He gave me that look, the one he’d been giving me my entire adult life. The one that said he knew better and I should just believe him because we both knew he was right and I was wrong.
“You’re saving me, Dillon. Not the other way around.” He leaned forward, dropping his voice. “And just in the nick of time too.” Giving the dining room a furtive look, he cleared his voice and admitted, “Between the two of us, things have been getting bad enough here that I have been considering closing her doors.”
I gasped for air, feeling the weight and pressure of exactly what he’d brought me in to do. “Are you serious?”
“She’s hemorrhaging cash. I’ve had to dip into the other restaurants’ profits to keep her afloat. And the reviews that have been coming out about her lately have been bad. I’ve done what damage control I can. I’ve put off as many critics as possible. But I’m risking her reputation and the publics’ interest.” He reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “I need you, Dillon. I know it’s not fair to ask so much from you. But it has to be you. Not just because you’re my sister, but because you’re the exact profile I need to rescue Bianca’s reputation. Fresh, new to the scene, up and coming. If anybody can save her, it’s you. I know it.” His smile was self-deprecating, apologetic, “I’m betting everything on you.”
I tried to smile, but it fell flat. How could I walk away after a rousing speech like that? Plus, he’d brought Dad into it. If there was ever a challenge I loved to win, it was one where my asshole dad was involved.
“Say something,” he pleaded, his eyes as scared and nervous as the first day I met him.
“I was just thinking,” I started softly, struggling to put strength into my voice, “how Vera’s odd pregnancy cravings now make sense. She wasn’t craving deviled eggs with foie gras and lemongrass. Or candy stripe beets with stone-ground mustard aioli. She was testing me.”
His head tipped back and the sound of his rich, full laugh was enough to bolster my courage—at least for tonight.
“She’s kind of an evil genius, isn’t she?”
“Totally.”
“Want to go over the menu?”
I nodded, not knowing what else to say. I couldn’t exactly walk out after all of that. I had to say, it was nice to hear that he actually believed in me and that I hadn’t gotten the job based on blood relation alone.
Now if only I could believe in myself.
Ezra and I spent the next hour going over the menu and the consistently top-selling dishes. He talked to me briefly about his vision for future menus and invited me to share my opinions.
By the time I walked back to the kitchen, my spirits were momentarily boosted thanks to his utterly genuine faith in me.
But that was where my hope crashed and burned. Because behind those swinging in and out doors, the kitchen was practically mutinous. Blaze and Ashlynn had spread their bad attitude to the rest of the small staff.
Or maybe they hadn’t needed to spread it. Maybe it came naturally to these people.
Either way, it was the worst night I had ever spent in a kitchen. It was worse than my first night at Lilou. It was worse than my finals at school. It was worse than the first time I’d taken over for Wyatt and happened to have a period migraine and a blister on my heel the size of a fist.
Nobody listened to me. I might as well have just kept my mouth shut the entire night, because it didn’t matter what I said or who I said it to. Orders came in and the kitchen filled them. Without acknowledging me. Without taking my suggestions. Without accepting my criticisms.
By the end of the night I was so utterly defeated, I didn’t even bother to go over cleaning projects. I let them leave and did what I could myself.
I stumbled into bed close to 3:00 a.m. and cried myself to sleep, still wearing my tank and white work pants. I promised myself tomorrow would be better, but not even my usually gullible heart could believe the lie.
This was the hardest thing I would ever do.
But I would do it for Ezra.
Even if it killed my reputation.
Even if he had to close the restaurant anyway.
I couldn’t let him down. I couldn’t walk away. I wouldn’t let his dreams die because I was too afraid of some hard work.
Six
I parkedVeronica in Lilou’s front lot and made sure she was locked before hurrying around to the side door. I pulled on the handle, expecting it to cooperate. It didn’t. I frowned at the time on my cellphone.
Where was Wyatt?
He was supposed to be here. He was supposed to solve all my problems. He was supposed to listen to them too. Admittedly, I was an hour earlier than usual open, but I had wanted to talk to him before I had to be at Bianca.
