Free Dante's Way by Marie Rochelle Page A

Something came up and I forgot to place the order for the extra six boxes,” he admitted. “I’ll have to make a trip to the grocery store and buy up what they have. Do you know if Bambi is here yet or not?”
    “Yeah, she was walking through the back door when I was coming out here to find you,” Kent answered.
    Dante hated leaving anyone else in charge, but he wouldn’t have customers without their famous, best-selling wings. He only hoped that he got back in time before Kent got swamped with too many orders.
    “Tell Bambi she’s in charge until I get back from the store. It shouldn’t take me more than an hour to get all of the chicken wings that I can for you.”
    “Okay, I’ll let her know,” Kent answered. “You know this is going to go to her head, don’t you?”
    “I know,” he sighed, “but she’s the only other person who knows how to get the bar ready for the lunch crowd. I swear I won’t leave you with her too long.”
    Hurrying past Kent, Dante rushed back towards his office so he could grab his car keys off his desk. Thank God, this morning he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to drive his truck. He prayed this would be the only huge problem that he ran into today. His schedule was already packed tight and he couldn’t afford any more surprises today.
     

 
    Chapter Nine
     
     
    Walking up the meat aisle in the grocery store, Dante stopped his cart in front of the chicken wings. He didn’t even bother checking the prices before he tossed all of the packages into the bottom of his basket. This was the fourth store he’d made a trip to in the past forty-five minutes. Hopefully, the four bags he already had in his truck along with these would be enough to get the bar through the lunch and dinner crowd tonight.
    After the bar was closed, he would make a decision how to handle tomorrow’s chicken problem since the bar would still be out of chicken wings. He couldn’t afford not to serve his most popular item. He would lose hundreds of dollars and that wasn’t even an option.
    “I’m scared to ask what you’re going to do with all of that chicken,” a female voice teased behind him.
    Turning around, Dante smiled as his eyes landed on the gorgeous woman standing there with ten-year-old Trevor next to her and Drew inside of the shopping cart playing with a key ring.
    “Hey beautiful,” Dante said, and then kissed Keira on the cheek. “How are you doing? It’s been a while since I talked to you or that crazy husband of yours.”
    Keira grinned at him. “I’m so happy that I don’t think I can handle anymore,” she replied.
    “Great, I was hoping Jim was treating you right. I would hate to give him another talking to about you.”
    “Jim is wonderful, so there’s no need to worry. Right now, he is away at a motorcycle convention for a week. So, Trevor has been a big help to me with Drew.”
    Dante glanced down at Jim’s son who wasn’t looking at him with the friendliest expression on his young face. He was getting the feeling the little boy wasn’t too pleased with him talking to Keira.
    “Hi Trevor, how are you doing? Are you still playing those videos games like you used to all of the time?”
    “I’m going to tell my dad you were kissing my mom and he is going to kick your ass for doing it. So, you better be ready for it,” Trevor warned him. “He doesn’t like when guys look at her too long, so you’re really going to be in a lot of trouble for touching her. You aren’t going to take her and Drew away from us. I won’t let you do it.”
    “Trevor!” Keira gasped. “You stop it right now. You know better than to talk to an adult like that. Your dad knows that Dante and I are only friends. Now, apologize to him.”
    “Sorry.” Trevor glared at him before mumbling under his breath.
    “Why don’t you go and get those cookies you wanted before we leave and I’ll deal with you more when we get back home.”
    “I’ll be back and I’m still going