The Wedding Gift (6 page)

“Do you think it will work?” he whispered back, clearly enjoying teasing her.

Julie shook her head, enjoying his playfulness far too much. “I’m having one glass with lunch. That’s it.”

Andrew raised his eyebrows. “I see there’s still a way to go in getting you to take risks.”

Julie knew he was probably still teasing. Nonetheless, she had to bite her lip to keep in a sharp retort.

But while a part of her was glad he’d reminded her to be on guard again,
The Glass Square
’s kitchen was too nice a setting to spoil with an argument. The kitchen was hot and noisy, filled with shouted instructions as the staff chopped vegetables and flambéed desserts. There was something so beautiful about it to Julie’s eyes, an underlying order in the chaos that said everyone there knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing.

“Is this what it’s like in your kitchen when you’re not on TV?” Julie asked. Delgado’s had been so much smaller than this.

Andrew shook his head. “It’s usually even more chaotic.” He grinned. “At least when it’s going well.”

The first course arrived and Phillipe hovered behind them as they dove into wafer thin layers of crisp, thinly sliced ham over crab and cinnamon cakes with a bed of mixed vegetables and a tarragon reduction.

She would have thought there would be too many ingredients all vying for center stage, but somehow everything blended together perfectly. Phillipe seemed genuinely pleased when Julie said so, though not as pleased as he was when Andrew praised his creations. The big man practically skipped off to start work on the main course.

“You seem to have the knack of making people happy,” Julie said.

“Not quite everyone,” Andrew replied, with a deliberate look at her.

For a moment, Julie’s smile dipped. They were clearly at a point already where it was best to just be honest. Painfully so.

“It’s hard, doing your best, only to have someone to say it isn’t good enough.”

“I know,” Andrew replied. “It’s just…I can’t just stand by and watch someone wasting their talent the way you do, Julie. You cooked phenomenally well yesterday on set. Why don’t you cook like that all the time?”

“Because I know how much there is to lose when it goes wrong.” She knew exactly what it was like to sink everything she had into a dream, a goal she’d been aiming for her whole life, only to watch it explode like an over-risen soufflé. “Better than you.”

As soon as she said the words, Julie regretted baring herself to him like that, but Andrew wasn’t looking at her with pity. He wasn’t regarding her as he would a loser who didn’t deserve to run a successful restaurant.

Instead, the look in his eyes was gentle.

Almost as if he cared about her.

“I know you lost your restaurant,” he said softly so that no one but she could hear, “and I’m very sorry about that. But that’s not all that this is about, is it?”

Before she could respond, Phillipe presented them with a couple of delicate looking savory soufflés and a latticework of crisped vegetables. Despite the intense discussion she and Andrew were having, Julie couldn’t resist the incredible food before her. It was that good.

She was halfway through it before she spoke again. “When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was cook. Anything for anyone. I’d gather up people around the neighborhood and I’d do all the stuff you seem to want me to do. I’d throw in crazy ingredients—”

“Like hot sauce in quiche. Which worked.”

“—and they…” She sighed and admitted, “No one wanted to eat it. My family tried so hard to help me fit in. They stopped speaking Spanish when I was around. They even made sure I took what they thought was typical American food to school—yellow processed cheese in plastic wrappers on white bread with Oreos for dessert. I don’t know how many full plates of weird food I cooked and threw away before I figured out that if I wanted to fit in, I had to stop trying things other people didn’t like.”

She was shocked when Andrew’s expression turning rueful. “My family are doctors and lawyers. People with
real jobs.
Trust me, I know what it’s like to not fit in.” Unfortunately, before she could ask any questions, Phillipe came by their table to find out, “How’d you like your meal?”

“It was one of the best I’ve ever had,” she replied.

And not just because of the food. The company had been pretty nice, too.

Surprisingly nice.

Still, Julie realized after Phillipe hugged them both again and then hurried back to the stove, all good things had to come to an end. “Rose is going to be wondering where I’ve gone, especially considering I need to put a menu together by four o’clock.” She shook her head as she gestured at the busy kitchen. “Although, frankly, I’m starting to wonder why I bother when nothing I cook can possibly come up to this standard.”

