Right now, however, she had to stop daydreaming about Monday and focus on the work at hand.
“Manny. Watch that sauce,” she cautioned one of her cooks. “It looks like it’s about to boil, and we don’t want it to curdle.”She spun in place. “Ruthanne, no, not the green and white plates, the clients picked the cream ones with the blue trim.”
“Sorry, boss.” Ruthanne turned around and went back, her arms full, to the storage area to swap things out.
Sometimes, Bobbie felt like she needed to have eyes in the back of her head so nothing could get by her, but—knock on wood—so far in the five years she’d been in business, she’d had no major catastrophes.
She was a little nervous for this gig, however, and understandably so.
This weekend she’d be working for the Sothards.
She hadn’t had anything to do with the Sothard family for over fifteen years. And the last interaction had been…contentious, to say the least. Still, they’d called her, so they must have felt it was time to see if Bobbie would put old grudges to rest, and…Yes. Bobbie decided she was more than willing.
She’d always adored Ellen Sothard, after all, and was very aware that the woman normally did all her own parties. That’s why Bobbie felt honored that Ellen had asked her to take care of not only the rehearsal dinner tonight, but the wedding feast tomorrow evening, and Sunday’s nearly all-day brunch.
Bobbie would make them all perfect.
Her only trepidation was that she might seehim.
Correction. She probablywouldsee him. There was no way, even as an active Coast Guardsman, that he’d miss his brother’s wedding.
Buck…
Back in the day, at the Vo Tech they’d both attended, she’d had the biggest crush on Buck Sothard, and shethoughtit had been reciprocated. They’d shared a few classes, and had both been part of the sailing club. They’d danced around each other and flirted on and off for much of their senior year until…
Nope. There was no need to go there. That chapter was over-and-done. Put to bed.
She couldn’t say she hadn’t been warned about what kind of guy he was. Her brothers—older than her by eight and ten years respectively—had cautioned her to stay away from Buck; that he was trouble. But she hadn’t listened because, literally, her brothers had, at the time, scared her away from any number of would-be boyfriends, and she’d thought herself smarter than them where Buck was concerned.
How wrong she’d been.
And since then…
She hadn’t had much time to date, but every now and then she got an itch to test the waters. It seemed, however, that each time she became remotely interested in a man she’d met at one of the parties she catered, Drew or Jeff would dig up dirt on the would-be suiter and scare either him or Bobbie away.
Thatpattern of behavior was getting old.
Noteveryguy could be up to no good.
Bobbie had suspected for a long time that her brothers were sabotaging her love life on purpose. But to what end? As hard as she pondered things, she couldn’t figure out what it would get them to keep her single.
When she’d lived in the family homestead after their parents had divorced then unexpectedly left town, she’d cooked and cleaned for her lazy sibs, and could understandthosemotives for wanting her around. But just this year she’d finally put her foot down at mothering them any longer, and had moved into her own little apartment six months ago. Yet, theystillkept a heavy thumb on her romantic leanings.
Which sucked. She hadn’t had sex in over two years, and not only was her libido suffering, her biological clock was ticking. At thirty-three, she always thought she’d be married with a coupleof kids by now. Instead, all her efforts went into cooking and sailing.
Not a bad life, but Bobbie yearned for more; someone close. Someone with whom she could dream. A person who really valued and listened to her as an individual, not as a boss or a meal ticket
Bobbie sighed. Pickings were slim in town, where everyone had, for all intents and purposes, grown up together and knew too much about each other. Her only hopes were out-of-town guests at a function, but then the logistics of how and when to see each other would eventually rear its ugly head. Not that she’d even been given a chance to get too far withanyguy. Her brothers made sure of that.
One of her workers shuffled aside a bag of clams that had come out of the walk-in a few minutes earlier.
“Melo, can you make sure those are all still alive, please?” Bobbie asked. “They got delivered last night, and I didn’t have time to check them. Give them each a poke and throw out any that look suspect.”
“You got it, chef.”
Melo was her second in command at functions, as well as her friend and confidant. Bobbie couldn’t ask for a better right-hand woman. Melo went above and beyond to help make sure everything ran smoothly both in the kitchen and on the floor, and lent an ear to Bobbie when Bobbie needed to vent. She worked hard, while also raising her three young children with her husband, Bill. Such a nice family, and the way they handled co-parenting allowed them both to pursue their careers. Melo worked Thursday during the day, then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at functions, while Bill, employed as a finish carpenter for a big shop in town, put in a solid Monday through Wednesday, then juggled the rest of his schedule with his wife’s.They had very little free time together, but their wee ones always had a loving parent at hand.
Bobbie felt blessed to have Mel as her employee. She actually felt great aboutallher employees.
