the way people thought of them, but they knew what the rumors were. They knew why I had to distance myself.

And they showed up anyway.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

I did not want to be the one responsible for bringing bad press to the tour. This whole thing was Desman’s baby. He was not going to be happy with my family’s past crimes overshadowing all the good he was trying to do.

I opened my laptop and pulled up my email, fingers flying over the keys as I typed out a message to Desman.

Heads up about tonight. Some unexpected family showed up at the event. You’ll probably see it on social media and maybe news outlets tomorrow. I’m sorry if this causes any issues for the soup kitchen opening. These aren’t the kind of connections I want associated with our project. Will call you in the morning. - Rhett

I hit send and immediately regretted the formal tone. Desman had been nothing but supportive, and now I was potentially dragging his reputation through the mud because my family couldn’t resist making a scene.

The rain was coming down hard outside my window, matching my mood perfectly. I started unbuttoning my shirt, ready to call it the worst night of my life, when there was a soft knock at my door.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said under my breath, assuming it was hotel staff or maybe my family had somehow tracked down my room number. I would not put it past them to show up and want to take me out to the bar.

That was the last thing I was going to do. Damage had already been done. I didn’t need to add to it.

But when I opened the door, there was Clementine, holding a bottle of champagne and wearing the most ridiculous pajama set I’d ever seen. The bright pink pants and top with cartoon tacos printed all over it could be used as a beacon to guide in lost ships off the Atlantic. She had clearly washed off her makeup, but somehow she looked more beautiful than she had all evening.

I popped my head out into the hallway to see if anyone else was there to witness the scene. Did she really walk down the hall in full view of anyone that might be coming or going?

Yes, yes, she did.

“Can I come in?” she asked. “Just for like half an hour? To debrief and relax?”