Undercover Cook

“That, too.”

Jed gave a small cough and Tina straightened up from the counter. “We’d best be going. I know you’ll do a spectacular job with this.”

“I will,” Eden agreed, as her best customer waved and disappeared out the door.

Good money, good times, but surprise parties were a pain.

She went back into the kitchen, where Patty was running a basin of warm water to wash the counters down after a full day of making chicken potpies.

“I thought Justin would be in by now,” Patty said.

“Double shift at the Tahoe Summit,” Eden told her. Again.

“He does too much,” Patty said. Eden didn’t answer, since the prep cook said that at least four or five times a day, but she did glance at the clock. It was later than she’d thought.

“Oh, man, I’ve got to hurry. I told Reggie I’d be at their place at seven.” It was her babysitting night, an evening she looked forward to, since she couldn’t quite get enough of her new niece, Rosemary Eden Gerard. Tom, Reggie’s husband, put in long hours renovating the house he was going to use as the site of his new restaurant, and he insisted that they get one night out a week.

“You know I don’t mind finishing up here,” Patty said briskly. “I like cleaning at the end of the day.”

“Thanks.” Eden didn’t hesitate in accepting her offer. Patty did like cleaning up, finishing up, locking up. Being indispensable. And in a way, Eden felt sorry for her. Other than at Tremont, she didn’t seem to be indispensable to anyone.

Eden hung up her apron, thanked Patty again, who waved her off, then rushed out the front door to the lot. And stopped dead when she saw the envelope stuck under her car’s windshield wiper.

Drawing in a breath, she yanked out the heavy envelope. Cream colored and expensive—no doubt who had left it there.

Eden dropped the envelope on the ground and got into her car. She’d pick it up and throw it away some other time. But right now, even though she couldn’t see his car parked anywhere, she had a strong suspicion that Ian was watching, waiting to see her reaction to whatever he’d written.

He wouldn’t be getting a reaction from her because she wasn’t going to allow him to engage her. She jammed the key into the ignition and started the engine, letting it run for a few seconds before she put it into gear and backed out of the parking spot.

She noted with a touch of satisfaction that she’d run straight over the envelope, leaving a nice dirty tire mark on the pristine cream paper.

“IT’S OPEN,” TOM GERARD called when Eden knocked on the back door of her sister’s house. Brioche, her brother-in-law’s part-Yorkie dog, raced across the kitchen to greet Eden, nearly sliding out the door as she skidded to a stop on the tile floor.

“Hey, Bree,” Eden said, leaning down to ruffle the hair of the little terrier’s head. The dog grinned at her and danced on its hind feet. Mims, Reggie’s fat cat, watched disdainfully from the kitchen door, but Eden knew that before the evening was over, cat and dog would be snuggled together in one bed.

“Thanks for coming,” Tom said, handing Eden the baby and then gently prying tiny fingers off his slate-blue silk tie. Rosemary’s lower lip jutted out as she lost possession of her new find, so Tom made a silly blowing noise at her stomach. The baby gave a huge gummy grin and waved both hands. Tom laughed.

“New trick,” he said to Eden with a crooked smile. “There’s a bottle in the fridge ready to go. Just heat and serve in about an hour, and she should go down.”

Not if Eden had anything to do with it. The baby might go to sleep, but she’d be in Aunt Eden’s arms in the rocker while they overdosed on classic movies.

“I need to hurry my wife along so that we can eat and be back before Reggie falls asleep.”

“I swear she’s pregnant again,” Eden said.

“Not likely.” But he didn’t look displeased by the idea. “And she’s not throwing up.”

“It’s probably a boy. Different chemistry involved.”

Reggie came out then, her dark hair swept up. She was wearing an emerald-green dress that made her look cool and elegant, exactly the opposite of how Eden felt nine-tenths of the time. Somehow blond and short did not translate into cool and elegant. She might have felt on the edge of sophisticated at Reggie’s wedding, and maybe at one or two of her proms—not the one where she fell in the fountain, thanks to her brother—but in general she had to settle for being the perky Tremont.

Perky.

She hated that word.

“You look great,” Eden said, transferring the baby to her shoulder, in case Reggie had any ideas about relieving her of her burden.

“Thanks.” Reggie came around behind her to kiss the top of her daughter’s head. “We won’t be long. I got the payroll done. Don’t let me forget to give you the checks.”

“They’re on the dining-room table,” Tom said, helping his wife into her coat.

“How’re things at the kitchen?” Reggie asked as Tom firmly shepherded her to the door.

“All caught up.” Barely. Eden patted the baby’s back. “You know we’ll call you guys if we get into the juice, and in the meantime you can stop worrying, stay home and enjoy motherhood.”

Which was exactly what Reggie was doing. She’d promised to take six months off, coming back in May when the wedding season started gearing up, and to everyone’s surprise she’d kept her word.

The baby hiccupped and Eden wondered what the back of her sweatshirt looked like. Cute as they were, babies seemed to make a full-time career out of emitting fluids.

“You’re fine,” Reggie said, reading her mind. “See you—” Her words turned into a laugh as Tom propelled her out the door.

“Later,” he finished before firmly closing it.

“Just you and me and the menagerie, kid,” Eden said as she crossed the room to the rocker recliner, with the dog and cat trailing close behind. Brioche curled up with her chin on Eden’s shoes and Mims jumped onto the nearby sofa to keep an eye on things.

For a few minutes Eden simply sat and rocked the baby. It had been a long day. All her days were long, so that wasn’t anything new, but ending it with an unread and unwanted note from Ian was.

Crap.

She should have read it. Maybe she’d stop by on her way home and pick it up from the parking lot, see what he had to say.

Or maybe she should just leave matters alone. She was better off not knowing what he’d written. Then it wouldn’t weigh on her mind. She wouldn’t have to think of how to handle matters.

But she wouldn’t be prepared, either. And perhaps it was simply a goodbye. If so, she wanted to know that she could stop worrying about him pestering her to give him a second chance.

Okay…she’d stop and get the note. Even though it was going to ruin her night.

Eden rubbed Rosemary’s back, drawing in the wonderful fresh baby scent as she cuddled her niece close. Hard to think about anything bad in the world when holding a soft, warm baby. Since it was probably going to be a number of years before she had one of her own, Eden shoved all the rotten Ian-related thoughts out of her mind and focused on what was in the here and now.

ROSEMARY WAS ASLEEP in Eden’s arms when Reggie and Tom returned home at nine o’clock, and Reggie did indeed look as if she was ready to conk out. Eden gave Tom an I-told-you-so look before she passed the baby to him. He winked at her and in turn handed the baby to Reggie, who barely managed to say, “Thanks so much for sitting,” before she yawned.

“Same time next week?” Eden asked as Reggie came back out from the baby’s room. Her sister glanced at Tom, who nodded.

“We may not be going out for a while.”

Because you’re pregnant and nauseous?

“Lowell has asked me to help with his restaurant for a month. It’ll pay off a big chunk of the renovation bill for my place.”