A Pizza to Die For Read Online Free Page A

unnerving for him on sentinel duty there. Even so, it was better than the way Josh reacted when I’d ask him to close a little early. He’d been known to make up stories just to run off any diners he felt were moving a little too slowly for his taste. At least I would be saved from having to deal with his teenage temper reacting to the new pizzeria for the moment. Josh wouldn’t be in until later, since he was scheduled to work the evening shift, and I wondered how he’d react to the news. At least I had a break before he’d arrive and I’d have to deal with his outrage at the news.
    Once the last customer left, Maddy looked around the dining room and said, “I can’t believe how much of a mess they made.”
    “Don’t think of it that way,” I said as we all started getting the place back in order. Greg was on table duty, Maddy helped him bus, and I retrieved food and napkins from the floor so I could clear enough of a path to get the vacuum.
    “How should I think of it?”
    “As dollars in our register,” Greg said before I could reply. He looked sheepishly at me and said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to speak out of turn.”
    “It’s not a problem. You said exactly what I was thinking myself,” I answered as I picked up an errant soiled paper napkin from the floor. Sometimes I wished I wore gloves, but my hands would be in scalding water soon enough as I washed dishes, and I wouldn’t touch anything else until they were clean again. I liked to keep my restaurant clean, and I’d do whatever it took to make it happen.
    Like most messes, it wasn’t as bad as it had originally looked. We had the dining room in good shape in short order, and Greg took off, with my blessing.
    As soon as he was gone, Maddy turned to me and asked, “What do you want to do now? Should we do all of the dishes, or should we forget about them for the moment and do a little more digging into Mr. Sizemore’s life?”
    I was tempted, but I wasn’t all that certain that I could focus on anything else with a sink full of dirty dishes, and more waiting to be washed. “Let’s go back and see just how bad it really is. With both of us working, we might be able to knock them out in no time.”
    Maddy shrugged. “Hey, it’s your place. I’m just your number one employee.” She looked at me and added, “I am number one, right?”
    I laughed at that as I opened the door to the kitchen.
    “What?” Maddy said. “Does that mean you aren’t going to comment?”
    “I thought my reply was on the nose,” I said with a smile.
    We walked back into the kitchen, and I looked at the mess. If anything, it was worse than I had expected.
    I turned to Maddy and said, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can face another dirty dish.”
    She grabbed my apron from me and threw it onto the counter. “Let’s leave them for Josh, then.”
    I took my apron, sighed, and put it back on. “We both know that I can’t do that, no matter how much I’d love to. I can delegate most things, but I can’t make anyone else do something that I’m not willing to do myself.”
    She grinned. “I can always hope otherwise, but how can I say that I’m surprised by that reaction? Let’s get to it, then. You wash, and I’ll dry. We’ll be out of here in no time.”
    “Why don’t we make something to eat while we’re working? That way we won’t have to deal with it later.”
    “That sounds great to me. What did you have in mind?” she asked.
    “Surprise me.”
    As I started on the dishes, I could see Maddy pulling pizza dough out of the refrigerator.
    She was just starting to knuckle the dough into the pan when she caught me watching her. “Hey, no peeking.”
    I turned back to the dishes and, after a few minutes, she rejoined me and started drying the rinsed items from the rack.
    I kept waiting for her to tell me about her latest concoction, but when she didn’t say anything about it, I finally broke down and said, “I give up. You win.