The Single Dad's Family Recipe

by Rachael Johns

  Yet from the moment Eliza had walked in the door, he’d thought she was the one. There was just something about her that made her look like she belonged in the restaurant—he could already imagine her weaving between the tables on a busy night, chatting to the customers, directing the waitstaff, helping make McKinnel’s the place where people wanted to be.

  His older brother, Callum, would probably berate him for hiring someone without calling their references or finishing a proper interview but this was Lachlan’s restaurant and sometimes you had to go with your gut. He ignored the voice in his head that told him how wrong his gut had been about Linda—there’d been adolescent hormones involved there, so it didn’t count.

  As far as he could see, the only thing against Eliza was that she couldn’t cook—but considering he wasn’t hiring her for the kitchen, that didn’t actually matter. It was her personal skills that counted and the way she’d taken Hallie away from the drama impressed him. Not that Hallie was difficult but he believed Eliza would be able to handle difficult customers, leaving him to focus on the restaurant, which was his area of expertise.

  “When can you start?” he asked her.

  “What?” She blinked. “You’re offering me the job? Don’t you want to ask me more questions? Check my references?”

  “I’ll call your references later but they won’t change my mind, will they?”

  “They better not,” she said. “Wow. Okay.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  She deliberated so long, he thought she was about to reject his offer, but finally she said, “Will Monday be okay? I have a few things I need to organize first.”

  As today was Friday, that seemed reasonable. “That would be fine, but if you need a little longer, that’s okay, too. And let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. Now, my daughter here is hungry and I think I recall you saying you were, as well. Would you like to have an early lunch with us?”

  Again she deliberated, but not quite so long this time. “If it’s not an imposition?”

  “Not at all. It will give us a chance to talk a little more and you can start to try some of the dishes I’ll be putting on the menu. Come on, let’s head back inside.”

  “Can we have mac’n’cheese, Dad?” Hallie asked as they started toward the restaurant.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “That’s my favorite food, too,” Eliza said, smiling down at his little girl and Lachlan felt the tension that had built inside him with Linda’s arrival start to dissolve again.

  They went inside and Hallie and Eliza sat at one of the tables while Lachlan went back into the kitchen to make lunch.

  He made two separate dishes—one for his daughter sans the whiskey and one for his newest employee with all the trimmings. As he worked, he kept one ear to the door, smiling as he heard Hallie chattering away to Eliza, telling her about school, the distillery and the fact her two new aunties were both having babies very soon. It didn’t sound like she was too affected by her mother’s sudden departure and for that he was grateful. Although Eliza didn’t say much, her replies were soft and encouraging and the belief he’d made the right decision in hiring her solidified inside him.

  “This smells delicious,” she said a few minutes later when he emerged from the kitchen, carrying three bowls of steaming pasta.

  “Thanks, Daddy,” Hallie said before picking up her fork and diving in as if this were the first meal she’d had in months. He had to wonder if Linda had given her breakfast but again he bit his tongue.

  “Let’s hope it tastes as good as it looks.” Lachlan sat down beside the girls and waited in anticipation as Eliza tasted her first mouthful. He was a good chef but he knew from her résumé that she’d worked in restaurants with some of the best chefs in America and he found he really wanted to impress her.

  “Wow,” came her one-word reply after a few moments. It wasn’t the word but the way she said it and her almost-black eyes that lit up as she did so that made his heart soar.

  “It’s okay?”

  She smiled. “Okay is an understatement.”

  He let out a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding and picked up his own fork. But before he’d even loaded it with macaroni, the door of the restaurant burst open again and in came half his siblings.

  “What’s for lunch?” Mac said, before he, Blair and Sophie—his youngest sister by two and a half minutes—halted in their tracks.

  “Sorry,” Blair said.

  “We didn’t know you had company,” Sophie added.

