She’d dropped Danny and his nanny off in front of the restaurant at 9:00AM , so she could keep her dentist appointment, and now she wanted to kiss him good-bye before Molly took him to the park, which she did almost every day at about this time.
He was twenty-two months old, full of energy and exuberance, and he loved the swings and slides and teeter-totter. Last Sunday, on a beautiful September afternoon, Kate had taken him to the park near their home, and she’d gotten some wonderful photographs of him sailing his boat in the big fountain with sunlit trees in the background.
Twice that day, people had stopped to remark on how beautiful he was, which was a normal occurrence for any outing with Danny. He was the image of his father, with Mitchell’s thick black hair and dark-lashed, cobalt eyes; he even had his slow smile and effortless charm. He was also showing signs of having inherited Mitchell’s magnetism with females. With one of his quick, flashing grins, Danny could conquer the hearts of women—from old ladies to teenagers to an adorable two-year- old girl from the South whose name was Caperton Beirne.
The only genetic contribution from her that Kate could see was that Danny’s hair was slightly curly, although not as curly as hers.
He was tall for his age, surprisingly well-coordinated, and growing up so fast that, at times, Kate wished she could reach out and stop the clock from ticking away the minutes and days of his childhood. He was extremely bright, and—not surprisingly—he was also starting to pick up and repeat words and phrases from the several languages he heard being spoken by Donovan’s culturally diverse employees. His most recently acquired phrase—a colorful Polish curse—had Kate thinking he needed to stay upstairs with Molly, in the apartment she’d expanded and renovated so she could spend some time with him when she was at work.
Wondering where the valet attendants were, Kate debated about driving around the corner and putting her car in the lot there, then she decided to risk getting a ticket by leaving it where it was until she could find a valet to move it. She was halfway across the sidewalk when she heard Hank at the corner newsstand shout, , Miss Donovan!”
Puzzled, Kate waved to him and kept walking.
She unlocked the heavy front door, walked inside, and saw—absolutely no one. The dining rooms were set up for lunch, everything looked perfect, except no one was there—not the ma d’, not a single waiter or busboy or valet attendant. Puzzled and vaguely uneasy, Kate quickened her pace toward the kitchen, rushed through the swinging doors, and stopped short as a smiling army of loyal employees burst into cheers and applause. At the front of the crowd, Molly was holding Danny, and he was clapping and grinning.
Next to him was a big sign on a floor stand where the specials of the day were usually posted by the chefs for the benefit of the kitchen staff and waiters. Today it said, Donovan, Restaurateur of the Year.”
Kate scooped Danny out of Molly’s arms and looked around at the sea of smiling faces. ’s all this about?” she asked.
Frank O’Halloran grinned at Marjorie and then at the rest of the staff. hasn’t seen it yet,” he said, and everyone burst out laughing.
what?” Kate said.
Drew Garetti, the manager she’d replaced Louis Kellard with a little over two years before, held out the morning’s edition of theChicago Tribune. It was opened to a full-page article with a headline that read,KATE DONOVAN, CHICAGO’S RESTAURATEUR OF THE YEAR. According to the article, Kate had been chosen for the honor partly because of the overall excellence of the dining experience at Donovan’s and partly because of a program she’d instituted whereby Donovan’s chef and sous-chef exchanged places four times a year with their counterparts at equally famous restaurants throughout the country. This gave Donovan’s customers a chance to enjoy the fare from other fabulous restaurants, as it did the customers of the other restaurants.
Included in the article were several pictures used in prior stories about Donovan’s, including one of Kate with the governor of Illinois and one of Kate meeting with her kitchen staff, with Danny beside her in his high chair.
The caption below that one read, Donovan runs her restaurant while son Daniel looks on and learns the ropes from his high chair.”
Kate scanned the article, then she looked around at her staff and told them exactly who she felt deserved the credit for her award. can’t thank all of you enough for this,” she said simply.
Drew glanced at his watch, then at everyone else. ’re opening in two minutes,” he warned them, and patted Kate’s shoulder as he walked out. ’re the best,” he said.
Kate gave Danny a hug. you hear that, Danny? Drew says we’re the best.”
In response, Danny planted a kiss on her cheek and said, and me go to the park, Mommy.” Kate let him slide to the floor, and he took Molly’s hand. He adored Molly, who’d come to work for Kate when Danny was born, and the middle-aged Irish woman positively doted on him.
flirting with Caperton,” Kate teased, looking from the little boy to his devoted nanny.
ISwaiting out in the reception room,” Evan’s secretary said as he stalked by her desk, carrying his briefcase and a folded newspaper. ’s been here since ten o’clock, and he insists on seeing you.”
me a glass of water, send someone for a Dr Pepper, and then have him come in,” Evan said curtly. In his office, he slapped the newspaper on his desk and unloaded the files that he’d worked on the night before from his briefcase.
His secretary arrived with a glass of chilled bottled water, and he sat down behind his desk; then he picked up theTribune and reread the latest story about another of Kate’s successes. She was like a splinter in his foot that he couldn’t get completely out. Everyone knew they’d been engaged, and every time people started to forget, Kate reemerged as the star in another damned local newspaper or magazine article.
According to the article before this one, the state’s attorney and the mayor were two of her regular customers. For weeks after that article appeared, Evan couldn’t show his face in the courthouse or anywhere lawyers gathered without being ribbed for failing to recognize what a political advantage he’d sacrificed by not marrying her.
Today’s article raved about her, as all the other stories had done, but today’s article also included a nice big color photograph of Wyatt’s little bastard and her in the kitchen at Donovan’s. It was the second time he’d seen that picture, the second time he’d had to look at it. The little son of a bitch looked so much like his father that it was uncanny, and that infuriated him even more.