Page 92 of Only a Breath Away

Fraoch seeing that said, “I want mine black as well.”

Hayley said, “You usually love cream in yours?”

He scowled, “Nae, I want mine black this morn.”

We stood around the kitchen table drinking coffee. Emma casually said, “It’s going to be even more crowded in here tomorrow, I just hired Tracy to come help you cook, Zachary.”

He dropped a pan. “What? You hired someone to come help… what?”

“Don’t look shocked, or offended, you need the help. Do you want one of us to help you?”

“No, that is… no, I—”

“Beaty helps with the kids, you don’t like me to help, Quentin and James aren’t good at cooking or taking orders from you, Hayley hates it. Want Kaitlyn or Magnus to help?”

“No, don’t be ridiculous.”

“So you need help, at least while we’re on vacation, so you can relax too.”

Zach scoffed dramatically. “I don’t need to fucking relax, does she even know how to cook?”

“She said she cooks at home, but that’s unimportant, she needs the work. She’s delivering groceries, and I think she’s great. I asked if she would come and help you make meals.”

Zach sputtered. “I feel insulted.”

Emma looked around. “Does anyone in this house think that I asked Tracy to come help Zach because I think he’s incompetent?”

We all shook our heads.

Beaty said, “She asked her tae help ye, Chef Zach. I daena think ye ought tae take it as an insult. In the castle kitchen there were ten people makin’ the meals.”

“But here there are… now I’ve got Madame Beaty ganging up on me.” He huffed as he pulled a tray of warming waffles from the oven and started scraping scrambled eggs off a pan into a bowl. “Does she haveanyrestaurant cooking experience?”

Emma said, “Zachary, would you like me to go to town and get you a trained chef to come in here and you can have all kinds of issues, arguments, and power struggles over whose kitchen it is? Or do you want me to hire someone who wants the work and is willing to let you run things and tell them what to do.”

He pouted. “The second one, I guess.”

“Exactly, Tracy will be here tomorrow morning to help you make breakfast. Don’t worry, it will be like the castle kitchen at Kilchurn, you’ve been missing Eamag, this is to give you someone to talk to.”

Zach said, “Fine, I suppose this is acceptable, as long as everyone knows that Icando the cooking by myself, I’m just choosing not to because we’re on a relaxing vacation. And by the way, your five-course breakfast is ready.”

We piled waffles, eggs, sausages, fruit, toast, and bacon on our plates and all went out to the porch to eat.

At the table Quentin said, “Now that you have kitchen staff, what are you going to do with all your free time, Zach?”

He groaned. “I don’twantfree time, but probably swimming with Ben and Zoe. Why?”

Quentin said, “Because once I get back from my trip with James, Beaty asked me to take some time to relax and do things that are not security related, and I am having a hard time figuring out what that is.”

Beaty said, “Swimming, or ye could paddle around on the boats, or ye could go for a walk in the meadows. Ye could play board games with the bairns.”

Fraoch said, “Ye could go fishin’, Hayley and I are goin’ tae fish.”

He narrowed his eyes, “Yeah, no, none of that…”

James said, “We’re going to leave in a couple of hours, we’ll be back tomorrow.”

Quentin took a big bite of sausage. “Yeah, I’ll figure it out then, for now there’s a lot to do.”

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