Chapter Ten
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When Kai woke up to a torrential downpour slapping against the fly of his tent, he knew the day wasn’t going to go well. He’d learned there was no sense trying to avoid getting wet on mornings like these. The best way to keep from spending the rest of the day damp was to dress in the bunkhouse. He threw on yesterday’s boxer briefs, gathered new ones and the rest of his clothes, shoved his feet in his boots, climbed out of his tent, getting soaked while zipping the flap back up, and dashed to the bunkhouse to find several soggy Base Camp members already there.
Angus catcalled when he caught sight of Kai in his boxers, and Riley flung her hands up to block her eyes, quickly turning her back to him. Kai hotfooted it to the kitchen, peeled off his soaking drawers, dried off with a towel and dressed in the outfit he’d managed to keep reasonably dry on his dash to the building.
He turned to find a crew filming the whole process.
“You’d better not show my bare ass on TV,” he snarled.
“We won’t. We’ll just save it to blackmail you with later. We got more than your ass,” Chris said with a grin. He was an older member of the camera crew. A real smart aleck.
“Out. Out!” Kai wasn’t in the mood for the crew’s banter. He didn’t care if they flashed his genitals to the whole world. His life was already shit. Sleeping alone last night had brought home how badly he was going to miss Addison.
But he’d been hurt before and survived.
The crew retreated. “Got enough footage of you cooking to last a lifetime, anyway,” Chris said as they disappeared into the main room, where the cacophony of voices told him more people had arrived. No one would get anything other than the most basic outside chores done on a day like this. People were going to be bored, wet—cranky.
He needed to do what he could to stave that off.
Breakfast burritos it was—with the last of their store-bought tortillas. Everyone loved breakfast burritos. Not fancy, not flashy.
Just pure, yummy calories. One final feast. No more of those until the show was over—without flour, he couldn’t make them.
“How can I help?”
Addison stood in the doorway, obviously unsure about her welcome.
She should be, Kai thought. He’d heard enough last night to understand she was having a relationship with Curtis. An intimate relationship.
He’d been fooled by Addison. She’d made him think she was the kind of woman who waited until she really knew a man before she got intimate with him. The kind of woman who’d meant it when she’d agreed to marry him. Instead she’d played him with as much callousness as a hustler on the street.
Now he wanted her gone, before she finished the job of destroying him. He’d only known her a short time, but… damn it… he’d—
No, he told himself. He hadn’t fallen in love with her. He wasn’t that stupid.
But he was. Stupid enough to pick the same kind of woman he always picked—sexy, flighty, devil-may-care gypsies who set you alight while they were with you—
And then walked away from the blaze without a backward look.
She’d said she’d marry him. Then slipped away into a tent with Curtis, leaving Daisy to guard the door. He couldn’t believe how wrong he’d been about her.
“Kai? You seen my paperweight?” Boone stuck his head in the door.
“Paperweight? The bullet one?” It had sat on Boone’s desk since Kai had gotten to Base Camp—a large caliber World War II bullet encased in resin.
“That’s the one.”
“No, man. Sorry.”
Boone disappeared, and Kai got back to cooking. What the hell else could he do? Addison hesitated in the doorway.
“Kai—where’s the food?” Angus boomed from the main room. A chorus of “yeahs” followed. He was going to have a mutiny on his hands soon. The quicker he fed them, the quicker they could all get on with their business. Then maybe he’d get some peace and quiet to figure out what the hell he was going to do next.
“Kai—”
“Onions,” he snapped, cutting Addison off. He didn’t want a conversation. Didn’t want excuses or pretenses. She made him sick. He turned his attention to slicing rounds of green pepper, deliberately not looking her way.
“I don’t understand what’s—”
“We don’t have time to talk. We’ve got a crowd of hungry people.” He looked up. Spotted a camera. Fuck.
Addison didn’t say another word as they prepped the meal, even when Kai thumped the last of the green peppers in front of her and handed her a knife.
While he prepped the rest of the vegetables, Addison assembled plates, forks, knives and condiments and carried them out in batches to a folding table Kai set up to serve the meal.
Each time she stepped from the kitchen to the main room, the onlookers “oohed” in anticipation. The whole group was in an unsettled mood. They were joking, teasing each other—
But there was tension there, too.
