Barret, page 19
“Joking bet?”
Chef looked at him and nodded. “You know? The numbers game, notches on the bedpost type thing. Berry caught on early, and I remember her telling him to take his little problem away from her. He didn’t take it very kindly, but things blew up pretty fast for her, so he didn’t become an issue for her.”
“They sure did,” Barret said. “I hadn’t heard about these guys doing that.”
“No, and that’s what happens when you get a bunch of guys together who aren’t happy about being here,” Chef pointed out. “With all the problems we’ve got, you know perfectly well that it’s always a challenge to keep people occupied. If you fail, they come up with something themselves.”
“It shouldn’t be like that though,” Barret groused.
“Shouldn’t be, but, if you can find a way to stop it, good on you,” Chef muttered. “Now get lost, and tell her I expect to see her first thing in the morning.”
“Will do.” And, with a smile on his face, Barret headed down to her room.
Day 10 Early Morning
Avalon woke with a start, feeling something very off. When arms tightened around her reassuringly, she sagged back and looked up at him. “I half remember a conversation about you moving in.”
“Yes,” Barret confirmed, “and sometimes half a conversation is all you’ll get, but it’s early, and you’re expected in the kitchen.”
She groaned as she curled deeper into his arms and whispered, “Don’t want to.”
He chuckled. “Of course you don’t want to, but Chef’s counting on you.”
“Are you sure about that?” she asked, opening her eyes and looking at him.
“Yep, I talked to him last night. As far as he’s concerned, none of this had anything to do with you.”
“Oh, I know it didn’t have anything to do with me. I just can’t figure out what made Ralph sick.”
“It’s quite possible that he ended up with vanilla in his stomach.”
“Vanilla?” she repeated, raising up and looking down on him, as he propped himself up on one arm. “Vanilla? How is that—”
“Apparently he’s allergic to vanilla. He doesn’t get deathly ill, just violently sick to his stomach.”
“Jesus, I didn’t put it in anything. Chef told me early on that we couldn’t use it, so I didn’t.”
“You didn’t make anything with it?”
“No, not unless somebody switched it out for a different bottle or something. In that case, I wouldn’t have known.”
“Who would have done that?”
“I don’t know.” She raised both hands. “Nobody would have, unless they knew and were up to no good. But I still can’t imagine someone taking the chance of Ralph getting seriously ill.” She groaned as she lay flat again. “While you get to stay in bed, I on the other hand, really need to get up.”
“I’ll come down for coffee in a bit,” he replied.
She looked down at him and saw an image that just took her breath away. “I don’t know if you realize just how good you look right now,” she whispered, “and I’d be more than willing to take the day off and just spend it in bed.”
He opened one eye and gave her a lazy smile. “If I thought you were serious, I’d take you up on that offer,” he declared. “However, I happen to know you’re expected in the kitchen, and I know you’re not the type to shirk your duties.”
She rolled her eyes at that, as she pulled on her extra layer of clothes. “Great. I’m not in any hurry for this day to happen. Can you tell?”
“Listen. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he declared, “so don’t let anybody push your buttons.”
“Too late.” As she looked back at him, stretched out in her bed, she sighed. “Damn, what a waste.” As she stepped through the door, she heard him chuckling behind her.
“I’ll be down in a bit.”
She poked her head back in. “You don’t have to.”
“Doesn’t matter if I have to or not, I’ll be there.”
“Oh, so you’re just making sure I know you’re coming so I have time to get some cookies or something made up ahead for you, is that how it is?”
He smiled. “I never say no to cookies, but, no, I certainly don’t expect that. However, you’re right. I will be keeping track of what’s going on.” When she frowned, he shook his head. “Don’t bother arguing.”
“You’ll get all guardy on me?” she asked.
“Guardy?” He rolled the word around in his mouth. “Yeah, maybe.”
“You don’t need to, you know? Nobody’ll come attack me.”
“They might,” he cautioned, “but they won’t do it twice.”
Such a warning filled his tone that she smiled, her heart filling with warmth. “You really do believe I didn’t have anything to do with it, right?” she asked.
He waved his hand. “Go on and get to work. You don’t need to ask such a silly question.”
“Thank you, that means a lot to me.” He opened his eyes and glared at her. She threw up her hands. “It’s true.”
“Fine. I’m glad it means something to you. However, it shouldn’t because none of us have any doubts about you. So go. Go check in with Chef, and get the coffee on.”
“Will do.” And she headed down to the kitchen.
One of the nice things about working at this hour of the morning was that nobody else was ever up, and she could walk the hallways free and clear of prying eyes and suspicious gazes. When she walked into the kitchen to see Chef, he was already huddled over a cup of coffee. She smiled at him, as she poured herself a cup and sat down across from him.
He looked at her with relief. “Glad to see you’re here,” he muttered.
“Hey, I wouldn’t have been, except apparently you told Barret that I was expected.”
“Exactly,” he said.
“You need to realize a lot of people may not be that happy to see me here.”
“I don’t give a crap if they’re happy or not,” Chef spat. “They better not say anything to me.”
She frowned. “If they can prove that I was responsible …”
His gaze searched her keenly. “Were you?’
