Free Once Upon a Christmas Eve by Christine Flynn Page A

against the work counter across from her, he crossed his long legs at his ankles and his arms over his broad chest. With his hands tucked as they were, the crisp white fabric of his dress shirt stretched across his shoulders and pulled across honed biceps. “You have a serious problem with cost containment.”
    Tommi jerked her attention from all that nicely dressed, hard male muscle. She was still back at the part where he’d had his secretary take him takeout. She wanted to know what he’d ordered. The only to-go she could remember offhand was for a panini and crab cakes. “I do?”
    â€œYou do,” he assured her. “Let’s start with your employees.Your records show that you only have four regulars on the payroll. I have no idea how you’re running this place with such low staffing—”
    â€œOh, we do fine,” she said before he could add the “but” to his sentence. She spoke quickly, apparently not wanting him to think her physical management of her business as deficient as her financial skills.
    â€œAlaina covers breakfast and lunch and Shelby does lunch and dinner. Shelby teaches a spin class at the gym while we’re closed in the afternoon,” she explained, accounting for the longer hours. “Andrew works dinner with Shelby Thursday through Saturday. Since those are our busy nights, that’s when Mario comes in to bus tables, do dishes and help me mop up.”
    Which apparently left her with the cleanup the rest of the week, he realized. “And if one of them can’t make it?”
    â€œI call Bobbie. My sister.”
    â€œIsn’t she the one who just got engaged?”
    His question gave Tommi pause.
    â€œJust last week, actually.” And now that Bobbie would be getting married, Tommi knew she wouldn’t have anywhere near the extra time she’d once had. Or the need for the money. Aside from having finally found her calling as head of Golden Ability Canine Assistance and being the almost-new-stepmom of two, Bobbie’s fiancé seemed intent on spoiling her silly. All of which was wonderful for her little sister—but only added another disconcerting change to the others happening in her own life.
    â€œBobbie always helped out in a pinch.” In an emergency, she probably still would. If she could. But Tommi wouldn’t impose on her time with her new family.
    It was time to consider other options.
    â€œFrankie has helped out once in a while, too,” she continued, though she immediately ruled her out as a possiblepermanent fill-in. Brainy and highly educated, her second oldest sister seemed to enjoy the diversion of serving the bistro’s patrons. Especially the sometimes smart-ass but harmless guys who occasionally hung out at the wine bar. But Frankie was a university research assistant with a full life of her own.
    â€œYou have two sisters?”
    â€œThree. Georgie is the oldest. She’s far too busy to help, though.” Not that Tommi would ever ask. Her hugely successful, accomplished and very sophisticated first-born sibling had far more important things to do than help out in a bistro that, at capacity, only seated twenty-eight, wine bar included. Georgie was into causes on a much larger scale. “She works for a philanthropy and travels a lot.”
    â€œInteresting names,” Max muttered.
    She gave a little shrug, reached for a pair of gray oven mitts. Growing up, her feeble attempt to set herself apart from “the Fairchild girls” had been to spell her name without the ending “e” like her sisters. Her rebellions had always been subtle. “We were supposed to have been George, Jr., Frank, Thomas and Robert. Our dad wanted boys.”
    He’d noticed on her driver’s license that her name was Thomasina Grace. At the time, the name had struck him as rather formal, almost regal, in a way. Now, watching her pull on the bulky mitts and open the