Author's Note: I am sorry for the wait, still plenty more to come. Thank you for your reviews and encouragement!

Chapter Six

MAURA

It was two minutes to four o'clock in the morning and Beethoven was slowly warming up the speakers in the back of the house at my café. With a measured breath and closed eyes, I allowed the stillness to surround me for a brief moment as a means to gather my focus for the day. I opened my palms wide, reaching my fingers as far as they could push out and pulled them tightly into fists. I repeated this action several times until I could be sure the muscles and tendons were sufficiently stretched, ready to work.

Completing my sanitizing prep and then getting the bread into the oven, next I wanted to get started on the galettes. They had been selling well and I thought to make an extra batch today. After I began the simmering of the fruit, herb, and sugar for the fillings in large pots on the stove, I then needed to prepare the crust. Just as I threw a handful of flour on the stainless steel workspace, three hard knocks came from the front door. I checked the time again as if my eyes were playing tricks on me. My hand still covered in the white dusty mess, I sprinted to the front to see who on earth it was at this time.

With a sharp snap I released the blind fixed to the door and there standing on the other side of window was a sleepy-eyed Jane Rizzoli who appeared to be mouthing the word "coffee."

I fumbled somewhat while opening the door and allowing her in with surprise evident in my voice. "Wow, you're… Early. I thought we agreed on five-thirty?" Also, I wasn't sure if you were coming or not, I thought to myself.

She huffed a response with a flit of her chin and narrowing of her eyes. It was as if she was trying to tell me that she won this challenge I had set up for her. "I knew you'd be in earlier than that. So here I am."

The way she walked to the middle of the room and gestured to the space around with her long wing span allowed me to take her in fully this morning. She was dressed simply in worn jeans and a t-shirt, with her raven waves pulled back into a messy pony tail. I also noticed tucked and rolled up underneath her arm appeared to be an apron. I tried not to eye her up and down a second time and tore my gaze away.

"Ah, yes. So, let's get started, shall we?" My voice nearly cracked. She responded with a hardened stare and it took me a moment to realize why. "After coffee. Let me get you situated." I led us back through the kitchen and gave her a rough lesson in washing hands properly and thoroughly while I poured us each a cup. I went through almost as many scrub brushes and soap as I did food items.

"You made a mess." She pointed at the flour tossed over the table top.

I hid a smile as I explained it was part of the prep in making the galettes each morning. Jane continued to take large gulps of the hot beverage until it was just about done. She looked around and took in the racks of plate ware, the tile, the burners and ovens, the pots and pans hung above the workspace, and everything in between. I watched her dark eyes pan over each and every inch of the large room as if she was mentally preparing herself to take on a towering task.

"You know… I could just explain things as I go along instead of laying out the whole day and expecting you to remember it all," I then thought to add, "with only one cup of coffee…"

She puffed out a response.

I curled a finger at her, indicating I wanted her to follow me and I brought us back to the front of the house to the espresso machine. I watched the way she looked at it as if it were from outer space. "It's really not as scary as it looks." I offered to her wide eyes. I could have made these blindfolded, it was all muscle memory. I prepared a double shot for us each and warned her to take it easy because it would certainly kick in pretty quickly with quite the impact.

"Oh don't you worry, it will take three more of those to give me the jitters." Her long black lashes fluttered in my direction.

The simple look caused another crumble in an otherwise stone barrier. I paused a moment, locking that away for later, and didn't want to lose any more time this morning. There was still plenty to do.

The raven haired and savvy business woman released the tucked cloth from under her arm and tied her apron around her waist. It had never seen a kitchen. And I could tell this because of the price tag hanging from the material.

"Okay so, everything I do, you do. I'll go slowly, but it's simple. You should have no problem keeping up." I said it almost as a challenge to make sure she was ready to rise to the occasion. "First, grab a handful of that flour and throw it down here," I pointed at a place inches away from my work area and went to the refrigerator to get two lumps of dough tossing one in the middle of the messes we had just begun.

"So you just roll this out?"

"Well, there's a bit more than that to it."

"Is it homemade?" She poked at it.

"Yes, I make it in large batches, portion them off, and refrigerate them for up to two days.

"What's in it?"

"This is flour, butter, and vinegar. The trick when making it is to make sure the butter is nice and cold and toss all the ingredients into a food processor." I motioned to the side of the kitchen with the small appliances. "Next," I grabbed two wooden rolling pins, "we will roll this out." I began the motion then watched her do one rotation. "You want to work it out slowly from the middle and don't want to go too close to the edge."

It took her a couple rolls but she was able to get it. Still, a wave of uncertainty loomed around her when she thought she had completed her first task.

"Now, we will cut this into twenty-four squares, like a grid pattern." She copied me exactly. "These are mini two-bite galettes. And the filling that has been simmering on the stove for about thirty minutes is just about ready to get spooned into the middle of the squares we just cut out. We will just each need to make one more batch."

I stirred the macerated fruit as Jane finally uttered another word. "How long did it take you to cut up all the things that go in there?"

"I prepare most things in the evening – cutting, slicing, chopping… and store everything in airtight containers until morning. That way I can just dump it all right in there and save myself some time." Jane nodded thoughtfully at my explanation before I continued. "So before we spoon the fillings, I want to put some cornstarch in here and whisk it a few times. It will help to ensure the fruit mixture will not stick to the crust."

After we put the dollop in the center of each piece, I warned the quickly adapting sous chef the next part was the second trickiest part to making these, apart from the actual baking of them. "You want to flip the corners in and create a little pouch, like this." With practiced ease, I did three of them so she could grasp an idea. It was much harder than it looked.

Her first execution was a disaster. I did my best to save it as I showed her once more, even slower than before. Just as Jane was working her hands into a pincer grasp, I placed my fingers over hers and showed her how properly fold in the sides. After finishing the second, then the third one, it finally dawned on me what I was doing and our very close proximity and I reeled my hand back as if were on fire while trying to pretend nothing happened.

She graciously cleared her throat, "You make it look so easy."

"Repetition." I continued to fold the corners at a more rapid pace. "I do just about the same thing every single morning…" I completed mine while she still worked on hers. "I switch up the recipes based on season and will introduce one new item every so often like a bagel or croissant of sorts. But they have never done consistently well."

I snapped out of the trance I fell into watching her long fingers get better and more tactile with the delicate pastry dough. "Next we want to paint a little egg wash over the top of them before we pop them into the oven."

We both reached for the brush at the same time, our hands coming into abrupt contact before pulling them away. An awkward laugh escaped both of us as I reach for another one and began showing her how to apply the whipped yolk over the top and around the sides of the crust. We each carried to trays over to the convection oven. I didn't get the opportunity to brief her on baking temperatures, but thought I may have another chance one day soon.

"So what's next?" She turned from the oven after waving goodbye to the galettes. Her eyes sparkled with something I was unsure of but it was hard to unlock mine from hers.

"Um…" I stammered, "coffee!"

She fist pumped into the air.

"Then we will get back to work…. Your apron is still a little too clean." I pulled the price tag off from the spot by her hip and tossed a wink her direction. The sound of laughter that rumbled from her chest caused a tremble of excitement throughout my whole body.