by Sable Sylvan
They had started selling more and more bottles to locals, but the real money was in restaurant supply. They sold larger sized containers of hot sauce with squirt pumps to restaurants in Bright Star County. This meant they needed a place to store the sauce, which was great because it kept a long time and didn’t need refrigeration. They had purchased a plain warehouse and set things up, so all Addison and Sage had to do was supervise the warehouse workers and delivery people. Addison handled the books, obviously, while Sage took it as an opportunity to flex his leadership skills. After all, being a gamma didn’t mean he didn’t get alpha urges. He was a polar bear shifter, after all. The Polar Clan structure wasn’t exactly something that came naturally to a people that were part solitary bear.
Mace and Savina were supposed to work in the storefront, but from what Cayenne had seen, they fought more than they worked. She had witnessed this during her week ‘off’ because the restaurant, which was next door to the store, was still under construction. Finishing touches were done during the week that they got back from Denver, so Cayenne and Basil had spent their time working at the storefront and the warehouse respectively.
They’d had a four-day week, but on Sunday, they learned that the restaurant was ready, so it was time to check out the space and get to work on Monday.
Of course, Alice and Herb had one last twist. Not only did the siblings have to share rooms, but they also had to share…cars. Alice and Herb took Herb’s truck to work, and Savina and Mace took the old Quincy minivan, but the rest of the siblings had brand new shiny vehicles, all SUVs, practical for work.
Mesquite Manor had a set of unique rooming arrangements. Alice and Herb had a master suite, but every other set of siblings had their own bedrooms but shared a room. It was confusing at first for everyone. Abigail and Clove, the two second eldest siblings, had a shared suite. Each had their own bedroom, closet, and a private bathroom, but there was a center room between the rooms that was shared, along with some shared closets. The center room was free for people to do with as they pleased. Abigail and Clove had used theirs as a winter study which is how they’d gotten so close. Now that they had graduated college, the question was, what would they use it for? Cayenne had asked, and Abigail told her, “You don’t want to know,” so Cayenne hadn’t pushed the topic. Cayenne had an inkling of what might be in that room based on the fact they’d gotten some soundproofing treatment for the room, as well as a lot of things from a costume company and a company with a suspiciously generic name that had sent a box that sounded like it was full of chains.
Addison and Sage hadn’t used their middle room when they’d fallen in love at Bonimolean but as soon as they moved in, they had made plans to get Sage a piano and put in some shelves for his sheet music and her books, plus a gray chaise lounge for Addison to use for reading. It was almost too sweet for words. The two were lovey-dovey all the time, and it would’ve made Cayenne sick if she wasn’t so happy for her sister.
Savina and Mace had done their own thing with their own rooms and had fought over what to do with the center room. When they hadn’t agreed on what to do, Mace had gone ahead and filled it with guy stuff, making it into a man cave, but he had underestimated Savina. She wasn’t about to be steamrolled. She and the rest of the Quincy Sisters (except Alice who refused to get involved) had moved Mace’s stuff back into his room, not once, but twice. The most recent time had been on Friday evening, and it had left Cayenne’s arms tired…but the fact Mace had to move all the stuff back into the room made it all worth it. The Quincy-Scoville beef may have been put to rest…but it was put to rest the same way a six-year-old, back from grandma’s house with a belly full of ice cream and candy bars, is put to rest. It snuck up every so often and had to be brought back up the stairs, read a bedtime story, and tucked in until inevitably, it got up again.
Cayenne had decorated her room over winter break with her things. She had gone for a sweet theme that was pretty and girly. Now that it was the summer, she didn’t have to wear the same professional clothes she wore during the school year. As good as she looked in peplum tops and pleated skirts, she was a lot comfier in jeans and a tank top. She may be part Southern belle, but she was a Texas girl, through and through, which is why the fact she had to share a car with Basil made her want a horse more badly than she already did.
The room between hers and Basil was another issue.
If Basil had populated it with his things, she could pull a Sav and Shanghai her sisters into helping her move the stuff out.
