Sandwich, With a Side of Romance

by Krista Phillips

  The older woman laughed. “Nothing you can help with, I’m sure.”

  Maddie straightened her back. She wasn’t a perfect waitress, but she wasn’t stupid either. “Try me.”

  “Can you cook?”

  This did not bode well.

  Maddie stared at the apron as if it were a snake hanging from Tilly’s finger. And, really, it might as well have been, given her dismal cooking skills. She’d have preferred waitressing to cooking.

  Yet she hated that everyone thought her completely inept. “I’d love to but—”

  The woman tossed the apron back on the counter. “Thought so. I’ll just call Reuben.”

  “Wait. Why do you need another cook?”

  A man behind the biggest grill she’d ever seen looked over his shoulder. Matt, if she remembered his name correctly. “Can’t do everything myself, and Ricardo called in and quit. Livy usually picks up the slack, but she left home sick about a half hour ago.” He flipped a chicken breast and basted it with some orange, peppery looking sauce.

  She turned back to Tilly, whose upturned eyebrow did nothing to calm her nerves. “Isn’t there someone else we can call in?”

  “Already tried the part-timer we have. Left him a voicemail. Listen, I’ll just call Reuben. He’ll be crankier than a crab if no one lets him know.”

  Maddie threw the apron over her head and tied the white strings in the back. Reuben didn’t need to be in here standing on that foot all night.

  Besides, how hard could it be? “Where do I start?”

  Maddie replaced the handset and sat back in Reuben’s office chair, then allowed a feeble smile to escape her lips.

  She’d caused more disasters tonight than she’d ever done in her life.

  But according to Matt, he couldn’t have done it without her, regardless of the fact that she’d overseasoned a few chickens and charbroiled a beef brisket.

  And he promised that dropping the bottle of salt, lid open, onto the fries had been his fault, not hers.

  To redeem herself, she’d made a call to Ricardo, the cook who quit, and convinced him to come back after Tilly let her know his reason for leaving.

  Standing up, she froze when her back made the loudest moaning sound she’d ever heard a part of her body make. It culminated in a defining crack. Ahhhhh.

  One would think she’d be used to being on her feet for hours on end, being that her chosen profession had been hairstyling. But at least then she could raise the chair to a comfortable level.

  But that kitchen was brutal. She’d had to bend, twist, and reach for three hours straight. She’d offered to kiss Matt’s tennis shoes when he told her it had died down enough for him to handle on his own.

  If she never saw another sandwich in her life, she’d be forever grateful.

  A knock sounded on the door. “Come in.”

  Reuben opened the door and hobbled into the room on crutches.

  She stood up and rushed to help him. “What are you doing here? The doctor said you need to stay off your feet.”

  He sat in the chair in front of the desk, and Maddie took the crutches and leaned them against the wall. She hopped up on the edge of his desk, letting her feet dangle. Her only other choice was to sit in his office chair, and she’d rather crawl under the desk than to do that with him present.

  “Allie drove me. I called Livy to see how the night went only to find out she went home sick and left Tilly in charge. So I called here and found out my cook quit and my assistant decided to try lend a hand instead of call me.”

  Maddie jutted her chin out and held her head high. “We handled things. And I called Ricardo and convinced him to come back.”

  Reuben’s eyes flashed. “You did what? You should have called me, Maddie.”

  She swallowed the excess spit in her mouth. “He was upset. I calmed him down.”

  He raised his eyebrows, not looking pleased with the abbreviated version.

  She straightened her back, feeling like smelly sauerkraut in a Reuben and Livy sandwich. “All I know is that Ricardo agreed to come back in tomorrow on two conditions.”

  Reuben clenched his fist. “If you promised him a raise, you’re fired.”

  “I told him Livy would stop calling him Paco.”

  “Huh?”

  “Evidently she has trouble remembering his name?” She’d believe that when someone convinced her that peanut butter and tuna actually tasted good together.

