Fed Up (30 page)

Josh stayed with me until I was done. Then I hurried him into the kitchen. I didn’t want to waste time talking with my family or anyone else right now. “Ade is in labor, so I have to leave in a few minutes. Can you cover for me? They don’t want anyone to know right now since Kitty is a horrid pill, and Owen’s family is a bit busy trying to bail their other two sons out of jail.”

“Absolutely. How exciting! I bet Ade and Owen are disappointed about not going to the Ritz tonight, though—”

“Would everyone stop saying that?” Honestly, who gave a rat’s ass about the Ritz when a baby was on the way? “Listen.” I took Josh’s hand. “Robin was seriously unbalanced.”

“Obviously. I’m just glad no one else got hurt tonight.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “She’s deranged. And she told some horrible lies. Not just to cover up that she had poisoned Francie. Robin even tried to get me to believe things about you.”

Josh looked quizzically at me.

I continued. “She had the audacity to try to convince me that you quit your job at Simmer and that Digger was taking over for you.”

There was an uncomfortably long pause. Robin, I realized, had been telling me the truth.

“Josh?”

He sighed and looked around the room. “Yeah, it’s true. That’s why I’ve had so much time off in the past few days. It just got to be too much, Chloe. Gavin is off his rocker, and he’s impossible to work for. I told Digger the job was his if he actually wanted it. I’ve been looking around for other jobs. I have a headhunter named Yvette.” That explained all the phone calls Josh had been getting from a woman. “She actually found me a great job. In Hawaii. A private chef for a family there, Chloe. Great pay and free housing in their guesthouse. And they travel all the time. They said you could come with me, too.” Josh finally looked at me. “I’m flying out of Boston in a few days. What do you say, Chloe? Do you want to move to Hawaii with me? Do you?”

“THIS simply must be the most gorgeous baby in the world.” I gazed down at the newborn I held tightly in my arms. A blanket swaddled the tiny baby, and I could not stop staring at the little one’s perfect features and healthy pink glow. “Patrick, huh? It’s a great name.”

“Isn’t he perfect?” Adrianna beamed from her hospital bed. “I’d read so many stories about babies coming out with misshapen heads and blotchy faces, so I’d prepared myself that my kid might look awful for the first few days, but Baby Trick is too handsome for words.”

“Baby Trick?” I giggled.

“Yeah. Isn’t that cute?” Adrianna’s hair was pulled off her face in a high ponytail. She’d changed out of the unflattering hospital gown into a pair of yellow silk pajamas. Considering that she’d given birth only forty-eight hours ago, she looked spectacular enough to remind me of the celebrities who appeared on the cover of
People
magazine showing off their newborns.

By the time I’d finished giving my umpteenth rendition of events to the police officers and detectives on the night of the reception, I’d arrived at the hospital to find Adrianna in full-blown labor. Naomi had stayed with Ade and Owen until I got there and had refrained from scowling when the anesthesiologist had stuck a needle in Ade’s spine to deliver a good dose of medicine. Owen and I had held Adrianna’s hands as she pushed; Owen had managed not to faint, and I had managed not to cry (too much) as baby Patrick entered the world.

“Thanks for spending so much time with me in the hospital. I can’t wait to get out of here. Owen slept at home last night, but he should be back here in an hour or so to pack us up and take us home. I can’t wait to get Patrick into his new house.” Ade adjusted her pillows and winced, still sore all over from the delivery. “So fill me in on the rest of my reception. I missed all the drama with that nutball, Robin.” Ade stifled a yawn.

“Robin is still in the hospital. I guess the bullet missed any major organs, and she’ll be facing murder charges when she recovers. Nelson is being charged as an accessory after the fact. It seems that the night of the murder, while we were all on the way to the hospital, he made a copy of the video footage from that day’s filming. All the footage was on a hard drive on his camera, and he transferred a copy to his laptop and was planning on cutting it to make his own reality episode with the more grisly scenes. And I’m sure he could have sold it for a ton of money, too. With all these weird TV shows and Internet video sites, he might have become a big deal.” I shook my head in disgust. “Speaking of the reality show, that chef who runs Alloy? Marlee? Her restaurant was shut down by the health department late yesterday. One of her employees ratted her out about some serious violations, and the health inspector came out and closed the restaurant for repeated failures to correct critical violations of the State Sanitary Code.”

