Dine With Me

  Life never tasted so good.

  Miller Sykes’s meteoric rise to award-winning chef is the stuff of culinary dreams, but it’s all crashing down around him. He’s been given a diagnosis that could cost him something even more precious than his life: his sense of taste. Rather than risk the very thing that defines him, Miller embarks on a last tour of his favorite meals while he still can.

  But there’s a catch: he needs a financial backer to make it happen, and he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s sick.

  Dr. Clancy Rhodes has two weeks to come to terms with putting aside oncology to work at his father’s thriving plastic surgery practice. When the opportunity to travel with a Michelin-starred chef presents itself, the foodie in him can’t believe it. It doesn’t hurt that Miller’s rugged good looks are exactly Clancy’s cup of joe.

  As Clancy and Miller travel from coast to coast and indulge in everything from dive bars to the most decadent of culinary experiences, they’re suddenly sharing a lot more than delicious meals. Sparks fly as they bond over their love of flavors and the pressures of great expectations. But when Miller’s health takes a turn for the worse, Clancy must convince him he’s more—so much more—than just his taste buds. And that together, they can win a battle that once seemed hopeless.

  One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

  This book is approximately 69,000 words

  Also available from Layla Reyne

  and Carina Press

  Single Malt

  Cask Strength

  Barrel Proof

  Tequila Sunrise

  Imperial Stout

  Craft Brew

  Noble Hops

  Also available from Layla Reyne

  Blended Whiskey

  Relay

  Medley

  Content Warning

  Dine With Me deals with topics some readers may find difficult, including descriptions and evaluation of treatment (and nontreatment) of a life-threatening disease.

  Dine With Me

  Layla Reyne

  To every chef, kitchen and waitstaff that has opened your doors to me, shared your time and talent, poured your heart onto the plate, and made me feel at home in yours

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Author Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Excerpt from Imperial Stout by Layla Reyne

  Excerpt from Relay by Layla Reyne

  Chapter One

  DINE WITH ME—THE CULINARY EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME

  Tour the country and experience the best meals in America with a Michelin-starred chef as your guide. Two weeks, eight incredible meals, coast-to-coast destinations. A once in a lifetime opportunity for food and travel enthusiasts. Singles or couples welcome. Please respond via the reply email for additional details.

  Miller Sykes expected his luck to run out.

  Climbing as fast and as high as he had in the culinary world, it was bound to happen. Icarus and all that shit. He’d known the bottom would fall out. He’d only hoped it’d be fifteen or twenty years from now. A single quick hit that’d send him gliding toward the water on the golden parachute he’d cobble together by then.

  Hope was for fools.

  And he sure as shit didn’t have his parachute ready. Much less any gold.

  Six months of one hit after another, the last coming two weeks ago on his fortieth birthday, and he’d been a fiery meteor hitting the water at warp speed, sinking below its murky surface like a dead weight.

  Dead weight.

  Heh.

  “Chef?”

  The Aussie accent startled Miller back to the room, to the worried gaze of his sous-chef, and to the rest of his staff giving him similar confused looks. Only Sloan, his best friend and soon-to-be ex-wife, wore a different expression—the are-you-about-to-lose-it one she’d given him a lot lately.

  Not today. He’d sulk in a corner, nurse a Negroni, and lament his mile-long what-might-have-been list later. Today he’d hold it together for one last staff meal, for one last service.

  He cleared his throat, ignored the stab of pain there, and stepped to the end of the weathered farm table. It was the one piece of furniture he liked here. Not shiny and lacquered like the tables and stations in the main dining room, just well-used and well-loved. A place for friends and family to gather around and share a good meal. At odds with the main dining room’s upscale decor, it’d been relegated to the private dining room, which was rarely reserved and mostly used for staff meals like the one today.

  “Last service,” he started, and the activity around the table quieted. “I want to thank you all for your professionalism, good humor, and hard work. It’s been my absolute pleasure to work with each of you these past few years. You made coming to work a joy.” When so much of the rest had become joyless—dealing with investors, critics, and the hotel they were situated in. His staff had been a singular bright spot. “If I could serve you all staff meal every day, I would.”

  “Hear, hear!” went up from the waiters and cooks at the table.

  “Unfortunately, us hanging out and eating comfort food—” like the pulled pork he’d smoked himself and brought in, with all the fixings “—doesn’t keep the lights on.” Customers did, and while there’d been an initial rush of interest, the crowds had long since waned. Too many choices here in Napa Valley, too much similarity in the fine dining scene, too many proverbial cooks in the kitchen. Dollars—and heartbeats—were just too short to keep operating. “You all know best how tough this business is. We’re journeymen. I’m sad to see this journey end, but I hope you’ll remember it as a good stop on yours.”

  “The best!” one of the line cooks said, and the sentiment was echoed around the table.

  Miller savored the small victory. He’d managed to shield his staff from the worst of the restaurant’s troubles, but not enough to prevent its eventual closure. He inhaled deep, pushed down the rising regrets, and wrapped it up. “I know most of you have your next positions already sorted, but if you need anything, please reach out. You have my number, you have Sloan’s.” He nodded toward where she stood by the corner bar. “We’re happy to help any way we can.”

