Page 30 of For the Record
Coy shifted into gear, wiping runaway tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand as she left Sawyer’s. She was halfway home when she couldn’t deny the strange rawness seeping intoher gut. Her thoughts on Sawyer, Coy’s stomach churned until her throat was raw, too. Ugh.
Was she falling for Sawyer?
Chapter 15
Sawyer
“Haven’t you been payingattention to anything?” Sawyer barked at Shane at work the following day. She grabbed his wrist before he cut his fingers off. “You’re slicing onions, not playing the fucking cello! Fold your fingers in and hold the knife the way I showed you.”
“Sorry, Chef.”
Sawyer scowled, wondering if she’d made a mistake promoting him. If he hadn’t learned how to use a knife properly yet, then perhaps he was dumber than she’d first thought. There was no place for idiots in her kitchen. It was hazardous, and they were time-consuming to teach.
“I love this job, Chef. I’ll do better, I promise,” Shane added, and she noticed him anxiously watching her. He had to have learned something if he could read her body language so well.
“See that you do, Shane. Practice at home if you have to. I don’t want to see that” —she imitated him swinging the knife all over the place— “in my kitchen again. Understood?”
“Perfectly, Chef.”
“Good.”
Aware the kitchen had fallen silent, Sawyer turned to glare at the rest of her staff. “What? Does anyone have a problem with the way I run the back house?”
Usually, she at least pulled someone off the line before reaming them first, but if she’d waited much longer, Shane would have cut his fingers off.
“No, Chef. You’re the boss,” Leon replied, lifting his gaze from the salmon he was cleaning to meet her eyes.
Sawyer nodded in satisfaction. She turned to her rotisseur chef. “Micah? Any problem?”
“No, Chef,” Micah stated softly, unable to look at Sawyer.
Her gaze landed on Barb, who had stopped stirring the stew to frown at Sawyer. Before either of them could speak, Kelly called out Sawyer’s name from the kitchen’s entrance. “Our 2 p.m. interviewee is here.”
That brought on a new scowl for Sawyer, and she whipped around to face Kelly. “Cancel it or interview them by yourself.”
“Chef, we’re short-staffed and can’t afford to cancel interviews.”
“Then you sit in on the interview, Barb,” Sawyer said. She headed in the direction of her office. “I’m not in the mood for the guaranteed headache that will follow.” She needed another coffee. And maybe a new personality. She felt like she’d been slowly unraveling since Sunday evening. The heart-to-heart with Cindy and Lori brought back painful memories and parts of herself she’d set aside for so long. She was out of sorts—the morning prior was proof of that. Her throat and chest had been raw since McCoy had all but run from her house. Her stomachwas still in knots, sour like she’d sucked on a dish full of lemons. The worst part was Sawyer couldn’t even look at McCoy when she’d shown up to work that morning. I still can’t believe I shoved her so hard.
There was a knock on her door, and Barb ducked her head in. It didn’t take a genius to see how upset her sous-chef was. “Chef, can I speak with you?”
“You know you can call me Sawyer, Barb.”
Barb nodded. “It’s not my job to give interviews, Sawyer. I’m not a head chef, nor do I want to be. I have enough on my plate managing the kitchen staff when you’re not here.”
Sawyer stiffened, her mind and body rapidly switching back to attack mode. Her voice was gravelly as she bit out hoarsely, “Then quit, Barb. Fucking quit. If you can’t handle the pressure, it’s high time I find someone who can.” With that, Sawyer pushed past her, leaving Barb to stand in her office alone.
Her cell phone was vibrating by the time she was heading back to her office an hour later. The two back-to-back interviews had been a complete waste of her time. She was beginning to doubt Kelly’s ability to find capable young people who wanted to work.
Sawyer snatched her phone out of her pants pocket just as she was entering her office. Bree’s face lit up her screen, inviting Sawyer to accept the video call. For a nano-second, she considered not answering it, but that just made her feel worse. She took a deep breath, closing her office door with a lot more grace than earlier. She collapsed into her swivel chair, scrubbing a hand over her face. “Hi, love,” she forced out once her daughter was live on-screen. The seriousness in Bree’s eyes had Sawyer sitting up in her chair. “Everything okay?”
“Did you really try to fire Barb?”
Sawyer tensed.Seriously, Barb, you phoned my daughter?To Bree, she tried for a smile, but even by force, it wasn’t happeningtoday. “Bree, honey, I think Barb might have stretched the truth a bit.”
“She said you told her to quittwiceso that you can find someone else more capable.”
A strained laugh slipped from Sawyer. She squinted into the phone, wondering how she could dodge this. Things must have been dire if her staff were calling her daughter. Sawyer’s heated discussion with Barb felt like days ago. “Surely she didn’t take me seriously.”