Page 31 of Cupcake of the Month
Barb’s brows lowered, creating a wrinkle between her eyes. “Hop in.”
Josh watched for any cars in the parking lot or on the street that pulled out at the same time, then fished his phone out of his pocket to see if Zach had checked in. He hadn’t. And maybe to see if Jordan had sent him a text after she’d fled from himearlier.
She hadn’t.
He read through a text from his neighbor Lucy, who said Zach had helped her change the lightbulbs in her apartment and they played board games. At least he hadn’t been alone all night. Josh checked the mirrors one more time before he leaned back in his car seat as exhaustion swept through his body.
“You know, Josh, if you need to scale back on the catering, it’s okay. I like using you because you’re creative as hell in the kitchen and those baby blues draw in more people than the smell of my dishes.”
“I’ll let you know.” Chances were he’d keep working. As crass as it was, he needed the money catering jobs pulled in.
“You have a unique understanding of food that’s going to hit it big time. When you start your own venture, I’ll understand. You have the financial mind for running a business and the skilled hands for a successful kitchen.”
“Not a chance. You’re stuck with me.” Before being mentored by Barb and seriously exploring food, his idea of unique was adding jarred salsa to scrambled eggs.
Barb pulled up to his apartment. The real one, not the brownstone he used when someone else drove him home in case Marian and Clint had tried to find out where he lived. They were resourceful enough to hire someone to follow him. “I packed up some meatballs for you. They’re already in your bag.”
“Thank you.” He reached for his backpack and got out of the car.
“And thank you for your work tonight. When I retire, you’re going to be the first person I call to hand over the business.” Barb drove away before he could respond.
His body absorbed the shock of her words. Retire? She’d never mentioned retirement.
He unlocked the lobby door and tried to sneak past Berry’sapartment, but the man must have x-ray vision. As soon as Josh’s foot touched the bottom step, Berry’s door opened. Maybe next time, Josh should bring a nugget of Kryptonite and see what happened.
“Evening, there, Josh.”
“Hey, Berry. What’s new?”
“Watching TV.” The man swept the small area with his gaze and nodded. “Have a good night.”
Josh hightailed it up the three flights, his backpack bumping his body with each stride. The apartment was quiet and dark when he entered, but a light peeked out from under his brother’s door.
The privacy screen and futon were already set up, his small lamp turned on and illuminating a small vase with fresh flowers wedged next to his stack of books on the milk crate. Lucy’s touch. He found himself smiling. Even though the situation had sucked these past few years, he had found a great group of people to have it suck with.
He put the meatballs in the fridge and knocked on Zach’s door. His brother yelled out a greeting and Josh entered the room. Zach sat on the floor with his back propped against the wall, his old laptop resting on his thighs.
“I’m home.”
“Good time?”
The thought of Jordan’s breathy sigh before they’d kissed had him nodding, even though she had stormed away from him afterward. “Yeah. You?”
“There was math homework involved. Ms. Lucy helped me figure it out.”
“It’s nice having a teacher around.”
“Yeah.” Zach ran his thumb over the edge of his computer. “Did you play nice with the other chefs?”
Josh grinned. “What do you think?”
His brother took an exaggerated sniff of the air, nostrils flaring. “I think you smell like fried chicken.”
“Chicken meatballs. That will probably be dinner tomorrow, so I hope you like the aroma.”
“I’ve smelled worse.”
“Brat.” Josh tousled Zach’s hair. “So what’s your report about?”
