Chapter One

      There was no less-qualified cook in the town of Peach Leaf, Texas—okay, possibly the whole world—than Lucy Monroe, and she would be the first to admit it.

      So then, to Lucy, given the way things had been going lately, it wasn’t really all that surprising that she was responsible for preparing lunch for the hungry kids on a field trip, who now crowded the Lonestar Observatory’s small café. Thirty or so second graders, and their already-worn-out teachers and parent-chaperones, who must be standing staring at the still-swinging kitchen door, thinly veiled impatience clouding their features as they wondered what on earth was keeping their solo waitress. Not that Lucy was much of a server, either, for that matter. Lord help her, Lucy needed a break.

      Or a miracle.

      She was short on both.

      Full order pad in hand, she grabbed an apron, tying it quickly over her lemon-colored pencil skirt and white button-down shirt. Lucy rushed to the prep table to start slicing cheese and bread for sandwiches, and to check on the caramel apple pies she’d had the foresight to put in the oven earlier between her regular duties. The pie recipe was her grandma’s—an old favorite—and the only thing she really knew how to get right in the kitchen.

      Unlike Nana, Lucy was as out of her element in a kitchen as a hog in a chicken coop, which was exactly why she’d hired the best chef she could find to handle the observatory’s little café. A very skilled, highly trained, seemingly intelligent chef, who, at that very moment, was on a plane to Las Vegas with the fiancée he’d met only a week ago.

       Damn that Axel.

      Lucy pulled out a knife and began slicing a loaf from the day before, pushing the utensil through the soft bread perhaps a little harder than was necessary.

      Surely he could have given more than a day’s notice before he skipped town. But then, Axel had probably made his rash decision with something other than his brain. He’d called and woken Lucy late the evening before to give his resignation. She’d bitten her tongue to prevent her true thoughts from escaping her mouth when Axel had said he would be sorry to cut out on her on such short notice, except for the fact he’d found the love of his life and therefore was the happiest man on the planet and didn’t have a sorry bone in his body.

      Lucy had more than enough sorry bones for the both of them. He’d left her high and dry for a red-eye to Vegas, and she hadn’t had a single second to hire someone to take his place. Her regular tasks as the observatory’s manager would have to wait. Finding a suitable new chef was first on her agenda—that is, after she’d appeased the ravenous throng waiting on the other side of the kitchen wall.

      Her thoughts were interrupted when the door swung open and her coworker and best friend, Tessa McAdams, burst in, quickly closing the door behind her as she stared wide-eyed at Lucy.

      “There’s an angry mob out there, Lu,” Tessa said, turning back to the door and standing on tiptoes to stare out the small round window. She ducked back down, fast. “They’re closing in. I think they might come in after us if you don’t get some grub in their bellies soon.”

      “Damn that Axel,” Lucy said, out loud this time. She lowered the bread knife into the loaf once more and continued to saw, but when she looked up again a strange expression crossed Tessa’s face, causing Lucy to pause midslice. Tessa crossed her arms and her lips formed a straight line, her dark eyes sparkling with mischief, nose wrinkling up like a rabbit in the