by Lee Hollis
When all was said and done at two the next morning, Liddy was the proud foster mother of one momma foster dog and twelve darling little foster puppies. I assumed Liddy would hold off on her decision to get her own dog after this harrowing experience, but who knows? She now has thirteen dogs to choose from!
This week I’m sharing my heavenly Bacon Nachos recipe, which is sure to be a hit with all your friends and family. Olé!
Hayley’s Bacon Nachos
Ingredients
½ pound of cooked bacon, crumbled and divided
½ of a large red onion, chopped and divided
One tomato, seeded and chopped
½ cup sliced black olives
5 or 6 jalapeños, seeded and chopped
2 to 3 cups of Mexican blend cheese, halved
1 bag of your favorite tortilla chips
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread half the tortilla chips on the foil. Sprinkle with half of the bacon, onion, peppers, and cheese. Spread on the remaining chips, then top with the remaining ingredients and end with the cheese. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted and beginning to slightly brown. Serve with sour cream and salsa if desired.
Melon Martini
Ingredients
2 ounces your favorite nonflavored vodka
½ ounce melon liqueur
½ ounce simple syrup
1 slice melon to garnish
Fill a shaker with ice cubes and then add all your ingredients. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with the melon slice and be ready to be wowed.
Chapter 16
“Hayley, I want to explain why I’ve been slightly distant lately,” Aaron said.
Slightly?
That was a bit of an understatement.
Hayley took a deep breath. She wiped her mouth with a yellow cloth napkin and set it back down in her lap.
Aaron was nervous and fidgety. He stabbed at a fried shrimp on his plate and missed it twice before finally impaling it with the fork’s silver prongs and popping it into his mouth. The chewing bought him an additional few seconds before he had to speak again.
He wiped sweat from his brow with his forearm and with a full mouth said, “Awfully hot in here.”
Hayley was surprised when he had called her on her cell phone earlier in the day and asked if she was free for dinner that evening. Even if she hadn’t been, she would have cleared her schedule because the suspense was killing her.
She had to know what was going on with him.
Was he going to break up with her or propose?
Whichever it was, she just wanted to know.
He swallowed the shrimp, set down his fork, and cleared his throat.
The dinner at West Street Café, near the waterfront, had up to this point been uneventful and filled with small talk. Nothing of consequence. But finally, near the end of the main course, there appeared to be a breakthrough.
He was about to get serious.
She downed the last of her glass of ice water to hydrate and prepare herself for what was about to come. Water was a poor substitute for her reliable Jack and Coke, but the restaurant was busy tonight and the bar was backed up.
“I’m listening.”
“I’ve been thinking about us a lot lately and . . . Wait . . .” he said, reaching into the pocket of his tan khaki pants.
Was he about to pull out a ring?
He withdrew his hand from the pocket and there was a small white pill in the middle of his palm. He tossed it in his mouth and chased it by guzzling down some water.
He smiled weakly. “An antacid. I’ve been suffering from indigestion a lot lately. Probably because I’ve been eating tons of junk food and not your fine home cooking.”
Smooth talker.
Just get to the point.
“Anyway . . .” he said, reaching over and taking her hand. “We’ve been together almost two years now and I believe it’s time . . .”
“How dare you make an accusation like that?” a man’s voice roared from across the room.
Hayley spun around in her seat just in time to see Olivia’s husband, Nacho, spring to his feet and push the table aside with such force three wineglasses flew off and shattered into pieces on the floor.
“Chill, dude, don’t be such a drama queen,” Olivia’s son, Red, said with a smirk, just before Nacho hauled him to his feet by the collar of his shirt. “Whoa, man, don’t wrinkle the shirt.”
“I loved your mother and only wanted the best for her! Not like you, who only came around when you needed something.”
Peggy was at the table too and jumped to her feet, flushed with embarrassment, grabbing Nacho’s arm. “Would you let him go? People are watching.”
“He’s insulting my honor!” Nacho shouted.
“Honor? What honor?” Red spit out, eyes narrowing. “Everyone knows why you married my mother. If it wasn’t for her, you’d be back in Buenos Aires scheming and conning your way into whoever’s bed so you’d have a roof over your head for the night.”
“You smug little bastard! I will kill you!” Nacho yelled, punching Red in the nose with his hammy fist.
Red stumbled back, nose spurting blood, his eyes wide with shock. “You . . . you hit me. . . .”
Hayley glanced around for a waiter or the owner or someone to intervene, but everyone in the restaurant was slack jawed, in shock, watching the ugly scene unfold.
Peggy screamed. “Are you crazy? Red wants to be an actor! How could you hit him in the face like that?”
“The only role he’ll ever play is a lazy, no good, spoiled brat!” Nacho bellowed, gently rubbing his now throbbing fingers.
Finally, a young college-age waiter with slicked back hair and a scared look on his face intervened. “I’m sorry, but if you don’t leave now, we’re going to have to call the police.”
Nacho nodded, turned to head for the door, but then Red bounced to his feet and came up behind him, wrapping an arm around his neck, trying to choke him.