  Lachlan stood and gestured to Eliza. “This is Eliza. I’ve just offered her the position of head hostess. Eliza, these are three of my siblings, Sophie, Mac and Blair.” He pointed to each of them as he spoke.

  “Wow. Cool. Hi. Nice to meet you.” Sophie rushed forward, offered her hand to shake Eliza’s and then pulled out a seat at the table.

  Mac and Blair also followed with handshakes and Lachlan couldn’t help noticing the way his younger brothers looked appreciatively over his new employee. Mac’s appreciation wasn’t surprising—he might not date much since splitting with his longtime girlfriend a year ago, but he wasn’t dead. And Lachlan had to concede you’d have to be dead not to notice how easy on the eye Eliza was.

  But Blair’s interest surprised him—granted, he was divorced but most of the time he and his ex-wife, Claire, acted like newlyweds. It was very confusing for everyone.

  Whatever, he made a mental note to warn them both off Eliza later—he didn’t want any flings with his brothers getting in the way of her doing her job.

  “Hi, Auntie Sophie, Uncle Mac and Uncle Blair,” Hallie said through a mouthful of macaroni.

  “Hey, short stuff.” Sophie ruffled Hallie’s hair. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in school?”

  Sophie half looked at Lachlan as she said this and he mouthed back, Linda.

  Sophie nodded—he’d fill her in later—then she leaned in and sniffed Hallie’s lunch. “Mmm, that smell’s to die for.”

  “Okay, okay.” Lachlan shook his head as his brothers also pulled up seats. “I’ll go get you all a serving.” He knew he wouldn’t get rid of them until he did so.

  “So where are you from?” Sophie asked when they all had steaming bowls of the best mac’n’cheese in Oregon in front of them.

  “New York,” Eliza replied.

  “Long way from home,” Blair commented.

  Eliza shrugged. “I’m looking for a change of scenery and a new adventure.”

  Mac nodded. “I can relate. So where are you living?”

  “Um...I actually came straight here from the airport,” she admitted, glancing over and meeting Lachlan’s gaze. “That’s one of those few things I need to organize.”

  “Hey, why don’t you check out the apartment next door to us?” Sophie suggested. “The old tenants moved out last month, and the landlord is still looking for a new one. It’s nothing flashy, but it’s cozy and not far from here.”

  “Us?” Eliza asked.

  Sophie grinned. “Me and my twin sister, Annabel. She’s a firefighter, but I’m sure you’ll meet her soon enough. If you’re interested, I could call the landlord and see if she can show you round this afternoon.”

  “That would be wonderful. Thank you. And then I’ll need to deliver my rental car back to the airport and work out more permanent transport.”

  “We can probably help you with that, as well,” Blair said.

  “I can draw some pictures to go on your new walls,” Hallie—never one to be left out—offered.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Thank you,” Eliza said, “that will be wonderful.” Then she looked to Mac. “So are you the genius behind this building?”

  “Sure am.” As Mac’s face glowed with pride, Lachlan felt a pinch of something like jealousy inside him. It might hav
e been Mac’s handiwork but much of the concept was Lachlan’s and he’d got his hands dirty a few times during the construction. But he bit down on the impulse to state these facts as he knew how uncharitable it would sound—besides, even when they egged him on, he’d never been the type to compete with his brothers, so the feeling was weird. Perhaps he was still unsettled after Linda’s dramatic arrival and departure.

  Lachlan refilled his brother’s bowls and poured Hallie a glass of milk while conversation continued around him. Eliza got along well with his siblings, she showed lots of interest and asked lots of questions about the history of the distillery and the café that had been open until recently.

  “We closed it a month ago—in April—so we could finish the construction and decorate the restaurant,” Lachlan explained. “It’s ideal to have somewhere to eat on the premises as customers tend to buy more whiskey when they can linger for a snack, hence why I want to open up as soon as possible.”

  “Fantastic,” Eliza said, wiping a tiny smudge of cheese-and-whiskey sauce off her bottom lip. “I’m excited to be here at the ground level.”

