Nice going. First, I’m my usual backward self with those two guys, and then I’m my other usual self, the defensive one, with my mother.
Grabbing the dough from the mixing bowl behind me, I slam it onto the table and begin working it. I better get used to working alone here because at the rate I’m going, even Hector is not going to want to be around me.
So much for thinking I’d made so much progress this past year. That was obviously as wrong as wrong can be.
I look up toward the kitchen door, hoping to see my mother come back so I can tell her I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. I understand what she’s trying to do. I do. She has that whole mentality of getting back up on the horse after it’s thrown you off. It’s how she and my father continue to fight to keep this business open year after year long after other people would have given up.
That attitude is to be admired, but love isn’t like running a struggling business. Sometimes, a person can’t find the will to get back up and dust themselves off after being thrown. Sometimes, it just feels better to stay down where you are on the safe ground.
It’s been almost a year since I’ve been down here, and as much as I thought I was getting back to who I was before it all happened, that was just wishful thinking. I’m still that brokenhearted soul Malcolm threw away that beautiful June night eleven months ago. All the hours spent talking to the therapist have added up to one sad truth.
I’m not ready to get back up on that horse again. I’m still hurting from the last fall.
Chapter Four
Cade
Bright and early the next day, I head down to CK to see what I can find out from my uncles about this Hailey person. Unlike Alex, they should know something since they supposedly tried to lure her to CK as a pastry chef.
I find Cassian and Kane both in the office, which is a surprise. I’d have been happy simply trolling for information with one of them. Maybe this is a good sign.
“Hi! It’s your favorite nephew come to visit,” I say to announce my arrival as I walk into the office the two of them share.
Kane looks up and gives me a big smile. “Hey, what are you doing here? Decide you want to put that business degree to good use finally?”
Cassian just shakes his head. “What’s up, Cade?”
I grab a chair on the other side of the room and take a seat. “You sound like my father, Kane. Have you two been meeting to compare notes on how to shanghai me into the club or restaurant business?”
My question makes him laugh. “The last time your father came here to talk to me, we almost got into a fist fight. Trust me, we are not comparing notes on anything.”
“Good, because one of him is enough. I don’t need two of you trying to convince me what to do with my life.”
Kane holds his hands up in front of him like he’s surrendering. “No convincing here. But whoever thought it would be Stefan who turned into the dad who wanted his son to figure out life so young?”
Cassian laughs, and I’m tempted to ask exactly what Kane means by that, but I’m not really interested in taking a trip down memory lane with my uncles today. I already know a little about how my father was when he was my age. I can hear more another day.
Right now, I have other topics I want to discuss with them. Other more beautiful and interesting topics.
Might as well jump right in. “So, what do you guys know about the pastry chef over at that restaurant, Comfort Food?”
“We were definitely interested in having her work for us, but she denied us cold. No way. Wouldn’t even return our calls, no matter if it was me or Kane.”
Interesting. Then again, Comfort Food is her family’s restaurant. She probably feels allegiance to them. But to give up the chance to work at the best restaurant in town to stay at the family diner seems foolish.
“Okay, but what do you know about her?” I ask, hoping to get more than this scratching the surface bullshit.
“For the longest time nobody knew it was even a her,” Kane says. “A few local food bloggers got a hold of her treats and asked the owners of the restaurant, but