But Basil had played the one card that she couldn’t counter. He hadn’t played any card at all.
The room remained empty, and neither of them had talked about it…at least, until the car ride to the restaurant for the first day of work.
“You excited to see the space?” asked Basil as he drove them out the gates of the Mesquite Manor and toward the town proper.
“Very,” admitted Cayenne. “From the pics, it had some good bones.”
“Just like the room in our suite,” said Basil. “You got any ideas on how to decorate that? Anything special you want to use it for?”
“No, do you?” asked Cayenne.
“Yes, but, I have lots of rooms,” said Basil. “Come on. We’re going to be working together all summer. You got any hobbies you want to use the room for?”
‘I have lots of rooms?’ What the heck was that supposed to mean? What a pompous jackass, rubbing his wealth in my face, thought Cayenne, before replying, “I’m fine using the room for anything.”
“Okay, so I should use it to practice singing Norwegian heavy metal with Sage on the piano and Mace on the guitar, got it,” said Basil. “I know you have to have a hobby, Cayenne. You take your time figuring out how you want that room to look.”
“Why are you doing this?” Cayenne blurted the question out before she could stop herself.
“What, not being a dick?” asked Basil.
“Yeah,” admitted Cayenne.
“I may be a Scoville, but I’m not my brothers,” said Basil. “I’m serious. We have to work together and live together all summer, Kai. You need a space that is yours and yours alone. I know that we’ll be spending a lot of time together…and I also know you don’t particularly like me. That’s why I suggest you use the room for what you want. I know that the restaurant industry can be…well, I’ll put it this way. It can be exhausting, socializing with people day in and day out. You’re an extrovert, but you’re not a frikkin’ robot. You need a break, a retreat. I can shift and run around the estate with my bros, play some Amerikansk fotball, sorry, I mean American football. But, you can’t shift…can you?”
“No, do you see marks?” asked Cayenne, holding up her palms. Unlike Basil, her hands were clear of any marks that would indicate her shift. Some shifters, like bear shifters, had marks on their hands that were like the marks that would appear on the paw of their shift.
“Does shifting help relieve stress?” asked Cayenne.
“Yeah, the same way as…” started Basil.
“Painting,” said Cayenne. “I paint. I know it’s kinda cheesy…”
“It’s not cheesy,” said Basil. “You like to paint? I like paintings. Why don’t you make the room into a studio?”
“That’s not practical,” said Cayenne.
“Does it need to be practical?” asked Basil. “Kai, you’ve gotta learn to chill. You work hard, so relax hard, too.”
“Okay, okay,” said Cayenne. “Hey, don’t miss this turn. This is Main Street.”
Basil took the turn and parked in the back of the restaurant which had an amply sized lot. There were two other cars there, Alice and Herb’s and Savina and Mace’s.
Basil and Cayenne went in the back of the store.
“Hey,” said Basil, heading toward Herb to get the keys to the restaurant next door.
Cayenne walked to the front of the store. Business was good. There were even some hipster types that looked like they must be from Austin checking out the sauces. Al
l three of the company’s signature sauces were there.
There was the jalapeño ‘Secret Sauce’, the secret ingredient being a kick of lime. It was dark green and had a dark green dragon on the label. Next was the ‘Awesome Sauce,’ a crimson roasted habanero sauce that had a badass looking dragon on it, its body taking the form of a modified Celtic knot. Finally, there was the brand-spankin’-new ‘No Bullshizz Sauce,’ an adobo sauce made with chipotles. The chocolate brown sauce had a dragon on the label that almost seemed to be attacking the viewer, the dragon image chosen because of an incident involving a dragon shifter that Addison had managed to piss off at Bonimolean University. The sauce had been beta-tested by the family, and once they’d perfected the sauce, it was released for general purchase, and had been flying off the shelves!
“So, Savina, who won the fight for the keys this morning? You or Mace?” asked Cayenne.
“Ugh, you don’t wanna know,” said Savina, moving her broom.
“Come on,” said Cayenne. “You didn’t let him win, didja?”
