Ganache with Panache: Book 2 in The Chocolate Cafe Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

that was the kind of decoration on the outside of the house, what lay within? An involuntary shiver passed through Mac, as if someone had walked on the grave of her good taste.
    She was about to grasp the large, yellow gold door knocker when it opened suddenly. Rather than the Hood’s butler, Mac was surprised to see Sabrina. Her face was pale and her eyes wide…with what? Shock? She immediately grabbed Mac and pulled her into the foyer, closing the door quietly behind her.
    “Brie, what…” Mac began.
    “I am so, so sorry.” Brie hissed. If there had been shadows in the house, Brie would have dragged her somewhere darker. Of course, the enormous crystal chandelier eliminated any shadows that might consider intruding. The foyer was almost blindingly bright from the millions of bulbs overhead reflecting the white marble that seemingly covered every surface. Mac looked up, amazed. She could hear the sound of a man and a woman shouting at each other from upstairs. Their voices swept down the double staircase.
    For a second, Mac forgot she was so angry with Brie.
    “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Mac shook Brie by the shoulders slightly as she spoke.
    “I don’t know what I was thinking. Olivia called and she was - okay. Frankly, she was a little intimidating but she offered so much money…”
    “We don’t need the money, Sabrina,” Mac snapped.
    Mac felt bad as soon as she spoke. Unlike Mac, Brie had grown up far, far away from these types of people and this indulgent lifestyle. She had been raised by her father in a state of almost constant financial crisis. He had moved them from one local motel room to another, taking whatever jobs he could hold down when he wasn’t drinking. She had been trained to take any money as soon as it was offered. Normally, it wasn’t a problem for Mac that Brie went after money as a survival instinct. But Mac had never anticipated Olivia and Harper Hood.
    Sabrina looked at the floor and for a second was the same little girl that had snuck into Mac’s bedroom most nights, escaping from the hunger, the dirt, and the smell on her father’s breath.
    “It’s okay. What’s another job? We can make it work, right?” Gently, Mac took Brie into her arms and kissed the top of her head. Not surprisingly, her hair smelled like chocolate.
    The noise of the argument escalated, the woman’s voice rising to a near shriek.
    “What is going on up there?” Mac said.
    “Zach Lau is up there with the Hood witches. It’s a nightmare. As soon as I walked in, I knew I made a mistake. Oh my heavens, what are you wearing?”
    Brie stepped back to take in the entirety of Mac’s ill-chosen outfit. Mac blushed once again. She had been in such a rush to figure the Hood fiasco out that she hadn’t bothered to go home. Louis had even offered to drop her off at her house before he drove her up, but she had refused.
    Standing in the Hoods’ over-the-top Disney palace, Mac was starting to regret that decision.
    “I’m wearing the worst possible outfit for this,” Mac moaned. “Oh, well. I guess we should head up there.”
    When the girls walked into the room, neither Harper Hood, her mother, nor Zachary noticed. The trio was far too involved in what was obviously the argument of the century. Harper was standing on a makeshift platform in front of the large floor-to-ceiling mirror that lined a ballroom. Her hands on her hips, her perfectly tanned but dangerously bony arms jutted out on either side. She was literally staring down her tiny resculpted nose at Zachary who stood, equally defensive, at her feet.
    Mac and Brie waded slowly through yards of different white fabrics, doing their combined best to stay out of the line of fire.
    “If Harper wants to show a little skin on her wedding day, you will make her a dress that shows a little skin.” Next to the window, Olivia puffed on a cigarette, her nose angled just as high as her daughter’s. “I don’t care how many royal weddings you’ve