Read Online The Secret Ingredient by Nina Harrington - Free Book Online

the fundraiser at the hotel. And she was going to hold him to that, no matter what happened.
    ‘Oh, can I lick the bowl out? Please? You know I cannot resist your icing! Mmm, delish.’
    Lottie chuckled as her friend and part-time waitress wiped her fingertip around the scrapes of icing left in the glass mixing bowl and popped it into the mouth. ‘Oh, that is so good,’ Gloria moaned. ‘When are you going to give me the recipe, woman? My girls would love me for ever.’
    Lottie threw her head back and laughed out loud. ‘What are you talking about, Gloria? Your three girls already think you’re a goddess because you work here and go home loaded with edible swag every afternoon. And what about that handsome husband of yours? How did the chocolate melting-middle brownies go down last night?’
    ‘Go down? Oh, yes. I am going to need a regular supply, if that boy has the stamina to keep up with me,’ Gloria replied with a waggle of her eyebrows.
    Lottie glanced quickly at the tables, then leant across and wiped the icing from Gloria’s cheek. ‘You are terrible! And setting a bad example for the customers.’
    Then she flicked her head towards the counter. ‘How are we doing out there? Ready for the carrot cakes?’
    ‘Girl, we are always ready for that carrot cake. Pass them over and turn the oven on to make the next batch. They’ll be gone in an hour. And before I forget, the gals have been asking me about the Bake and Bitch club meeting next week. What special treat do you have lined up?’
    Lottie winked and started washing up. ‘Wait and see, Gloria. You are just going to have to wait and see.’
    * * *
    Rob stared out of the floor-to-ceiling office window at the overcast sunless skies of central London in June. It was hard to believe that only thirty-six hours earlier he had been eating barbecue in the glorious Californian sunshine with his restaurant brigade.
    His eyes felt heavy, gritty, and ready to close, but just as Rob rolled back his shoulders his talent agent, Sally Richards, finished the call on her mobile phone.
    ‘Good news. The first reviews and photos of the exhibition are all looking brilliant. The only photographs I have seen are when she left the hotel for the event last evening. Adele smiled sweetly on the way out and gave them a lovely wave before jumping into the limo. Not a word about her staggering home early the worse for wear. So relax, Rob. You got away with it.’
    ‘By the skin of my teeth and through the back door. What a nightmare,’ he replied and then covered a yawn with one hand.
    ‘So are you ready to rock and roll? Because I have to tell you, I have a tube of under-eye concealer in my bag and you need it more than I do. Did you get any sleep at all on the flight? Eight hours, wasn’t it? Nine?’
    Rob snorted a reply to the one talent manager he had used since he first stepped out from his dad’s Beresford hotel chain and started making a name for himself.
    ‘That was the New York leg of the journey. I had to stop en route from California to check up on a few things at the Beresford New York office. Then the traffic was horrendous. So I missed my flight to London and had to battle with the usual airport media scrum. So all in all just about a typical day’s travel in the crazy world I live in.’
    ‘Hey. That’s why you love it so much!’
    Rob looked around and blinked at Sally a few times before collapsing down on the leather sofa with a grin. ‘If you say so, but these past few months have been a nightmare, Sally. My mum...well, you know my mum. Hates medics. Always has done. She promised me that she would start taking the medication as soon as she finished the final piece for this exhibition, but I don’t know. I called her from the airport yesterday and she sounded high as a kite. But last night she was so doped up with cold medicine it was hard to know what was going on inside her head.’
    Rob ran his hand back and forth over his mouth and chin. ‘It’s