Chapter Twenty-Five

A thundering crash echoed through the empty kitchen when a towering stack of brand-new, stainless-steel sauce pans toppled over.

"Damn it," Tracy mumbled, just in time to step out of harm’s way.

The stack of cookware, worth thousands of dollars, hit the red tile floor so hard that pans flew in every direction.

By the time the last pan stopped clattering and dancing, Tracy could feel a rising tide of frustration in the pit of her stomach. There wasn’t much time left before the restaurant – her restaurant – was set to open, and it felt like absolutely nothing had been done. The kitchen needed to be set up, the employees still needed to be finalized, the design crew still had to finish work on the dining room. And what made Tracy more nervous than anything was her appointment with her new head chef: Gordon Baxter.

An esteemed chef with dozens of prestigious awards under his apron, Gordon had only agreed to work for Tracy for a salary that ate up much of the restaurant’s start-up budget.