The Restaurant(2)

Jill was mentally making a shopping list of the ingredients she’d need for the cake when an instant message from her assistant flashed on the computer screen,

Billy’s on his way in. I told him you were busy, but he wouldn’t listen. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Thank God for Jenna. She was the best assistant Jill had ever had and she couldn’t imagine working without her.

“I knew you weren’t on the phone,” Billy said as he barged into the office and sat on the edge of her desk. He picked up the spreadsheet of names. “Have you even called any of these yet? You know how important this search is?”

Jill sighed. Her partner, Billy Carmenetti, was prone to drama. He wore expensive suits, drove a shiny new BMW, and had house accounts at several of the hottest restaurants. If you didn’t know him better, you’d think Billy wanted people to think he was someone important. But Jill did know better. She knew that he just liked nice things, because he’d grown up without them. At six foot two, with thick, almost black hair, dark brown eyes that perpetually danced with mischief, and a long, lean body, toned from daily gym workouts, Billy was hard to miss.

But, he was also one of the most generous people she knew, and one of the nicest, even if he did drive her crazy on a daily basis. They’d been best friends and business partners for well over a decade and it was only a month ago Jill realized that she might be in love with him. The idea had slammed into her, fully formed and obvious, and she was struggling with what to do about it.

“I know, I know. I’m about to dive into it. I just had something important I had to handle first.”

Billy turned as the printer whirred and groaned. Curious, he leaned over and plucked the freshly printed page off of the machine. He glanced at it, then raised his eyebrows at Jill. “Chocolate cake? Are you kidding me?”

“Oh, relax. It’s for Grams’ birthday. I’m on this search, don’t worry. We’ll fill it.”

“We have to. If we don’t, we won’t get the rest of their business. I heard from their CFO that they are using this search as a test, to see how we do, and what caliber of candidates we can produce. If we get into this company, it could launch us to the next level. Continued business for years to come.”

“Don’t you have somewhere you need to be, other searches of your own to worry about?” Jill teased.

“I’m going, I’m going.” He swung his legs off of her desk and headed toward the door. He turned back and smiled, his voice softer this time, “Tell Grams I said happy birthday.”

And that was one of the many reasons why she loved Billy. He adored her grandmother. More importantly, though, he was just a good person, through and through. And they were as close if not closer than most married couples. Everyone said so and constantly asked why they weren’t a couple, and they’d always laughed it off, said it was impossible as they’d been friends forever, and were like brother and sister as well as business partners. So, the realization that she might be in love with him was troubling. Especially when she considered that Billy had never given the slightest inkling that he was even remotely attracted to her.





Chapter 2





Mandy Lawson was running late, and that was unacceptable. She was never late. She had called ahead, told the girls at the club she’d be there at a quarter past ten and they told her not to worry. But she couldn’t help it. Mandy was a worrier. It was her Virgo nature; she craved organization, and made to-do lists for everything. And things generally went smoothly— except for today, when everything seemed to be out of sync.

They’d spent almost thirty minutes searching the entire house for her eleven-year-old daughter Brooke’s homework assignment, which was highly unusual because Brooke never lost things. She was a bit like her mother that way, conscientious and orderly—unlike her younger brother Blake, who was more of a dreamer, and prone to forgetfulness. They found the assignment finally. It was already in Brooke’s backpack, neatly folded and tucked away deep in a side pocket.

“Oops, I forgot that I put it there as soon as I finished.”

“So you wouldn’t forget it,” Blake teased.

Mandy glanced at the clock which seemed to be on fast forward. “We have to go now. Grab your bags and get in the car.”

Twenty minutes later, Mandy pulled into the busy parking lot at The Nantucket New School. The kids jumped out of the SUV, gave Mandy a quick kiss goodbye and ran to join their friends who were already in line. Mandy watched until they were all inside the building. Both children loved it there, and Mandy liked everything about it, especially the fact that, as a private school, the classes were smaller and they encouraged children to explore individual interests.

Before she drove off, Mandy checked her makeup in the mirror and added a swipe of pink lipstick. She wanted to make sure she looked polished for the event. She was in one of her favorite outfits—tailored caramel-colored pants and a pale pink cashmere sweater that looked gorgeous with her vintage pearls. She’d just had her hair touched up yesterday, so the bits of gray along her hairline were gone and Tony had added deep golden highlights to her dark blonde hair that made it shimmer. It just touched her shoulders and gave the illusion of being all one length, but a few clever long layers gave it some shape and movement. Her usual style was just tucked behind her ears and on her, it worked beautifully, giving her a crisp, somewhat preppy look. Or as her husband Cory teased her, it was “old money hair” which he appreciated.