Read Getting Rich (A Chef Landry Mystery) Online
Authors: Monique Domovitch
Getting Rich (A Chef Landry Mystery) (2 page)
This sexy and emotional novella features an interesting holiday business—stripper Santas! There was so much great tension between the heroine and her hero, who also happens to be her boss.
—
Stephanie Doig
,
Editorial Assistant
,
Harlequin and Carina Press
Ménage on 34th Street
by
Elise
Logan
and
Emily
Ryan
-
Davis
,
erotic
ménage
romance
We are proud to welcome Elise and Emily to the Carina Press family!
This is their first book with us.
Katrina and Liam have a happy marriage, but they’ve always felt there’s room for more. When their friend Hunter returns from active duty, they know exactly what that “more” is. Now if only they can convince Hunter...
—
Stephanie Doig
,
Editorial Assistant
,
Harlequin and Carina Press
Matzoh and Mistletoe
by
Jodie
Griffin
,
erotic
BDSM
romance
Jodie writes about true-to-life characters exploring their sexy sides in her Bondage
&
Breakfast series.
This BDSM novella has a lot of things going for it—it’s sexy, emotional, and there’s a really hot cop. Jodie is known for writing wonderfully realistic characters, and she doesn’t disappoint here.
—
Stephanie Doig
,
Editorial Assistant
,
Harlequin and Carina Press
Gifts of Honor
,
military holiday collection
Starting from Scratch
by
Stacy
Gail
,
contemporary
military
romance
Stacy writes both paranormal and contemporary romance for Carina Press.
Stacy Gail gifts us with the sweetest of holiday reunions for a wounded Army Ranger and his one true love. Patience and forgiveness meet sharp wit and sizzling attraction!
—
Kerri Buckley
,
Editor
,
Carina Press
Hero’s Homecoming
by
Rebecca
Crowley
,
contemporary
military
romance
Rebecca’s debut book with Carina Press
,
a
fantastic sports romance called
The Striker’s Chance¸
came out in September.
Three days before Christmas, a surprising phone call from an old love changes absolutely everything in this compelling novella.
—
Kerri Buckley
,
Editor
,
Carina Press
In memory of Charlotte and Jackie Chan, two little dogs with big attitudes.
I miss you both.
the opportunity of a lifetime
I should be skinny, damn it. And if life were fair, I
would
be skinny. After all, as the owner of a gourmet restaurant specializing in low-calorie meals, by now I’d had four months of unlimited access to dozens of wonderful gourmet dishes, each of which was under five hundred calories. So, I should have lost my damned love handles and be thin as a rail, right?
The problem was that after a hundred and twenty days of diet meals, there were times when the mere thought of another low-fat, low-sugar and low-cal dish was enough to send me screaming all the way to the nearest fast-food joint, wanting—no,
needing
—serious calories.
This explained why I had braved the icy roads on my way to work this morning, all the way to the drive-through of the nearest Burger Heaven. It was only eleven-fifteen, but when it came to food, my appetite knew no schedule.
The old Buick ahead of me drove away and I inched over to the pick-up window. A blast of frigid winter air tore through my smart car as a gap-toothed girl handed me my bag. She recited its contents, sounding bored. “That’s one double-decker with extra cheese, one super fry, and one jumbo diet drink, right?” Suddenly her uninterested stare turned into a squint. She pointed at me, now wide-eyed.
“You’re that girl in the ad,” she squealed.
I managed a crooked smile, snatched the bag from her hand and pressed the accelerator, lurching forward.
Shit
,
shit
,
shit
.
What were the chances? I hated when that happened. Not that it did very often. I wasn’t famous or anything, but my picture had been seen by hundreds of thousands of Torontonians. Not because I was beautiful, but, as my girlfriend and partner Toni explained, because I was attractive in a non-threatening sort of way. That was Toni’s way of saying I was plump—not model thin—which made me perfect for the before and after pictures to advertise the low-cal restaurant she and I co-owned. That was the only modeling I’d ever done—hardly worth boasting about.
Back when our restaurant first opened, I’d thought that our excellent food and charming decor was all we needed for customers to discover us and start coming in by the droves. It wasn’t long until reality hit, that we had to do something else and fast, or we’d go bust. The something I’d come up with was the low-cal menu idea. It made sense, as I’d pointed out, considering our name, Skinny’s on Queen. And then, because I’d recently lost twenty pounds, Toni had the bright idea of using my pictures—one of me fat and one of me twenty pounds thinner—in an ad campaign. After a blitz of advertising flyers dropped all over the city, business turned around, and I finally started getting paychecks. Hallelujah.
