At the contest. He was obviously interested in the restaurant business. She shook off the unease she’d felt. It was probably because she’d seen him at Restaurant Wars.
The strains of one of her favorite songs came through the wooden door of Barb’s place, and she hummed along as she made her way back into the restaurant and her kitchen. All she could do was handle her own emotions. But she had to admit, having others think she was some sort of investigator extraordinaire was pretty great too.
When dinner service was over, Felicia came to the door. “Sheriff Brown is here.”
“Great, now what?” Images of the man she’d talked to earlier filled Angie’s head. She started taking off her chef coat.
Felicia held up a hand, stopping her. “Actually, he’s here to pick up Bleak.”
The girl’s face turned bright red. “I told him I could walk. It’s only a few blocks to their house.”
“He’s overprotective. Take advantage of it. Your feet are probably going to hurt later anyway.” Angie waved the girl off. “Go ahead, we can finish up here. See you tomorrow.”
“Definitely.” Bleak actually smiled as she put her apron in the dirty clothes hamper and grabbed her backpack. “This was fun.”
“Girl, you are on crack if you think working is fun,” Matt teased her as she left. She ignored the comment and went through the door with Felicia.
“Hope, come over here a minute.” Angie moved to sit at the chef’s table and go over her notes about the service and the menu items.
Hope pulled a chair back and sat. “If this is about my vacation, I can see if my mom will fly me back earlier if you need me to work.”
“Are you crazy? Take the week. You’re going to have a busy fall semester coming up. And you know we always pick up business as soon as school starts.” Angie leaned back in her chair and opened the bottle of water she’d pulled out of the fridge. “I wanted to talk to you about Bleak. How did she do tonight?”
“Wow. She was great. She really caught on fast, and for a bit, I did some late prep work for Nancy and she ran the station all by herself.” Hope smiled. “I think she’ll be a great addition.”
“If you wouldn’t mind, find out when she last went to school. I’d rather she be going to school than working at her age.”
Hope blushed. “She told me she wasn’t eighteen yet, but that it was a secret. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“I’m not looking for you to betray a confidence, just maybe lead the conversation back to how important graduating from school is. And maybe how much you love your program. Maybe we have a future chef on our hands.” Angie watched as Hope took in the information.
“I can do that. Maybe we can do a field trip and she can come with me to school one day. That would get her focused. And maybe admit she needs help. I could see she was embarrassed by Sheriff Brown coming to get her. Like she was weak. She’s not weak.”
“We all know that. But she is a kid. And sometimes kids need looked after, even if they don’t think they do.” Angie tried again. “We all have Bleak’s best interest at heart. She doesn’t have to be alone. She looks up to you. You need to help lead her down the right path.”
Hope played with a fork that had been left on the table. “I know, but sometimes being responsible is hard.”
Angie nodded. “You got that right.”
Angie sat at the chef’s table long after most of the kitchen staff had cleaned up and left. Thinking about what might have happened to her when her folks had died if Nona hadn’t been around. Or worse, hadn’t wanted her. Bleak needed a brighter future. And she needed to reclaim her real name. Bleak wasn’t her destiny anymore. Angie would make sure of that.
Estebe sat down next to her. “The ovens are off, the stove tops clean, and the food put away. All of your customers have gone home. When are