The Texan's Second Chance by Allie Pleiter

Author:Allie Pleiter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781488007392
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

She’d relented. Within days, Jana had given her consent to entering the contest. Now, on the first weekend in December, Jana found herself a contestant in the Austin Holiday Food Truck Rodeo’s first round.

Rodeo really was the right word. The park was a crazy, chaotic circus of thirty food trucks selling everything from cupcakes to Cuban sandwiches. Most food truck rodeos were simply rolling food fests, social collections during which a variety of vendors gathered to make a fun event where people could try a wide selection of different foods.

This one had the added element of a competition, with two levels of ballots—one cast by food critics, the other cast by customers. Customers roamed the circle of trucks, sampling what they wished, and then casting ballots by either texting the truck number—a large black “16” was currently fixed above the Blue Thorn Burgers counter window—or filling out a paper ballot at a big red holiday sleigh in the center of the circle. There were semifinals and finals to come if they made it that far.

“I can’t decide if it’s more of a food competition or a popularity contest,” she remarked to Witt as they worked together to serve the long line of customers. Where that man had found a turquoise Santa-style ski hat to wear—or how he’d found the nerve to wear it—she might never know. She was only glad he hadn’t asked her or Jose to don one of the silly things.

“One place where a long line is okay?” he said, flipping the ridiculous yellow pom-pon out of his way as he pulled more buns from the cabinet behind them.

“Yeah, I’ll give you this one.” Competition wasn’t usually her thing, but as she cast a quick glance around the circle and saw that the Blue Thorn had one of the longest lines of the bunch, Jana felt her determination grow. They actually had a shot at this. She knew her food was great, and placing high in this could let the rest of the world know. Out of the corner of her eye she watched one man roll his eyes back with gastronomic pleasure as he took a bite of his burger. He handed the food to his friend and immediately took out his phone, texting his vote. Or a friend. Or, she hoped, both.

“Hey there, stranger!”

Jana’s eyes snapped back to the customer window to see an old friend from culinary school waving hello. “Marion!” she called. “What are you doing in Austin?”

Marion beamed. “Got a job at the Driskill, darlin’.”

Marion had every reason to beam. The Driskill ranked as one of the swankiest hotels in Austin. A position there would be a feather in any chef’s hat. It wasn’t surprising; Marion had been a star pastry chef in school. Jana had had the extra pounds at graduation to prove it. If she’d been after such a post, Marion would have just given Jana reason to be jealous. Only Jana wasn’t interested in that kind of career. She really liked where she was, and felt genuine excitement over where she was going.

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