“No,” she protested.
“Then shut up.”
She slapped her mouth closed and stared at him.
He grinned. “Glad to see you can still take orders.” Then he laughed openly. “Jesus, I know you didn’t have anything to do with it. It’s all just straight-up bullshit, so forget about it. That kid is talking shit through his mouth.”
“Where else would he talk through?” she asked in a cheeky tone.
“His ass, of course. And, for guys like Ralph, it’s exactly what they do. What else did Barret tell you?”
“I was pretty sleepy last night when he showed up”—she stifled a yawn even now—“but this morning, there was some talk about vanilla.”
“Yep, vanilla,” Chef confirmed, “and that’s something for you to keep in mind.”
“And yet we aren’t using vanilla. You told me that we had some but weren’t to use it, so I didn’t,” she replied, with a shrug.
“Good, But the fact of the matter is, somebody may have.”
“Right, but as long as it wasn’t me, then I really don’t care. Although I guess that sounds wrong, doesn’t it?” she asked. “I should care.”
“No, you have enough to worry about without dealing with that.”
“Seriously though, you have to expect that there’ll be some complaints.”
“They can complain all they want, but it’s my kitchen. If they don’t like it, … they can take it to the CO.” At that, he gave her a feral grin. “And he and I have been together for a very long time, so that ain’t going to make a damn bit of difference.”
“Is the colonel a good guy?” she asked.
“He is. He’s done some shit that kind of backfired on him, but, hey, that’s true for all of us. I stand by him.”
“You must have known him a long time.”
“Decades. He tried to save my boy way back when, … and, for that, I’ll always be on his side.”
“Of course,” she murmured. “I didn’t realize you went that far back.”
“Yeah, we do, and I know he’s trying to retire and get the hell out, but he doesn’t want to do it with disgrace on his head.”
“No, of course not. Nobody would want their whole career tainted like that.”
“You should know because the same thing is happening to you.”
She winced. “I don’t have the kind of accolades he does, and I don’t think anybody really gives a shit about me. Not like they do about him.”
“I haven’t heard a whole lot of good since he got here, and it’s definitely weighing on him.”
“He hasn’t had an easy run of it either,” Avalon noted. “I mean, for all intents and purposes, it seems everybody’s against him.”
“Yes, and that’s because of the way shit’s going down here,” Chef said. “Hopefully that’ll be straightened up soon too.”
She looked at him questioningly, but he didn’t elaborate any further. “You do know that Steven implied that I might have poisoned somebody through negligence, right? That’s when you caught us not getting along.”
He nodded. “And that’s bullshit too. I’ve seen you in action. Remember? You clearly know what you’re doing, and negligence implies that you either didn’t know or were too sloppy and didn’t care enough to make sure what you were doing was correct. I haven’t seen any sign of that at all.”
“Thank you,” she said, surprised at his defense. “It’s nice to know that I get a passing grade from the chef.”
“And, if I wanted to be a sexist asshole, I could tell you that it’s preparing you for marriage when you get out of here, but I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I appreciate that,” she replied, with a smile. “Hate to think of that as the only thing ahead of me in life.”
He gave a headshake. “You need to do whatever you want to do, but I can tell you that, when you find the right person and the babies start coming, chances are good that you’ll want to stay home and raise them.”
“Maybe so,” she agreed because she had been thinking the same thing herself. “Still, a lot of women keep their careers these days, and I do want that for myself.”
“Of course,” he noted. “That doesn’t mean you don’t want to take a year or two and just spend it with them. But if you do, I really don’t mind either way.”
“Did you just have the one son?” she asked.
“I did,” he replied, with a gentle smile. “Would have had more, but the missus and I couldn’t seem to make that happen. And it wasn’t really in us to go through all these newfangled technological routes that apparently are out there these days.” He gave her a headshake. “Didn’t seem quite right for us somehow.”
“I’ve heard that from a couple people, but I imagine, if you’re desperate for kids, for some, that may be the only answer.”
“Maybe so,” he conceded, “but we did have the one, and that was good enough for us. He was sent off on a mission, and the boss got him shifted to a safer area, so he put a stop to it. Yet something went wrong, and he ended up dying anyway,” Chef shared. “He died protecting another family, so it’s one of those sad cases where he went out with honor, but I wish to hell that he hadn’t had to go at all.”
“Yeah,” Avalon agreed. “We hear of so many tragic situations in the kind of work we do.”
“Absolutely,” he murmured. “So, for that reason alone, I can smile when I think about him, instead of just feeling the pain of knowing I’ve lost him, but it’s been a while. So, as they say, … time heals all wounds.”
“I think that saying is a lie,” she stated bluntly.
He looked at her and nodded sagely. “You’re right. It doesn’t heal anything. It just blunts the pain maybe, until something happens and stirs it all back up again,” he replied, his tone dark.
“What about your wife?”
“What about her?” he asked, with another pained look. “Lost her to breast cancer a couple years back. And again, the boss gave me time off to go deal with it, and then I came back to work for him. We’ve been together ever since.”
“And his wife?”
“He doesn’t have one anymore. Both of our wives ended up dying from breast cancer, just decades apart.”