“Herb drove Mace in his car, and Alice took me in the other car,” said Savina. “I hope Mace got half the scolding I got from Alice. At least he is stuck hosing down the front of the parking lot and I get to stay inside…but don’t let Alice hear that I said that.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” said Cayenne. “I know I fan the flames and stir the pot, but maybe try to get along with Mace this summer, sister. After all, it’s only a few months.”
“Hypocrite!” said Savina with a laugh.
“What? No way,” said Cayenne. “The thing with Basil and me, that’s different.”
“Yeah, sure it is,” said Savina. “Basil isn’t a total jackass. He’s a gentleman.”
“Uh-huh,” said Cayenne. “But this is America, where royalty and nobility ain’t shit.” Somebody jingled some keys and walked up to her.
“Hey, you ready?” asked Basil. “Hey, Savina. You win the fight with Mace?”
“Hey, Basil,” said Savina. “I’m sure Kai would love to fill you in, wouldn’t you, Kai?”
Cayenne shot her sister a look. What kinda game was Savina playing?
“Yeah, I’m ready,” said Cayenne. “Bye, Savina. Try not to get in any more MMA fights with Mace.”
“Mixed martial arts?” asked Savina.
“Messy marital acts,” teased Cayenne.
“Eww,” said Savina, and Cayenne laughed and turned to leave with Basil.
“Sorry about my brother,” said Basil. “I know he can be a lot to…handle.”
“I’m glad somebody isn’t taking Savina’s shiz,” said Cayenne. “Don’t get me wrong, I love her. She’s my frikkin’ little sister, but boy is she a firecracker.”
“Not the only one with spice and fire in your family,” said Basil.
“Let’s just get to work,” said Cayenne, blushing. Hopefully, she could just pass it off as a sunburn if Basil noticed. What the heck was he doing, flirting with her on the job?
“Do you want to do the honors?” asked Basil, passing the keys to Cayenne.
“Thanks,” said Cayenne. She unlocked the lock and opened the door, reached in, and turned on the lights.
The space was empty. That, she’d expected. She just hadn’t expected it to look so frikkin’ gorgeous. The color palette for the walls was white, but all that was on the walls was a coat of primer. The walls would be painted later. The floors were dark hardwood, original, and smooth and shiny. There was a large room that was used as a waiting room by the previous owner, as Cayenne remembered from the packet that she had read about the property. There was a large dining area, split into a few sections.
“Let’s check out the back,” said Cayenne. She walked with Basil to the back of the restaurant and checked out the kitchen.
“All the appliances are state of the art,” said Basil. “Only the best.”
“So, this is going to have to be a fancy restaurant,” said Cayenne. “Especially to make up for the price of the equipment.”
“So, molecular gastronomy is the obvious choice,” said Basil.
“Are you kidding? That nonsense with what, steak turned into foam? Bacon turned into caviar? Pork chops turned into jellies?” asked Cayenne.
“Yeah, it’s a natural choice,” said Basil, leaning back on a counter. “After all, it’s chic, we have the equipment to make it, and there aren’t any molecular gastronomy restaurants in the county.”
“Yeah, smart one, maybe because nobody in Bright Star County wants to have that kinda food,” said Cayenne. “Why don’t they have a juice bar in town? Because nobody here wants ten dollar smoothies. This is Fallowedirt, Texas, with an emphasis on the Texas. The people here want barbecue. They want meat. They want hot sauce.”
“There are a million barbecue places in the county,” said Basil.
“Because barbecue sells,” said Cayenne, putting a hand on her hips.
“Barbecue won’t stand out,” said Basil. His bear roared and told him to put Cayenne’s hand on something else, to put his hands on her hips, hike her on the counter, and claim her, but Basil told the bear to let the man handle the business. After all, he couldn’t think with his bear all the time…although he had to admit there was something sexy about Cayenne sassing him like there was no tomorrow.
“This is Fallowedirt,” said Cayenne. “Standing out isn’t good here. Do what works. Do what sells.”
“Do you remember the cook-off this summer?” asked Basil.
