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

done, Harper gets what she wants.”
    Zachary ran his hands over his shaved head in frustration. He made eye contact with the girls as they approached and rolled his eyes.
    “Thank heaven. Voices of reason,” he said.
    “I am not being unreasonable. You are the one being unreasonable!” Harper spat. She looked over her angular shoulder at the girls as they approached. She practically sneered at Mac, who smiled back at her in the most annoyingly charming way she could muster. Despite not having seen Harper in years, she realized that the old impulse to yank out Harper’s extensions hadn’t faded in time.
    “The chocolate girls are back,” she hissed to her mother.
    Glad of the distraction, Zach immediately walked through the satins and tulles to shake Mac’s hand. He was younger than she had expected and had the kind of glowing skin and perfectly toned body that most people in the fashion industry worship. His hand was warm and his shake firm.
    “Zachary Lau,” he said. “You must be Catharine.” His eyes darted over her outfit but not in the searing, critical way the Hood women had done when she walked in. To Mac, Zach’s assessment seemed to be a professional habit, strangely devoid of any judgment.
    “I am.” Mac said. “One of the chocolate ladies, apparently.” Zach, still holding her hand, leaned in to whisper in her ear.
    “Welcome to hell.”
    Harper had torn herself away from her reflection long enough to turn and face them. The dress she was wearing truly was amazing, or at least the beginning of the dress was. The skirt and train pooled behind her, the heavy duchess satin rose up to an intricately corseted waist. The bodice, however, appeared to be the center of the disagreement.
    “You two,” Harper hissed. “I’m desperate, so I’ll take your opinions if I must. I want the neckline open, like this…” She arranged the two pieces of satin at her amplified bosom and arranged them so that the silicone monsters were barely contained. They bulged forth in a truly inappropriate way.
    Zach groaned and rubbed his head again. Apparently it was a nervous gesture.
    “Wow.” Brie said, more than a trace of horror in her voice.
    “It looks like a couple of beach balls on your chest.” For the third time that day Mac spoke without thinking and immediately regretted it.
    “Pardon me?” Olivia sneered from her little smoking corner. “Do you have any idea how much they cost? She should show them off. People magazine will be here. Those—” she pointed one bony finger to her daughter’s over-inflated chest. “Those are what will get her on the cover.”
    “Okay,” Zachary said, raising his hands in defeat. “We can show cleavage, cleavage can be classy. But opening the neckline to the waist? If you want to look like a Vegas cocktail waitress, I can give you a number. But you hired me, right?”
    Olivia was suddenly furious and she practically launched herself across the room toward them. She tossed her still-burning cigarette onto a yard of incredibly costly lace.
    “I am starting to wonder,” she began, positioning herself inches from his face, “why I hired you at all.”
    “Because he did Duchess Emilie’s dress and I wanted him.” Harper pouted. She had turned back to the mirror and continued to adjust the fabric to showcase her mother’s investments.
    Olivia cooed to her daughter without turning away from poor Zach “I know, honey and you’ll get exactly what you want.”
    Zachary, although obviously uncomfortable with the distance between himself and the monstrous woman in front of him, refused to back down. He crossed his arms, the measuring tape around his neck like a yoke.
    “No,” he declared. “She won’t get what she wants. I won’t have my name on a dress that makes her look like the guests should be throwing dollar bills at her instead of rice.”
    Brie, who had been stamping out the smoldering cigarette, suddenly burst into laughter. Olivia spun on her kitten