doubt about who had voted against Lexi. “So as the rules stipulate, there must be a tiebreaker. You and Natasha will both be asked to present a new dish a week from Saturday.”
“And what if there’s another tie?” Marc asked.
“There can’t be,” ChiChi said with a smile that sent his every instinct into red alert. If the board couldn’t decide on a chef, which seemed like a good possibility, then the power would default back to the customer. “Because we won’t be deciding, dear. You will.”
CHAPTER 11
Are you done eye-fucking the neighbor girl? Or do you need another moment?”
Marc didn’t move, but he stopped staring at Lexi, who was cooking away in her kitchen, wearing that tiny lavender apron and cutoff shorts. He knew the apron well. It had played a starring role in his dreams lately, and when she stood at just the right angle, and he squinted a little, she looked like she was in nothing but the apron. And it was a damn better sight than the e-mail sitting on his desktop.
Forcing himself to focus, Marc took one last look and turned. His two oldest brothers stood in his office doorway, and by the way Gabe was shaking his head and mumbling threats, they were doing their best to remind him that he was a screwup. And in this case he knew it was true.
“Where’s Trey?” Marc asked. He’d called his brothers earlier that morning as soon as he’d seen the e-mail.
“Trey is in New York. Last-minute meeting,” Nate said, calmly sitting in one of Marc’s leather barrel chairs, while Gabe plopped down, elbows on knees, eyes hard, looking slightly harassed and completely exhausted.
“One that didn’t exist until this happened,” Gabe said, flapping a rolled-up newspaper a few times before smacking it against his palm with a reprimanding thwack.
Marc couldn’t see what was on the paper, it was moving too fast, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out from Gabe’s intense expression and the fact that Trey was missing that this was about one of two things: the Showdown or the Monte deal. Either way it had to be bad, because when there was family drama, Trey ran. He’d started when their parents died and made a habit of it after Abby’s marriage crumbled.
“Will he be back in time for the Showdown?”
“Depends if Abby stops running these.” Gabe tossed the latest issue of the St. Helena Sentinel on the desk.
Marc didn’t need any more bad news right now, but he walked over to his desk, spun the paper around, and—“Shit.”
There on the front page, nestled between “DOP Calls Tie in Taste-Off” and the ad for the Showdown, was a full-color and full-sized photo of Richard with a “My Dick Is Still Missing” headline plastered above his head.
“I’m happy she’s finally divorcing the tool and moving on. But front page? The Showdown is next week. What the hell was she thinking?” Abby was a sweetheart, but when riled she had a mean streak as wide as the valley.
“According to her, she didn’t do it,” Nate said, and Marc raised a disbelieving brow. “She copped to the headline, but swears she only paid for a small ad in the wanted section.”
“Under missing pets,” Gabe said seriously. “And don’t you dare laugh.”
Marc couldn’t help it. His sister could be a pain in the ass, and these ads running at the same time he was trying to convince people to drop a thousand dollars a pop for an “elegant and exclusive” event only made his job a whole lot harder, but the girl had spunk.
“Okay, dick jokes aside, if she paid for back page, why is she getting headline service?”
“Three months ago Kimberly Meyer was promoted from advertising manager at the Sentinel to editor-in-chief,” Nate said, not needing to point out that Kimberly Meyer used to be known as Keg-Stand Kim: dance-team captain, all-around party girl, and Marc’s homecoming date. Her name also used to be Baudouin.
“Wait, that was right after they announced that the Showdown was going to be at the hotel.”
“And right after Charles threw a fit about it being held at a DeLuca property,” Gabe said.
“It was also right after he became a silent partner in the paper,” Nate added.
“Which explains all of the odd timing with articles about the family, placing the Showdown ads next to Abby’s mess of a divorce. He’s pissed that the committee picked you.”
“It’s pretty incredible that old man Baudouin is still this hung up on a feud that involves a