Page 21 of Frat House Fling

“She’s failing.”

“She—”

Hailey came out, holding two small plates. It looked like she’d made apple pie. The strips of crust on the top were slightly burnt. She didn’t speak as she brought in the rest of the plates. Then she retreated to the kitchen, and I didn’t blame her.

Nelson ate his slice. Matt and Grant had a few bites. Ian ate about half of his, even though he normally steered clear of things with added sugar.

I tried it, and it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough to eat a couple of bites of.

Apparently, Grant didn’t think so. He pushed away from the table and stood up. “I’ll go talk to her.”

“Let me.” I got to my feet.

He looked irritated. “I’m not going to shout at her. The only thing worse than a bad cook is a bad cook who’s crying.”

Since I was pretty sure that both of them had made a lot of women cry over the years, I tried again. “I’ve got a good rapport with her. I’ll talk to her.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Ian chimed in.

But Bennett still didn’t look happy, and Grant spoke up.

“It’s not that big of a deal. Either she’ll get better, or we’ll fire her.” Grant got to his feet, and I wasn’t sure if that was wise. Bennett had always seemed to resent that Grant had a few inches on him. But Grant knew how to play it. “It’s no big deal. Let Theo take care of it.”

“He’s got this,” Ian added.

I watched Bennett’s face and saw the moment he gave in. Grant had played it perfectly—he’d made it seem like talking to the poor girl in the kitchen was a task that was beneath Bennett.

Bennett nodded and threw his napkin down on the table. After he left, I exchanged glances with Ian and Grant. They’d both had my back.

Now I had to go explain Bennett’s expectations to Hailey—while at the same time, making sure she knew I had her back.

8

HAILEY

That went horribly.

The kitchen was an absolute disaster. I was exhausted. All that work, and nobody even really ate much of it.

All I wanted to do was to climb into bed and cry myself to sleep, but I had to clean up all this mess. And then I had to prepare for my class tomorrow.

It all seemed like too much.

Then Theo walked in.

“They hated it, didn’t they?” My voice was flat and weary, even to my own ears.

He shook his head, looking at me with kind eyes. “Hate’s a bit of an overstatement.”

“Nobody even ate anything.” The evidence of that was right there on the counter. Six plates, none of them empty, sat there mocking me.

“Nelson did.”

“Yeah, but isn’t he the stoner? I’ve heard that they’re always hungry.”

Theo laughed. “Okay, maybe so, but he wouldn’t have eaten it if it was awful. I liked the fish and the potatoes. Ian and Matt did, too.”

“I thought I did good by getting the trout,” I said, near tears. “That store was so overwhelming, but then I spotted the trout… my grandfather used to catch that for us all the time. And it was fresh. I thought that was better than something that was flown in. We’re not exactly near an ocean.”