“You’re a fake and a cad and you never loved my mother! You just loved her money!”
Aaron had seen enough. He jumped up from the table, raced over, and tried pulling Red off Nacho. Red head butted him, catching him right in the face, and Aaron flew back into another table before sinking to the ground nursing an injured eye.
The owner rushed into the restaurant, having obviously been called by his staff and told of the emergency. He was apoplectic, screaming threats of arrests and lawsuits.
With the realization that their argument had spiraled way out of control, both Nacho and Red quickly calmed down. Nacho muttered apologies and bolted out the door. Red took the time to hand the owner a wad of cash for any damages and then, after stopping long enough to grab a napkin to hold over his bleeding nose, stormed out, dragging a still crying Peggy behind him.
Hayley was at Aaron’s side in an instant. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, a little humiliated about my fighting skills. Guess I won’t be jumping in the ring with Floyd Mayweather Junior anytime soon.”
“You were very brave.”
The owner came over and knelt down next to them. “Dr. Palmer, should we get you a doctor to look you over?”
“Oh no, I’ll be fine. Maybe just something for my eye.”
The owner stood back up and grabbed the young waiter. “Quick. Go into the kitchen and get him a piece of steak,” he said, before lowering his voice to continue. “Make sure it’s one of the cheaper cuts.”
The waiter was gone and back in a flash.
Hayley accepted the fleshy raw meat and helped Aaron carefully place it over his eye.
“Would you like me to call the police?” the owner asked Aaron.
“No. They both lost their temper and things just got overheated. It’s a very trying time for both of them. I’m willing to let it go if you are.”
The owner smiled, grateful the potentially litigious incident
was over, and then, to insure the rest of the customers’ dining experiences hadn’t been completely ruined, generously offered every table free dessert. His gesture was met with resounding applause and lots of smiles.
Except for Hayley.
She wasn’t smiling.
She knew if Aaron had been planning on proposing, he wasn’t going to do it tonight.
Chapter 17
“I want you to drive straight home and take care of your eye,” Hayley said, escorting Aaron to his parked car out in front of the West Street Café.
“I’m fine. It’s just going to be a little black and blue for a few days. Get in. I’ll drive you home.”
“No. It’s only a ten-minute walk to the house from here. I can use the exercise. I ate my entire Café Delight.”
Café Delight was one of West Street Café’s signature dishes, with lobster meat, North Atlantic shrimp, and mushrooms topped with a homemade cheese sauce, served over pasta. Sometimes she found herself dreaming about it at night.
“Okay, sorry we didn’t get a chance to chat. Next time,” Aaron said brusquely, jumping in his car and peeling away.
Chat?
That was all it was?
And boy, he sure didn’t put up much of a fuss over driving her home.
Usually he was a lot more chivalrous, ever the gentleman insisting it was his duty to see to it that she made it home safely.
Hayley scolded herself. Cut the poor guy some slack. He had just been popped in the eye by an obnoxious rich kid’s head.
There were certainly better ways the evening could have ended for him.
She suddenly heard a noise off to her left near some parked cars. She spun around and spotted Nacho hunched over, quietly sobbing. She walked over to him and gently put a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry about everything, Nacho. I know this must be a very difficult time.”
He nodded, wiping a finger across his nose and then blotting the tears running down his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket.
“I know what people think of me. I hear all the stories. But I loved her, Hayley. Truly I did. I loved Olivia deeply.”
He was trying to convince her.
Desperate for someone to believe his intentions were honorable when he married a billionaire bacon heiress.
Hayley wasn’t quite sold on that yet, but didn’t let it show.
“All those people in the restaurant staring at me and judging me. Do you think they believed those terrible lies Red was shouting?”
“You shouldn’t care what people think,” Hayley said.
“You didn’t answer me directly. That means you do.”
“I don’t know anything about you or your relationship with Olivia. I may have formed an opinion about her son and his girlfriend, but I’d rather not share it at this time. Now, why don’t we go to my brother’s bar and I’ll buy you a drink? It looks like you could use one right about now.”
“That sounds much better than spending the rest of the night licking my wounds,” Nacho said, sniffling. “I’ll drive.”
“No. It’s only a few blocks from here. Leave it here and we can walk.”
They headed up the hill from the town pier along Main Street, veering left onto Cottage Street and arriving at Drinks Like A Fish in less than five minutes. The place was packed and there were no tables or stools at the bar available, so after picking up a Jack and Coke for herself and a vodka on the rocks for Nacho, the two of them retreated to the back near the dartboard. They huddled in a free corner where Nacho ranted for the next twenty minutes about how Red and Peggy were vultures and, if left to their own devices, would surely run Redmond Meats into the ground in less than a year. His whole face flared when he talked about Red, the wannabe actor with no clue how hard his mother had worked to keep the company in the black.
Nacho downed his vodka in one gulp and excused himself to go buy another one since Hayley had only taken a couple of sips of her cocktail and was hardly ready for a second round.
