Page 95 of The Promise Of You

Samuel’s opinion is worth shit, but it’s my fault for not sharing my suspicions with Aunt Dawn earlier. I should have spoken up right off the bat, hired a new chef. But would she have agreed to it? It’s almost like she was brainwashed.

Brendan continues, “And then something caught fire in the kitchen—”

“What caught fire?”

“I wasn’t there. Someone in there took care of it. Clearly. And then Chef said if you weren’t there when there was a kitchen fire…” He lets the sentence hang, his hands parting.

“He said that, huh?” Samuel totally hyped up the whole thing.

“I’m sorry, Chloe.”

This is beginning to sound like a letting go meeting, and I know it isn’t. But it could be. “Look, Brendan. I’m not Uncle Kevin. I’m bound to do things differently. And I’ve never owned a restaurant. I was clear about that, going in. The reason I accepted, is that I know how business works. I can read a P&L Statement.”

“That’s not why we needed you, Chl—”

“But you see, Brendan. That is why you need me. I walked in here thinking I would just tick boxes on a daily to-do list. And it took me only two hours—two hours—to find out that you guys are deep in the red. You know that. So I’m looking into why that is. And I don’t have all the answers yet. But I will.”

“Appreciate it,” Brendan says.

“Your dad was having a lot of problems.” I’m not sure how much he knows. At some point I’ll have to share everything with him, but I’d like to have some answers first. Solid solutions. And I’m getting more than annoyed at Samuel for not giving me the financials I need from him—mainly, a reliable costing. So the fact that he threw me under the bus with my family is not helping his case.

Brendan narrows his eyes on me. “He mentioned the owner of the pub, a coupla times. His landlord. That the fellow you’re at the fair with?”

I nod. “The town asked that we put something together. I didn’t think it’d be a good idea to say no. I’m getting a vibe of some kind of… rift between the restaurant and the town. Any idea where that came from?”

He shakes his head. “Never heard anything of the sort. The only problem Dad ever had was with his landlord, from what I know.”

“We need to think more local,” I say, jumping topics. Something’s been bothering me, and I have to ask. “Why… why didn’t Uncle Kevin get some meat from you?”

He shrugs. “He always let his chef do the ordering.”

Uh-huh. “Does Samuel know what you do?”

“Oh yeah, yeah. I think he likes to always go through the same wholesaler. Can’t blame him. It’s simpler.”

“Uh-huh.” I look at the food tent and decide against walking back there with Brendan. He doesn’t like Justin. There’s no point making waves now.

Aunt Dawn and Mom return.

“Dad trusts—trusted him,” Brendan adds.

“Samuel? What a darling,” Aunt Dawn says, like she knows exactly what we’ve been talking about. “I don’t know what we’d do without him. Did you know he offered to manage the restaurant for us?”

He what? This isn’t a standing-up conversation. And I really need to get back to Justin. “Are you guys staying the night? Can we continue this conversation later?”

“We actually need to leave,” Aunt Dawn says.

“Chloe!” Mom gasps, ignoring my question. “Why you could go back to the City!”

My jaw drops open. Yes, I could. But Aunt Dawn can kiss her restaurant goodbye. “I—I don’t think running the restaurant without a manager is a good idea. Unless…”

“Unless?” Aunt Dawn and Brendan ask at the same time.

I lower my voice. “Unless Samuel is offering to buy into the restaurant.”

Aunt Dawn raises an eyebrow. “No. He’s… he’s not ready to do that.”

“He’s mentioned he might be considering… leaving,” Brendan says under his breath.

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