Listen to Your Heart - Fern Michaels [0]
FERN MICHAELS
Kensington Books
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Title Page
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Kitty Dupré’s Favorite Recipes
Copyright Page
Notes
One
Gourmet Party magazine called the building a picture-perfect Hansel and Gretel cottage, rhapsodizing over the gingerbread trimming, the diamond-shaped windows, and the Dutch doors that looked out onto a miniature front porch, where window boxes chock-full of colorful petunias and geraniums nestled under the gleaming windows. Luscious green ferns on white braided chains hung from the porch ceiling and swayed in whatever breeze found its way to the Garden District. Neighbors and friends referred to the cottage as a cute little converted playhouse, in part owing to the small front porch and the extra room added on to the back. Twin sisters Josie and Kitty Dupré called it their place of business, also known as Dupré Catering. It was all those things by design, a design the twins had come up with to attract new customers. The test kitchen and the working kitchen were set farther back and secluded with the help of well-pruned shrubbery and huge old oak trees that dripped Spanish moss.
Bright red and black stepping-stones in the shape of ladybugs, a holdover from the twins’ childhood years, led customers from the discreet sign at the side of the driveway to the eye-pleasing cottage, where business was conducted six days a week.
Josie Dupré bent down to pick up the eight-pound snow-white Maltese and set her on the corner of the small secretary. “It’s just you and me today, Rosie. It’s Monday, so things are going to be slow. What that means is, I am going to trim and water all the plants on the porch while you sit and watch me. I’m going to tell you all about my date last night with Mark O’Brien. It’s not interesting at all. Inputting the weekend records would be more exciting. It was a dud.
“This is the way the date went. He was late, as you know. Kitty didn’t like him from the git-go. He was so dressed up I felt like a bag lady next to him. I thought we were going to a movie and out to get a bite to eat afterward. I wasn’t dressed for a fancy night out. He switched up without telling me. That tells me he’s arrogant and into himself. Another thing: he spent the entire night talking about himself. I can’t remember one thing he said. Guess I won’t be seeing him again.” Josie plucked a yellow leaf from a cluster of luscious scarlet geraniums. Rosie listened attentively as she watched her mistress.
“You know what, Rosie? I really love this little house. I didn’t think I’d be able to live here again after Mom and Dad died and Kitty twisted my arm to come back here. I miss Baton Rouge so much sometimes I want to cry. There are just too many memories here.” The little dog hopped off the porch chair to paw at Josie’s leg, a sign she wanted to be picked up and cuddled. Josie obliged.
“C’mon, let’s get some coffee. We’ll take it out to the porch so we can admire all the pretty flowers. Kitty and I used to play here when we were little. This was originally a potting shed Mom used for her flowers when she did all her gardening. Of course that was before Dad’s heart attack and before they went into the catering business. Can you imagine a young man of thirty having a heart attack? It scared Mom silly. When Kitty and I came along she talked Dad into adding a room, and it became our playhouse. We spent whole days out here. We even slept out here sometimes. After we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we’d spook ourselves and run into the house. Why am I telling you all this? I think it’s because Kitty is sick, and I hate it when people get sick. Sometimes when people get sick they . . . they die. It’s just a cold. People get colds all the time. In a few days Kitty will be her normal self and cooking up a storm. Things will go back to normal. I worry about everything. I think it has something to do with moving from Baton