  “I’ll talk with her. What was the other condition?”

  “A raise. I told him he’d need to talk to you about that, but that if he didn’t come in tomorrow, there was no need. He said he’d be here.”

  Reuben put a hand to his forehead. “Great, just great.”

  “Other than that, everything’s fine. You should have stayed home.”

  “You’re stubborn, you know that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He shook his head then sent her a crooked smile. “So, you’re my expert fill-in cook now?”

  She shuddered at the thought. “Let’s just say, you probably took a loss today considering all the food I messed up. Matt said it wasn’t that bad, but he’s a good liar.”

  He leaned forward and pressed a hand to her knee. “Thank you, Maddie, for trying. But next time, call me.”

  She brushed off his hand and stood up. “Hands off, Mister. Haven’t you ever heard of sexual harassment? I could have a hidden camera here and nail you with a big ol’ lawsuit.”

  “Good luck with that. Restaurant owners aren’t really rolling in the dough, you know.”

  Maddie stuck out her tongue at him and handed him his crutches. “No prob. I’ll just take the Beamer.”

  “As long as you take the car payment too, it’s a deal.”

  “Never mind, it’s all yours.” She gave him a hand up. When he took his crutches, she wiped her hand on her slacks, hoping to rid the pin-pricks that remained.

  He settled the crutches under his armpits and looked back at her. “You have dinner yet?”

  “I sampled while I cooked. Now I’m just ready to crash. You’re paying me overtime for tonight, you know that, right?”

  “Shoot. I was hoping to treat you to dinner as payment.”

  Dinner with her boss. No thanks.

  Maddie turned and grabbed her purse faster than she thought possible and made a dash to the door, ignoring the fact that she was leaving her hobbling boss in her dust. “Well, goodnight.”

  She slung open the door, waved to Allie who sat at a table sipping a drink, and hurried outside and into her Tracker.

  Slamming the door, she dropped her head to the steering wheel.

  Her heart was such a rebel. The dinner invitation was just that. Dinner. At her place of employment. Nothing more.

  Then why was her heart racing like it had just run a marathon?

  It made zero sense. Guys were all jerks, her boss being one of the leaders. And he wasn’t even available, which made it even worse.

  She put a hand to her traitor heart.

  Please God! You made my heart, you can convince it to change its mind, right?

  15

  Reuben brooded the whole way home. He liked control, but right now, helpless described his situation quite well.

  He couldn’t even drive himself to and from the restaurant. How sad was that? And on a day when everything fell apart, he hadn’t been there to keep things running. His assistant, who by the conversation he’d had with Matt, was a terrible cook, had to step in.

  She was lucky he didn’t send her packing for not calling him. Matt and Tilly had both been lectured about it too.

  Livy better be glad she was home puking, because a large part of him wanted to fire her too, engagement or not. Paco? Really?

  “A penny for your thoughts.”

  Reuben glanced at Allie, who stepped on the brake for a red light. “I was wondering if we’d get lucky and have any customers tomorrow.”

  “Matt said he’d fixed most of her mistakes. It can�
��t be all that bad, Reub.”

  Yes, it could. “Word gets around fast in a small town; you know that.”

  “Have you talked to Livy?”

  Reuben had briefed his sister on the situation, and she’d been none too happy at Livy either. “Not yet. I intend to call her when I get home.”

  “What will you say?”

  Good question. He hadn’t figured that out just yet. How do you lecture an employee when you’re engaged to her? “I’ll just tell her to be nicer to Ricardo.”

  His sister’s cleared throat and silence reeked of disagreement.

  “What? You don’t like my tactic?”

  She steered through the left turn onto his street. “It’s not that.”

  “Then what?”

  The minivan stopped in his driveway, and she turned off the engine. “Why do you let her do this, Reuben? She walks all over you and it’s like you’re oblivious.”

  Reuben’s chest tightened. No woman walked over him. He was his own man. And his sister needed to keep her nose out of it. “I asked her to marry me today.”

