Susan Mallery Bundle: The Buchanans

by Susan Mallery

  “I thought we’d start with a very forgiving crowd. The Daily Grind has an awards luncheon every year in July. We can have that here. I’ve had calls about a few other things. Two more over the summer and three in September.”

  “Get me the details on everything and I’ll let you know what we can do. The summer ones are fine, and I’ll cook for the Daily Grind event as long as I can stand in the back and watch.”

  “Why would you want to?”

  “Professional curiosity. It’s your other life.”

  Why would that interest her? “Sure.”

  “But we can’t schedule anything in September.”

  He frowned. “Why not?”

  “I won’t be here.”

  “For the whole month? You can’t do that. We’ll only have been open five months.”

  “I know, but I’m still going to be gone and you can’t stop me.” She held up a hand to silence him. “This isn’t by choice, Cal. Well, technically, I guess it is. I’m not going on vacation. I’m going on maternity leave. I’m going to have a baby.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  CAL’S EXPRESSION DIDN’T CHANGE, but as always, his mouth gave him away. His lips thinned into a line of displeasure while a muscle in his jaw twitched.

  “Congratulations.”

  There was a world of anger in that single word, Penny thought, doing her best not to react. She’d known the news would throw him. The smart thing would be to give the guy a couple of minutes to get used to the idea.

  “Thank you.”

  “I didn’t know you were seeing someone.” His mouth tightened. She had a feeling he was thinking about their kiss.

  “I’m not. There isn’t anyone in my life right now.”

  “What about the baby’s father?”

  “He isn’t involved.”

  He looked both angry and disapproving, which really annoyed her.

  “My condition doesn’t have anything to do with you,” she told him. “I’m fully capable of doing my job while pregnant. It’s been a couple of centuries since women had to disappear from public life while in a delicate condition.”

  “Doing your job is the least of it.”

  He stood and walked toward her. She rose so they remained eye to eye…sort of.

  “You deliberately kept this information from me when I offered you the job,” he said.

  “I didn’t mention it because I knew you’d freak out if you knew.”

  “I’m not freaking out. I’m pissed off. How far along are you?”

  “Four months.” She glared at him. “Me being pregnant doesn’t change how good I am in the kitchen.”

  “As a chef, you’re on your feet for twelve hours a day. You can’t do that pregnant. How are you supposed to taste the dishes? Aren’t there certain types of fish you should avoid? What about wine?”

  “I can taste both the food and the wine. One bite or one sip isn’t the issue. I’m perfectly capable and I’m doing a damn good job, so get off of me.”

  He loomed over her. “You lied to me. You withheld material information. I can fire your ass for that and we both know it.”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it. He had a point. If she’d been in his position and had learned an employee lied about something this big, she would escort them to the door without thinking twice.

  “I’m the reason this place is successful,” she said, deliberately lowering her voice. “I do good work. Yes, you can fire me, but then what? You think this place can survive losing its chef two weeks after opening?”

  She stared at him, willing him to understand. “I have this all figured out. I can do the job and be pregnant. We’re in this together, Cal. Don’t get weird on me now.”

  “Don’t pretend we’re a team when you’re keeping secrets like this,” he said. “Anything else you want to spring on me?”

  “No.”

  “Fine. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

  “But we’ve just opened. It’s dinner.”

  “So? According to you, you have a plan. Deal with it.” Then he turned and walked out.

  CAL DROVE without thinking and he wasn’t surprised when he found himself in front of Reid’s place. He tossed his keys to the valet, then stalked into the crowded bar.

  What the hell was going on? Penny pregnant? He knew she’d always wanted kids—she’d made that clear enough times. But now?

  He saw his brother behind the bar and waved him over. Reid spoke to one of the women serving with him, then walked out and joined Cal.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  Instead of answering, Cal led the way to Reid’s office. He pushed inside, then closed the door when his brother had entered.

  “You knew about the baby,” he said, making the words a statement instead of a question.

  Reid looked amazingly unconcerned. “So she finally told you, huh? I warned her you wouldn’t take it well. Looks like I wasn’t wrong.”

  “Not take it well? You’re right. I didn’t. What the hell happened? Did you encourage this?”

  Reid frowned. “Hey, slow down. Why does it matter to you that Penny’s pregnant? You let her go a long time ago.”

  “That has nothing to do with this.” He didn’t care who his ex-wife slept with, or what she did with her personal life. He was just furious that she would go and get herself pregnant.

  Reid leaned against the edge of his messy desk. “Look, it’s no big deal. Penny’s been thinking about having a baby for a long time. She’s always wanted a family.”

  Cal knew exactly just how long she’d been thinking about it. He didn’t even have to close his eyes to see her curled up next to him on the sofa, her hand on his thigh as she leaned close and whispered, “Let’s try again, Cal. Let’s have a baby.”

  “She hit thirty and realized she’d better get going,” Reid continued.

  Cal grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Is it you? Did you sleep with her?”

  His normally laid-back brother instantly stiffened. Reid’s hand covered his own in a grip that both punished and threatened.