  “Do you know where you’ll be, Chef?” a waiter asked.

  His eyes flickered to Sloan, who’d averted her gaze, staring out the window. She’d given him that non-look a lot lately too. “Keeping my options open,” he told the server. “You’ll all be the first to know. Now eat, before the food gets cold.”

  Everyone dug in, stuffing their faces and chattering among themselves. Miller loaded up a plate and carried it to where Sloan was mixing a drink behind the bar. All her favorites on the plate, she shoved a Negroni into his hand and fell on the food like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

  Miller laughed. “So, it’s a good day, then?” he asked, voice lowered.

  “Relatively.” She popped a honey-buttered hushpuppy into her mouth. “For at least the next few hours.”

  “How long’s the morning sickness supposed to last?”

  “A while still. I’m only two months along.” She paused long enough to gather her ginger curls into a b
un, then attacked the barbecue sandwich. “And whoever said it was just in the morning lied. More like twenty out of twenty-four hours.”

  He jostled her shoulder. “Four non-puking hours.”

  “Shut it,” she groused around a bite. “I’m fairly certain none of this will be nearly as tasty revisited. Let me enjoy it for now.”

  She reached for his Negroni and Miller slapped her hand away, ignoring her exaggerated pout. “Ty will never forgive me.” Behind the bar, he placed a hand on her still-flat belly and gave it a rub. “That’s my future godkid in there.”

  Covering his hand, she held it there gently while conversely sharpening her voice. “So, you’ve decided on a future now? Does that mean—”

  He withdrew his hand and turned away from her assessing gaze. “Please don’t go all litigator on me. It’s unfair.”

  Nails digging into his chin, she forced his face back around. “What’s unfair is you letting yourself die.”

  He wrenched out of her hold and circled around to the other side of the bar. “You just said how good all this food tastes.” He swept his hand over their plate, then gestured at the table. “I can’t imagine a life where I can’t taste any of it, which is a very real possibility if I get treatment. I’m not willing to risk it. What the fuck would I do with myself? The kitchen is all I’ve ever known. Who would I even be?”

  “You’d be my best friend,” she said, voice further quieted by the edge of sadness. “And the cannoli’s godfather.”

  He ignored the tear in his chest, the guilt that settled in the hollow there, and chuckled at the reference to his future godchild’s Italian conception. “So, what, I’m supposed to spend every day babysitting the herd of ginger terrors you and Ty produce?”

  She shrugged with a grin. “Could be worse.”

  “You’re just terrified of the day care bills.”

  “You know me so well.” She patted his cheek distractedly, then her lips turned up in a smile, her eyes over his shoulder. “Incoming.”

  Miller turned to find his sous-chef approaching, hand out.

  “Chef,” Sarah said. “It really has been an honor learning from you.”

  “All mine, Sarah,” Miller said, shaking her hand. “You’re going to make an incredible head chef, wherever you land.” She’d been the best sous he’d ever worked with. Coming to the kitchen after a previous non-culinary career, she’d found her passion in food. Laid-back and happy, and with a stellar work ethic, she was a superstar waiting to break out.

  “Because of what you taught me,” she said. “When you have your empire of restaurants and need someone to run one, call me. I’ll be on the next plane.”

  Miller laughed through the heaviness in his chest and lied through his teeth. “Count on it.”

  She was back to her seat before Sloan called him on his bullshit. “You won’t keep that promise.”

  “That’s not what she needs to hear.” Miller picked out a forkful of pork from the sandwich and forced it down. It’d been two weeks since he’d gotten over the stomach bug that’d driven him to the hospital, where he’d learned the pain in his throat wasn’t just from retching. “It’s a safety net. She knows she has it, even though she won’t need it.”

  “You’re a good teacher.”

  “Doesn’t help me much, does it?”

  “I don’t know, it might,” she said with a smirk.

  That look of hers always worried him, would worry anyone who knew the trouble Sloan Thatcher could so easily get up to. “What have you got up your sleeve?”

  “I think I’ve found you the perfect companion for the tour.”

  Miller’s middling appetite vanished, as it did every time she proposed another companion. “A baby chef?” he asked, reflecting on his teacher comment and her response.

  “No, but an eager, intelligent, young foodie, according to his parents.”

  “His parents? He’s a fucking kid?”

  “It’s a gift, of sorts. And he’s not a kid.” She wiped her hands off on a napkin and came around the bar to stand next to him. “He’ll have plenty of questions. You can answer them.”

  Miller rolled his eyes and got a smack to his ass for the sass.

  “Shut it,” Sloan said. “You love talking about this shit.”

  He did, no sense denying that, but the “foodies” who’d answered their ad so far fell into one of two categories: golden-age retirees or thirtysomething women, wed and unwed, looking to bed or bag a famous chef. The ad they’d posted didn’t state his name or gender, only that a Michelin-starred chef offered a guided culinary tour, but assumptions had been made, which were not unfounded given the industry’s piss-poor job at recruiting and retaining women chefs. Add to that the trade magazines and local newspapers making more of a deal of his restaurant closing than warranted and connecting the dots wasn’t hard. Which was why Sloan had been screening the candidates.