  Allie twisted in her seat and made a show of pulling on her ear. “Excuse me? I don’t think I heard you right. You asked her to marry you?”

  He nodded, knowing that his answer would only add kindling to the blaze. “Yes, and you’re going to be happy for me, whether you like it or not.”

  Her eyebrows arched, almost reaching her hairline. “You can’t command someone to be happy for you. Not even you are that powerful, little brother.”

  He refused to listen to her. No one appointed her, or his mother, for that matter, in charge of his life, and they had no right to barge in and give opinions wherever they wanted. Reuben opened his door and got out, not caring that he didn’t have his crutches.

  Using his hand on the red metal hood to support himself, he hopped around the front of the minivan, then used the tip of his foot to hop the rest of the way down the long sidewalk to the steps. Allie ran behind him, holding his crutches.

  “Reub, you’ll get hurt. At least use these to get up the steps.”

  “No. I can do it myself.” Some strange sense of pride made him do it. He needed control. He didn’t need a crutch, or his sister, or even his assistant.

  He reached the last step, but his foot slipped and he began swaying backward. He flung his hands to the front, hoping to grab onto something, but there was only air.

  Hands gripped his back and caught his fall, pushing him back to an upright position. He didn’t turn around to acknowledge them, just made the last jump and unlocked the door.

  He tried to close the door behind him, but a crutch blocked the way.

  “No, Reuben. I’m coming in whether you like it or not.”

  Fine. Have it her way. He hopped to the couch and collapsed onto the leather cushion. He thought himself a fairly in-shape guy, but if a few hops took his breath away, he needed to up his visits to the gym. Now that he thought about it, he’d missed his visits to the gym in the last few months. He’d remedy that as soon as he was back on two feet.

  Allie settled on the other end of the couch. “I’m sorry I made you mad.”

  “No you’re not.”

  She frowned. “Yes, I am.”

  “You’re sorry that I’m mad, but not sorry for what you said.”

  A smile touched her lips. “Okay, you’ve got me there. But you have to know, I love you, Reuben. You’re my only brother, and I hate to see you make a mistake and end up miserable for the rest of your life.”

  “You and Livy have always been friends. How can you say that?” Even as he said it, he knew the answer. His sister and his fiancée hadn’t “hung out” in years.

  He’d never been brave enough to ask why.

  “You know as well as I do that I don’t count Livy as a best bud anymore.”

  Though not sure he wanted to know, he asked the question that’d been on his mind for the last five years. “What went wrong, Al? Between you and Livy?”

  She fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “We just didn’t see eye to eye.”

  “On what?”

  Reuben didn’t care for the way she looked everywhere in the room but at him.

  When her eyes finally met his, she bit her lip. “Lots of things. Livy changed.”

  “How?”

  She shook her head. “It’s in the past.”

  “I’m a big boy, Allie. I can handle the truth.”

  “You remember the summer Stew and I met, right?”

  “I do. I was really excited for you.” He remembered her excited e-mails, about how Stew was so good with five-year-old Cole and didn’t care about her past mistakes. She’d gotten pregnant her senior year of high school, and while she decided to keep the baby, Cole’s daddy had jumped ship. Finding a guy who looked past all that and saw the real Allie had been huge for her.

  He’d proposed after only two months, and she’d said yes.

  “Well, Livy wasn’t nearly as excited.”

  Dread wrapped itself around Reuben’s belly. “Why not?”

  “I think partially because she was single and jealous. She was still pining over you even though you hadn’t been together for a while.” Allie sat down on the chair across from the couch and stared at her fingers. “She kissed him, Reuben.”

  The blurted out confession slapped him in the face. “What? When?”

  “She was jealous when she found out he was going to ask me to marry him after only two months. She ranted at me for making such a stupid decision, then started ignoring me completely. Then she called Stew one night, said her car was in the shop and she needed a ride. When he dropped her off, she gave him a little-too-friendly thank-you kiss on the lips.