  “I’m going to give you ten seconds to take that back, then I’m going to wipe the floor with you,” Reid growled.

  “What makes you think you could?”

  The two men glared at each other. Reid backed off first. He released Cal and raised both hands in the air.

  “No one slept with Penny,” Reid said. “It wasn’t like that.”

  Cal released him. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s no guy. Penny went to a sperm bank. You know, one from column A, one from column B. She picked the sperm out of a computer list. Crazy if you ask me, but she didn’t.” Reid poked him in the chest. “Why didn’t Penny tell you about the in vitro fertilization herself?”

  Cal shrugged.

  Reid poked him again. “You didn’t give her a chance, did you? You jumped to conclusions. Dammit, Cal, why do you always think the worst of people?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Sure. You’re a regular ray of sunshine. You have to trust people to do the right thing. Penny would never get involved with a guy who would abandon a child, okay?”

  Cal took a step back. He didn’t know what to say to his brother. Somehow Reid had gotten right to the heart of the matter. That’s what Cal couldn’t deal with—the thought of a man walking out on his own child. Because an adult would have choices—choices he hadn’t had at seventeen.

  “You’re right,” Cal said. “Good point. I, ah…thanks for explaining things.”

  His brother leaned back against the desk again and folded his arms over his chest. “You’re pretty screwed up, you know that?”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “We all are. Thanks to Gloria.” Reid shook his head. “That bitch. The things she made us do. Always threatening us. So many damn secrets.” He looked at Cal. “Penny wants this baby. She’ll be a good mom.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “Isn’t it? Are y
ou all jacked up because of Lindsey?”

  Cal stared at his brother, unable to believe what he’d just heard.

  “You know?” he asked, his voice harsh with shock.

  Reid nodded.

  It had been seventeen years and Cal had never discussed his daughter with anyone in his family. Gloria had known—she always knew everything. While his high school girlfriend had been content to give the child up for adoption, Cal had wanted more for his daughter. He’d wanted to take care of her himself. But he’d been a senior in high school, with no way to support a kid, let alone raise one.

  Then Gloria had offered. Cal could keep his child, but she, Gloria, would raise the infant.

  Every fiber of his being had rebelled against that. She’d forced his hand and he’d given in to the idea of adoption.

  He still remembered signing the papers. How wrong everything had felt. He’d been a few weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday—too old to cry. But he’d wanted to. He’d wanted to take the baby and run. Only the kindness of the adopting couple had allowed him to give Lindsey away.

  “How did you find out about her?” Cal asked. “No one knew.”

  “Maybe no one was supposed to, but Walker and I both did. We heard you arguing with Gloria about it. I don’t think Dani knows. She was pretty young.”

  “You never said anything.”

  “Why would we? It was your decision. Walker and I talked about what we would do if it was us. We agreed we both would have given up the kid without a second thought.”

  “Easy to say when it hasn’t happened to you.”

  “Maybe.” Reid shrugged. “Then it was done and we figured it was your secret to keep. If you wanted to talk, you knew where to find us.”

  Reid seemed casual enough, but Cal wondered if there was more to it. A sense of betrayal that he hadn’t trusted his brothers with a decision that big.

  “I was the oldest,” he said awkwardly.

  “Right. Set a good example. Don’t tell your younger brothers you knocked up your girlfriend. We got that. We both became poster guys for safe sex. Don’t worry, big brother. Your experience served us well.”

  Cal supposed that was something.

  “How old is she now? Fifteen? Sixteen?” Reid asked.

  “Seventeen. She’s a senior in high school.”

  “You keep in touch with the family?”

  “With the parents. They send me pictures and letters a couple of times a year. Lindsey knows she’s adopted, but isn’t interested in her birth parents.” Not that her birth mother cared. Alison had given birth, graduated and moved back east. Cal had never heard from her again and suspected she had no interest in the child she’d given away.

  “I always felt bad,” Reid said. “You didn’t want to let her go.”

  Now it was Cal’s turn to shrug. “I didn’t know how I could take care of her.”

  “You did the right thing. You always do. It was a hell of a characteristic to have thrown in my face over and over again.”

  “Thanks for not holding it against me.”

  “No problem. But here’s the thing. Maybe it’s time to do the right thing for Penny. She didn’t get pregnant just to mess with your mind.”

  “I’m sure she sees that as a fun bonus.”

  “Maybe. But she wants this baby. You should respect that and get off her ass about it.”

  His brother had a point. “I’ll think about it.”

  “You do that. Want a beer?”

  “No, thanks. I need to get back to the restaurant.”

  He made a fist. Reid did the same, then they banged them together.

  “Hang in there, big brother,” Reid said. “This isn’t your kid. You don’t have to sweat what goes on this time.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Cal walked out of the office and headed for the front door. When the valet had retrieved his car, Cal drove back toward the restaurant.

  Too much had happened too fast, he thought. Penny being pregnant. Learning that Reid and Walker knew about his daughter.