He knew they all were worried about the coming winter—whether they could meet Fulsom’s demands or whether they would blow it all and lose everything they’d built. Knew they were wondering what the food supply would look like over the coming months. They were at a crisis, and the snow hadn’t even begun to fly yet.
When he and Addison finally carted out the rest of the fixings for the breakfast burritos, the other members of Base Camp hurried to get in line. There was a lot of good-natured pushing and shoving, but again, Kai thought he felt a darker undercurrent.
He wanted the meal done and the people scattered to their work before anything happened.
Someone had pulled out the folding chairs they used for meetings, set them up and scattered them around. Soon the chairs were all occupied, and the meal began. The tension dissipated as bellies warmed and clothes dried. Kai chose a chair near the kitchen, although there wasn’t anything left to do there. Addison chose a chair at the far end of the room near Riley and Avery.
Halfway through the meal, Kai noticed something else. Curtis kept glancing from him to Addison and back again, Daisy drowsing on the floor by his side. The muscles in Kai’s jaw tightened. The man had courted Addison behind his back. Was sleeping with her. And he had the nerve to sit here and eat Kai’s food?
As if he read the condemnation on Kai’s face, Curtis handed his plate to Clay, stood up and crossed the room. “In the kitchen. Now.”
Kai set his plate down on the floor with a thump and stood to meet him face-to-face. If Curtis had something to say, he’d better say it. “Why don’t we do this right here?”
“For fuck’s sake—get in the kitchen.” Curtis pushed past him and led the way.
Kai stalked after him, itching to punch Curtis’s daylights out. A camera crew followed but kept their distance.
Smart move.
“What’s the deal between you and Addison?” Curtis demanded.
“What’s the deal between you and Addison?” Kai countered.
Curtis nodded. “Yeah, I thought so. You saw me in her tent.”
“I heard you,” Kai corrected. “Fucking couldn’t keep your hands off her, could you?”
“I was helping her with—”
Kai shoved him. “Helping her with what? Your fucking d—”
Curtis shoved him back. “Maybe I should help her see what a fucking ass you are—”
“Maybe I should help you see if my foot fits up your ass!”
Curtis threw a punch. Kai blocked it, and they locked together, grappling and swiping at each other, crashing around the kitchen until they fell against a cupboard and made the dishes inside rattle. Curtis lunged to trip him, and they both went down hard but quickly resumed the fight, thrashing around on the floor, each trying to land a punch whenever they could.
“What the hell?” Boone burst into the room. Clay and Angus, too. They quickly separated him from Curtis. Restrained by his friends, Kai fought to reach him again.
“That asshole thinks he can—”
“He was helping me fix my corset because Riley tightened it too hard and I couldn’t breathe,” Addison cried. “And you were too damn busy sulking about your TV show to listen to me!”
Kai stiffened. Spotted Addison and the other women grouped in the doorway.
“Oh, my God,” Riley said to her. “I’m sorry, Addison. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It didn’t seem that bad at first.” Addison lifted her hands helplessly.
“TV show?” Boone asked. “What TV show?”
“I’ve had that happen,” Avery said. “It gets worse and worse until you can’t stand it another minute.”
Kai shook Clay and Angus off. “You couldn’t get some woman to help you?” he demanded. It was becoming all too clear he was in the wrong, but he was too far gone to acknowledge that now.
“There was no one else around.”
“I was there.”
She laughed, a hollow sound. “Where? Outside my tent? Watching me? I didn’t know that. Obviously.” She shook her head at him. “Did you honestly think I would hit on Curtis right after I agreed to marry you?”
“What TV show?” Boone asked again.
Addison’s eyes widened when Kai didn’t answer, and he thought she’d turn and flee.
The enormity of his mistake flooded Kai.
Hell, he was a fool. She was right; she’d pledged him her heart. Bared her soul to him. Listened to him bare his.
And he’d jumped to conclusions.
“Nothing happened,” Curtis told him. “Nothing is ever going to happen. I’ll get my bride soon enough. I know what’s it like to lose one to another man. You think I’d do that to you?”
Kai closed his eyes. He’d let his fears get the better of him. Let the stress about the food supply and the cooking show mess with his mind.
“What TV show?” Boone demanded.
As the silence stretched out in the kitchen, Kai realized he’d have to make amends. This was all on him.
