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Chapter 12
Hannah
The Davenport engagement party had gone better than she’d feared—in fact, better than she’d hoped. Levi had been professional, present, charming. He’d been the person she’d only ever seen him be on TV (watchingAustralia’s Next Star Chefevery week was an exercise in heartbreak, as she saw the version of her greatest love and oldest friend that he’d never been able—or willing—to show her). She’d been telling herself he would never be his whole self at Carrigan’s, but he was proving her wrong.
And maybe proving himself wrong. She wondered if he noticed.
Carrigan’s All Year was still a precariously growing business, even with the governor as a client. So, they had to participate in things around the Adirondacks that would raise their profile, and the week after the engagement party was ADK Restaurant Week, seven days of highlighting food from all over the region.
To join, restaurants around the Adirondacks offered special prix fixe menus. The Christmasland Inn had never participated before, both because it was outside the scope of what the inn did while Cass was alive and because it wasn’t in Mrs. Matthews’s wheelhouse. It was, however, very much in Levi’s wheelhouse.
He’d asked if he could do something, even though it was last minute—suggesting a special dinner for the tourists who were staying at the inn, one he could open up to anyone in the area. Since it was fine with Mrs. Matthews, and dinner was her area, Hannah said yes.
“He’s doing an event,” Noelle said, bursting into Hannah’s office the day they announced the event on social media. “Just like that? You gave him an event?”
“Blue is a famous chef who is currently here and was bored, so he is making dinner,” Hannah said slowly, “which his mother, whose kitchen he’s using, agreed to.”
“Blue?” Noelle closed the door behind her a little more violently than necessary. “Blue is cooking? Not Levi?”
“Is there a difference?” Hannah asked, not making eye contact, because she knew there was, and she didn’t know why she’d called him that.
“You know there’s a difference. Blue is the boy you used to love. Levi is the man you’re divorcing.”
“Slip of the tongue,” Hannah lied, to both of them.
Noelle crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you remember six months ago, when you almost murdered your cousin for infringing on your Carrigan’s events territory?”
“It’s not the same thing, NoNo. He’s here. He cooks. There’s a local cooking event. We need to participate in local tourist events. It’s an easy call to make. Also, you both wanted me to chill out about being so territorial. So I did! We all rejoice.” She straightened the Post-it pad on her desk, lining it up with the edge of her desk calendar.
“I would be thrilled that you were letting someone else take point on an event if it were not Levi. Because it’s not just cooking dinner. He’s making space for himself in his mother’s kitchen, doing the things he was supposed to do before he abandoned you, supporting your dreams for Carrigan’s All Year. It’s sneaky. He’s trying to win you back!”
He was absolutely trying to win her back, although she wasn’t sure he was aware enough to realize that supporting Carrigan’s All Year was a much better strategy than taking her on dates. The real question was, what would happen if she let him and then he realized he was trapped here again?
“I’m not going to turn down an opportunity for business, good press, and networking because the person bringing them to us is Levi,” she hedged. “He’s here. I’m making the best of it. I suggest you do the same.”
“He stole my cat!” Noelle complained.
“Is your girlfriend happier?” Hannah countered. Noelle didn’t answer, only shoved her hands in her pockets. “Look, he and I had some pretty big talks. I understand why he is the way he is sometimes, a lot more than I ever had. Maybe you could try the same thing.”
“Oh, I’m sure he sold you a very good sob story.” Noelle frowned. “She promises she won’t fall under his terrible spell again,” she muttered to herself, “and then she lets him run events.”
Noelle wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t right, either. Hannah had been prickly when Miriam came back and started making decisions, for a lot of reasons. One, she was a control freak. Two, Miriam had never done any work running Carrigan’s, and she’d been gone for ten years, so she had no frame of reference for the big picture. Three, Miriam had been planning on staying at Carrigan’s and making huge lasting changes to the way they did things. This had made Hannah territorial, because she was the manager and had spent her whole life training to take over Carrigan’s.
Levi was different. Not because she loved him, but because he’d grown up working on the farm. He knew more about how Carrigan’s ran than anyone besides her and his parents. And, unlike Miriam, hehadn’tmissed a decade. He still knew all the regulars’ names, remembered where the extra towels were stored and who to call if something was wrong with the plumbing that his dad couldn’t fix.
No matter how much he hated it, Carrigan’s was in him at a cellular level, and she knew if he made a choice, he would understand its potential repercussions. Besides, he wasn’t staying and trying to make big waves. He was going to be gone as soon as the wind changed, off to make a career for himself.
“He didn’t sell me a sob story, and I can’t talk details to you. There is something we have to talk about, though. We have to talk about Cass and Blue.”
“Yeah, Miri told me.” Noelle hunched her shoulders, folding in on herself a little. “I guess I always assumed Cass gave Levi shit as an adult because he’s a pain in the ass, but the way she treated him as a kid, even if she didn’t do it on purpose…”
“Yeah.” Hannah just nodded. “Yeah.”
“I fucking hate that on top of all the other reasons I’m mad at her, now I have to be mad at her on Levi Matthews’s behalf.”
Cass had saved Noelle in a thousand ways, had given her a job, brought her and Miri together, had been their North Star. Cass had been the most important person in all their lives, their eccentric, misanthropic, meddling angel.
Blue had let them think that Cass was infallible rather than disillusioning them. Blue, the most selfish boy in the world, had kept all his pain inside that this adult, who he should have been able to trust, had torn him up. He’d kept all of that inside because he thought he deserved it, or because he thought they wouldn’t believe him, but also because he loved them and he didn’t want to take Cass away from them. And in the absence of that information, he had allowed everyone to think the worst of him.
