Page 2 of Recipe for Romance (Applewood #2)

The rest of the night devolved into one long conversation with Luca about his lack of attention to detail.

The vegetable prep was slow and Luca’s cuts inconsistent, so Aiden moved him to sauces.

There, Luca spent more time flirting with his station partner than he did on the work.

The younger woman looked increasingly uncomfortable with the attention, so finally, Aiden told Luca to mash and cook the potatoes.

After an eye roll worthy of any teenager, Luca sat at his station where he proceeded to send Aiden pot after pot of lukewarm, lumpy potatoes that he wouldn’t have served if his life depended on it.

Having had enough of the younger man’s attitude and lack of work ethic, Aiden snapped.

“Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?

” Aiden’s booming voice seemed to startle the young man, but instead of showing regret, Luca jut his chin out in defiance.

The look of unearned arrogance was the straw that broke Aiden’s back.

“Slow veg, no sauces, and now you want to send me shitty, cold potatoes that I wouldn’t serve to a dog?

” Aiden shook his head in disgust. “Grab your knives and get the fuck out.”

Whatever look Aiden expected to see on Luca’s face, glee with a hint of smugness was not one of them.

The eerie silence that had come over the kitchen in the seconds since his rant ended with the clearing of a throat.

Aiden would never forget the sound for it ended up being the death knell of his career since the throat belonged to Luca’s father, his boss, and one of the most successful restaurateurs in the country, Gio Zoretti.

“I came back to congratulate my son on his first day on the job,” Gio said smoothly.

His dark eyes were narrowed, not at his screwup of a son, but at Aiden.

“May I have a word, Chef ?” Behind the cool veneer, Aiden could see just how pissed off the older man was.

In the moments that followed, with Aiden once again handing the reins to his sous chef and following the owner back to the office, he knew he would lose his job.

He just hadn’t realized how bad things would get after that.

While Aiden could admit that a thirty-four year old man telling off someone much younger, his boss’ son no less, wasn’t a good look, Gio had known his reputation when he’d hired him, so surely the incident couldn’t have been that much of a surprise.

Apparently, hearing about his perfectionist ways and witnessing them were two different things.

After refusing to apologize, not only was Aiden fired and blacklisted from any restaurant owned by The Zoretti Group, but Gio had made some calls and gotten Aiden blacklisted from many other places as well.

Once word had spread through the culinary grapevine that he was “arrogant, unstable, and difficult to work with,” other rumors started to spread.

Former coworkers and employees came forward with their own horror stories about the notoriously bad-tempered chef.

According to their exaggerated and oftentimes fabricated accounts, his demanding perfection of himself and others had made him the villain of the culinary world.

Not in an entertaining and reality show worthy way like some other famous chefs, but in an immediately fired and cancelled by nearly everyone in the business sort of way.

The month after his firing had probably been the worst of Aiden’s life.

He made call after call to former employers, coworkers, and people who were ever remotely connected to a high end restaurant to try and find a job, but he’d gone from famous and in demand because of his incredible skill set to unwanted and nearly unmentionable because of how toxic his name was.

Even his former teachers in culinary school, people Aiden looked up to and who helped him find internships, wouldn’t take his calls.

Aiden had become poison to anyone’s business and reputation.

Just when he thought he’d seen the worst of it, he was hit with another wave of bad press.

Food reviewers and bloggers who had once sang his praises were now coming out against him, unsurprised by his firing.

Each one went on to detail how his food was pretentious, lacked soul, and above everything else, lacked passion.

It was that last word that cut Aiden the deepest. With nothing left for him in Chicago or nearly anywhere else for that matter, he packed up his things and moved back home to Applewood.

The small Washington town was where everything had started for Aiden, so he assumed it was where he would find the solution to his problem.

Aiden had always been passionate about food and he still believed that he was, but those articles had wormed their way into his brain, convincing him that maybe he wasn’t everything he thought he was.

Maybe in his pursuit of perfection, he’d lost a bit of his passion along the way.

If he could find it anywhere, that culinary spark that would jumpstart his stalled career, it would be back in Applewood.

That being said, Aiden knew he wouldn’t be finding it in this damned orchard, so after heaving himself off the flannel blanket his mother had provided for him, he strode back toward the main house.

Apple trees with heavy branches lined his path, but they didn’t hold the answers to the questions plaguing his mind.

Aiden had an inkling of what he wanted to do, but with no one willing to work with him, was it even possible?

The Old Cider Mill had burnt down last month in a fire that could have claimed his brother’s life.

While Aiden was grateful Beckett had come out with only a broken arm, he was also appreciative of the event itself.

The mill was a property that had been abandoned for longer than Aiden had walked the earth.

It had remained a derelict monument to a bygone era where apple cider was produced in mass in the town instead of in small batches by people like his other brother, Felix.

No one would touch the property either out of reverence for the past or because it was a money pit due to it being in need of some serious renovation.

But since the fire had hollowed the whole place out, it paved the way for someone with a vision of what the mill could be to come along and easily turn into something else. Something like a restaurant.

The idea had hit Aiden like a ton of bricks almost as soon as he’d moved back home.

The building was right on the river near downtown.

