“It wasn’t the soup, Connor. It was the fact that you followed her into one of the hotel rooms and nearly cornered her while begging her to try it.” Shaking her head, Harlow sighed. “You can’t keep terrorizing people like that.”
The bark of laughter was out before he could stop it. “Terrorizing? Come on, Harlow. That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t. I think if Maisie and I hadn’t talked to her, she would have filed charges against you.”
“For what, exactly? I didn’t touch her or threaten her; I was just offering her lunch!”
“Okay, you’re getting defensive,” Milo commented, “and you’re not seeing the big picture here. You’re obsessing over a menu that, for starters, doesn’t fit what we’re doing here at the resort. You’re thinking along the lines of your restaurants, and it’s not as upscale here. So maybe once you realize that, some of the pressure will go away.”
“Con, we all know you are brilliant with food,” Walker said. “But maybe save some of the extreme recipes for when you open your place in town.”
“I never said I was definitely going to do that,” he grumbled.
“Oh, please,” Axel said with a snort. “We all know you’re going to do it. You have to. You need to. Making average dishes day after day, night after night would make you crazy. The menu here is going to be incredible, but we all know it’s not going to challenge you.”
“And we can’t let you make the menu too intense because this is a rustic family resort,” Walker added. “You know it would make your brain go numb if you had to make pot roast and chicken pot pie on repeat.”
“Maybe.”
Maisie grabbed a chair and sat down beside him. “Connor, you literally saved my life. You saw that I was in trouble, and even though I didn’t want to accept your help, you helped me anyway. That’s what we’re all trying to do here. We’re trying to ease all the pressure you’re putting on yourself. And we’re going to sit here this morning and finalize the menu and be done with it.”
“But…” He looked around frantically. “What if I find something I want to put on the menu? What if there’s a recipe that I forgot? Or…or…”
“Then they become specials,” Slater told him, walking over and resting his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Dude, you need to relax. Let’s get this menu done so that next week when you do interviews, you’ll have something for potential chefs to work on.”
His head lolled back even as he groaned. “It’s not that simple. I’ve always done this alone, and all my restaurants…”
“We’re a team here, Connor,” Walker reminded him. “And you clearly need a little help. You’ve had so much on your plate with house hunting and moving Annabeth here and helping in just about every area of the business. Now it’s our turn to help you, okay?”
He hated the idea, but…now that he was listening to his friends, he realized they were right. He was making himself crazy and stressing out and…terrorizing everyone.
Dammit.
Straightening, he looked at them all and silently nodded. Walker pulled him to his feet as everyone cheered. It was hard to be mad when he knew how lucky he was to have so many people care about him and only want what’s best for him. That kind of thing was rare, and he was ready to tell them how much he appreciated them when…
“We all want pancakes for breakfast,” Slater told him with a grin. “And maybe some of that bourbon butter cake now that I’m awake.”
“It’s down in my cabin. Why don’t you grab it while I whip up breakfast?”
“Deal!”
Everyone scattered to help set the table, make coffee, and get the butter cake. And as Connor began making the batter for the pancakes, he couldn’t help but smile. He may not have everything he ever wanted, but what he had was pretty damn great.
“My life is awful, everything is bad, and I’ve already cried twice today.”
“Um…it’s only nine in the morning, Lex. What’s going on?”
Lexi Scott sat down at her tiny kitchen table with a sigh as she explained to her best friend Kelsey what was happening in her life.
“Just remember you asked,” she said with a small laugh. “So, Adam and his new wife moved to Spain.”
“Spain?”
“Yup. Spain. That’s where she’s from.” Just thinking about the nineteen-year-old homewrecker made her roll her eyes. “And before they left, he assured me I would never see another dime in child support.”
“That’s a bold statement. You can totally still go after him for it.”
“With what money, Kelsey? I’m broke! I’ve got a four-year-old little boy who doesn’t understand why he never sees his father, and I have no idea how I’m supposed to handle all of it.”
