Catering to Love (29 page)

Approaching the next table. “Listen, Miss, we’ve been waiting an awfully long time for our food. Can you check to see what the hold up is?”

“I’m sorry. Of course.” She left the dining room and rushed into the kitchen. “Hey, table five said they’ve been waiting a long time. Who’s handling that table?”

Cassie turned to Brian. “That’s your table, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the problem, Brian?” Gabi asked.

“Nothing. I’m still waiting.”

“The food’s up now,” Jamie shouted. “Get it while it’s hot, Brian.”

Gabi followed him out into the dining room so she could help set the plates down on the table. “It wasn’t me, Chef. It’s your friend. She’s still having trouble figuring out how to plate some of the dishes.”

“Okay, Brian. Thanks for telling me.” Gabi blew out air and faked a smile as she helped serve the table. “Please forgive us. It’s just growing pains.” She finished serving them. “Your meal is on the house tonight. Thanks for your patience.”

“Thank you.”

She looked over the dining room. All the tables were full. She made her way outside to greet the customers on the patio, which was now covered with a tent. She was happy they seemed pretty content when she approached. After greeting everyone, she walked back into the kitchen, hoping to help. The problem was, she had so many jobs tonight, she didn’t know which to do first. Leslie was frosting another cake. When she saw Gabi, she smiled. “You were right, Chef.”

Gabi chuckled. “Thanks. I needed that tonight.”

“I have a lot of dessert orders tonight.”

“Good. Need some help?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Things seemed to be steady for about ten minutes until Jamie lost it.

“You said they wanted the beef dish. Now they want something else?” She looked to Gabi. “I’m not plating them properly and I can’t seem to move fast enough. I don’t know what else to do.”

“You do—”

“I got this,” the familiar voice rang out from behind Gabi. Her mouth gaped when she turned to see Corey rushing up behind the station. “I’m recanting my resignation. I know how important this menu is to you, and I do care what happens to your business. If you have a problem with that, then call the police. Otherwise, we’ll talk later.” He turned to Jamie, “Okay, where are we?”

Gabi’s mouth curled into a grin, but she didn’t say a word. When Cassie walked into the kitchen and saw Corey, she turned to her friend. “What’s this?”

“This is Corey. He says he cares about my business.”

“I’d say that’s a good thing. I need four sorbets and two chocolate soufflés for table four.” She turned to Joey. “Fire up two pennes for table twelve, a veggie platter, two chickens, and one veal, table ten.”

The remainder of the evening went as smoothly as Gabi had hoped. Corey walked over to Gabi, who hadn’t said much the rest of the evening, pulled her into her office and shut the door.

“Now, that’s a man who knows what he wants,” Jamie said to Cassie. “Does your mother know he’s back?”

“No, I didn’t tell her. She’s been too busy, and I didn’t want her to disrupt the steady flow happening in the kitchen.” Cassie stopped talking. “You know, I think I really could do this restaurant stuff.”

“Of course you could. Why? Are you thinking of turning the Widget into a restaurant?”

“Thank you for your help tonight,” Gabi said to Corey. “I appreciate you coming back.”

“I did it because I’m committed to you and to making
your
business a success,” he emphasized. “I failed at mine, but you deserve to have the best. I apologize for being so headstrong, but I have a story to tell you about why I acted the way I did.”

She held up her hand. “I know the story.”

“You do?” She could tell from the expression on his face, he was perplexed. “How do you know what happened?”

“You know my friend Cassie out there?” she pointed.

“Yeah. What about her?”

“Her maiden name is Pirelli.”

He was shocked. “You mean she’s related to Lucy Pirelli?”

“In the flesh. As a matter of fact, Lucy’s playing hostess tonight.” He smiled. “Do you want to go see her?” she asked.

“Not until I make this official. So can I have my job back?”

“How do I know you won’t pull the same thing again?”

“You don’t, but I will promise you it won’t ever happen again, because there isn’t anywhere else I’d rather be.”

“Why should I believe you?”

He held up his hand. “I swear I’m here to stay, so if you don’t want me, I’m not kidding, you’re going to have to call the police to remove me.”

Gabi’s emotions whirled and skidded, happy to have him so close. Yet she couldn’t help but be cautious for fear he’d vanish again. “I have to tell you, Corey. I won’t put up with insubordination again. I gave you a lot of latitude, more than I would have given to anyone else, but it was because I knew you understood what was needed to run a business.
And I knew you were resentful because you wanted to buy the place. I really did understand that. Although at the time I didn’t know why you lost your business, I knew I’d be just as devastated to lose mine. I know you were jealous. I would have felt that way too if it were me, but now that I know why you had a problem with me…”

“It wasn’t you. It was because you were a woman. I had a hard time trusting women after what Victoria did to me.”

“What’s different now? I’m still a woman. That’s not going to change. I’m not going to stop being your boss. Are you going to be able to handle that?” She paused for a minute, shaking her head. “I may be as green as they say, but I’m learning as I go along. Maybe that’s not the best way to do it, but this isn’t such a large restaurant that it is terribly obvious. I can’t have you undermining me in front of the staff. You told me not to get too friendly with them because they wouldn’t respect me. Your undermining me every step of the way doesn’t do much for garnering respect for yourself either. So what’s different now?”

