Sounds a bit suss to me. “Okay then, sounds good. I’ll tell him. Pretty sure that’ll be fine by him. So long as you have his coffee ready, we’ll be sweet.”
“No problem. Oh and hey, if you have time, throw in a mud cake or something similar. You know you want to.” Gail ducked the swipe Lena half-heartedly took at her.
“I’d better get home. I didn’t even see my son this morning and it looks as though I’ve got a busy day ahead.” And I need to chat with Papa about this.
Gail walked her to the door. “You know I had to ask you this face to face hey?”
“Only because you know if you’d asked me over the phone I could have hung up on you. Sneaky move girl.”
Laughter followed Lena down the stairs to her car. She waved and reversed out of the driveway and turned her car toward home.
Papa poured her a fresh coffee when she walked in the kitchen. “So what was the crisis?”
“The lady who makes her cakes up and left town with no explanation. She figures since the grapevine let her know I was here”—she raised her eyebrow at her father—“I could help her out.”
“Poor kid. She works so hard at making that place the stand out it is. You’ll be a tremendous help, I know you will. And since I buy my coffee there on the way to the office most days, I can always do a drop off for you.” He looked down at her, an innocent expression on his face.
“You told her I was coming home, didn’t you?”
“Yes, not a secret is it? She is your best friend after all, Lena. But”—he raised his mug—“I never mentioned you would cook for her. Guess that was just good timing on her part.”
Lena put down her mug and rubbed her hands over her face. And I’m supposed to believe that? “Arghhhh.” She looked at her father and her calm slowly came back. “It’s just that I’m not sure I’m ready for this. I was thinking of doing something completely different like being a secretary or something.” Or a lion tamer, that sounded awesome right now.
Ben roared with laughter, slapping his hand on the wooden table as Sophia walked in with another basket of tomatoes from the garden. “What is this noise for?” She dropped a kiss on her daughter’s head and placed the basket on the table.
“Gail asked me to cook cakes for her. Seems she’s kind of stuck at the moment.”
Sophia nodded her head. “Just what you need. Do you good, bella.”
“Mama, I wanted to take a break, see if there was anything else I would like to do. Seems the restaurant trade might not be my thing after all.” Makes sense considering the mess I made of it. She back sat with a sullen sigh.
“Oh, poofy, what a thing to say. Cooking is in your blood. There is no point in denying it.” She reached over and took a sharp knife from the magnetic strip beside the sink and picked up the first tomato. “You could no more settle into a different profession than fly to the moon. This might be what you need, just enough to get by until you figure out what you want to do.” Sophia sliced the tomato and placed it cut side up on a tray. “Once word gets out, I bet more people ring you and ask for your skills, you mark my words.”
Lena glanced at her father, who nodded his head at her mother’s prediction. Lena knew it was true. It was how her first restaurant started. From the humble beginning she had catered from home, making the odd cakes to the more sophisticated dinners to order. Lena built up her business step by step. The thing that bugged her was, did she really want to do it again? Could she do it again?
“Honey, it’s natural to doubt yourself but don’t. We all know you can cook and you have the head for business despite what happened with Cole. Don’t let that derail any hopes you might have of starting out again. My girl isn’t a loser, she’s a fighter.” Her father glanced at her with determination on his face.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself, bella. There is plenty of room here in this kitchen for you to do whatever you like and more than enough pantry staples along with what I’m doing for you now. Be creative and go for it. You can start with cooking dinner for tonight. Your father asked Adam over.”
Huh? Lena’s mouth dropped open. “What for?”
“Because he’s a nice young man who’s moved in next door and we both like him. He’s on his own and we feed him every now and then.” He gave a smile to his wife. “He’s a sucker for your mother’s cooking and who can blame him?”
“So why am I expected to do it then?”
“Because I asked you to, no other reason. I want to do these tomatoes for you and I thought you could help me by doing dinner tonight.” Her mother sliced more tomatoes and placed them on the tray. When it was full, she sprinkled it with salt, fresh pepper, and a fine dusting of dried herbs before asking Papa to take it out and place it on the rack in the sun.
“Lena, my bella, your father and I wouldn’t dream of pushing you into another relationship so soon, so get that out of your head. Adam is a nice man and a neighbor, nothing more. Besides it’s your choice whether you go that route again or not. We want what’s best for you and I think work will stop you worrying unnecessarily over your future. Cooking always soothed you before, and I don’t see why it won’t now.”
Lena stood up and walked to her mother, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. “Sorry, Mama. I don’t mean to be ungrateful, I’m