On the not-so-good side, I couldn’t as much as stand in line at the Dairy Queen anymore without worrying about being recognized. If word got back to Toni about yet another of my diet infractions, she would not be thrilled since—as she so liked to remind me—I was the face of Skinny’s on Queen.
My stomach in a knot, the burger’s mouthwatering aroma no longer seemed nearly as appetizing. Half a dozen blocks later I zipped into a parking spot just the right size for my tiny car, pocketed the key and stared down at the bag on the passenger seat. I debated. Should I scarf down the burger here and now, or chuck it?
Toni was already talking about a new ad campaign, which meant an updated picture of me. How embarrassing would it be if my new
after
picture looked worse than my old
before
. I couldn’t risk that, I told myself with unusual determination. I climbed out of the car, tightened my coat against the November cold and marched off toward a trash bin, bag in hand. A few yards away, I was about to drop it in, when an idea came to me. Surely I wasn’t the only person on a diet who would kill for a hamburger. I hoofed on to the restaurant.
The bell above the door tinkled, announcing my arrival. Charles, our wonderful sous-chef, came hurrying out from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a bar towel.
“Morning, boss,” he said, and then frowned, noticing the eye-catching logo on the Burger Heaven bag. “What have you got there? Don’t tell me there’s nothing on our menu you would have preferred to
that?
”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, you’ve been spending way too much time with Toni.” I dropped the bag on the nearest table as I slipped out of my parka. “Tell me something, Charles. How often do you eat hamburgers?”
“Me? Why?”
“You’re naturally thin, and you don’t have to watch your diet. I’m just curious. On average, how many burgers a month would you say you eat?”
He shrugged, frowning as he counted in his mind. “Uh, I don’t know—maybe half a dozen.” My jaw dropped. And then, looking guilty, he added, “Okay, maybe more like ten or twelve.”
“You eat about a dozen burgers a month? That’s...that’s an average of three a week.” I was
so
jealous. “Does Jennifer eat that many too?”
Jennifer was Charles’s new girlfriend, a tall and slender blonde he’d recently talked us into hiring. In all fairness, we’d needed the extra help and she was proving invaluable in the kitchen. The girl could multitask better than anyone I’d ever known.
“I think she eats more than I do,” he replied.
“More than you?” Life was so not fair. “Well, that proves it.”
“That proves what?”
“You know what I miss the most since I’ve been watching my weight?” In truth, the only weight watching I’d been doing was daily peeks at the numbers on the scale as they kept climbing. “Hamburgers. There are days when I’d sell my firstborn to the devil for one.”
He chuckled. “Good thing you don’t have kids.”
“You know what our menu needs? A good low-calorie burger. I know it isn’t exactly a gourmet dish, but maybe we can create a really upscale
Skinny
burger.”
“A low-cal burger? Let’s see.” He counted on his fingers. “Beef, cheese, bread—none of those are exactly diet foods.” He bobbed his brows. “But you’re right. If we can find a way of making it, we’d have a new hot item.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll figure out a way.” I picked up the bag again and headed for the kitchen, pausing at the swinging door. “We’ve turned more challenging dishes than burgers into low-cal meals.”
In the kitchen I was greeted by a blend of delicious aromas. Charles had put Jennifer to stirring at the stove. She threw me a beaming smile. “Hi, Nicky.”
Marley, our assistant, was at the counter chopping vegetables, his dreadlocks gathered in a bun under a hairnet, and Scott, our dishwasher, was stacking clean dishes onto the open shelves. Even Jake, our headwaiter—actually our only waiter—was putting clean dishes away.
“How are we doing? Is everything ready for the lunch crowd?” I asked. Just using the word
crowd
gave me a kick. It wasn’t so long ago that we were thrilled when we served six or eight customers a shift. Now we were averaging over thirty people at lunchtime alone. Granted, our dinner clientele was still meager, but eventually that would improve too.
Charles walked over to the stove and peeked into the pot Jennifer was stirring. His hand landed on Jennifer’s back and a tender look passed between them. “The Alfredo sauce is simmering. I’ve got two dozen individual crustless quiches in the oven.”
Since the introduction of our Skinny menu, our three most popular dishes remained our quiches, our Skinny Fettuccine Alfredo and our Skinny Caesar salads. We had to keep a ready supply of those at all times.
He continued. “The romaine is washed and dried. The dressing is done and the special of the day—” he indicated another pot, “—is chicken mulligatawny.”
“Yum.” I plopped my burger bag on the plating counter. “How soon can you get going on the Skinny burger idea, Charles?” He turned from the stove.
He frowned. “Does it have to be a
beef
burger?”
