Love in the Morning by Meg Benjamin Read Free Book Online Page A

Aspen. She resigned as chef effective immediately.
    Lizzy shook her head. “Geez, not even two weeks’ notice?”
    â€œApparently, she considers that a formality.” Definitely gritting his teeth now, given the tense jaw muscles. “I found that under my door when I came to the office this morning.”
    Well, crap. “What are you going to do?”
    He shrugged. “Hire a new chef. But that takes time, and I’ve got a dining room to run until then. And breakfast to get on the table. I can’t close the dining room down—I’ve got too many guests who bought meal tickets as part of their packages.” He paused, staring at her.
    Lizzy bit her lip, staring back. “I can do it.”
    Denham raised his chin, frowning slightly. “Yeah? What do you need?”
    â€œNeed?” Lizzy tried to get her pulse to slow down. What she really needed was a couple of days to think this through.
    â€œSupplies? People? What do you need to make this work?”
    Focus, Lizzy! She took another breath. “We’ll need at least one more person for cleanup. Desi wants to learn the business, so he can do some of the prep work. And he can be a runner in the morning if you want to keep doing the omelet station.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Do you think we should keep the omelet station?”
    Crap, don’t make me think. “For now, yeah. This isn’t the time to make any sudden changes. Long-term, you may want to consider some readjustments.”
    Denham’s expression turned mulish. “I’m not readjusting anything. I know squat about what people want for breakfast. You’re the chef.”
    Lizzy swallowed hard. “I’m the chef?”
    He gave her a long look. “For now.”
    Her heart gave a leap that was two parts elation and three parts terror. “Okay, this weekend I’ll look the menu over and figure out what we can do. But we’ll definitely need a dishwasher.”
    Denham sighed, rubbing his eyes. “I’ll see who I can find. You might ask Desi if he knows anybody since we need someone ASAP.”
    She nodded. “Okay. I’d better get back and start planning for tomorrow.” She pushed herself out of her chair.
    He raised a hand. “Wait.”
    Her heart was pounding again. She leaned against the back of her chair. “Yeah?”
    â€œHave you ever done this before?” One of his eyebrows quirked up.
    She nodded. “Yeah. I’ve run a kitchen before.”
    â€œYou know how to do it all? Budgeting and everything?”
    She nodded more slowly. “Since I don’t know the suppliers around here, I can’t access what the costs would be. But I can put together a budget if I can see the invoices for the last month or so.”
    He blew out a long breath. “I can get you the invoices. And I won’t forget this. If you can get me out of this shithole that Clarice has dropped us into, you’ll deserve a raise.” He raised his gaze to hers again.
    Nice eyes. Sort of greenish brown. Hazel? She wasn’t entirely sure what color hazel was. Focus, for God’s sake! “Okay, thanks.”
    She took another breath, then turned and headed back to the kitchen. Her kitchen. At least for the time being.
    *****
    Clark didn’t know whether he was more pissed about Clarice taking off or more concerned about Lizzy Apodaca taking over. She looked about as apprehensive as he felt.
    But she’d said she’d done this before, and judging from the fact that Clarice had apparently dumped the running of the kitchen in her lap before firming up her new job, maybe he should believe her. He didn’t have much choice.
    Clark showed up at work a lot earlier than usual the next morning, slipping into the back of the dining room around seven. There was already a good-sized crowd, but everything seemed to be moving fairly smoothly. As he watched, the kitchen door swung open and Desi