I set the phone down and move behind Jess. Wrap my good arm around her waist. She leans back into me and I breathe in that lavender scent that’s becoming as familiar as my own kitchen.
“You’re brilliant,” I tell her.
“I know.” She tilts her head to give me access to her neck. “Now let me finish these eggs before they burn.”
The front dooropens exactly fifty-sevenminutes later. Ben’s voice echoes through the foyer. “Daddy? Are you home?”
“Kitchen,piccola!”
Footsteps thunder toward us. Then Ben bursts through the doorway and freezes. Her eyes go wide.
“Jess?” Her voice cracks on the name.
“Hey,piccola.” Jess crouches down and opens her arms.
Ben launches herself across the room. Crashes into Jess hard enough that they both stumble. My daughter wraps her arms around Jess’s neck and holds on like she’s afraid Jess will disappear if she lets go.
“You came back,” Ben sobs into Jess’s shoulder. “You came back you came back you came back!”
“I’m here.” Jess is crying, too, now. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetie. Not ever ever again.”
I watch them hold each other and feel something fundamental click into place.
This.
This is what family looks like.
Not the sanitized, scheduled version I tried to force after Isotta died. Not the rigid routines and controlled environments.
Just two people who love each other, being present.
I did the right thing.
For once in my goddamn life, I actually did the right fucking thing.
Ben finally pulls back. Her face is blotchy and wet but she’s smiling. “Can we make a new Brave Bite?”
“Absolutely,” Jess says. “But first, breakfast. Your dad made eggs.”
“Ihelped,” I correct.
Jess crouches to Ben’s eye level. “Think you’reready for scrambled eggs? It’s one of the earlier Brave Bites.”
Ben hesitates. For a second I think she’s going to ask for her usual.Conchiglie al burro. The same breakfast she’s demanded every morning for the past year. The ritual I couldn’t break even when I tried.
“Okay,” Ben says. “Let’s have eggs!”
Something tightens in my throat.
Jess did it. She actually did it.
But of course she did.
That was the whole point of Brave Bites.
To get my daughter, and other children, to step outside her anxiety-driven routine without force. Without struggle.
Just gentle invitation and the promise that trying new things doesn’t mean losing safety.