“I’m… sorry.” Swallowing his pride was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He opened his eyes and faced them. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”
To his surprise, Curtis chuckled. “Fuck it,” he said, a grin turning up one side of his mouth. “It would have taken a saint not to jump to that conclusion. I’d have done the same thing.” He turned to Addison. “I was undressing you,” he pointed out.
A smile quirked her lips, too, and Kai relaxed a little. He supposed he could see the humor in the situation. “I guess he’s right,” she said to Kai. “What you thought was understandable given the circumstances, but I’d never betray you like that. I’ve made you a promise. I’m going to keep it.”
Another memory crashed through Kai—a night when he was eight. Wanda Ledbetter had caught him waiting up for her and Eric when they’d left the kids with a sitter to go to a work party.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” she’d asked, tucking him back into his bed.
“Just wanted to make sure you were coming back.”
She’d touched his face. “I will always come back,” she’d told him. “I’ve made you a promise, and I’m going to keep it.”
Wanda always had. To this day she and Eric—and his siblings, step- and otherwise—were there whenever he needed them. Some people let you down.
But not all of them. Maybe Addison was more like the Ledbetters and less like the women he’d dated previously.
Kai nodded, the only thing he could do. Then reached out, tugged Addison close and crushed her to his chest.
“I love you,” he told her fiercely. “I’m sorry.”
“I love you, too.” She tilted her chin to look up at him, and he captured her mouth with his, hoping his kiss could say everything he didn’t know how to put into words. When her arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him back, he knew he’d been successful.
Whistles and clapping filled the room, and when he pulled back, Kai let out a ragged breath. “All right. Show’s over. Keep moving, citizens; nothing to see here.” He waved the rest of them out of the room, but Boone didn’t budge.
“I’m waiting,” he said.
Kai nodded. “It’s called Feed Your Army,” he said ruefully and explained the whole thing.
“Sounds like a good step forward for your career,” Boone said when he was done. “The name sucks, though.”
“I know. Should have told you sooner, but I wasn’t sure it was going to pan out.”
“Got it. I’ll get out of your hair. Good luck with the show.”
Addison stepped aside and let him pass by.
When he was gone, Kai kissed her again. “Can you forgive me?”
“You were jealous,” she pointed out in a teasing voice.
He tightened his arms around her. “Hey.”
“I liked it,” she said simply and shrieked when he growled again and kissed her noisily on the neck.
“What was that call earlier about?” Addison figured it had to be part of the reason Kai had overreacted so strongly. Whatever he’d heard had upset him enough to make him lose all sense of proportion.
“It was Linkley. He wants to change some things.” Kai made a face. “He wants to change everything. It’s pretty bad.”
“Uh-oh. What does he have in mind?”
She listened carefully as he described Linkley’s vision for the show, leading Kai to the back of the room when people began to file in to scrape their dirty dishes and stack them neatly by the sink.
“That doesn’t sound like your vision for the show at all,” she said when Kai was finished.
“Not much.”
“What are you going to do?”
“What can I do? He’s the producer. He’s the one who can get the show on the air. It’ll be my first television gig.”
“Second one.” She indicated the crew filming them. “Don’t discount Base Camp.”
“Still.”
She understood what he meant. This was an opportunity to take a step up in his career. It wasn’t smart to waste opportunities.
“What if you try working within the framework that Linkley’s given you—but add a little of your own flair?” she said slowly.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you ever have to use sneaky tactics as a Navy SEAL?”
“Yeah.” Kai chuckled. “All the time.”
“Do the same thing here. Sort of slide your message in wherever you can. I bet Avery could help with that.”
“Avery? How?” Kai leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest.
“She’s a screenwriter. You could work with her, plan some bits of dialogue that you can throw in as you cook whatever it is they want you to cook. Sneaky ways to get your point across.”
“You think Avery can help me do that?”
“I know she can.”
Three days later, Kai was ready to concede that Avery was a genius. She’d helped him come up with lots of throwaway dialogue he could toss out in the middle of cooking. Lines that would seem off the cuff to viewers—and producers. Ones that would be difficult to edit out. They practiced timing until he became an expert at tossing them off during the most important parts of whatever recipe he was preparing—moments the director couldn’t cut if they were filming an actual episode.
