Chapter Two
Kai sat back with a mug of hot chocolate in his hand and a scowl on his face, grabbing his laptop from where he’d left it tossed aside on the couch and pulling it into his lap.
The chocolate tasted bitter in his mouth when he sipped it. He wrinkled his nose, setting it aside and focusing on the task at hand.
He needed to know what he was up against if he was going to spend seven weeks working with a man who he’d thought of, until now, as a charming smile on legs. Charming, but not all that bright, and not particularly skilled.
The knowledge that Wyatt was more popular—with women, at least—than he was stuck in his throat. What did Wyatt have that he didn’t? He knew what he was doing, he was confident he looked all right on camera…
He’d never made much of an effort to be attractive to women, he supposed. He was gay. He really didn’t care whether women found him attractive, but he was pretty sure they weren’t looking for completely different things than men.
Although, considering his history with men… perhaps this was easier to explain than he was telling himself.
Maybe he didn’t have Wyatt’s three-foot-wide shoulders and Southern charm. Maybe, despite the fact that he wasn’t completely hideous, he just didn’t have the personality for TV.
But he was good at what he did, and didn’t that count for anything?
A tiny, traitorous voice in the back of his head told him it did. It had counted for enough to let him keep his job, at least for another seven weeks.
He wouldn’t have to go and beg for a place in someone else’s kitchen, or for a loan he couldn’t afford to open his own restaurant. Restaurants were expensive, and risky, and he currently had the best job he could imagine at this stage of his career.
If someone had told him on his first day of culinary school that he’d end up a TV chef, he would have laughed.
He might even have broken their nose.
But now, it was who he was. The thought of not being that anymore made him panic. It was all he’d known for the past three years, and he wasn’t getting any younger, and he really wasn’t sure where he’d go after this.
The thought that he might have to go home made his stomach turn.
So. He needed to know what Wyatt had, and how he could have it, too, if he wanted to keep doing what he’d come to genuinely love. And he did love it. He liked sharing what he knew with other people. He wanted everyone to be able to do what he did with food, because they’d be much happier if they could.
He typed Wyatt’s name into the search box, opening new tabs for the Twitter and Facebook results, images, and then a couple of articles that had been written about him as well.
After a moment’s hesitation, he also opened the top few recipe results. Maybe he could work out what to expect from them.
Maybe he was just looking for a way to feel better than Wyatt, since the idea that he was that much more popular still stung.
Kai clicked on the tab with the Twitter results in it and immediately stopped to stare at the first tweet.
Who wouldn’t want a man who could wreck you overnight and then make amazing pancakes in the morning?
He wet his lips. Well. It wasn't as though he hadn't noticed that Wyatt had a certain amount of sex appeal…
He’d just been trying really hard not to think about it. Apparently, though, he wasn't the only one who’d noticed.
Most of the results were just shared recipes, but almost all the ones that weren't were about how attractive he was.
Wyatt was attractive, and Kai knew that, but he didn't think he was hideous, or anything. If that was all there was to it…
He stopped just short of looking himself up, deciding at the last second that he didn’t want to know. Either he’d find people saying things like that about him, which would have been weird, or he’d find nothing, which would have been depressing.
Neither option would have improved his mood.
Instead, he clicked on the images tab. Wyatt’s smiling face filled the screen, promotional photos and candid ones alike showing a man who looked as good-natured as a Labrador puppy. That was probably it, Kai decided.
Wyatt was approachable. Kai was many things, but he’d never been accused of that.
In hindsight, it was a surprise he’d ever managed to get a job hosting a cooking show. Of course, he knew he hadn’t gotten that entirely on his merits as a good host. He’d gotten that because the producer at the time thought he was pretty.
And then he’d moved on, and Kai had been left behind, and he often wondered if he was in over his head, despite doing his best to seem confident.
He liked to think he was good at explaining things, but he didn't have Wyatt’s warmth.
Not that he ever planned to admit to that. He could be warm. Charming, even.
Probably. If he put his mind to it.
He’d just never put his mind to it.
As he scrolled idly through the results, one image in particular made him pause. He clicked on it, letting it fill the screen, and stared.
It was an old promo shot for the first season of Wyatt’s show, the logo splashed across the bottom. But that wasn't what made Kai stare.
No, what he was staring at was Wyatt, completely naked, his modesty preserved by a rolling pin he was holding in front of his crotch.
They couldn't have used this on TV, but they probably could have used it online.
Kai licked his lips unconsciously.
“I'm too gay for this,” he murmured aloud, still staring at Wyatt’s beautifully-defined torso and strong thighs. His dark, warm eyes sparkled with mischief, a broad grin spread across his face.
The photo was a few years old, but Kai couldn’t imagine much had changed. Wyatt filled out a soft, touchable sweater very, very nicely.
He closed his laptop, realizing that he now knew much more than he’d wanted to about Wyatt—specifically, what was under his down-to-earth, boy-next-door dress sense. That was what he got for poking his nose where it didn't belong.
Facing Wyatt tomorrow was about to be a hundred times more awkward, and he only had himself to blame.