The Chef — Cindy Nichols

I thought I'd have my bakery in Chicago forever but it all disappeared in a single afternoon. Everything gone-my family business, my home, my future. What was I supposed to do? As a young, single woman in the 1880s, there were very few options.Fortunately, my twin sister Suzanne had moved to Tombstone and built a business of her own with her husband. She wrote that her husband's best friend needed to get married fast to get a loan to open his fancy restaurant and would I consider it. I missed her enough and was desperate enough to say yes. The only problem was, she didn't tell him I was an accomplished baker in my own right-and that's not what he had in mind at all.When I stepped off the stagecoach, it was shocking. Tombstone was nothing like what I expected. I'd pictured cactus and dust and lots of gunfights. So as I passed by the Grand Hotel, the library, the schoolhouse and even an ice cream parlor, I thought maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.I got to meet the six Archer sisters and their grumpy, widowed father, and they embraced me like one of their own. I thought things were going well, but the shock on Tripp's face when Suzanne introduced me-her identical twin-had me praying that he wouldn't send me straight back to Chicago. Nothing was waiting for me there but heartache and starvation, and I resolved to do my best to help him make his fancy restaurant a success. That is, if he'd let me.