Page 26 of Cooking Up My Comeback

Me: Not even close. Complicated sounds like a problem to solve. Unpredictable is an adventure.

Brett: I don’t like adventures.

Me: I know. That’s what makes this interesting.

Brett: What makes what interesting?

Me: This conversation. You being all grumpy and methodical, me being all sunshine and chaos. We’re like... opposites.

Brett: Opposites don’t always work.

Me: Sometimes they’re exactly what each other needs.

Another pause. Longer this time.

Brett: The restaurant idea. You really think it could work?

Me: You’re changing the subject.

Brett: I’m being practical.

Me: There’s that word again.

Brett: Answer the question, Bennett.

The way he texts my last name as though he’s half exasperated, half amused makes me grin.

Me: I think you could make anything work. But yes, I think we could build something remarkable.

Brett: We?

Me: Well, you’d handle all the serious, methodical parts. I’d handle the measuring of the ingredients.

Brett: That’s not exactly a traditional business model.

Me: The best things usually aren’t.

Brett: It would be a big risk.

Me: The biggest. I have to think about my boys. Their stability.

Brett: I wouldn’t expect anything else. That’s part of what makes you right for this.

Right. He thinks I’m right for this.

Me: I’m not right for anything. I burn grilled cheese and forgot to pack Crew’s inhaler last week.

Brett: You made crab cakes from memory today. You raised two incredible kids on your own. You kept a failing restaurant running for three years. Stop selling yourself short.

I blink at the screen. When’s the last time someone saw me like that? Not as a struggling single mom or a charity case, but as someone capable of remarkable things?

Me: How do you know I made crab cakes?

Brett: Lucky guess. Also, Hazel may have mentioned it when she stopped by the hardware store.

I laugh out loud in my empty kitchen.

Me: She’s a menace.