Too Many Cooks Read Online Free PDF

but she was crazy about him! “He’s jealous, Stan,” she said, and smiled. “Isn’t he cute?”
    Stan blanched.
    So did Paavo.
    â€œHe’s a regular little fuzz ball,” Stan replied.
    â€œDid you like the flowers I sent?” Angie asked Paavo, ignoring Stan.
    â€œThey were…thoughtful,” Paavo replied.
    â€œI loved the hyacinth—deep, mysterious, intense.” She grinned. “Like you.”
    â€œGo on, Angie,” Stan said. “Everyone knows he’s the petunia type.”
    Paavo turned toward Stan and gave him a sharp glare. “Stan Bonnet, as charming as ever.”
    Stan took a quick step backward, nearly stumbling over his own feet. “Bonnette,” he squawked. “And I know when I’m not wanted.” He lifted his chin and, still holding on to his wineglass, left the apartment.
    Paavo looked at Angie as if she were crazy. “Whatever do you see in that guy?”
    She walked up to him and put her arms around his neck. “He asks the same thing about you.”
    Paavo spanned her waist with his hands, then drew her closer to him, feeling the soft warm curves of her body press against him in all the right places. “And what do you tell him?” he murmured as his hands slid over her robe’s smooth fabric. She eased herself closer.
    â€œI say I’d never tell.”
    The delicate scent of roses that touched the air whenever Angie was near enveloped him now, and the unrelenting need that kept him coming back to her again and again, even though every bit of logic and rationality he could muster told him he was crazy, filled his senses. It was one thing to tell himself, while in that cold gray crisis center otherwise known as the Hall of Justice, that she shouldn’t be a part of his life, but quite another when he held her so close.
    His hands slipped under the neckline of her robe, feeling the silken creamy skin beneath it, and he knew that once again he was lost. He reached for the knot of her kimono’s sash.
    â€œWait.” Despite the tremble of anticipation that rocked her, she knew they were already running late. “I made reservations for dinner, and we should leave soon. Wielund’s is an incredibly popular restaurant, all but impossible to get into, unless you know the owner like I do.”
    He said nothing, but everywhere his eyes touched, her skin tingled, and they touched everywhere. Even as her words still rang in the air, her fingers found his tie, loosened it, then slowly pulled the shorter length of it through the Windsor knot.
    He looped the sash of her robe around his hands and pulled her toward him, then bent his head to hers. “Wielund’s,” he murmured, his voice low and husky, his lips nearly brushing hers as the thin edge of his restraint dissolved, “can wait.”

4
    Yosh had been right about the guy popped between the eyes: the old lady was a crack shot when pushed. That had been an easy call, open-and-shut. But as the week rolled on, so did the count of sudden demises: two stabbings, a cabby snuffed during a botched robbery, and a suspicious suicide—or at least suspicious to Paavo, who just didn’t believe in suicidal drug dealers. Big-city life in all its glory.
    â€œDoes it feel as if you’ve never been away, Paav?” Rebecca leaned against the edge of his desk.
    â€œAlmost. Some things’ll never be the same, though.”
    Rebecca glanced at Matt’s desk, where Yosh chewed a pencil and puzzled over writing out a report; then she gazed back at Paavo. “We missed you around here, you know. Now we should be able to get on with solving some of these trickier cases.”
    Calderon slammed his desk drawer shut and stood, his lips forming a bitter curve. “Nothing tricky about these cases, Rebecca. Just look for the dumbest andmeanest guy around the corpse. If that one isn’t the murderer, then it’s the dead man’s