Page 14 of Boss of the Year
“I’ll have Henry take your bags to your rooms, Marie,” Lucas called after me.
“Thank you.” I flapped my hand in response and continued toward the back of the house, where I’d find Ondine and figure out where exactly my rooms were going to be, or if they would also be the same as before.
“Her rooms?” Daniel asked as I turned around one of the massive rhododendrons currently being clipped by Kevin, one of the assistant gardeners.
“Welcome back, Marie,” he called as I passed.
“Yep, yep, glad to be here!” I just wanted to be out of earshot.
“Marie?” My name continued to echo out of Daniel’s mouth. “Who the hell isMarie?”
I didn’t hear Lucas’s response as I practically sprinted away. But Daniel’s last words, full of shock and something that sounded like disgust, were a siren, sounding the alarm all the way to the water.
“She’s thecook?!”
3
NETTLE SOUP
*Use tongs. Nettles sting until they are cooked through.
“Obviously, you have to go,” Joni declared.
I looked out a window toward a small pond and one corner of an old stable that looked like it might blow over with a bad storm.
Ondine had the evening off to rest before the extravaganza the following night, and the family was dining at the nearby yacht club. Too busy to drive me back to the train station, Carlos had handed me the keys to one of the staff vehicles and told me to have fun on my last night of freedom.
I knew what he meant. The Lyons family was demanding at best, despotic at worst. In a few days, I’d be waking up at at before five to prep the family’s meals and get off around eight, maybe later. Sometimes, much later, if they had company. And the Lyonses often had company.
Anyone in their right mind would have gone straight to the city to reunite with friends, have some drinks, and act twenty-five for one more night before jumping into the deceptively chaotic life of a live-in chef.
I, however, had left those sorts of friends in Paris. So, instead, I’d gone to Ardsley, a neighboring Westchester suburb where Joni and her boyfriend, Nathan, were looking over a property he had just purchased. Well,theyhad purchased, since Nathan had put the house in both of their names.
I still didn’t know what to make of that.
Lea’s four kids were playing on the lawn, thrilled to be outside the city. The oldest, eleven-year-old Tommy, shepherded his younger brothers, Peter and MJ, around the grass while they all kept an eye on Lupe, their two-year-old sister.
“Tommy reminds me of Matthew,” I remarked as I watched them play tag.
Joni and I were almost the same age as Lupe when our own father had passed away in a drunk driving accident, and our mom was sent to prison for being the one at the wheel. All five Zola kids had gone to live with our grandparents, but in some ways, our brother and Lea had raised us just as much as Nonna and Nonno did.
Joni looked over from where she was perched on an avocado-colored kitchen island beside Nathan, who was examining a set of blueprints with one brawny hand firmly on her knee. “Yeah, that boy definitely had to grow up this year. It’s tough learning to be the man of the house, but I will say, he’s pretty good at it. He didn’t even want me out there with them. Said he could take care of them himself.”
“He shouldn’t have to, though,” I said.
“You try telling that to a Zola,” Joni replied.
We watched as Tommy jumped out to rescue Lupe before she stuck some unknown plant in her mouth. I knew what we were both thinking—how many times had our older brother or sistersdone that for the two of us, the babies of our family? And how much had it cost of their own childhoods too?
I turned back toward the dusty interior of the split-level, which was covered in faux wood paneling, shag carpet, and stained Formica. “Tell me again why you bought this house? It smells like Nonna’s sweaters that year the moths got to them.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Nathan remarked without looking up from the plans. “The inspector looked for moth nests and didn’t find anything. Nor did he find any skeletons.”
I blinked. “Skeletons?”
“In the closet,” Joni clarified with a chuckle.
It took a few seconds for me to get it. Joni had warned me that sometimes her boyfriend didn’t understand jokes right away, and the occasional ones he made wouldn’t sound like jokes either.
