Page 8 of Already Home

“They’re perfect. Very cheerful.” Beth smiled at her daughter.“You’re going to do very well here. I can feel it.”

“I hope so.” Jenna drew her brows together, looking moredetermined than optimistic.

Beth squeezed Violet’s arm, then released her. “I have a fewerrands to run, then I thought I’d get you girls some sandwiches.” She picked upher purse and pulled out a pad of paper. “Order away.”

After writing down what they would like, Beth hugged Jenna,then surprised Violet by giving her a quick squeeze, as well.

“I’m off.” She grinned at Violet. “You’ve inspired me to buyblack leather.”

Jenna laughed. “Mom, that may not be a good thing.”

“I think I’ll let your father decide that. Back in aflash.”

Beth left in a swirl of perfume with the door clicking shutbehind her.

“We need a bell for the door,” Violet said absently, thinkingthat Beth was unlike any mother she’d ever met or even heard of. “So we can hearcustomers come in if we’re in the back.”

“Good idea.”

Jenna jotted a note down on the pad she’d placed on the counterby the cooktop.

When she’d finished, she looked at Violet. “She didn’t meananything by mentioning black leather.”

“I know. It’s fine.” Violet knew she was different from Jenna.From all of them. It wasn’t good or bad—it just was. She turned to her boss.“You must really take after your dad. You don’t look anything like yourmom.”

Jenna smiled. “Not surprising. I’m adopted. Mom says I comefrom a tribe of redheaded Amazon women and she’s jealous.”

Adopted. Violet turned the idea over in her mind. There wouldbe advantages of not knowing where you came from, she thought. “You two arereally close.”

“We always have been. My mom’s my best friend.” Jenna wrinkledher nose. “That sounds so fake, but it’s true. She’s always been there forme.”

“Nice,” Violet said. “What about your biological parents? Whatare they like?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met them.”

“Did you ever think about finding them?”

Jenna shrugged. “I never saw the point. I have a family. I’mnot looking for another one.”

Because the one she had was so good, Violet thought, morebemused than jealous. It was like watching a zoo animal. They were cute and all,but nothing she could relate to.

She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be close to hermother. Hers had beaten her, same as look at her, and Violet had taken off whenshe’d been fifteen.

She’d lived on the streets for five long years before realizingthat if she stayed there, she would end up dead before she was twenty-five.Change hadn’t come easy, but she’d managed.

And now she was here, she thought, looking around at the store,seeing it as it would be, rather than as it was.

Maybe Jenna didn’t know what she was doing, but she had Violet.Together they would make Grate Expectations a success. Jenna had class and moneyand something to prove, while Violet knew how to make it, no matter the odds. Anunlikely match, she thought, but a good one.

* * *

Jenna added spices, one after the other. She quicklystirred the strips of flank steak, searing them with the spices, over the highheat. The late news played in the background and she was already on her secondglass of wine.

Telling herself it didn’t matter, that no one would know, shepicked up the bowl containing the sauce she’d created on a whim and dumped it inthe pan.

The liquid snapped and boiled, reducing to almost nothingimmediately. She rotated the pan, then used a spatula to flip the strips overone last time before dumping the contents onto the warm flour tortilla.

After setting the hot pan on another burner, she turned off theheat and took a fortifying sip of wine.

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