Her mother was flying home. Her father was driving her to breakfast for dinner. Her family—both families, all of it, the complicated messy whole of it—was together.
Different than before. But together.
“Music?” Tyler asked, reaching for the radio.
“Your truck, your rules.”
“That’s suspiciously agreeable.”
“I’m practicing being a good daughter. It won’t last.”
“Noted.”
He turned on the radio. Something from the ‘90s, guitars and drums and a voice Stella vaguelyrecognized.
“This is old,” she said.
“This is classic.”
“Same thing.”
“It is absolutely not the same thing.”
They argued about music for the next twenty minutes, all the way to the diner, all the way through ordering pancakes and bacon and coffee that was exactly as overcooked as promised.
Normal. Easy. Theirs.
Stella decided this was the best breakfast she’d ever had. For dinner or otherwise.
Not because of the food.
Because of everything else.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The pesto was perfect.
Meg knew it before she tasted it—knew it in the color, the texture, the way the basil had released its oils when she’d ground it with the garlic and pine nuts. Twenty years of making this recipe, and her hands still remembered every step.
She tasted it anyway. Bright, rich, the sharp bite of parmesan balanced by the sweetness of good olive oil. Yes. This was the one.
“Well?” Anna asked from across the kitchen. She’d been banished to the far counter after her third attempt to “help” had resulted in pine nuts scattered across the floor.
“It’s ready.”
“Can I taste?”
“You can taste at the Shack. With everyone else.”
“That’s cruel.”
“That’s quality control.” Meg transferred the pesto into a container, sealed it, and added it to the cooler bag with the honey lemon butter, the tomato basil soup, and the focaccia she’d baked at five that morning. “We need objective opinions. You’re not objective.”
“I’m very objective. I objectively think everything you make is incredible.”
“I think that’s the opposite of objective, but I appreciate it.”
“No, it’s supportively objective. I took little sister school very seriously.”