“There will be a subtext to the whole show,” Avery said. “You’ll be doing one thing and saying something else, hinting that the recipes you’re making are fine for the common man, but that someone who really cares about food—and the planet—would modify the meals in a different way. But the best part is, we’ll gear that subtext right at the manliest men watching the show.”
“I’m cooking with beef today,” Kai said in a hearty, cooking-show-host tone, “but in the field with my Navy SEAL buddies, I’d be using bison.” He laughed. “Hardly. Somehow the US Navy never requisitions bison.”
“You’ve got the idea, though,” Avery said. “Although you’re right; you’ll have to be a little subtler than that.”
Kai thought it just might work.
Over the course of the following week, they got together to work on the plan as often as they could, so when Kai received the paperwork from Linkley, he signed it and sent it back. Meanwhile, he took every opportunity to spend time with Addison. More than once he found her curled up in a chair reading his cooking notebook like it was a novel.
“Why are you so obsessed with that?” he asked. It was kind of a turn-on, if he was honest.
“Because the more I read, the more obsessed with sustainable food I’m getting.”
“Really?” Most of the time he thought he was the only one on the planet interested in that.
“Really. Your approach is different from everything else I’ve read. Usually, people’s suggestions are so basic. Eat plants. Buy local. Your take is more 3-D. You consider everything at once.”
Heady praise, Kai thought. Especially coming from someone whose opinion he valued. He wished Linkley felt the same way about the topic.
“I’ve got to go work with Avery,” he told her. “Want to come? I don’t get to spend enough time with you these days.”
“We spend every night together,” she pointed out. “And every breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
“That’s not nearly enough.” Kai pulled her close, kissed her hard and stifled a groan. “I want you right now.”
“Later,” Addison promised. “I’m supposed to meet Samantha. She’s showing me around the gardens again. I feel like I want to know the whole process from start to finish. From garden to plate.”
“I like it when you talk dirty to me.”
They were both late to their meetings by the time they pulled apart, and Kai had to admit Addison’s interest in the topics he loved most fired him up. He couldn’t wait until they cleaned up from dinner and had the rest of the night together.
Only when Linkley’s secretary rang him back the next day did Kai recognize the next hiccup in their plan. When he hung up, he searched out Curtis and told him what had happened. Their friendship had settled back to a solid place, and Kai was embarrassed he’d ever suspected Curtis of wrongdoing.
“They want to film the pilot episode on Halloween? Don’t they realize that’s a national holiday?” Curtis teased.
“Apparently not,” Kai answered his grin with one of his own. “I already told Addison I’d help her set up for the gala. She’s pretty nervous about it. I don’t want to ditch her.”
“I’m sure she’d understand.”
He was pretty sure she would, too. Addison was as accommodating as ever these days, and even if they only got to see each other at rare moments outside of cooking, they made the most of those. He was beginning to get used to having her around—and beginning to depend on her, if he was honest with himself. Her constant presence in the kitchen with him smoothed out his days and gave him more time to work with the others in between times. They’d done what they could to shore up the food supply, planting as many potatoes as they could in the greenhouses and trying to save the wheat, but they’d had to admit that experiment was a failure.
Kai was afraid it was going to be an uncomfortable winter. He was used to hardship, and he was sure he and the other men could get by on meat and vegetables, but hungry people were cranky people, and people who weren’t getting the kind of food they liked were even crankier. He needed a plan, which meant spending every extra moment in the garden and greenhouses with the others, estimating what they could grow in the coming months.
When he slipped into the tent that night, found Addison there ahead of him and told her his news, she only said, “It’ll be fine; I’ll have a ton of help. You just come wearing that toga. That’ll be good enough for me.”
“What toga?” he asked distractedly. They’d long ago brought her sleeping gear into his tent and zipped their sleeping bags together on top of their sleeping pads. Snuggled in the warm nest they’d created for themselves, he was far too busy exploring her body to listen too hard to her words.
“The one I left here in the tent the other day.”
Kai broke away from her and looked around but didn’t see it, but it was dark and the cramped quarters were full of his belongings. “Must have pushed it to the side and not even noticed. I’ll find it in the morning.” He got back to touching Addison.
“Sounds good. We can do a test run. Oh, Kai—”
Kai was too busy rolling her on top of him, lifting her shoulders and taking one of her nipples into his mouth to answer.