A location for any business in Applewood didn’t get more prime than that.

It was also large enough to accommodate a restaurant without being too much to manage.

Once it was restored to its former glory with a few modern upgrades, it would be remarkable, but he would need backing to do it.

Aiden would put up some of his own money, but that would only go so far.

As financial options went, his were quite limited, but there was one last person he could call.

Aiden had been avoiding making this specific call before now because if his old mentor turned him down, it would be the final nail in the coffin of his culinary career.

It would be poetic in a way, given that Eddie Malone had given Aiden his start.

The man was someone Aiden had followed when he was younger.

Even though he could have worked in any number of good restaurants, he’d wanted to start off in a great one.

It was fairly unheard of to get hired at a Michelin star restaurant straight out of culinary school, let alone one as established and highly reviewed as La Petite Maison .

The Los Angeles fine dining establishment had been where all of Aiden’s natural talent and ambition had been honed by Chef Malone.

The time there had molded him into the perfection seeking chef he was today, the same chef who could do something great as long as someone was willing to give him one last shot.

The thought of finally having a restaurant of his own, rebuilding not only the old mill but his reputation as well had finally made up Aiden’s mind for him.

Pulling out his phone, he put in a call to the man he’d hoped would take another chance on him.

Aiden wasn’t the same young man lacking in total confidence that he’d been back then, but that hadn’t made his palms sweat any less.

“I was wondering when you would get around to calling me.” Eddie’s accent, a strange mix of his native Brooklynese that had been reshaped by too many years of living in Los Angeles, had memories from his time in the man’s kitchen flooding back the moment it hit Aiden’s ears.

“Actually, I am slightly offended you didn’t call sooner, given all the troubles you’ve been facing. ”

“Apologies, Chef,” Aiden said gruffly. No matter how old he got, he would still feel like a scolded child next to the culinary powerhouse that was his mentor, feeling the need to answer the man without hesitation.

It didn’t matter that they hadn’t spoken in years.

Everyone Aiden had ever worked with would be inextricably linked to him.

Being on the line in the kitchen was like being in the trenches, and at one point, Eddie Malone had been his commanding officer.

“I’ve been a bit busy trying to sew the tattered pieces of my career back together. ”

“Always with the dramatics,” Eddie chortled. “So, have you called asking for advice, a job, or money? I am in no shortage of all three.”

Aiden knew that as well, another reason he delayed the call.

Eddie Malone wasn’t just the chef that gave Aiden his start, he was so much more than that now.

He still worked as a chef at one of his many restaurants around the globe on occasion, but he was also a reality television star, making episode after episode of a show where he would judge and mentor young chefs until he found his next protégé.

Between his ability to mentor others and the natural charisma oozing out of every pore on his body, Eddie was a television producer’s dream and had turned that dream into an empire for himself.

Aiden didn’t like to think he was only going to Eddie for the money, though that was definitely some of it, but part of Aiden also wanted the approval of the person who put him on the path he traveled so well for so long, no, needed it after the horror of the last two months.

Aiden swallowed, trying to come up with a tactful way to ask for what was necessary without sounding like he was begging for a handout.

You are begging for a handout. Rolling his eyes at himself, he finally mustered up the courage to just ask for what he wanted.

“I’ll always listen to your advice, and I don’t need a job, well, not in the sense you mean it.

What I’m really after is some money. Mainly in the form of you backing my new restaurant.

” Aiden’s shoulders relaxed as the breath whooshed from his lungs.

There, he’d said it. Now that the request was out into the universe, maybe, by some miracle, it would actually happen.

A thoughtful pause stretched out maddeningly before him.

Just when Aiden had given up hope, Eddie spoke again.

“Come to LA and talk to me more about this restaurant of yours,” he commanded.

It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no either.

Aiden knew damn well he would book a plane ticket as soon as he got off the call. “I may have a deal for you.”

Eddie’s voice was friendly, yet also a bit cagey.

A deal? That had been less expected, but at this point Aiden would seriously consider selling his soul to the devil himself if it meant he got what he wanted.

“Color me intrigued.” Aiden had no idea what kind of bargain Eddie would offer, but with no others on the table, did he really have any other options but to pursue it?

“I’ll book my flight and text you the details.

And Eddie, I appreciate you taking my call. ”

The older man barked a laugh. “Don’t appreciate me just yet. Not until you hear my side of the deal.” With that ominous line hanging in the air, Eddie said his farewells and ended the call.

After scowling at the blank screen for a good five minutes, hoping that it would reveal the mystery deal Eddie was conjuring up, Aiden finally gave up trying to decipher the man’s words and stuffed his phone into his pocket.

As good of a mentor as he was, Eddie was also shrewd and there was no way he would invest in Aiden’s restaurant unless he would get something in return.

From the sounds of it, he wanted something other than the money he would make from the return on his investment when Aiden was a success.

What that was, Aiden had no clue, but as he got closer and closer to the main house of the family farm, another problem started to make his gait unsteady.

Before he went to LA, Aiden had to head into his parents’ house and finally confess to them that he’d gotten fired, something he really wasn’t looking forward to doing.

Good thing Aiden was used to doing the hard thing.