Page 31 of Always Be My Baby

“You want to know something funny?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“I’ve carried that Bible with me for years, but I never took the time to look inside it until I retrieved it from my storage unit. When Lachlan said he wanted it, I thought why? Why would this guy drive up to Lake Shores for a worthless heirloom?” She shrugged. “I decided to see for myself what was so special about it.”

“What did you discover, what were the things you thought might be valuable?” I asked, rolling to find a more comfortable position while still being able to see her face as we talked.

“Not much. Old photos and tintypes. But there was a small manila envelope with some kind of certificates inside. I didn’t get a chance to look at them because we got busy… I think we need to check those out.”

“We definitely need to check them out,” I said, starting to laugh again because the image of Lachlan opening that Bible thinking he was going to find something great was rich, but the image of Lachlan finding nothing was priceless. Pressing my lips together, I shook my head until I finally felt like I got it under control then finished,Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” she agreed, clearly not finding the image as funny as I did. She sighed, the sad sort of sigh. The kind of sigh that I recognized as that beautiful woman carrying the weight of her world on her shoulders again. One day she’d realize that she didn’t have to. I was there to carry it along with her. And because I was, I knew what I needed to do to ease at least some of her burdens.

After a long day at work and dealing with the insurance adjuster, I drew Lee a hot bath. While she soaked, I made her a mug of hot cocoa with whipped cream and marshmallows, and brought it to her.

“Thank you,” she said, her eyes bright as she reached for the mug. “I know you said not to worry about it, but I can’t help it. It’s who I am. You’re being so nice to me, and it was my family mess that started all this in the first place. I don’t think you should be so nice to me.”

“Lee, sweetheart, I plan to be a lot nicer than hot cocoa in a warm bath.” Then I stripped down and proceeded to show her how nice I could be. By the time we exited the tub, the water was cold but I’d managed to keep Lee hot. And by keeping Lee hot, I kept myself that way, too. Being in a relationship wasthe shit. Good thing I never planned on being single again.

After a lazy morning, because we deserved a lazy morning and I wanted it that way, Lee and I headed through the icy streets to the bistro for work. But before we got too far into the day’s prep, we went to Lee’s office, where she unlocked her bottom drawer and pulled out several small envelopes.

The first envelope contained several silver certificates from the early part of the twentieth century. I wasn’t sure if or what they were worth, but we would definitely look them up. The second envelope contained those tintypes and what must’ve been family photographs from the late 1800s. When we opened the third envelope, that was when I started to get excited. It was a crisp $50 bill, the date, 1875.

Now, I didn’t know a whole lot about old money, but if this thing was real, and in this condition, it had to be worth a pretty penny. Definitely worth enough to make someone want to break into someone’s house in hopes of finding it.

“Do you think it’s real?” Lee asked.

“I mean, it certainly looks real. Been in that Bible for how many years?”

“We’ll have to get in touch with a dealer to see if it’s authentic or not.”

“Right. I’ve got to go start prep for lunch, but why don’t you start doing some research? See if there’re any dealers close by.”

I went out to the kitchen to call my morning meeting with the staff before we got busy cooking.

One of my cooks, Navy, she had fuchsia highlights in her hair today that looked nice, anyway she spoke up before the start of the meeting. “We’re thinking about throwing a little get-together to celebrate Harrison and his girlfriend—or I guess his fiancé now— getting engaged.”

Nodding as I looked at her I said, “It sounds good. Let me know what you come up with.” Harrison was a good man and his woman was sweet. I could get behind throwing them a small something. But that talk would have to wait. We had a lunch service to discuss. I clapped my hands together as I looked out at the group. “Right. Let’s do this.”

About an hour into prep, Lee stepped out of her office. “Girard, honey…”

I looked up to the sound of her calling my name and adding ‘honey.’ That meant we needed a private moment, otherwise she’d simply addressed me by my name. Setting my knife down on the table next to my cutting board, I moved around the other cooks to get to her where we could keep whatever she needed from me between us. Even in the work environment I couldn’t resist resting my hand to the small of her back or bending in to drop a quick kiss to her cheek. “What can I do for you, sweetheart?”

“If we can slip out of here a little early tonight after dinner, I got in touch with a dealer who has really high reviews. I told him what I have and he told me to bring it all in. He can verify whether they’re real or not and give me an idea what they’re worth.”

“You know he’ll lowball you when he tries to get you to sell them, right?”

“Oh, he can try to talk me into selling them all he wants,” she said in that ‘let him trytotake advantage of me’ tone she always took on when dealing with new suppliers. Damn, that tone and the little arch to her eyebrow that went along with her using that tone turned me on to no end. What could I say? I loved a strong woman. “But,” she picked up. “that’s not going to happen. I’m not doing any sales until I research what they’re worth once I find out if they’re real or counterfeit.”

I shouldn’t have even bothered to say anything. I knew Lee was always thinking, always three steps ahead.

With that settled, I got back down to the business of cooking. The lunch service went smoothly, pretty much how our lunch services tended to go. But during our dinner service, we got slammed by two different tour buses. One was a bus of seniors passing through from the U.P. The other was a bus sponsored byTour Michiganmagazine.

Lee had said she wanted to slip out early. With this crowd, I didn’t know if it was going to be possible and I didn’t have any more time to think about it. There was something so comforting to me about the sounds coming from the working kitchen. I found my groove and went with it.

By the time dinner service finally slowed down, a sheen of sweat covered my face, my neck, even my hands.

“Didn’t you guys want to take off early?” Sawyer asked.

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