Page 219 of Sing with Me

“What?”

“I know what you’re doing and you’ll just burn yourself out.”

“What am I doing?” Skye asked.

“You’re going to be anti-social tonight and cook in your test kitchen into the wee hours of the morning. Am I right?”

Gillian must have told her of Skye’s plans.

Avery’s cousin was a godsend when Skye desperately needed an administrative assistant in her new office space to take phone calls from potential new clients—now that STL was in the news—and do some other office work for Skye. However, Gillian needed to learn not to tell her cousin about everything that went on at the STL office.

“Let’s go see Brinley,” Avery suggested. “She’s done feeding her baby, and she has an hour or so maybe.”

“Do you know everyone’s schedule?” Skye laughed.

“Just yours and Brinley’s.”

Skye felt justifiably reluctant to see Brinley twice in a week. “Brinley needs to rest. Let’s go next week.”

“No. It has to be today.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s Friday.”

“I can’t.” There was no way. “Fall is coming, and around this time of year, I test new menus. Next week, I’ll be in Atlanta meeting Watt for dinner—no pun intended—where I’ll meet his chefs. I’ll bring Chef Joseph with me because I think he’ll make a good VP for me in the Atlanta area. So this is my last weekend left to update the menu.”

Could she cook several dishes tonight? Well, since she didn’t have a date for Friday night, why not? Since she had asked her chefs to suggest recipes, she felt obligated to test them herself before she made other chefs cook them.

Avery sighed. “Sometimes you’re something else. It feels like I have to push you to do something, like you have perpetual inertia to sit in place.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about rest and self-care,” Avery said. “You’ve been working non-stop for the last three weeks in your new company, and Gillian told me that you were in the office before she arrived and you were still in the office after she left for the day.”

“Gillian needs to know where her boundaries are with company matters,” Skye said.

“Don’t blame her. I asked. I pried it out of her.”

“You could’ve asked me yourself.”

“Would you tell me that you’re working twelve to sixteen hours a day to make the business merger work?”

“Well…”

“See, I know you wouldn’t. You used to take weekends off, but now you’re working on Saturdays and after church on Sundays,” Avery continued. “As your best friend, it’s my obligation to be honest with you. You need time off.”

“You’re my best friend now?”

“I hate to break it to you, sister, but I’m your only friend left.” Avery grinned. “When was the last time you went to the ladies’ night out that Olivia organized? And you skipped two women’s Bible studies in a row.”

Skye cringed. She had spent more time at her test kitchen sorting out new recipes and menus than she had studying her Bible. “Yes, it sounds bad. But STL…”

“STL is a job, a company. It’s not your life.”

“I put a lot of my savings into it.”

“You sold your shares in Saffron and Uncle Watt gave you a deal on his company.”

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