Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) by Beth Bolden Read Free Book Online

conversation; it felt like an eternity.
    “It would be nice to be tall and not need the ladder,” she said as he carefully jerked off the panel covering the bowels of the fan, and started poking and prodding at parts she couldn’t see. Half a dozen times she wanted to tell him to be careful , for god’s sake , but each time she bit back the remark. She was determined not to let a bad night’s sleep and Cal’s mysterious absence turn her into a raving bitch.
    Finally, he looked down at her, a vaguely amused expression on his face. “You know, you don’t have to stand guard over me. I won’t break it worse than it’s already broken.”
    His comment was so close to her own internal thoughts not five minutes before, Maggie flushed guiltily. “Are you sure?” she asked.
    He shot her another one of those crazy girl looks. “I’m pretty damn sure you’ve got about ten thousand better places to be. Besides, you can’t help me fix it by hovering.”
    “Right,” Maggie said, but still didn’t move. “Have you figured out what’s wrong?”
    “I’ve got a pretty good idea, actually. I think the belt just came off the track. Once I can get it back on, we should be back in business.” He glanced down at her and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll be pretty relieved.”
    “A belt?” she asked skeptically. “Are you certain?”
    He gave a little huff of annoyance—either at her, or the part he was unsuccessfully tugging at. She wasn’t sure.
    “Still hovering,” he finally grunted. “And yes, I’m sure. Or would you like to get Cal on the phone to verify?” The last bit came out quite testily, and Maggie was very nearly delighted. He was so much more fun when he dropped the charming heartbreaker routine.
    “Oh, no. I’m sure you’ve got it under control,” Maggie said airily. “I’ll just be over helping Rosa with the orders.”
    But when Maggie ventured over to where Rosa was efficiently and quickly making a Denver omelet in one pan and a pancake in the other, there wasn’t really anything for her to do. Rosa had everything under control, which was pretty much par for the course.
    Rosa was a genius in the kitchen, a wonder of efficiency and speed that even left Maggie bewildered occasionally. A single mom with a handful of a son, Rosa had come to Maggie looking for a job right before the Café opened. When Maggie had witnessed firsthand Rosa’s kitchen skills, she’d had to ask the obvious question. Why hadn’t Rosa tried to get a job at The Cliffs, the big restaurant on the hill? Lucas, the owner, was always looking for prime kitchen help and he also paid better, because the restaurant served dinner.
    The answer had been a surprisingly simple one: Miguel, who was Rosa’s teenage son.
    “I like to be home when he is,” Rosa had said simply, drying her hands on the towel hanging from the waistband of her apron. “He can so easily get into trouble.”
    Maggie hadn’t needed to be lectured about the trouble a fifteen year old in Sand Point could get up to. She’d witnessed Tabitha raising hell firsthand, and had simply nodded.
    Rosa made it possible for Maggie to not work twelve hours a day, every single day of the week. Affording her pay had been a little tricky at first, and Maggie appreciated more than Cal probably knew all those extra twenty dollar bills he’d liked to hide away in her purse when he thought she wasn’t looking, but in the end, it had been the right decision. Maggie knew that three years into the Café’s existence, she wouldn’t have still been open if it wasn’t for Rosa. Handling it all herself would have burned Maggie out long before now.
    “No word from Cal?” Rosa asked as she flipped the pancake while barely batting an eye and poked at the omelet with the spatula in her other hand. “I know we managed breakfast okay, but without the grill. . .”
    Maggie had come to the same conclusion as Rosa. Which was why she’d allowed Mr. I’m Too Sexy to poke around her