She noticed several women ogling Nacho as he waited to place his order with Randy, who was helping out his loyal bartender Michelle because the bar was so busy.
There was no denying it. Nacho was one fine specimen of a man. And the whole Argentinean polo-playing backstory just added to his allure.
Wait until those local Maine girls on the prowl heard that one. There might be a stampede to talk to him.
One particularly drunk girl in formfitting jeans and a cream-colored sweater so tight she might as well have gone topless was all googly eyed and giggling as her friends pushed her forward, encouraging her to go talk to him.
Nacho was still patiently waiting at the bar for someone to take his order when she weaved her way through the crowd of fishermen, who had just stumbled through the door and were anxious to get mugs of beer in their hands. She slid in next to Nacho. She then casually turned and said something. He smiled politely at her before turning his attention away from her. She waited a few seconds and then leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Nacho shook his head, his smile a little tighter, and he spoke again. Randy suddenly appeared to serve him. The girl, crestfallen and embarrassed, scooted back to her friends, tail between her legs, having been resoundingly rejected.
When Hayley shifted her gaze back to Nacho she was surprised to see him beaming from ear to ear as he leaned forward to shout his order in Randy’s ear above the noise in the bar. He also nimbly placed a hand over Randy’s hand, which rested on the bar.
Randy was too busy to notice.
But Hayley did.
A few minutes later Nacho was back with two vodkas on the rocks.
“I did not want to have to wait in line again,” he said before downing one and picking up the other.
He was loosened up real good now and talking nonstop. Several times he slipped into his native Spanish but caught himself and pivoted back to his second language, English. He kept one eye on the bar, watching Randy race back and forth as more customers poured in and placed their drink orders. Nacho was definitely not admiring Michelle, who was a stunning girl even with her hair pulled back and her face sweating from all the running around. The happy and by now inebriated fishermen all jockeyed to flirt with her, but Nacho didn’t pay her any mind.
He was too focused on Randy.
Hayley was sure of it.
One of the garbage bins overflowed from trash, so once the line for drinks dwindled, Randy seized the opportunity to secure the bag with a zip tie and carry it out back to the bin in the alley.
Nacho excused himself to go to the bathroom.
Hayley wasn’t surprised when he walked right past the men’s room and breezed directly out the back door.
She couldn’t resist.
She had to follow him.
By the time she reached the door and stepped out into the alley, Randy was shoving Nacho away from him, the garbage bag dropped next to his feet.
“Buddy, I told you, I’m a married man,” Randy said, trying hard to diffuse the situation without causing a scene.
Nacho came at him again. “Why are so many Americans obsessed with monogamy? Especially men. You know as well as I do the male species was not designed to sleep with just one person.”
“Well, this one is, so let’s just cool down, okay?” Randy said, pushing him back again, this time firmly enough for Nacho to get the message.
He put his hands up in surrender, swaying a little from side to side, clearly fuzzy from all the vodka, and then turned around to see Hayley watching the scene from the doorway.
That sobered him up a bit.
But just a bit.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he slurred. “It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just a little drunk. You want another drink?”
“No, I’m good,” Hayley said as he pushed past her and stumbled back inside the bar.
Hayley turned to Randy, who deposited the plastic garbage bag in the bin and wiped his hands off.
“He just told me not
even an hour ago how much he was in love with his wife,” she said.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure he meant it. Like I love you. You’re my sister. He probably loved Olivia the same way. Because, honey, if there’s one thing we can be absolutely sure of at this point . . .”
“That man is an honest to goodness one hundred percent homosexual.”
“Amen, sister.”
Chapter 18
The rain pounded the windows and lightning flashed, illuminating the ornate staircase as Hayley helped Nacho up to the master bedroom at the Redmond Estate. He was still conscious but barely coherent, prattling on about what a Casanova he was back in the central Córdoba wine region where he grew up, a strapping young lad charming all the local daughters of the wine merchants. It was obvious he was desperately trying to cast doubt on Hayley’s presumed assumption regarding his sexual orientation after spying him making unwanted advances toward her brother.
After Hayley and Randy had returned to the bar, Nacho was already enjoying another vodka on the rocks bought for him by a group of swooning college girls. He held court for nearly an hour, pawing them and stealing kisses in a blatant attempt to reassert his heterosexuality.
As successful as his efforts had been, especially with the girls, who were all quite smitten with the swarthy Latin lothario, for Hayley it had been honestly painful to watch.
Outside it had started to rain.
The roads would be slick driving home and visibility low, and Nacho at this point had been probably four times the legal limit, so there was no way she was going to allow him to drive himself home. At first he had resisted, but she had managed to snatch his keys away from him during last call, and with Randy’s help, walked him back to his car at the restaurant and got him strapped into the passenger seat.
It had been a treacherous journey to Seal Harbor, but Hayley kept her eyes glued to the road. She could call for a taxi to get herself home once she got him back to the Redmond Estate. Nacho had spent the entire car ride with his face off to one side against the headrest, snoring.
