Playing with Piper (Menage MfM Romance Novel) (Playing for Love Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

confrontation, and when my mother starts to cry, I just want to capitulate.
    “What if we do an early dinner?” I bargain instead.
    I can eat a quick meal and still be on time, right?
----
    I ’m not on time . It’s almost eight by the time I make it to Aladdin’s Lamp . Part of me desperately hopes that Owen Lamb and Wyatt Lawless have given up on me and gone home. I’m not in any shape to confront them, not after enduring several hours with my parents.
    No such luck. They’re seated in a corner booth, identical disapproving expressions on their faces.
    I am in such trouble.
    “I’m so sorry.” The last time we met, we didn’t get off on the right foot. I resented their implication that I wasn’t taking the restaurant seriously. Today, my tone is contrite. I’m fifty-five minutes late to a business meeting, and they have every right to question my commitment.
    Wyatt looks up. “Glad you could join us.” His tone drips sarcasm.
    Owen is blunter. “Piper,” he says, “I don’t know where to start. This is bullshit on so many levels.” He draws a breath and proceeds to lecture me as if I were five. “First,” he says, “what kind of head chef has plans on a Saturday evening? You’re supposed to be here at dinner service, Piper. Chefs don’t get weekends off.”
    I guess he does know where to start after all, I think snidely. Inwardly, I curse my mother. I told her I had to leave. I warned her I had an important meeting. Did she listen? No, she disappeared into the Saks Fifth Avenue dressing room with a pile of clothes to try on right when I had to leave, and all I could do was fume silently and wait for her to finish.
    Not true, Piper. You could have left.
    Wyatt cuts in, his voice still icy. “If you are laboring under the misconception that this is a nine-to-five job, you need to rethink your career choices.”
    Ninety seconds. It’s taken ninety seconds for me to go from apologetic to full-on-fury. They’re giving me grief about my hours? Kevin only works Fridays and Saturdays since I can’t afford to pay him for more than that. Josef is massively unreliable. For the last six months, I’ve started work at ten in the morning, and I’ve left at midnight, every single day of the week except Mondays.
    I swallow a lump in my throat. No excuses, Piper. Just keep quiet.
    “Then, there’s this food.” Owen gestures to the plates in front of him with an expression of distaste. He hands me a fork. “Taste the lamb.”
    Shit. Josef must have improvised a special, but I know for a fact that we don’t have any fresh lamb in the refrigerator. Did he really use frozen meat for a special?
    I chew into the lamb and grimace as soon as I taste the over-seasoned dish. It’s frozen alright. What on earth was Josef thinking?
    I’m in my personal episode of Kitchen Nightmares. “The mussels haven’t been cleaned,” Owen continues grimly, gesturing to a fish stew. “The lentil soup tastes like the cook dumped a cupful of salt in it. The lettuce in the salad is wilted and the dressing tastes like it came out of a bottle.”
    Every single thing he’s saying is true, but his words sting.
    “I’m not going to lie to you, Piper.” Wyatt takes over the task of chewing me out. “I’m quite perturbed by this.”
    Seriously, who talks like this guy? Quite perturbed? He sounds like a stiff, uptight Colin Firth. Except Colin Firth is yummy, and Wyatt Lawless is a jerk.
    “I’m looking for passion and commitment from you, a burning desire to make this restaurant succeed.” His eyes flicker in the direction of my Saks Fifth Avenue bag. “I can’t have you skip out on work to go shopping . Two thirds of all restaurants in New York fail in the first year. The clock’s ticking.”
    I sit there in silence, fighting the urge to defend myself.
    They think I don’t want this, but they’re wrong. I want this more than anything in the world.

7
    It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not