“Hmm.” I thought quickly. “How about we test a few different versions and then decide which one we should adopt?”
“Good idea.” He tapped his wooden spoon on the edge of the pot and set it in its rest. He came over and opened the bag. He snatched the burger and unwrapped it. “Do you want to include fries?”
“Burger
and
fries, what a treat. If you can manage to still keep the dish under 500 calories I say go for it.”
His eyes got that faraway look they always did when he began considering options. Charles liked nothing better than a challenge, which was one of the many reasons he was so valuable to us. Another reason, one I didn’t like to admit, was that he could almost outcook even me. He was that good.
I grabbed an apron from the hook by the door. “Has anybody heard from Toni yet?” At that very moment, she appeared in the doorway, wearing a leopard-print shrink-wrap dress, five-inch heels and a wide smile.
I blinked. Toni, arriving on time?—that was unheard of.
“Why are you all looking at me that way?” she said, giving her blond mane a toss. “Is it my new dress?” She walked a few steps runway style and twirled. “How do you like it?”
“A better question would be, why are you here so—” I frowned, my eyes locking on her breasts. They were ginormous.
Seeing the confusion in my eyes, she burst out laughing. “How do you like them?”
I glanced around quickly and, yes, the guys were all staring bug-eyed at her chest too.
Toni gave a little shoulder wiggle. “Are they all right? Too big? Too small?” Her smile widened. “Will somebody say something?”
Charles found his voice. “Nice,” he said, blushing.
Toni slipped a hand into her V-neck and pulled out two apples. “I’ve been thinking of getting a boob job and thought I’d see what everybody thought first.”
“Please don’t,” I said. “You look great just the way you are. In fact, sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s not your fault if you’re tall, slim and gorgeous. You were born that way.”
“I know,” she said, fanning herself. “It’s a blessing and a curse.” She smiled wanly and winked. “So, seriously, do you think I should do it?”
“No,” five voices exclaimed at once.
“Well, I guess that settles it.” She dropped the two apples on the plating table. I waited for her to turn her back, picked them up and threw them in the nearest trash can. There was something very unappealing about apples that had masqueraded as boobs.
The bell above the entrance door tinkled, announcing the first lunchtime customers, quickly putting an end to the conversation. Jake hurried out front and the rest of us jumped into high gear. I plopped on my chef’s hat, got a box of shitake mushrooms from the walk-in fridge and began chopping. At the plating table, Toni was wrapping the apron ties around her waist. She looped it around three times before tying the ends into a bow in the back, and the apron still looked too big on her.
She threw me a smile. “Like I said, a blessing and a curse.”
“Wish I had to live with that kind of a curse,” I snapped back. My eyes wandered over to Jennifer. Every woman around me was tall, thin and gorgeous, damn it.
For all the complaining I did about my weight, I knew I had it pretty good. To most people, my life probably seemed perfect. I mean, here I was, not even thirty and I owned a pretty little Victorian semi-detached, which I had lovingly restored to a warm and cozy home. And I already co-owned my own business. Thank goodness, the restaurant had turned around, because I was also the owner of many overextended credit cards, which I was slowly paying off. If those paychecks stopped coming in, I would so be in deep shit.
*
The day whizzed by in a frantic rush of grilling, baking, steaming and roasting, and suddenly it was ten-fifteen. The lunch shift had been packed, but once again the dinner crowd was sparse—normal for a Wednesday. Now, one couple remained and they had just asked for the bill. I peeked out from the swinging door to see Jake escorting them to the exit. I looked around. “Where’s Toni?”
Charles looked embarrassed. “She hurried out about an hour ago—”
“I don’t believe it,” I exclaimed, unamused. She had sneaked out so quietly that I hadn’t even noticed. “She had a date with Steven, didn’t she?”
He shrugged. “She said she’d be back with some kind of a surprise before you left.”
“A surprise? Any idea what it might be?”
“Not a clue.”
The real surprise would be if she showed up before we left.
“Everything is done,” Scott said. “Do you mind if we take off?”
I looked around. The kitchen was clean and tidy once again. The counters were spotless, the dishes and glasses stacked neatly and sparkling on the shelves. The floor had been swept and mopped. “Okay, let’s call it a day. Good job, everyone. See you in the morning.”
Jake, Marley and Scott were going out the back when the bell above the entrance door chimed. I looked at Charles. “I thought you locked up.”
“Of course I did,” he said, looking as worried as I was.
I slipped off my stool and went to the door. To my surprise, it was Toni. She stood in the entrance looking around, as if confused. “Toni, you came back,” I said. “Toni? Are you all right?”