“You aren’t giving yourself enough credit,” Andrew said as he pushed his chair back and then, like a true gentleman, helped her with hers. “Will you promise me one thing before I take you back to the Rose Chalet?”

“That depends on what it is.”

“Still so cautious, aren’t you?”

“Around you?” She raised an eyebrow. “Definitely.”

His mouth curved into a grin at her sassy response. “Promise me that for this afternoon you won’t be cautious. You’ve got good instincts, Julie. I have a feeling if you follow them, you’ll do really, really well.”

Chapter Seven

Rose was waiting for Julie when Andrew walked in with her.

“Oh, Andrew, it’s nice to see you again.” Rose was clearly surprised to see the two of them together outside of the Chalet. “Have you and Julie had some time to work on revising your brother’s menu?”

Andrew nodded. “We just finished conducting some research with a chef friend of mine. I hope you don’t mind me stealing her away for an hour?”

What was it about him that made things go so easily, Julie wondered? In any case, she was glad when Rose smiled rather than immediately firing her for coming back so late from the grocery store.

“No, it’s no problem,” Rose said. “I hope there isn’t any more research to do today, however. Julie has some other clients to cook for, and they’ll be arriving soon.”

By way of an answer, Julie lifted her bags of groceries. “I have all the ingredients, so everything should go great.”

It helped that she was starting to actually believe it. If she had been feeling inspired in the morning, after eating lunch at
The Glass Square
, Julie’s head was fairly bursting with ideas.

Yesterday on set with Andrew, she’d seen what she could do if she only trusted her palate enough. Today, she was determined that Rose’s new customers would have a wedding menu the likes of which the world had never seen before.

“I’ve got to get back to the studio, anyway,” he told them. “The producers loved the idea of local chefs cooking alongside me so much that they now want me to do that as a regular thing.”

He made no direct mention of Julie, but even so she tensed, waiting for Rose to pick up on their connection. Maybe she should have mentioned her impromptu appearance on his show, but there hadn’t really been time to talk to Rose about it since then, had there?

Fortunately, Rose replied, “That sounds like fun,” in a distracted way. “Sorry, I’ve got to run. There are so many things to get ready.” She actually broke into a bit of a jog in her heels as she headed back inside.

Julie turned to Andrew. “Thank you for a really lovely lunch.”

“It was my pleasure,” Andrew said, and her breath actually hitched when he stared into her eyes. “I’m looking forward to seeing you again. Very soon.”

This time Julie’s breath simply stopped altogether. Finally, when Andrew had driven away and she remembered how to breathe again, she turned for the kitchen and saw Rose talking something over with RJ.

Whatever the gardener said had her boss laughing out loud for a moment. Rose quickly recovered her composure, however, then hurried off to start making phone calls. The Rose Chalet’s proprietor never seemed to slow down.

Julie worked to follow her lead as she started writing out the menu and preparing the dishes taking shape in her head. The details weren’t quite all there yet, almost as if they were half-remembered tastes of something, rather than the carefully laid out processes Julie normally stuck with.

She knew it would be far safer to do something tried-and-true. Except that was what she’d tried with Andrew yesterday, and look at how that had turned out.

Besides, the thought of doing things that way today suddenly felt restrictive.

Instead, she tasted and smelled the dishes as she worked on them. Piece by piece, the menu came together. A first course of squid, served with papaya segments. For the main course, traditional meats presented sushi style, relatively rare and backed by delicately flavored rice wrapped in greens. It was just a small change, but one that seemed to make a huge difference. As for the dessert, she would flambé pancakes at the table, dripping with a mixed berry and savory ice cream filling. It would undoubtedly make a statement at a wedding.

It was a lot of work, all the usual slicing, blending and preparing, slow-cooking meat and freezing desserts, plus the extra time needed to work out how it should all go together. So when Rose put her head around the kitchen door to announce that their new clients, the soon-to-be O’Neils, had arrived, Julie was hurriedly putting the finishing touches to her handwritten menu.

