“Derek?” I called out when I didn’t see my brother. “You in here?”
I didn’t get a response. I’d already walked through the restaurant portion, so I knew he wasn’t in there going over the tables or spacing again. My next option was going through the kitchen to the back door. It led into a little courtyard and garden area. A long time ago, it was a place for the chef to grow vegetables and herbs and to host small, intimate events.
Part of my brother’s vision for the restaurant was to bring that area back. He had been working on his plans for developing and expanding the area to allow for more gardening and also provide special seating for chef’s table VIP dining.
Like I thought, he was standing outside, surveying the overgrown pavers and container gardens that went to seed many years ago. He was holding a large sketch pad in his hands and alternating between examining it and looking out over the courtyard. Ally was nowhere to be seen.
“Derek?” I called.
He looked over his shoulder and turned in my direction when he saw it was me.
“Hey,” he said. “Before you start, I didn’t know that you and Ally were having a thing.”
My mind went blank again, and heat prickled up the back of my neck.
“What do you mean? We’re not having a thing. What thing?” I asked.
He looked at me quizzically. “The allergen prep station. She got really pissed when she found out you’d agreed to do it when I talked to you about it. I didn’t know you’d said no to her.”
I tried not to show how relieved I was that the initial clash with Ally was all he was talking about.
“Oh, that,” I said.
“Yeah. I didn’t know she’d already talked to you about it. She was really mad when she left the kitchen to find you. Then she stormed back here and has barely spoken a word to me. So, I’m guessing she found you and it didn’t go well.”
“You could say that,” I said, not knowing how else to respond. “Where is she now?”
“She went to call her friend Holly to ask about some distributors who might be able to get us some of the ingredients I’m after.”
“Okay,” I said. “Well, I was just stopping by to see if you need anything. I’m actually going to duck out early today.”
Derek shook his head. “No. I can’t think of anything. Just try not to get under Ally’s skin so much, okay?”
I wasn’t even going to try to respond to that. I waved and headed for my truck as fast as I could without flat-out running. Once home, I changed into baggy clothes and dropped facedown onto my couch to hide from the world and my own thoughts for a while.
12
Ally
I knew the chances of Holly answering the phone when I called weren’t good. When she was on a business trip, she tended to be difficult to get ahold of. All her attention went to making contacts with the right distributors and sourcing out the hardest-to-find ingredients. By the time she got back to her hotel at the end of the day, she was usually so exhausted it was all she could do just to take a shower and topple over into bed.
I called her anyway. Derek mentioning some obscure, sometimes difficult to find ingredients for the menu seemed like the perfect opportunity to step away from the whole situation for a minute and try to clear my mind and catch my breath. There was also the off-chance Holly would actually answer, and I could give her a quick overview of what happened.
But just like I expected, the call went to voicemail. Just for good measure, I hung up and tried again. My second call had the same results as my first, so this time I left a voicemail.
Keeping my message as neutral as possible, I told her I had a few questions to ask on behalf of Derek, and that I also needed to talk to her about something important. It was the best I could do for the moment, so I tucked my phone back into my pocket and headed back toward the courtyard at the back of the restaurant where Derek was waiting for me.
As I was walking up, I heard Noah’s voice. There was no way I was going in there if he was there. I hadn’t even said a word to him before walking out of the room in the dungeon and scurrying back to the kitchen. If I couldn’t figure out a couple of words to string together in that circumstance, I didn’t see much hope for a coherent conversation going on between us now.
Instead of going through the large wooden gate set into the stone wall surrounding the courtyard, I hovered nearby and waited for Noah to leave. While I was standing there and trying to tell myself I was admiring the landscape and not shamelessly hiding, I overheard Noah mention he was going home for the day.