LITMIR.BIZ

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Mostly positive. She’d had to correct a couple, as they hadn’t been following Felicia’s protocol dish presentation as they delivered the food to the tables, but some of that was just a learning curve. Finally, not finding fault in any of them, Angie shrugged. “I guess they’re fine. I mean, no one sticks out as a troublemaker, and they all seem to take correction well. What are you concerned about?”

      “They seem too perfect. Like Stepford Wives perfect.” Felicia pushed her hair behind her ears and sighed. “In California, I was hiring and firing a server every other month. Here, they seem to like their jobs.”

      “Don’t sound so surprised. We pay a higher-than-average wage for the area. Tips might not be as big as they could get in Boise, but we keep the place and their stations filled with paying customers. They should be happy.” In California, they hadn’t even been close in payroll to any of the higher-end places in town. And they still paid out almost all their gross profit in wages. Idaho had a lower cost of living, and she could see them actually being profitable in one to two years, rather than the ten years el pescado, her first restaurant, had taken. “Relax. Things are going amazing.”

      Felicia side-eyed her as she stood. “I’m heading off to a yoga class down at the church. A group of stay-at-home moms meets every Wednesday at two. I’ve gotten over a dozen bookings from the group. You should come. They’d love to meet a real chef.”

      “No, thanks. I’ve got to get home and check on Dom. You go on your way to enlightenment and lighten up a little. We’re doing great. Nothing is going to go wrong.” Angie closed down her office, making a mental note to work on accounting tomorrow. The numbers were the only thing she really hated to do, but she felt she needed to understand what the business was doing before she hired an accountant to take over this part of her duties. She wouldn’t be sad when she could actually give it up. Ten minutes later, she was home, and she had a visitor sitting on her porch.

      “I’m so glad you came home. I’ve got a favor to ask you.” Erica, Mrs. Potter’s granddaughter who lived across the street, stood to greet Angie as she came up on the porch.

      Angie unlocked the door into the kitchen. “Come in. How long have you been waiting out here?”

      “Just a few minutes. Granny’s taking a nap, so I wanted to catch you now, before she finds me gone. She’d tell me to not bother you with this.” Erica followed her into the cool kitchen. The Potters had been her Nona’s neighbors ever since the two women graduated from high school so many years ago. They’d both raised their families and lost their husbands since those promise-filled days. Even though Nona was gone, Angie felt compelled to continue the relationship. Mrs. Potter was more like family rather than just being a neighbor.

      Angie leaned down to give Dom some attention as she talked to Erica. The baby St. Bernard wasn’t much of a baby anymore. The dog was close to a hundred pounds as of his last vet appointment. She nodded to a chair at the table. “Sit down. I was going to warm up some tomato bisque for lunch. Maybe a ham sandwich to go with it? Have you eaten? You can tell me what’s going on over a meal.”

      Erica shook her head. “I’ve been too upset to eat.”

      Angie stood and took Erica’s arm, leading her to the chair. “Now you have to stay for lunch. What is wrong?”

      Instead of answering her, Erica laid her head on the table between her arms and started sobbing.

      Chapter 2

      It took a while, but Angie finally got Erica calmed down and eating the proper lunch set in front of her. Dom had added his comfort by laying his big head on Erica’s lap and staring at her with his big brown eyes. Angie knew the power petting Dom’s soft coat could have on lightening her own mood. She sat down at the table and picked up a spoon, took a sip, and sighed, hoping the action would cause Erica to follow suit. It did, and in a few minutes, Angie noticed some color coming back into the young woman’s face. The power of food.

      “So, what did you need to ask me?” Angie tried to make the question seem casual, hoping not to send Erica into waterworks again.

      “I told you about my study group, right? They have a trip planned for next week to Cabo. I know, Mexico in the summer, not prime vacation time, but I’ve never been and it’s really cheap.” Erica looked at her with pleading in her eyes.

      Angie felt her heart sink. As much as she liked the young woman sitting in front of her, she just didn’t have the money to lend her for even a cheap vacation. Every dime she had was sunk into the County Seat. She decided to put Erica out of her misery quickly. “That sounds wonderful, but I really…”

      “I know it would be a terrible imposition to ask, but honestly, I can’t see letting her stay in that house all by herself. She’s fallen three times in the last few months. I’ve talked to her about getting one of those alarm systems, but she says she doesn’t need it.” Erica rushed through her words as if she needed to get them all out before Angie turned her down.

      “Wait, what exactly do you want from me?” Clearly it wasn’t money, but she couldn’t see how much of an imposition checking in with Mrs. Potter would be for a week. “I’d be glad to help in any way you need. You should go with your group.”

      Erica clapped her hands together in delight. “I knew I could count on you. I’ll have her over here on Monday morning before I leave for the airport.”

      “Over here?” Angie’s eyes widened. What had she just agreed to?

      “She’ll need a room on the bottom floor to sleep. I’d have you stay over there, but Dom wouldn’t be comfortable at our house. I know you work a lot, but she’s really not much trouble. She’ll watch television or read most of the time. I just want to make sure someone is watching out for her while I’m gone. I’ll make sure to pack her favorite books.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ve been gone too long. She’ll be looking for me. Thank you so much for your kind offer. I’ll be back early Sunday night, so I’ll come and get her as soon as I can. You’re the best.”

      Actually, Angie thought as she cleaned up the lunch dishes, she was a complete fool. She’d been so worried that Erica needed money that she failed to determine the real reason for her distress until after she’d offered to help. Her words to Felicia, just a few hours ago, popped into her mind. What could go wrong?

      “This will be fine,” she told Dom, who was watching Mabel, the lone surviving black-and-white chicken from her grandmother’s flock, out the screen door. “It will be like having a sleepover.”

      Angie hadn’t had a roommate since college. She liked her quiet time where she could read or work on recipes, or sometimes, just chill. “Buck it up, it’s only a week,” she told herself as she went out to the barn to feed Precious. The baby goat was growing up, but Angie thought she’d always be small. As soon as she walked through the door, she heard Precious’s bleating welcome. The goat watched for her. For a while, Angie thought she cried all the time, but one day she’d turned on the baby monitor she’d installed for safety issues and realized the goat only talked when she entered the barn. After filling up the food and water dish, Angie sat inside the goat’s pen on the stool she’d bought for the barn and talked to her. Precious loved getting scratched under the chin and was surprisingly a good listener, watching Angie’s face as she talked, rubbing her head against Angie’s leg. Her way of showing her support, she assumed.

      Dom made a chuffing sound as he lay outside the pen watching them. He didn’t like the goat, but at least he wasn’t scared of Precious as he had been when he first met her. Angie hadn’t meant to add the goat to her mini farm, but things happened and now she had a growing puppy, an elderly chicken, and a baby goat. She brushed off the straw from her pants and gave Precious a last rub on her head. “I guess life happens when you’re not looking.”

      After feeding Mabel, Angie stopped at her garden and pulled out a couple large, firm green tomatoes. She’d missed something in the recipe this morning, she was sure of it. Maybe cooking at home would help her remember the steps as she sorted through her memories of Nona cooking. Of course, this wasn’t included in the recipes

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