Cale hugged her close and sighed. "I hope I never run into that Jack fellow. It would be hard not to break his bloody neck for hurting you."
Alex laughed against his chest. "It wasn't just Jack. He was just the icing on the cake that made me this way. Besides, you already have met him. Or at least talked to him," she added.
"What? I haven't met Jack."
"Jacques Tournier," she said dryly. "Peter said that Jacques tried to hire you away from me. Didn't he?"
"Yes, he did. He called. But he introduced himself as Jacques, and now you're saying he's your Jack?" he asked with a frown.
"He's not my anything," Alex said with a grimace, and then explained, "He was Jack when I knew him in school. He changed his name legally to Jacques Tournier before opening Chez Joie. I guess he figured a French name would do in lieu of a diploma from a French culinary school. He always was an ass," she added dryly.
"He's your biggest competitor?" Cale asked, his voice grim.
Alex nodded. "Pretty much. He-" She broke off with surprise as he suddenly turned and started the engine again. She frowned, unable to ask what was going on. He'd never hear her over the engine. All she could do was hold on tightly as he suddenly sent the snowmobile shooting forward.
Alex wasn't terribly surprised when he headed them straight back to the house, but she was concerned.
"What's going on?" she asked as soon as they were in front of the house, and he shut the engine down again.
"Nothing," he muttered, getting off the machine and striding toward the house. "I just need to have a talk with someone."
Alex narrowed her eyes and hurried after him. "You are not going after Jack."
Cale didn't respond but stepped into the house, and shouted, "Sam?"
"Yeah?" her head poked around the kitchen entrance, eyebrows raised in question.
"Can you call Mortimer and Bricker down at the garage and have them come up here? " he asked as he removed his boots. "I need a word with them. It's important," he added as he finished with his boots and started upstairs in full snowmobile gear.
Cursing, Alex kicked off her own boots and gave chase. "Cale, tell me what's going on."
"Nothing for you to worry about," he assured her as he reached the hall at the top of the stairs. "I just need to check into something."
"That's bullshit," she snapped, following him into his room. "You're going after Jack, and it's stupid. He was just a childhood fling. He means nothing."
"He's still affecting you, which means you could still be affecting him," Cale said absently as he began to remove his outer gear.
Alex paused and stared at him blankly. "What are you talking about? I mean, I know I said it affected me,
but it was just one more thing, not the be all and end all. And it certainly wouldn't be affecting him anymore. He never loved me."
"Alex, his relationship with you, and getting caught stealing your recipe is what got him thrown out of culinary school in disgrace," Cale said patiently as he tossed his helmet and gloves on the bed and began to unzip the jacket of his snowmobile suit. "Of course it's still affecting him. He probably blames you for it somehow. People like him always twist things around in their heads so that they can blame someone else for their own shortcomings."
"But-"
"Did he start Chez Joie before or after you started La Bonne Vie?" Cale asked, tossing his coat on the bed and starting to work on removing the bottoms.
"About six months after," she said, not sure what that had to do with anything.
"How close is it to your restaurant?"
Alex frowned as she watched him step out of the bottoms, leaving him in his jeans and a sweater. "I don't know. Not far. You can walk there on a nice day."
"And do you really think it's a coincidence that he started a French cuisine restaurant just like yours, here in Toronto, so close to yours, and only months after your own restaurant opened?" he asked, hands on hips.
She blinked in surprise at the question, and then admitted, "Well, I never really thought about it."
"And he's changed his name to Jacques Tournier to give himself more credibility because he doesn't have the culinary school's stamp of approval as you do,"he added dryly, and then frowned. "You really should have told me this earlier."