Page 25 of The Deal Breaker
Dash hesitated. He would have to spill everything. Unfortunately. “I wanted to know if they were dating.”
“Henry dating Iris?” Mason laughed, nearly knocking over his glass of orange juice. “Henry doesn’t do relationships.”
Dash didn’t think it was funny, but everyone else did. “He went to see her after the poker game, spent yesterday with her, and kissed her on New Year’s Eve. What was I supposed to think?”
“Arethey dating?” Adam asked.
“No, they’re just friends.” Saying that brought relief. “Iris told me she’d been out with Henry looking at apartments and that she was resigning. She apologized for giving me less than two weeks’ notice.”
“Did you have any idea she would quit?” Wes asked.
Dash eyed the doughnut before pushing the plate farther away. “Not a clue.”
Blaise leaned forward. “Is Iris looking for another job? Or did she find a new one?”
Dash sighed. “No, to both. She wants to do something new.”
“Bummer,” Blaise said. “I thought I finally had a chance to hire her as our cook.”
Guess the guy had been serious about wanting to offer Iris a job. “She’s enrolled at the culinary school. Full-time. Classes start next week. She wants to be a chef.”
“Iris is talented enough.” Kieran grabbed a bagel from the platter. “She should do well.”
The others nodded.
Blaise raised his cup of coffee. “She’ll be difficult to replace.”
Dash swallowed around the lump in his throat. “She’s hired people so I won’t have to.”
“Sounds like Iris.” Adam refilled his juice glass. “She goes above and beyond with everything she does for you.”
Exactly. Which was why…“You guys need to help me find a way to make her stay.”
Silence settled over the dining room. Dash looked at each of the guys, who stared at him funny.
“Double her salary,” Mason suggested.
“I told her to name her price. That I’d pay whatever it takes to keep her. She said she didn’t need more money.” Dash’s shoulders sagged. “What am I going to do? I can’t lose her.”
“She’s not yours to lose,” Wes said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Yes, she is.” None of them knew how much Iris meant to Dash. “We’ve been friends forever. And I need her.”
“You need her to take care of your house, cook, and take care of things for you,” Kieran clarified. “What’s in it for her?”
Huh?Dash had expected none of them to be on Iris’s side. They werehisfriends—his family. “I take care of her. She gets a salary with benefits, including medical insurance, and a yearly bonus, a car, and the cottage. You guys hire her, too, so she earns extra money. She does well for herself.”
Much better than what she earned working at her parents’ restaurant.
Mason shrugged. “You think so, but what does Iris think?”
“She told me she enjoys her job,” Dash fired back.
“But she wants to be a chef?” Adam asked.
Nodding, Dash toyed with his napkin. “When we were younger, she wanted to be a chef so she could take over her parents’ restaurant when they retired. That was part of her dream until her dad sold it.”
“Her other dream was culinary school?” Mason asked.