“Something smells good,” Rose said. “Will it all be ready on time?”

Julie nodded. She would nail this presentation today even if it killed her. “I’ll have the three courses out in a few minutes. As Andrew suggested yesterday, it’s better if I get them all out together.”

“Okay, if you think you can do it seamlessly.”

That, of course, was the big downside to suggesting that she present things all at once. She had to plate up the first course even while the trio of sushi-style meats needed carving and the ice cream had to come out of the freezer. Julie could have done with as many arms as the squid at the heart of her first course.

Somehow, though, she did it. She headed into the dining room with the plates carefully balanced, determined not to let the slightest slip ruin her perfect presentation.

This was going to be good. Better than good. This sample menu was going to be the one that convinced Rose she needed Julie permanently. Julie was certain of it.

Until she caught sight of the couple waiting in the dining room. Both were a little older than Julie had expected, and everything about them, from the cut of the future groom’s suit to the neutral shade of the bride-to-be’s lipstick, combined to create an impression that was conservative, even staid.

What had she done?

Sure, Julie had followed her heart, but looking at the O’Neils sent butterflies somersaulting in her stomach.

It was her childhood all over again, but with the added worry this time of losing a job she really needed.

No, she counseled herself, she needed to be positive. She would remember what Andrew had said:
Promise me that for this afternoon you won’t be cautious. You’ve got good instincts, Julie.
For the first time in a very long time, she was going to be confident about her food, darn it.

Still, that was easier said than done when the groom, whom Rose introduced as Stephen, fixed Julie with the expression of someone determined not to be impressed by anything, while the bride, Rebecca, seemed to look at the food coming out with hawk-like suspicion.

“This is Julie, our chef,” Rose said. “I’m sure you’ll just love what she has come up with. She has assured me that it is going to be something special.”

“It had better be,” Stephen said. “For the money I’m paying—”

“Oh, hush now,” Rebecca interrupted. “We all know how much you’re paying. You tell us every few minutes. I just want everything to be perfect.”

“Then maybe I should show you what I have in mind?” Julie said, putting the plates down on the table. She took out her menu and handed it to the couple, who pored over it for a few seconds. Their expressions soon told Julie everything she needed to know, and her heart hit her shoes with a messy splat.

“Does this say squid?” Stephen asked.

“We don’t like squid,” Rebecca chimed in. “And what’s this about the main course being done sushi style? We don’t want raw meat.”

“Actually, if I could explain why I—”

“I don’t see why you have to do all this fancy stuff at all,” Stephen said, standing. “This is a wedding, not an excuse for you to try some crazy experiment.” He turned to Rose. “Really, Ms. Martin, this was not what I expected from The Rose Chalet. If this is the best you can do, we will have to think about going elsewhere.”

“I’m sure if you only try it—” Julie began, but the man fixed her with a stare.

“Try
that
? Why would I? Why would anyone? Rebecca and I know what we like, and that most definitely isn’t it. Come on, Rebecca, we’re leaving.”

For several seconds after Rose showed them out, all Julie could do was stand there. She stared at the uneaten food. All that work. Yet it hadn’t been worth anything. All it was going to achieve was getting her fired.

Why had she let Andrew Kyle persuade her that doing something like this would be okay?

Rose came back after a minute or two, and she didn’t shout, but she clearly wasn’t happy. She sat down at the table with the abandoned food, across from Julie.

“Julie, you told me that you were coming up with something great, not something that would have the clients threatening to take their business elsewhere.”

“If they’d only
tried
the food, they might have loved it,” Julie protested.

Julie had to give Rose some credit when she at least picked up a fork and tasted each dish.

“I can see you put a lot of work into these, Julie, but did you ever stop to think about whether they were right for the clients? I know Mr. Kyle said the food wasn’t exciting enough yesterday, but now you’ve taken it too far in the other direction. And now I’m going to have to try very hard to convince them to be customers.”