"Of course I can. If I"m a b.i.t.c.h like my mother, I can do any d.a.m.n thing I please."
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
PENNY WALKED OUT of the kitchen just ahead of the desserts. As she crossed the dining room toward her family"s table, they all stood and began to clap.
Stunned, she froze in place.
"My daughter is the chef," her father said loudly to the other patrons. "Wasn"t your meal great?"
To her astonishment, everyone else stood and began applauding. She glanced around at the smiling faces and didn"t have a clue as to what she should do now.
The door to the kitchen opened. Penny turned toward it, hoping for a rescue or a reason to escape. Instead Naomi appeared with most of the kitchen staff. They started clapping, too. Cal came out last. He walked over to Penny and stood next to her.
"Did I hire the right person or what?" he asked. Everyone laughed.
Servers appeared with gla.s.ses of champagne.
"Didn"t we recently do the toast thing?" she whispered to him.
"That was about the success of the restaurant," he said. "This is about you. Smile and drink your club soda."
She took the gla.s.s he handed to her and waited until everyone had been served.
"To Penny," Cal said.
"To Penny," echoed the crowd.
Fifteen minutes later, when order had been restored to the dining room, Penny went looking for Cal and found him in his office.
"That was surreal," she said. "Did you plan it?"
"No. Naomi came into the kitchen and said that you were getting a standing ovation in the dining room and I said to break out the champagne. You should be proud of what you"ve accomplished."
"I am," she said. "But I never expected a reaction like that." She sat down. "When I spoke with my mom earlier, I mentioned that she and my dad must be happy that I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. I thought they were disappointed that I went from career to career, flunked out of college. All that stuff. But she said she was glad I"d taken the time to really figure out what I wanted to do. She liked that I didn"t settle."
"So they surprised you in a good way."
"It"s more than that. Their opinion of me was never what I thought it was and it never occurred to me to ask. I guess I didn"t want my worst fears confirmed. I made a lot of a.s.sumptions."
"You know what they say about that."
She wrinkled her nose. "I"m going to pretend you didn"t say that. My point is, what else was I wrong about?"
"Maybe nothing."
Or maybe everything. She"d been so sure that leaving Cal had been the right thing to do. She"d been so sure she knew everything about him. Now she was beginning to feel she knew nothing about anyone.
"Did I run away from our marriage?" she asked.
He shrugged. "A case could be made for that, but I sure as h.e.l.l didn"t come after you. There was so much c.r.a.p going on back then, Penny. We were both struggling to make sense of things. I should have told you about Lindsey."
She considered that. "The information would have made a big difference."
"But would it have changed the outcome? Back then I couldn"t imagine ever being ready to have another child."
And now? On the one hand she knew that he was a different man-that he"d changed and grown. On the other, he"d admitted to never really loving her during their marriage.
"We couldn"t seem to find common ground," he said. "I wanted to protect you. You didn"t think you needed it and saw my actions as walking all over your dreams."
"Because you didn"t help me get the job at Buchanan"s."
"I"m sorry about that," he said.
"It"s okay. I understand now what you were doing."
"But you didn"t back then. I hurt you and I never wanted to do that. I"m sorry." He"d obviously cared. So why not love? Had he been afraid?
Her heart swelled, making her chest ache. "I"m sorry, too," she whispered.
They"d had so much and then they"d lost it. If only they could have talked back then.
Or was this the way it was supposed to be? Did they need a chance to grow and change to find themselves at this point in time?
Naomi stuck her head in the office. "Sorry to interrupt, but the kitchen"s on fire."
Penny scrambled to her feet. "You"re kidding, right?"
"Not really."
Cal followed her. They walked into a smoke-filled kitchen.
"Just some grease," Edouard said, fanning the air. "It"s out now."
The printer kicked to life, spitting out several more orders.
"Can we get back to business?" she asked. "Is it manageable or do I need to kick someone"s a.s.s?"
"We"re good," Edouard said.
Cal"s cell phone rang. He flipped it open and said, "h.e.l.lo."
Penny went around the counter to deal with the residual cleanup from the fire. One of their pans was misshapen and two dinners had been ruined, but the flames were out and the vent system made short work of the smoke.
"Are these dinners at different tables?"
They would be. That was always the way, but a girl could hope.
Naomi confirmed the bad news.