  Mac chuckled. “I hope you’re prepared to work hard because I can attest to the fact that Lachlan here is a slave driver. I’ve barely slept in a month.”

  Lachlan glared at him but Eliza didn’t seem perturbed.

  “Bring it on,” she said as she met his gaze. “Workaholic is my middle name.”

  And something inside him fizzed at this declaration. Someone who wasn’t afraid of a little hard work was exactly who he needed in this position. Eliza’s good looks had absolutely no bearing on his decision whatsoever.

  Chapter Three

  Everything was happening so fast, Eliza thought as she flopped back onto her bed in a cute little boutique hotel in Jewell Rock. Unlike the neighboring town of Bend, whose popularity was rising by the second, Jewell Rock was still a national secret and therefore there wasn’t an abundance of places to choose from to stay. The few options were all high-quality, rustic, mountain-lodge-type places. Lachlan’s sister Sophie was so very friendly that she’d offered Eliza the couch in her and Annabel’s apartment for the night, but Eliza had politely declined the generous invitation.

  Once upon a time, she’d have accepted such an offer from near strangers—thought of it as an adventure—but things had changed and now she preferred to keep to herself and take new friendships slowly.

  Her cell phone beeped and despite the fact that her limbs felt heavy from exhaustion, she rolled over and reached to grab it from the bedside table. Speaking of friends...a message from Lilly, her best one, popped up on the screen.

  Just checking in. How was your day? Any news on the job yet? xx

  While part of her felt too tired for a conversation, calling was easier than typing out what would inevitably be a long message. She pressed Dial and less than two seconds later, Lilly picked up.

  “Tell me the interview was a disaster and you’re not moving halfway across the world.”

  Eliza almost smiled as she snuggled back into the pillows. That was classic Lilly—no time for greetings and a tendency for theatrics. “Oregon is not halfway across the world.”

  Lilly groaned. “Oh, no. You got the job, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. I start on Monday.”

  “Monday?” Lilly exclaimed. “How on earth are you going to come home and pack all your things and get back there in that time? Where are you going to live?”

  “I’m not coming back to New York.” She couldn’t bring herself to call it home—without Jack and Tyler, nothing felt like home anymore. “Not yet anyway. The restaurant is opening in a month, so there isn’t really time. I don’t need much. I’ll have a uniform for work and I’ll buy whatever else I need locally. And I’ve already found a place to live. It’s an apartment, only a five-minute drive from the restaurant—I might not even need a car. I’m thinking of buying a bicycle and getting fit.”

  Lord knew after all the comfort eating she’d done over the last eighteen months, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if she lost a few pounds.

  “Getting fit?” Lilly sounded horrified. She was married to a chef, wrote food reviews for a popular mommy blog and believed life was too short to waste time exercising.

  “It’s an idea,” Eliza said.

  “A crazy one if you ask me,” Lilly replied, “but moving on. Where are you living? What was Lachlan McKinnel like? Will you get free whiskey as part of the package because...in your situation, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”

  Lilly always asked more than one question at once.

  “Don’t worry—I’m not going to become an alcoholic,” Eliza promised. “This fresh start will be good for me, I can feel it in my bones. In answer to your other questions, I’m moving into an apartment next door to Lachlan’s twin sisters. I met one of them this afternoon and she just happened to mention the place next door was vacant. She set me up with the landlord and I checked it out this afternoon. It’s perfect, so tomorrow I’m going to buy a bed, a fridge and maybe a couch, a microwave and a TV. That should do me for starters. And as for Lachlan, I’m not sure what to think of him.”

  “Whoa. There’s a lot to unpack here. What do you mean, you’re not sure about him? Didn’t you like him?”

  Eliza pondered her response a few moments before she told her friend about Lachlan’s ex. “They’re a close-knit family,” she added. “Anyway, my opinion of him personally doesn’t matter—he’s definitely a good chef and he’s serious about making the restaurant a success. Since he’s going to be my boss and not my friend, I guess that’s the main thing.”