“I’m sorry. You don’t realize how prevalent that disease is until it touches your life.”
“Cancer is a mean and ugly bitch, and, when it touches your life, it does it in the darkest, most heinous way possible.” Chef shook his head. “I know the boss, and what matters the most to him is that he leaves with full honors. For him, it’s all about his reputation, so, no, he won’t do anything to screw that up.”
“Good, so that means then he should be acting with full honor in all situations.”
“And he is—unless you’ve heard something different.”
“No. I just hear a lot of rumblings from some of the people about how he’s not doing enough, … you know, to keep everybody safe.”
“To be honest, I’ve heard those rumblings too. But you know that those things are usually coming from people who don’t understand what’s going on, who don’t know what can and can’t be done, and who want solutions and answers when really none of it’s that simple. They are also the ones who balk and complain when actions are taken in their own best interests.”
“I know,” she acknowledged, analyzing her own situation.
“Now, you need to get moving. We got potatoes to scrub.”
She groaned. “Not if you stopped ordering them.”
“I could,” Chef noted, “but then there wouldn’t be anything for you to do.”
“Oh, wow, look at that. I wouldn’t have to peel potatoes for two hours.”
“It’s not that bad.” Chef chuckled. “And we might just do roasted potatoes today too,” he muttered, looking around the kitchen. “We got lots of spuds and lots of people needing carbs for this cold.”
“Yeah, it’s supposed to get pretty ugly, and I don’t know if they’ll get back out again for another day or two.”
He nodded. “Happy food is what we all need right now. It keeps people content and tempers at bay, so remember that.”
“I’ll try,” she replied, “that is, if I ever have those kids that I don’t have yet.”
“It’ll happen one day,” Chef proclaimed, “and you’ll be damn good in the kitchen when it does. You’ve taken to this pretty-darn quickly.”
“Thank you,” she said. He wasn’t given to compliments much, so she appreciated when they did come, particularly after the last few days.
He just snorted. “That’s the last compliment you’ll get out of me.” He sent a hard look in her direction, and then he completely failed the tough guy look and gave her a big fat grin. “Still doesn’t get you out of potato duty though.”
Rolling her eyes, she got up and got to work, as she looked back over at him. “Is Steven not coming in?”
“He is. He’s just coming in a little later.”
“Okay. Won’t matter.” Ignoring that, she got to work. By the time breakfast was served, she was so busy that she forgot about everything else, until it was time to step out in front, with the crowd gathered. She shrugged as she looked over at Chef and said, “Here goes nothing.”
As she stepped up to the plates to start serving food, right there in front of her was Barret, first in line, and behind him was Magnus, followed by Egan and Rogan.
She gave them a ghost of a smile. “Thanks for the support, guys.”
They nodded. “No need. We have the utmost confidence.”
And, with that, she started serving the morning meal. At some point, she realized Steven had arrived and was aware of a harsh discussion going on behind her, but she ignored it, trusting that whatever happened would happen regardless. If she ended up having to leave the kitchen? Well, so be it. But, as it was, the issue appeared to be solved before breakfast was even over.
Nobody said a word to her, although several people cast worried glances around. However, seeing everybody else eating, they had a choice of eating or going without. Waiting for the next person in line, she looked up to see Ralph glaring at her.
She nodded. “Glad to hear you’re feeling better.”
“Nothing to do with you though,” he retorted in a snippy tone.
She studied him. “I understand from Chef that you’re allergic to vanilla, but, since that isn’t something we use back here, I’m not sure how that would have happened.”
“Maybe,” he muttered. “But then again, you do keep it around, don’t you?” he asked in a snide tone.
“I haven’t seen any because Chef put it away,” she stated, tilting her head to the side. “Have you seen any?”
He just glared at her, quickly snatched some food, and declared, “If you poison me this time, we’ll definitely know where it’s coming from.”
“Not at all,” she argued, “because I don’t cook alone back here. Therefore, it’s the same scenario as every other meal here. And the cookies you ate didn’t have any vanilla in them.”
He stopped, looked at her. “What?”
She nodded. “The cookies that you ate? Remember? Yes, I baked them, but they didn’t have vanilla in them.”
He shook his head. “Vanilla’s the only thing I’m allergic to.”
“The only thing you know of,” she pointed out gently. “Perhaps you’re allergic to something else that you didn’t know about, but the same thing applies. We didn’t put vanilla in those cookies.”
“Somebody sure as hell put vanilla into something,” he snapped.
“I don’t know anything about that,” she stated calmly, then smiled up at the person behind him. “Good morning, what can I get you?”
As it was, it looked to be the same guy who had been so apologetic the other day. He smiled, … his gaze going from one to the other. “I mean, I don’t want to intrude.”
“You’re not.” She quickly served him sausage and eggs. By the time everybody was seated, she turned around to see Steven glaring at her, but Chef had been in and out, keeping an eye on things, as he had promised, not stepping in unless it was necessary. So far, it hadn’t been, and she appreciated that too. She quickly set about refilling the serving tubs, before the next group came through, and finished just in time to see the colonel in front of her.
