the health inspector was here today. Someone reported that they ate here last night and came down with E. coli.”
“Overnight? Impossible!” he shouted and then started talking in French so fast that there was no chance in hell that I would understand anything. I figured after I heard someone respond to him in the background that he wasn’t talking to me. “Did they find anything?”
“No, they did a full inspection and found no signs of the bacteria in our kitchen or our food storage. I agree with you, and I don’t think that the man got it from us.”
“It was most certainly not! I know your standards and how you run my kitchen. You would not allow such things.”
“Thank you, Randolph. Hopefully, it is over, and the report will clear us, but I wanted to make you aware of it.”
“Merci mon coeu.”
After that, he asked how everything else was going, and we chatted for a few minutes until Ricardo stated that the doors were opening. I excused myself from the call and told him I’d keep him updated.
As I moved into the kitchen, it was all hands on deck. Stocks and soups were on the stove, and pastries were going into the oven. Then I realized that we had done something that we very rarely ever had to do. We pulled out our soup and sauce leftovers from the day before to get us started on the night. Thank god we did this for emergencies such as this. Randolph had said that while he detested leftovers, he would rather have a leftover than nothing to serve.
I walked around the kitchen, checking on things, and then set my phone up on the stand that I kept it on. When Holly called an hour later, I glanced at it and let it go to voicemail. Now was not the time to think about dates or dancing or television shows. We were having a bustling Wednesday night, and I needed to remain focused.
Chapter Seven
Harvey
Surprisingly, I was enjoying myself. No, I wasn’t a huge fan of dancing, but it was fun to try something new. My sister was off on the side, and she was always smiling when I looked her way. That right there made this whole thing worth the trouble. There wasn’t a better feeling in the world than to see her smile.
Maybe it was odd to feel that way about a sister, and perhaps that was because there was no other woman in my life, and no children to focus my attention on. She received all of my affections. I didn’t care what other people thought. Holly and I had been close since she was born, and I always felt like I had to watch over her and make sure she was alright.
“So, Harvey, how do you feel about the dance?” Tarin asked as we finished the break and prepared to go through the entire thing one more time.
“To be honest, I feel pretty good. It’s been more fun than I anticipated.”
“Is there anything that you are getting nervous about?” Tarin asked with a sly smile.
I chuckled. “The whole thing.”
“Well, you don’t look nervous when you do it. You really did pick it up rather quickly.”
I shrugged slightly. “I’ve never been big on dancing, so I never thought that I would have picked it up so easily.”
“After this, are you going to do more dancing?”
I gave her a lopsided grin. “You know, I just might. A friend of mine told me that a way to a girl’s heart is to dance with her. So if she picks me, I’ll probably be dancing more for sure.”
Tarin clapped her hands and giggled. “I love it! Are you worried at all that you might drop her?”
“Honestly, no—okay, maybe a little bit,” I replied with a slight chuckle. “I don’t think I’ll have a problem, but you never know. The last thing I want to do is drop her or miss a step. I just hope that we can flow right through the dance and have a good time.”
“And make a connection, right?”
“Well, yeah, of course. That’s a given,” I replied, and strangely enough, I think I meant it. Somewhere in the last two days, while I’d been making up reasons for being here, I’d started to believe my explanations.
I did want to find a woman to share my life. Was it possible to find one while dancing? Probably—I mean, how many times had I seen a woman from across the room and thought—her? There