  He’d prefer to make the trip alone—and he would make this trip, come hell or high water—but reality was, funds were tight and he wanted a nest egg to leave his family. He could use someone else’s deep pockets, and people were willing to pay big bucks for this sort of epicurean adventure. So be it. But retirees with long lists of dietary restrictions or apron-chasers were not who he wanted to spend two weeks with, enjoying—or not—his favorite meals one last time.

  “What makes you think this prospect is different?” he asked.

  “You’re not making this easy on me,” she deflected.

  “Maybe someone should do a better job screening candidates.”

  She snagged the last hushpuppy, munched through it, and swallowed. “Between junior partner grunt work, planning a double wedding, and barfing my guts out, you’re lucky I’m helping at all.”

  Fuck. She had him dead to rights there. The last thing he wanted to do right now was fuss with travel details, which he’d never been particularly good at to begin with. Sloan was doing him a huge favor, considering. Before he could apologize for his shitty attitude, however, she carried on.

  “Just meet him,” she said. “Give him a chance.”

  Him, at least. A meet was the least he could do, for Sloan and all the work she’d put into this. Maybe he was the one. “Fine. When and where?”

  Her smile was victorious. “Goose & Gander. Tomorrow night.”

  * * *

  “Surprise!”

  The boom of noise rocked Clancy back a step, right into the medical office doors, his elbow banging the metal handle. He cursed and clutched his throbbing ulnar while struggling to take in the scene before him.

  Clapping, shouts, party horns...maracas? He’d thought the waiting room behind the frosted glass looked more packed than usual, but he’d had no idea the crowd was for him. Not just a crowd, a party. Blue and gold streamers were draped from the ceiling, a gold foil CONGRATS banner was strung across the front of the reception desk, glasses of champagne were lined up on top of the counter, and a giant WELCOME TO THE PRACTICE banner was tacked on the far wall above the door that led to the patient rooms and doctors’ offices. And standing in front of the cheering crowd were Clancy’s parents. His dad and stepdad beamed while his mom, standing between them, half smiled, half smirked. Miranda was no doubt behind this surprise shindig.

  “Boo-boo, darling?” she said teasingly. “Did it rob you of words? That’d be a first.”

  He dropped his arm and shook it out at his side. “What is this?”

  “Please tell me we did not put you through all that schooling for nothing. I think it’s rather obvious.”

  “Go easy, dear,” his stepdad, Robert, said. “I think we managed to surprise him good this time.”

  Clancy couldn’t help but laugh at his mother’s answering victory dance. He got it, appreciated it, but... “I meant why?”

  “Have you met your mother?” His dad stepped forward and drew Clan
cy into a hug.

  “This was your idea, Alan,” Miranda said behind them.

  Clancy drew back, eyeing his dad with a raised brow. His mom had always been the party planner of the two, leveraging decades of it at home into a successful personal concierge business. “Your idea?”

  “You didn’t think we’d let this day pass without celebrating, did you? Finishing your residency and joining the practice are major milestones.”

  “Dad...” This wasn’t like when he’d finished medical school or passed the last of his boards. He’d effectively been working the past five years. Now he was just going to be doing it in a private office instead of at the hospital. He ignored the twinge of sadness that thought caused and accepted the glass of champagne his mother held out to him.

  “Don’t ‘Dad’ Alan,” she said. “And don’t ‘Mom’ me. You worked your tail off to get here. You deserve a toast, and a party,” she added with a wink.

  “To Clancy.” Glasses clinked all over the waiting room, everyone getting in on the merriment. He spent the next half hour making the party rounds, exchanging hugs and handshakes with the nurses, staff, and other doctors in his dad’s practice, each warmly congratulating and welcoming him to the group. Of his parents, his dad circled back to him first. “Got something to show you,” Alan said. “Think we can sneak away?”

  They looked over their shoulders to where Miranda was holding court, telling some story that had the circle of people around her cackling. “I think she’s distracted,” Clancy said. “Let’s do it.”

  He followed his dad through the door to the larger area of the leased space—exam rooms, a surgical suite, a consultation lounge, and the doctors’ private offices. They stopped in front of an office a few down from Alan’s at the end of the hall.

  On the door, a brass nameplate read, Dr. Clancy Rhodes, MD—Plastic Surgeon. His dad threw an arm around his shoulders, hugging him tight. “I can’t wait to work with you, son. It’s a dream come true.”

  Clancy nodded, at a loss for words, eyes fixated on the shiny nameplate. Where his life was headed—and where it wasn’t—suddenly became very real. That twinge of earlier sadness returned, tangling with excitement, appreciation, and a healthy dose of fear. He didn’t want to disappoint his father; he looked forward to working with him too. Who wouldn’t want to work with their best friend? Even if the work wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do, Clancy was good at it. He could make a difference in patients’ lives here too. “Mine too,” he managed.