Fearless Love by Meg Benjamin Read Free Book Online Page A

his feet. “You all right here, Darce? You know what you want MG to do?”
    Darcy nodded. “Sure.”
    She walked to the stove. Her face looked carved from stone. If MG had known her at all, she would have asked her what the hell was going on. But she figured asking anything like that under the present circumstances was likely to provide further fodder for Darcy’s relentless march toward Queen Bitch status. Better to let it ride.
    She gathered the last of her diced onion into a small pan and covered it with plastic wrap. “You want this in the cooler, Chef?”
    Darcy’s head whipped around like something out of The Exorcist. For a moment, she stared flatly at MG, as if she was looking for some kind of hidden message. Then she shrugged. “Joe and the Beav are the only ones you call chef . Put the onion on the third shelf. That’s where we keep the dinner prep.”
    “Right.” She headed for the cooler, wondering how long she could keep this up. If nothing else, maybe she could write a song about it.
     
     
    Joe really hoped Todd Fairley wasn’t going to be an asshole. He’d planned on spending the lunch shift in his office working on menus, and if Fairley threw a hissy fit, he’d have to cancel his plans. He might also have to cancel Fairley, but he hoped not. The guy had only been there a day.
    “I didn’t realize we were looking for a cook’s assistant,” Fairley said stiffly.
    “We’re looking for a prep cook.” Joe shrugged. “MG’s a fill-in until we can find somebody permanent. Darcy needed somebody now—she’s swamped with the prep work.”
    “It’s a job a lot of culinary students would like to have. We could probably fill it with an extern.” Fairley still looked like he had a sizeable stick up his ass.
    “If you’ve got contacts at any of the culinary schools, you have my permission to ask around,” Joe said easily. “We could actually take a couple of externs. Meanwhile, MG can do the scut work.”
    “Does she have any kitchen experience?”
    Joe shrugged. “Not professionally. She doesn’t need much to do what she’s doing now.”
    “Still.” Fairley sighed. “I like to make sure anybody who comes into the kitchen will fit in with the personnel who are already here. This woman may be fine, but I wish I’d had a chance to talk with her first.”
    Joe felt like sighing himself. He really didn’t want to fire Fairley on his first day, but the guy was beginning to annoy him. “Okay, in the future I’ll let you know when I hire somebody. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing—MG was available, and we needed a body ASAP.” He hadn’t actually promised Fairley he’d have any say in the decision, but maybe it was enough to keep him on board.
    Fairley looked somewhat satisfied, although he still had a vaguely disgruntled expression. “I’m running lunch then?”
    Joe nodded. “Right. Menu’s posted. Jorge should be in within the hour. He, Leo and Darcy will all be on line, with MG as runner. The prep’s being done now. Everything should be ready to go by eleven.”
    Fairley nodded. “I’ll check to make sure it is.”
    “You’ve met Bryson? The head waiter?”
    Fairley nodded again. “And the delectable Ms. Maldonado.”
    Joe managed not to frown. Kit Maldonado, the manager of the restaurant, was indeed delectable. But he wasn’t crazy about hearing Fairley say so. “There’s a new hostess, Martha, a friend of Kit’s. Things may be a little slow at first, but they’ll pick up by noon. Lunch is our biggest meal, what with all the daytripper tourists.”
    Fairley nodded again. “Right. Anything else I should know?”
    Joe debated with himself. He hadn’t decided what to do about the whole contest thing, but Fairley was here and it was a decision he should be in on. “There’s this,” he said, pulling the letter from the bottom of the stack of papers on his desk.
    Fairley’s eyebrows went up as he read. “A ‘culinary competition’?”
    “Yeah, well, Craven, the