He twisted his lips to the side. “I was miserable without you. What happened the night we went out… all of that was real. It’s been real for as long as I’ve known you. I was rude at first because I had to fight off my growing feelings for you. I was afraid to trust my feelings, but I’m not now.”

“But that may even be worse if we’re a couple. You might take me for granted.” She sighed again. “Really, Corey, I can’t go through it again.”

He pulled her close, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he pressed his mouth to hers. “And you won’t have to. I know what I want, and you’re it. I’ve missed you so much,” he said, whispering in her ear. “I tried telling myself
it was all your fault that we didn’t work out, but it wasn’t you at all. It was me.” She hadn’t noticed when he walked in that he held a paper in his hand. He pulled back and tossed it on her desk. “Here, you’ll probably want this back.”

She picked it up and noticed it was her loan agreement with the Carters.

“Where did you get this?” she asked. “Did you take this out of my file?” she said, perplexed.

“No, you left it in one of the cookbooks. Were you aware that I wanted the Carters to hold my loan?”

Gabi nodded. “Nell didn’t get into the financial aspects of it with me, but she did warn me about you wanting to buy the place.”

“I’d begged her to hold the loan for me, but she wouldn’t, and I couldn’t understand why she would give the loan to someone she’d just met and not me, someone she knew.” He shrugged again. “When I decided to be realistic about the whole thing, I knew why she wouldn’t. I was a risk. My credit was shot to hell. Why would she give me a loan?”

“I know, and I’m sorry. When I couldn’t find the paper, I figured I must have put it back in the file… but I did find it in the file.” He tilted his head to the side. “I guess I didn’t remember I had two copies.”

He shrugged. “I tried to tell myself you deserved the loan, I didn’t. I’d already had a failed business, but one thing led to another and I went off the deep end.” He ran a hand through his thick hair. “Don’t be sorry. You have every right to have this business. I do think you need some training in running a business, but I will help you if you’ll let me stay.” He paused for a moment. “So what do you think? Can I?”

“We can work on it.”

“I’m sorry that my jealousy turned me into some stupid guy who needed to grow up. And as for being a woman… well, you’re right. I couldn’t stop myself from comparing you to Victoria. Truth is, you’re nothing like her.” He pulled her back in and tightened his arms around her waist and kissed her again. “You’re beautiful inside and out, and I know we were meant for each other.”

Her heart was thudding against her rib cage. Did she dare? The one thing she did know was that if she asked her heart, it would tell her to go for it, because she was crazy about him too. It would probably take a lot of work, but she was willing to give it a shot.

When they pulled apart, he held her at arm’s length and grinned. “You know, I swore I was never going to get involved with another woman, but then you showed up and screwed up my head.” He stared at her as though waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t, he asked her again. “So what do you say, can we go back to what we were before I had that childish tantrum? Can I have my job back as sous-chef, so I can show you you’re the love of my life while I help you build this place into a goldmine?”

She stood with her finger pressed against her lips as though in deep thought. Corey was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, waiting for her to respond.

“I’d like that a lot,” she said, and leaned forward to kiss him. She put her hand on the doorknob. “But I think we’d better get out there before Lucy breaks down the door.”

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Over medium-high heat, combine the first three ingredients into a small saucepan and cook just until sauce is thickened. Set aside, but only temporarily. Now that you have him working with you, instead of against you, things are gonna be okay.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until expanded and pale yellow. Add one egg at a time and mix until blended. Add the sour cream and vanilla to the bowl and incorporate. Combine the dry ingredients together. Using a slow speed, add the flour mixture to the mixer bowl a little at a time, increasing the speed gradually until you have a smooth batter. And that will be just like your relationship. It’s smooth sailing from here on
out, kiddo, so go ahead and whip this guy into shape. He’ll thank you for it.

Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan. Pour in half the batter and spoon half the blueberry sauce over the top and spread evenly. Pour remaining batter over the top and ladle in the remaining blueberry sauce, again spreading evenly. Sprinkle the top with the chopped nuts and bake for 50 minutes. Makes one delicious coffee cake, perfect to dive into with two forks.

As Saturday evening came to a close, despite her exhaustion, Gabi danced around the kitchen, refusing to worry about how silly she looked. The staff had pulled off the evening without a hitch: no broken dishes… well, except for Trevor’s mishap, but they’d provided outstanding service and heard a lot of compliments and excitement about the new menu. She was on cloud nine. Gabi asked her core team to hang back for a minute after Cassie, Jamie, and Lucy said goodnight.

“You guys did an amazing job this weekend,” she praised them. “I’m so appreciative that I have a strong team who can weather the storm, and I’m just beside myself. Exhausted or not.”

“Knowing we restored their favorite landmark is thanks enough,” Corey said.

“Yeah.” Steven smiled. “You’re the belle of the ball, Chef, and I’m happy to have been here to witness it… to be a part of it. Thank you for that opportunity.” He yawned. “But now I have to get home before I lie down on the floor and fall
asleep.” The others chimed in about their appreciation and waved as they left.