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Noah let out a low whistle. “How’d you get reservations last minute there?”
“It’s the first time the publicity about Austin this spring has worked in my favor. The woman who answered the phone must have a thing for the super-rich, because I mentioned my name and she verified that I was from Virginia and suddenly the chef’s table was available.”
“Chef’s table? Seriously?” Noah shook his head. “We got named in what, two of the articles? Passing mention, at that. She must be a serious newshound.”
I dropped my sorted piles into the correct trays. “I thought about that some. I kind of think it might be part of her job. Sure, she has to know the big-name celebrities and influential people, right, but what if I was the kind of person who would make a big stink about being denied service? You know the news would eat that up.”
Noah held his hands up like he was framing a headline. “Billionaire turned away from Michelin-starred restaurant. Will he sue?”
“Exactly.” I pointed at him before reaching for more invitations. “She doesn’t know that I would have just called the next place on my list. I’m not in the habit of trying the whole ‘do you know who I am’ thing. But I don’t mind that she made it happen. The food was beyond.”
Noah grinned. “And yet there were no doggie bags for your friends. Not even a bagel came back with you.”
I snorted. I had brought back some bagels. They were happily wrapped and stored in my freezer. “I can probably swing a bagel if you’re desperate.”
He frowned at me. “You brought bagels home from New York and didn’t immediately share?”
“There was the whole ‘we aren’t telling everyone we’re dating’ thing.”
Noah flicked away my excuse. “Bzzt. You had to know the trip would make it clear.”
I hadn’tknown. Suspected? Yes. Hoped? Well. Also yes. Sneaking around was awful. I’d spent the better part of the last what, ten years, trying to hide my crush—hide and talk myself out of—and I was ready for the whole thing to be out in the open.
“Uh-huh. You did. Sneaky.” He cocked his head to the side. “What’s Megan think about that?”
“She’s good with it.” We’d talked over the weekend. A lot. I guess the girls ganged up on her the same way the guys did me on Friday. Although they hadn’t video called Whitney in the way Wes had dragged Scott into the drama at poker.
Scott hadn’t cared. Of course, he’d kind of already known. Maybe Whitney would be cool with it, too, since she hadn’t seemed averse to the idea when I ran into them getting ice cream.
“That’s good. I don’t want things to get weird between the two of you now that the cat’s out of the bag. Sometimes that whole secret love thing is all that keeps a relationship going, you know?”
“No. I don’t know.” Geesh. Did I have to worry about that now? I scowled at Noah and dumped sorted invites into trays. “I don’t think it’s like that with us. It’s not like we spent our time together giggling about how we were pulling a fast one on the rest of you.”
“Good.” He nodded and got more invitations. “Then you’re probably fine.”
It was time to change the subject. “Did you decide if you were buying that massive project?”
“Smooth segue.”
“I wasn’t trying to be smooth. I was trying to change the subject.” I shot him a toothy, fake grin. “So?”
“Fine. Fine.” Noah blew out a breath. “I think I am, yeah.”
“Because?” I just couldn’t fathom having a place that big. But maybe he was excited about it? Six bedrooms, though. Just…why?
“Is it wrong for me to say that I want to do it for Jenna?” Noah glanced over at the conference room door. It was mostly open. He scooted around and closed it. “She was so excited about the project. She has all these ideas—and they’re much better than the designs and drawings the current owners are including in the sale.”
“I guess I didn’t realize you had a thing for Jenna.” I slapped the invitations in my hand against my leg. “It’s pretty decent as an opening shot for a courtship.”
Noah shook his head. “It’s not like that.”
“No?” I flipped through the invitations and added them to the trays. I reached into the box and found it empty. One down, four to go. And it wasn’t actually taking forever like I’d been worried it would.
“No. We were friends in high school, right? Kept in sporadic touch through college. I took her to a few dinners and dances—definitely in the vein of she didn’t have anyone else to take her, would I be willing.” Noah shrugged. “I’m her backup date.”
“You’re her backup date.”
“That’s what I said.”
