Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

pills Dr. Singh had prescribed. He turned the light off as he walked towards the bathroom and in the dark, filled a glass with water and let two of the pills wash down his throat.
    The only light left in the room was filtering in from the parking lot below, and Noah hesitated for a moment at the window, staring out from the space between the curtains before he viciously jerked the two halves closed and let himself fall into bed and into the black void.

Maggie had had better mornings.
    She’d slept like crap, tossing and turning all night, upset by Cal’s proposition and still mad that he’d had the nerve to suggest it in the first place. It had been nearly painful dragging her tired, sorry ass out of her warm bed at 5 AM when the alarm had gone off. It had never been funwaking up so early, but she’d gotten used to it and loved working at the Café enough that it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
    Then she’d gotten to the Café and Rosa Ruiz, her other cook, had confronted Maggie with the bad news that the exhaust fan system above the large grill top wouldn’t turn on. Without the fan, they couldn’t use the grill, and that was potentially a major blow to the Café’s business.
    Even though it was only 5:30 in the morning, Maggie’s first call had been to Cal. He was an early riser anyway, she’d justified as the phone had rung and rung, and besides, he didn’t deserve to sleep in after making her own good night’s sleep impossible. But Cal hadn’t answered that first call, or the second, or returned any of her voicemails or texts.
    It was now 7 AM, and instead of running smoothly as mornings at Café normally did, with orders coming in and coming out of the kitchen, she and Rosa were reduced to cooking over two portable burners she only kept for emergencies and on the off-chance she decided to get into catering. It had seemed foolish to buy the burners a year ago, especially when money was tight, but Maggie was beyond thankful she had. Otherwise she’d have had to shut the doors this morning and the entire day would be one big loss.
    The Café wasn’t in a horrible financial state, but it was just precarious enough that she couldn’t really afford to lose an entire day of income.
    Still, the two burners weren’t nearly enough to handle the influx of orders, and Maggie knew that if so many of her unusually patient regulars hadn’t been out in the dining room, the situation would have been worse. As it was, she’d noticed the harried looks on Hannah and Janice’s faces as they dropped off order tickets and Maggie, flipping a pancake onto a plate, gritted her teeth. She had to get the fan fixed. Maybe they could make it through breakfast hobbled like this, but not lunch.
    She slipped away from the burner, and Rosa took over without missing a single beat, confident and sure after working with Maggie for the last three years. Thank god for Rosa . Closing herself in the little nook of an office she kept at the Café, Maggie pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and dialed Cal yet again. Common sense said she could probably call for a repair from any of the many commercial kitchen suppliers in San Francisco, but they’d never be able to get out here and make the repair today. Plus, Maggie thought with a wince, she wasn’t entirely certain her month’s budget could handle that kind of high-priced repair.
    The phone rang and rang, and Maggie swore under her breath. Where the hell was he?
    It was unlike Cal to go off the grid like this, and of course, he’d had to do it on the one morning she needed him more than ever. Maggie felt her blood boil in frustration. She was contemplating calling a company she knew in San Francisco, damn the expense, when she heard a knock on the office door and looked up to see Hannah’s distinctive blonde hair through the window.
    Maggie opened the door to a Hannah who was suddenly bubbling with excitement.
    “Oh good, Maggie, I found you.” Hannah paused, nearly