  “Yes, I suppose that true. But are his sisters at least nice?” Lilly asked. “Perhaps you’ll become friends with them. I don’t like to think of you all alone across the other side of the country.”

  “They seem nice. A bit younger than us, though—different zone. Sophie asked me if I wanted to join Tinder. Apparently they’ve both signed up.”

  Lilly snorted. “Tinder! Jeez, I’m so glad I met Matthew before the dating scene changed so dramatically.”

  “Mom-my!”

  Before Eliza could say anything to that, Lilly’s two-year-old daughter, Britt, hollered in the background.

  “Mom-my, I did poos in the potty.”

  Eliza felt torn between laughing and crying at the excited little voice. Jack and Britt had been born only three months apart and every milestone Britt crossed felt like a knife twisting in Eliza’s gut. She wanted to be happy for her friend but all she could think about was the fact Jack would never do any of the things Britt was doing.

  “I’ll let you go,” she said, choking up. “Tell Britt I said well done, and I’ll send you some photos of my new place tomorrow night when I’ve furnished it a little.”

  “All right, my love,” Lilly replied. “Chat soon.”

  Eliza had barely disconnected from her friend when the phone started ringing again.

  “Grammy,” she said as she answered.

  “Hello, my darling,” came her grandmother’s singsongy voice down the line. “I’ve just got in from salsa and I’m dead on my feet, but I couldn’t go to bed without checking in on my favorite granddaughter.”

  “I’m your only granddaughter.”

  “Even if I had a hundred grandchildren, you’d be my favorite,” Grammy said. “Now, tell me, did you get the job?”

  “Yes.” Eliza filled her grandmother in on her day.

  “Wow—that’s quite a jam-packed day. But tell me, is Lachlan McKinnel as good-looking in person as he is in his photos?”

  Eliza frowned. “How do you know what he looks like?” Although he’d appeared on a local TV show cooking segment, until she’d seen the advertisement for the job and searched online, she’d never heard of him and she was pretty sure her grandmother hadn’t either.

  “You don’t think I’d let my fa
vorite granddaughter fly all the way to Tombouctou without doing a little research.” As far as Grammy was concerned, anywhere outside of Manhattan was the end of the earth. “Well, is he good-looking?”

  Something quivered low in Eliza’s belly—indicating that she wasn’t as numb as she’d thought. It was quickly followed by guilt that she could be feeling anything so frivolous. “It doesn’t matter what he looks like. What matters is that he’s passionate about food and has offered me the fresh start I need.”

  “So he is good-looking.” Grammy sounded victorious. “I might have to jump on a plane and come and check him out myself if there’s potential for a romance.”

  “I think he’s about forty years too young for you.”

  Grammy laughed. “I meant for you, my dear.”

  That’s what Eliza had been afraid of.

  “I’m not looking for love,” she said, trying to put her grandmother straight. Her heart had been so full of love once and she’d lost it all in the most tragic of circumstances. Even thinking about loving another left her feeling chilled.

  “Did I say anything about love?” Grammy tsked. “Not all relationships have to be serious you know? Fun and mutual pleasure are just as important. I should know.”

  Eliza blushed. She should be used to her grandma’s frankness about sex by now, but it still made her want to cover her ears.

  “Even if that’s true,” she said, “getting involved with my boss would be asking for all sorts of trouble. Been there, done that before, and you know how it ended.”

  “What happened with Jack was not because Tyler was your boss,” Grammy said almost tersely.

  But as much as she loved her grandmother, Eliza really didn’t want to get into all that—again—right now. “It’s a moot point anyway,” she said, equally as terse. “I’m not ready for another man in my life yet.”

  Deep down, she didn’t think she’d ever be ready but if Grammy thought there was a slight chance, maybe she’d stop pushing.