asked.
“Oh, yeah. My mother used to make it,” he said with a smile.
“In that case, we better tell Robin it’s available too,” she said.
He laughed at that. “Yeah, I don’t think she’d like it if I got special treatment andshe got left out.”
“Well, you are a patient, after all,” she said, as she walked back over to the door. “Now you better drink your coffee, then get a little more sleep if you can. Otherwise, wake up and enjoy the day.”
He lifted the cup and took a tiny sip, then leaned back with a blissful sigh.
Still chuckling, she headed down the hallway.
As soon as she walked in the kitchen, Gerard looked at her and smiled. “Now that’s an interesting look on your face.”
“Why is that?” she asked, not really understanding what was on his mind. But, then again, it was Gerard after all.
“You like him,” he said.
She looked at him in surprise. “What’s not to like?” she said. “The guy has survived over thirty surgeries. I’d like anybody who was still finding a way forward after being as patchworked and pieced-together as he is. If nothing else, I like his grit.”
“And that’s something you’ve always admired, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” she said. “I admire anybody who deals with adversity and still gets up.”
“Because you have done so too,” he said with a nod.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t you have something better to do?”
“Better than teasing you? No,” he said with a laugh. “But I am sitting here, wondering what I want to do with the pasta. I made a lot.”
“I was wondering, as I walked back down, about using half of it today and letting the other half dry out a couple days to be used later.”
“You know something? That’s not a bad idea. I wouldn’t be at all unhappy to try some more fresh pasta next week—or maybe some raviolis.”
“I’m up for that too,” she said. “I think I’ll make some fresh bread this morning. Maybe a double-baked Swiss loaf.” Putting down her cup, she grabbed a big bowl and starting measuring ingredients.
“I still don’t understand how you can keep all those recipes in your head,” he said, as he watched her.
She smiled, adding the yeast and just enough warm water, plus a dab of sugar, to proof before measuring the flour, and she had a ball of dough quickly mixed up. She tossed it from the bowl onto the marble counter and kneaded it. “I’ve probably got enough here for what, six loaves?” She thought about it and then took a knife, cut it into multiple long loaves, and said, “It’s not very much for breakfast. I guess what I probably should have done was double that.”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “We always have so much variety at breakfast that not everybody even wants bread.”
She nodded. “Then maybe we’ll add some raisins and butter to this loaf.”
He immediately snatched up another one and said, “Let’s have cranberries and walnuts in this one.”
Together, the two of them laughed as they created several breakfast rolls, instead of the double-baked Swiss bread she had started with. The other breads still used the same basic foundation recipe, but she could do so much more with these. By the time they finished adding lemon peel and extra butter to the last one, they had all six stretched out to rise, each a good two feet long.
Other staff members were coming in, and two were in the back, already cooking the bacon for breakfast. The ham would go on next; then the sausages would work their way onto the big grill. Pancakes still had to be done. Then, of course, the eggs and all the extras.
Dennis walked in just then, following his nose, smelling the coffee. “Wow. Every time you have espresso,” he said, “it’s like a hit to my heart, and it makes me smile.”
“It’s a weird way of smiling,” she said.
He walked past the open storeroom, stopped, and then whistled. “Man, I hope that’s for lunch,” he said. “I sure want some.”
“See?” Gerard said. “Everybody wants fresh pasta.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Ask her who she delivered coffee to this morning,” Gerard said, nudging Dennis.
He turned and looked at her in surprise. “You delivered coffee?”
At his tone, she fisted her hands on her hips. “And what if I did?”
He immediately held up his hands to ward off any comments and stepped back in mock terror.
She just sighed. “What is it about guys and gals?”
“Well, that’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Gerard said, “because you