Page 65 of Keeping Secrets

Again, she had erred on the side of abundance. She’d made the deconstructed lemon meringue that Guillermo had requested and a decadent chocolate mousse for Sunday. Eight servings of each option. The mousse was simple, but it was phenomenally delicious. It had taken her seven tries to land on a batch that felt good enough.

Plating the lemon meringue took some doing. Each plate got its own small bowl of lemon curd. She had considered just a swirl of it on the plate as a garnish, like you might see at some expensive restaurant, but decided that it was too delicious to dole out in such meager servings. So a bowl of lemon curd, lemon-infused meringue, and delicate butter cookies. Then a final garnished, candied lemon peel. She found a stack of deep blue plates in the cupboard that worked perfectly; the contrast made the pale dessert pop.

She brought out the lemon meringue first, then brought them the chocolate mousse as a final surprise at the end.

“No birthday cake could compare,” Frances told her as she spooned up the rich mouse that Keely had infused with a hint of peppermint. “This has been the perfect meal. Thank you.”

“We were very lucky to find her,” Sunday proclaimed. “She is an undiscovered gem. Soon she will be too busy to book.”

“I don’t know about that,” Keely said modestly.

“Oh, I think you will.”

“Never too busy for you,” she said with a smile.

“Good.” Sunday beamed at her. “That is good.”

“Would you send us this recipe?” Guillermo asked as he scraped the last traces of mousse from his glass. “I might have our chef add it to the weekly rotation.”

“Of course,” Keely agreed.

“You’ll send me her number?” asked the cousin. She looked at Keely and said, “If you’re half as good with cakes as you are with everything else, I’d love for you to cater my daughter’s birthday party.”

Keely just nodded, too stunned to speak, and started picking up the empty dishes.

It was logical that one good gig would lead to another – but even so, she was shocked. This thousand-dollar event had fallen into her lap, and it had felt like a one-time stroke of luck.

But she had pulled it off.

She felt her cheeks warm with pleasure as she carried a tray full of dishes into the kitchen.

She’d done it.

On an impulse, she checked her phone. She hadn’t so much as glanced at it since the start of the evening. There were a number of messages waiting for her, her friends and parents and brother all asking her how the night had gone. Two of them were from Travis.

Good luck! he’d texted just minutes after her message to him had gone through. Not that you need it.

And then, just a minute before she’d picked up her phone, he had texted: So? How did it go??

Rave reviews, she texted back. It was a success. I think… I might actually be able to make a living at this????

Of course you can! he replied. You’re amazing.

She grinned and pocketed her phone. She still had cleanup to do. She floated around the kitchen on a cloud of victory, as happy to be washing dirty dishes as she had ever been to do anything in her life.

CHAPTER 20

Travis had just left Scot’s house – he’d dropped by on his way out of town to bring him some food for lunch – when his boss called him. That was so completely unlike Scot that his pulse jumped, scared that he had fallen again. He picked up right away.

“Hello?”

“Tell Juan that he’s overcooking the fries. These are basically inedible. They’re hard as rocks.”

Travis sighed, releasing a mix of relief and annoyance. “I’ll be sure to do that,” he said in a monotone.

“You know what, just put him on. I need to talk to him about this burger too.”

“I’m not at the Bottlenose. I’m on my way to Half Moon Bay.”

---