“Yes. Your brother was gonna sue my sister, and Alice challenged Herb to a cook-off at the county fair. We made poppers. You made some meat dish. I also remember that we Quincy girls took first,” said Cayenne.
“That’s not how I remember it,” said Basil. “We tied. That’s how Herb got your sister to go on that date with him, which made her see he was serious about her. More importantly, the judges and the popular vote showed that our ideas were equally popular. I tried your jalapeño poppers. They were frikkin’ delicious. And you tried our kjøttkaker, our Norwegian meatballs. You loved it. Admit it.”
“They were good, but do you think Nordic cuisine is suited to a climate like Bright Star County?” asked Cayenne.
“No, but my point is, I think you aren’t giving the people of this county enough credit,” said Basil. “They’ll try new things. I guarantee that another barbecue joint is the last thing this town needs.”
“And I guarantee that it is,” said Cayenne.
“So how are we going to settle this?” asked Basil.
“I guess we’re going to have to have another cook-off,” said Cayenne.
“Challenge accepted,” said Basil. “But remember, Kai…those that forget history are doomed to repeat it.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Cayenne. “Tomorrow night, at the manor, you and I will see whose food wins, and decide the fate of this restaurant once and for all.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Cayenne and Basil told Alice and Herb about their idea. Obviously, they couldn’t start work on the restaurant if they didn’t have a clear idea about what cuisine to serve, and their cook-off idea was approved. Tuesday’s dinner would be served by none other than the second youngest siblings, so everyone was going to work up a healthy appetite in order to be able to properly sample each dish.
While Basil worked in the kitchen at the Mesquite Manor, Cayenne wanted a familiar environment. That’s why she took the car to get the groceries she needed and then took it to the old Quincy house in Fallowedirt. Savina and Mace had lost car privileges, so Basil used their car for his shopping at the fancier food store the next town over.
The old Quincy house had been left to Alice by their parents when they had retired to Florida, along with a minivan that had been in the family since the sisters were wee tots. The house hadn’t been used much since they had all moved to the Mesquite Manor but it was still cleaned once a month by a service and the utilities were kept on. There was no telling when the house might come in use, and there w
as no use selling it, with the bleak real estate market in Fallowedirt.
Cayenne turned the lights on and set out her ingredients and got cooking. The three special ingredients she’d brought from the house were the three hot sauces that were brewed by The Feminine Mesquite. She smiled to herself as she cooked and bobbed her head to the cassette she’d put in their old boom box. Once she was done making this food, there was no frikkin’ way that Basil could say anything bad about her idea to have a standard Texas barbecue joint again.
Six hours later, Cayenne had cleaned up and headed back to the manor with her trays of food carefully brought over from the house. She had used aluminum trays covered with aluminum foil to keep things hot and set the trays up on a table in the backyard. The backyard of the Mesquite Manor had a traditional Nordic grilling house, a wooden hut with a grill in the center that cooked food and kept people warm. The grilling hut wasn’t used often in the summer because it would be too hot, so there was also a large barbecue pit, a fire pit, picnic tables that were large and linked together like a Viking long table, and of course, there was room for all her aluminum trays. The staff had put out some heavy closed plastic containers of disposable napkins, utensils, and things of that ilk because nobody was going to want to clean up what was left over from a Quincy-Scoville barbecue.
Cayenne finished setting up her food. Finally, with the help of the head of the household staff, Lauren, she mixed together a big keg of peach tea. It was made with her own special mix of peach black tea, apricot pieces, marigold flowers, apple pieces, and some cinnamon, some mango, and a few rose hips just to mix things up.
“Hey, need a hand?” asked Basil, walking out carrying two trays of small dishes of…something. Was it a foam? Was it a jelly? What the heck had this guy made?
“I’m fine,” said Cayenne.
“Basil, get your rumpe over here!” shouted Lauren, whose arms were tired from pouring the hot water into the keg, and Basil walked quickly, getting his rumpe (rump) over there as quickly as possible. He put the trays of food down and took over pouring the gallons of hot water into the keg.