  “Stew pushed her away and made her get out of the car, then confessed to me later. I confronted her, and she apologized and begged me not to tell anyone. That she didn’t know what had come over her. I agreed, but things have never been the same.”

  Reuben swallowed the fury burning in him and reached forward and squeezed her hand. “You should have told me.”

  “To be honest, part of me is mad at you, too.”

  “At me? Why?”

  Allie stood and put her hands on her hips. “Livy isn’t the girl for you, Reuben. You’ve been so wrapped up in the restaurant, not to mention this whole stupid vendetta against Gary, that you can’t even see it.”

  Reuben sat speechless.

  She picked up her purse and gave him one last parting glance. “It’s time to take a hard look in the mirror, Reub, before you end up married and miserable.”

  “I’m happy about this, Allie.”

  “Are you?”

  He sighed. “Just promise you won’t tell anyone yet. I want to wait a little while before we announce it.”

  Reuben took a breath and knocked on the door of the small Cape Cod. Ring shopping. He could do this.

  The door opened in front of him, and Reuben’s mouth dropped.

  “Livy, you look … amazing.” That was an understatement. Her golden hair curled and rested on her bare shoulders. The pink strapless dress she wore floated above her knees, and the only jewelry she wore was a necklace with a single pendent that dangled dangerously close to no-man’s land.

  That was, no-unmarried-man’s land.

  He tried not to squirm in his jeans and navy polo shirt he’d thrown on after church.

  “Reuben, I was just finishing getting ready.”

  He stepped over the threshold into the foyer. “Is your mom home?”

  The object of his query stepped from the kitchen, leaning heavily on her cane. “Right here, young man.”

  Livy bounced back up the stairs as Gertrude hobbled to her normal chair in the living room. Given no other choice, he followed and took a seat on the floral sofa. “How you feeling, Gertrude?”

  “Fair. The doctor’s trying out some new medicines. Still waiting to see what’s worse, arthritis or the side effects. But enough about me and my ailments. How’s the restaurant busines
s these days?”

  Reuben leaned forward and set his elbows on his knees. “Great. Two more restaurants should open by the end of next year.”

  “Are you planning more after this?”

  He nodded. “Absolutely. This is just the beginning of phase two.”

  “And what’s phase three?”

  Reuben grinned. “National.” Just voicing the words made him shake with excitement. By then he’d have a whole corporate staff here in Sandwich and a big office building to house them in.

  Their dream, his and his dad’s, was so close he could smell it.

  “Sounds like you have it all planned out. It’s good to know my daughter will be well provided for.” The bland tone betrayed her true feelings. Reuben knew she’d never really liked him, although she’d never offered a reason for her upturned nose.

  “Livy’s very important to me. I’ll take care of her.” It was the pure and honest truth. Despite their differences of late, he’d do anything to protect her, provide for her.

  “I know you would, dear. I did want to ask you about this new assistant you’ve hired. A hairdresser, Livy says?”

  Reuben shifted on the sofa. He didn’t want to discuss Maddie tonight. “I was bogged down with paperwork, it seemed like the right thing to do. She’s working out great. A godsend really.”

  Gertrude tapped her cane on the hardwood floor. “And what all does she do for you? I mean, assistant, that can be so many different things these days.”

  Surely she wasn’t insinuating what he thought she was. “Normal things. Mostly administrative tasks like filing, and eventually I want to hand over payroll and invoicing too.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Mostly? Does she assist in your personal life too?”

  “Not really. She did help out when I was laid up earlier this week, and she lectures me about not eating breakfast, but so does everyone else.” He didn’t add that she’d started a ritual of bringing him something to eat every morning. Friday, it’d been a blueberry muffin and orange juice. Granted, it looked like it’d come premade from the supermarket, but still. It’s the thought that counts.

  “Speaking of your ankle, how exactly did you hurt it?”