“I want to show you something.”
She opened her phone.
A photograph appeared.
Mateo.
Standing in this kitchen.
Behind him, partially visible, was me.
Younger.
Laughing.
My hair tied beneath a bandana.
A fifty-pound sack of onions across my shoulder.
I stared at it.
Melissa laughed softly.
“There.”
“What?”
“The famous pack mule.”
I started laughing.
I could not help it.
For the first time, the words did not hurt.
She enlarged the photograph.
On the wall behind Mateo was an old handwritten sign.
I remembered it.
We had hung it during the first year.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG, SAY SOMETHING.
Mateo believed in that.
He had died because Victor did not.
“I want to rename this location,” I said.
Melissa looked at me.
“Hale & Ember?”
“Yes.”
“To what?”
I looked at Mateo’s photograph.
“Soto House.”
She stopped breathing.
“Claire.”
“Not the whole company. Just this restaurant.”
