Catering to the CEO Read Free

Cassie had a couple of favorite pots and pans that she preferred to cook in.  By five-thirty she had changed into more casual clothes, was packed up and back in the car, heading to her childhood home.
    Her brother Matt was the first one out of the house to help her.  He met her at the trunk of her car and picked her up in a bear hug as if she weighed nothing.  “Hey!  There’s my cooking angel of mercy!”  He gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek before putting her down.  Of course it helped that he was well over six feet tall and built like a linebacker! Reaching into the trunk, he took most of what Cassie had brought with her and headed towards the two-story Colonial.
    Cassie stood in the driveway for a moment and took in the grand house and realized that it still looked the same.  Her dad kept it clean and well manicured and it just always said ‘home’ to her.  It was a nice feeling to know that some things never changed; some things were sacred and stable.  This home was one of them.  Grabbing the last of the grocery bags, she closed the trunk just as a car pulled in behind her. 
    Waving to her middle sister, Lauren, she stopped and waited for her to get out of the car.  “How goes law school?  Ready to sue anyone yet?” she teased.
    Making a face at the lame joke, Lauren grabbed her satchel from the back seat and walked with Cassie to the door.  “Very funny.  Unfortunately, they don’t let you sue anyone until after graduation.  It’s just wrong.”  They laughed and made their way directly to the kitchen. Matt was already setting up his sister’s supplies as he knew she liked them and Katie was getting Ella settled into her baby swing.
    Stephen Jacobs smiled as his family came in to view.  His kids.  They were his whole life and seeing them all in his kitchen, grown up and happy made him beam with pride.  They were a close knit group and he always thought that it would be that way forever.  With a quick prayer, he hoped that by the end of the night it would still be that way.
    Life had not changed much in the last ten years after losing his wife.  Stephen had tried to keep things as normal as possible for the sake of the kids.  Cassie and Matt had had to take on a bit more responsibility to help out with Katie and Lauren; but, if anything, it seemed to make them all closer.  They were a pretty unshakable bunch, he thought to himself.  Heck, even Katie’s unplanned pregnancy hadn’t been able to shake their bond.  Somehow, he feared, tonight’s dinner might just be big enough to cause a tremor or two.
    Walking in to the kitchen, he heard Cassie telling the story of her difficult client who’d fired her today.  Bastard .  As a father, he hated to think of anyone hurting or upsetting any of his children and although Cassie was a grown woman of 26, he still wanted to fight her battles for her.
    “Basically it’s a breach of contract on his part,” Lauren was saying, anxious to use her legal knowledge around the house to prove that she was taking law school seriously.  “What he was asking was for you to break your contract but in the end, he did.  You could probably sue him for the total amount of the contract.  It might not get you any future work with his company, but it would cover your butt until you can get another client or two to replace him.” 
    It was funny to listen to Lauren talking so seriously when she was wearing sweats and her hair pulled up in a ponytail; she looked more high school than law school, Stephen thought.  He was so damn proud of all of his kids and to listen again, as they were pulling together to help one another out, told him that he’d done a good job raising them. 
    “That would certainly not endear me to any future clients, I think,” Cassie said as she cleaned and chopped fresh spinach to use in her Greek chicken.  Like her sister, she was dressed casually in faded blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a black apron tied around her.  She