Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2)(6)

"You know the appointment I had with my accountant today? It wasn't good news. I owe money. Big money. To the IRS."

Anton blanched and sucked in air.

"Oh, Lina. Is it real y bad?" Dolores sounded twelve years old.

"Yes." She looked careful y at each of them. "It is real y bad. We're going to have to make some changes." Lina registered the twin looks of horror on their faces. Instantly Anton's eyes began to fil with tears. Dolores's already pale face drained of even the pretense of color. "No, no, no! Not that!

There wil be none of that - you'l be keeping your jobs. We'l al be keeping our jobs."

"Oh, God. I need to sit down." Anton fanned himself with his fingers.

"My office. Quickly. And there wil be absolutely no fainting." She picked up the cat carrier and clucked at the ruffled tabby as she headed to her office. Over her shoulder she said, "And no crying either. Remember - "

Anton finished the sentence for her. " - There's no crying in baking." Dolores nodded vigorous agreement.

Lina set the cat carrier next to her desk before taking a seat behind it. Anton and Dolores sank into the two plushly upholstered antique chairs that faced her. No one spoke. Hesitating, Anton made a vague gesture in the direction of the cat. "Patricia from Street Cats said that she'd stay a little past closing today, so if you want me to, I can drop off that little orange thing on my way home. It's real y not out of my way." He finished with a weak smile.

"Thank you, Anton, even though you cal ed her a little orange thing, I'l take you up on your kind offer."

"Wel , I meant little orange beast, but I was trying to be nice," Anton said, sounding more like himself and looking less likely to hyperventilate.

"What are we going to do?" Dolores asked.

True to form, Dolores was ready for the bottom line. Though only twenty-eight, she had been working for Lina for ten years. The reason Lina had hired her was not just because she had a flair for baking pastries and a way with old people, but Lina appreciated her no-nonsense personality. And she was the perfect balance for Anton, who was - Lina glanced at her other employee who sat with his legs crossed delicately, the sheen of almost-tears stil pooled in his eyes - decidedly more dramatic. They fit together well , the three of them, and Lina intended that they stay that way.

"We expand our menu," Lina said firmly.

Dolores nodded her head thoughtful y. "Okay, we can do that." Anton gnawed on the side of his thumb. "Do you mean, like, add sandwiches or something?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet," Lina said slowly. "I haven't had time to think it through. I just know that we have to make more money, which means we need to bring in more customers. It only makes sense that if we expanded our menu, we would appeal to a larger group of people." Anton and Dolores nodded in unison.

"Catering Tess Mil er's dinner is a good place to start," Dolores said.

"Catering," Anton whined. "It sounds so, I don't know, banal."

"As banal as bankruptcy?" Lina asked.

"No!" The word burst from his mouth.

"My thoughts exactly," Lina said.

"So what are we going to serve?" Dolores asked.

Lina ran her fingers through her neatly cropped hair. She had absolutely no idea.

"We're going to serve selections from our expanded menu. That way we'l get practice as well as publicity."

"And that expanded menu would be what exactly?" Dolores prompted.

"I have absolutely no idea," Lina admitted.

"And to think I didn't bring even one tiny Xanax with me to work today." Anton was gnawing at his thumb again.

"Quit biting your finger," Dolores told him. "We'l figure this out." She shifted her gaze to Lina.

"Right?"

Lina's heart squeezed. They looked like baby birds gaping up at her expectantly.

"Right," she said, painting her voice with confidence. "Al I need to do is to..." she faltered. Her nestlings blinked big, round eyes, waiting for her next words. "Is to... um... brainstorm." She final y finished.

"Brainstorm? As in the step before writing a paper?" Anton, who was perpetual y a sporadic night school student at Tulsa Community Col ege, clutched onto a familiar idea.

"Of course," Dolores added brightly. "Lina probably has about a zil ion and a half cookbooks at home. Al she needs to do is to go through them and pick out a few great recipes for wonderful meals."

"Then she'l share them with us, and we'l begin our new creations!" Anton gushed. "How ab fab! I can hardly wait!" Then he reached over and squeezed Dolores's hand. "I feel just awful that I was so negative in the beginning. I almost forgot our Baker's Motto." Dolores and Anton grinned at each other, and then as if they were getting ready to say the Pledge of Al egiance, they covered their hearts with their hands and spoke solemnly in unison:

"In baking we must always rise to the occasion."

Lina thought that she very well might have been in baker's hel , but she kept nodding and smiling. Dolores was partial y correct, she did have a wonderful col ection of cookbooks at home - al fil ed with fabulous recipes for breads and pastries. She had very few cookbooks that contained recipes for meals. Actual y, she didn't even cook many full meals herself. A little pasta here, a little salad there, and a nice glass of Chianti was her idea of cooking a full meal. Baking was her specialty and her love. Meals were, well , banal.