Ade wrinkled her face. “Ick. I told you not to eat at that restaurant!”

“I don’t think anybody will be eating there again.”

“Speaking of closings,” Adrianna started tentatively, “Owen said Simmer is closed. He called the guy who is covering his deliveries this morning and heard that the doors are locked, the lights are out, and no one is returning calls. What’s going on?”

“Oh. Well . . . it seems that Gavin has a major cocaine problem. Really major. Not only was he using money from the restaurant to fund his habit, but he had become a real ass to work for. A few of the employees staged an intervention, and Gavin is now in rehab. He had to close the restaurant and is selling the business to try to salvage whatever he can financially.” Obviously Digger wasn’t going to be taking over as the executive chef there.

“What?” Ade’s exhausted eyes widened in shock. “What about Josh? What’s he going to do? Maybe he can get a job with better hours, and you two will get to have a normal relationship. Maybe this will be for the best, Chloe.”

“Hmm, maybe.” I felt my eyes start to well up. I did not want to have this conversation now. “So, Baby Trick it is.” I gently rubbed Patrick’s soft cheek with my thumb. “I’m in love.”

“You’re already in love with Josh. But I guess he won’t mind sharing you with my little guy.” Ade rolled over in bed and lay on her side, staring at her child in my arms, her eyes heavy with exhaustion.

“No, I don’t think Josh will mind. Especially since he’s not here.”

“I’m sure he’ll come by later.”

“No, actually. He won’t. He went to Hawaii.” I cleared my throat. “Moved to Hawaii, I should say.”

Josh’s invitation to move with him had confused me. Adrianna, Owen, and Patrick needed me, and I needed them. And I had my second year of social work school upon me, and I was finally starting to feel connected to the work I was doing. But Hawaii with Josh would be . . . well, Hawaii with Josh. Paradise. Double paradise.

“Chloe, what are you talking about? What do you mean he—”

“Ade, I need to talk to you.” My voice shook as I spoke. Patrick’s face became blurry through my tears. “Ade, I don’t know what to do. I just don’t know what to do.”

 

 

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 450°.

Score the fat on top of lamb meat, making shallow crisscross knife slashes, but do not cut into the meat of the lamb. Cover the ends of the bones with foil to prevent charring. Sear the lamb by placing the rack of lamb in the oven, fat side down, in a shallow baking pan for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 325° and roast according to your preference using the following chart:

 

Remove lamb rack from oven and tent pan with foil to rest for 10 minutes.

While lamb is resting, combine jam, peppers, and vinegar in a blender and blend well. Transfer jam mixture to a saucepan and warm the sauce over medium-low heat. Do not boil! (That would render a sauce too thick for use.) When sauce begins to produce a light steam, remove from heat.

In another saucepan, combine chèvre and sour cream over medium heat. Stir well until smooth and then remove from heat.

Remove the foil from the lamb, place meat on a cutting board, and cut between each chop so that you have 8 individual chops. Place two chops on each plate and top with 3 tablespoons of the grape-chili jam. Drizzle lightly with the chèvre sauce; using a squeeze bottle of some type gives a lovely presentation. Serve with your favorite sides.

 

 

Serves 8

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 7 ingredients. Bake in a ceramic or glass oven-safe dish until completely melted into the consistency of a dip. Spread each half of croissant with a heaping tablespoon of spread. Top each croissant half with a poached egg and top with 2 tablespoons hollandaise sauce (recipe follows).

Beat egg yolks together. Melt butter in a double boiler (water softly boiling) with lemon juice. When melted, slowly add egg yolks (equivalent of about one yolk at a time) so as not to scramble the eggs. Stir constantly until very hot and serve. Add salt to taste if needed. Give a quick dash of hot sauce on the finished dish for visual presentation and a bit of a kick.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Place all of the ingredients in the baggie with the potatoes. Shake
very
well to coat potatoes with the other ingredients. Place on large cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Do not layer or pile the potatoes; have one even layer. Bake for 45 minutes or until brown and crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. If they don’t brown enough during baking, use a kitchen torch for a few seconds over the potatoes just until they are crispy and browned, and serve with Benedict.

 

 

 

 

 

Serves 4-6