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Chapter 1

“I LOOK LIKE A CHOCOLATE MERINGUE PIE,” KADY SAID AS SHE grimaced at her reflection in the tall three-sided mirror With her dark hair and ivory skin above the absolute white of the frothy wedding dress, she did indeed re her head to one side, she reconsidered “OrI can’t decide which”

Fro school with Kady, laughed softly, but Jane did not

“I don’t want to hear another word like that,” Jane said sternly “You hear eous and you full well know it”

“Gregory certainly knows it,” Debbie said, her eyes wide as she surveyed Kady in the inia froht before and had onlyfro les and planes, with dark hair and eyes that looked at a woh to say he’d very ertips to his beautiful lips and kissed them, Debbie’s upper li

p had broken into a sweat

“How can I walk down the aisle looking like this?” Kady asked, holding out what had to be fifty yards of heavy satin “And look at these sleeves: they’re bigger than I am And the skirt!” With horror in her eyes, she looked down at the acres of white satin puddling about her, a pearl encrusted border sparkling on the seven or so inches of hem that bent into an overflow on the floor

“Any of these dresses can be altered,” said the tall, thin saleswoman, ith her stiff stance let Kady know that she didn’t appreciate having her bridal salon’s wares denigrated

Kady hadn’t ive offense “It’s not the dresses; it’s h so we could shape it however ant? Add a little here, take a little off there”

“Kady,” Jane warned They had known each other all their lives, and she could not bear to hear Kady say anything derogatory about herself; she loved her too much to allow that

But Debbie giggled “Or as stretchy as pizza dough,” she said, looking at Kady in the ate as too short, and leave lumps where anted them”

When Kady laughed, Debbie was quite pleased with herself They had gone to culinary school in New York together, but Debbie had always been in awe of Kady While other students were trying to learn techniques and how to blend flavors, Kady just seeoing to taste; she could eat a meal she hadn’t cooked, then later re-create it exactly While other students were juggling recipe cards and trying to remember the difference between scones and biscuits, Kady threw things into a bowl, dumped them onto a sheet pan, put them into an oven, and they ca of all the teachers and the envy of every student Debbie had been flattered beyond all reasoning when Kady had asked her if she’d like to go to a movie and thus started their friendship

Now, five years later, both she and Kady were thirty years old Debbie had married, had a couple of children, and her culinary talents were mostly directed toward peanut-butter sandwiches and barbecued steaks on weekends But that’s not the way Kady’s life had gone After school Kady had shocked—and horrified—all the other students and her teachers by accepting a job at a run-down steak house called Onions located in Alexandria, Virginia Her teachers had tried to persuade her to accept one of the many job offers she received froeles, San Francisco, and even Paris But she’d turned them down flat And everyone had said what a shame it was for so little steak house