  He remembered the fights he and Gloria had had back then. How he’d screamed at her with all the fury of a seventeen-year-old being denied something precious. It was amazing everyone in the neighborhood hadn’t heard. But his brothers hadn’t said anything. They’d waited for him to go to them, and he never had.

  He should have. They would have understood. Especially three and a half years ago when his marriage had been unraveling. Penny had been pressuring him to emotionally engage, to have a baby with her, to be in their marriage. He’d been holding her as far away as he could while he dealt with the horror of knowing his only daughter had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

  For three months he’d waited to hear what would happen. Lindsey’s adoptive parents had kept him informed at every stage of her treatment. He remembered the agony of not knowing if the chemo would work. Wondering if his daughter was going to live or die and then the joy when Lindsey had beaten the disease.

  Should he have told Penny about her? At the time he’d known he couldn’t. She would never have understood how he could care so much about a child he had with someone else and yet be unwilling to have a baby with her. He hadn’t known how to explain he was afraid of losing Lindsey all over again.

  So she’d pushed for more and he’d retreated until eventually she’d walked out. Her leaving had seemed like the best thing for both of them.

  He entered the restaurant and spoke with his assistant manager, then he walked to the kitchen. As always, the level of noise filled his head with shouts, the hiss of the steamer, the roar of the grill.

  “Three more salmon,” one of the waiters called as he put down a tray. “The lady wants to know what you put in the sauce.”

  Penny looked up, saw him and turned her attention to the waiter. “Sorry, it’s a secret. But I promise if I ever publish a cookbook, I’ll put the recipe in the first chapter.”

  When the waiter left, Penny glanced at Cal. “You left during dinner.”

  “I know.”

  Her expression told him not to do it again, but she didn’t say the words. Penny was too good for that. She wouldn’t chew his ass in front of her staff.

  But she wanted to and under the circumstances, he couldn’t blame her.

  “We need to talk,” he told her. “Around ten?”

  “Sure. I’ll be the one in the chef’s coat.”

  BY NINE-FIFTEEN, things had quieted down. They’d worked through all their reservations and there were a few empty tables in the dining room. Cal retreated to his office to catch up on paperwork before his meeting with Penny. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say to her. He wanted to apologize for overreacting, but he couldn’t tell her about Lindsey. Not when she’d just told him she was pregnant. He wanted to make things right with her before he dropped that bombshell.

  He sat at his desk, but instead of turning on his computer, he leaned back in his chair and remembered the first time Penny had told him she was pregnant. Neither of them had planned for it. Sometimes birth control failed.

  He’d been stunned—first by complete happiness and then by guilt. Because he would get to keep this child. He would experience everything he’d missed with Lindsey. What if he loved his child with Penny more than Lindsey?

  He hadn’t known where to get answers to his questions, or who to trust with his confusion. So he hadn’t said anything. Eventually Penny had noticed that as time went on, he seemed less and less thrilled. She couldn’t understand why he’d held back. But then she’d never held back in her life.

  “Knock, knock.”

  Cal turned and saw Gloria standing in the doorway to his office. He held in a groan. Yeah, right, because he needed more stress in his day.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” he told his grandmother.

  Gloria swept into the small space and claimed the only other chair. “I don’t know why you think I spend my life micromanaging. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m ju
st here because I want to see my grandson. Is there anything wrong with that?”

  There wouldn’t be, if he believed her. But he didn’t. Gloria always had a purpose and a motive.

  “Fine,” he said. “If this is strictly a social visit, then you won’t have anything to say about the restaurant.”

  She pressed her lips together. “I did notice a few things.”

  He stared at her. She exhaled slowly.

  “I won’t mention them. Although why you don’t want constructive criticism is beyond me. I would think you would want the restaurant to be the best it can be.”

  “Nice try, but I’m not biting.”

  “Oh, all right.” She shrugged out of her coat. “I just wanted to let you know that Daniel quit.”

  He stared at her. “Who’s Daniel?”

  “Daniel Langstrom. The president of the company. Honestly, Callister, can’t you even pretend interest? He wouldn’t say why he left. It’s very inconvenient. He’s the third one to leave in fifteen months. The executive searches are very expensive. Not to mention time-consuming. One would think the search firms could bring better candidates.”

  “The search firms aren’t the problem, Gloria,” Cal said. “You are. You’re hell to work for.”

  Gloria stiffened. “I beg your pardon. You can’t talk to me like that. It’s rude and vulgar.”

  “Maybe, but it’s true. You add new intensity to the term micromanage. You’ve never met an order you didn’t want to tweak or change or countermand. You get in the way, you change your mind fifteen times a day and you make everyone around you wish they were dead.”

  She paled. “That’s not true.”

  “Haven’t you noticed how difficult it is for you to keep an executive assistant, let alone a company president? You drove me away years ago. Reid and Walker never even bothered to try. You need to back off or there won’t be anyone left at the company.”

  “That’s ridiculous. You’re exaggerating. Regardless, I want you to take over the job as president.”