His eyebrows rose. “Isn’t your car outside in the driveway?”
“No. Jason dropped me off. He was going to come with me, but…”
Mr. MacKenzie held her gaze, and she fidgeted under his intense scrutiny.
“Well, he changed his mind. He also had an invitation from his aunt and didn’t want to hurt her feelings. And you guys didn’t even know he was coming, so he didn’t have to worry about letting you down.”Okay, that was sort of true. He’d told herthat Dottie had assumed he’d spend Thanksgiving with them, and by now he probably had.
“He intended to come with you and then changed his mind? You must have been disappointed. Sothat’swhy you were pouting all day.”
“Well, yeah. Of course. So, will you drive me home?”
“Only if I can speak to him.”
“Dad, for God’s sake, will you stop protecting me? I’m a grown woman! Now do I have to take a cab to the train station or should I ask Matt?”
He sighed. “One of us will take you back to Boston,” he said, albeit reluctantly.
***
Chad followed Dottie to her apartment to see what devilry she was up to now. Plus he felt like taking a ride on their ceiling fan.
“Ralph, what’s Jason’s deep, dark secret?” Dottie asked sweetly.
Ralph whirled around. His eyes rounded and fixed upon her. “What do you mean?”
“There! That expression tells me everything. You know, don’t you?”
“Uh-oh,”Chad said to himself.“The old man’s in for an interrogation. He really needs to work on his poker face.”
She folded her arms and waited.
Ralph puttered to the kitchen. “I’m making myself a sandwich. You want one?”
“Don’t you dare try to change the subject,” she cried, bunching her fists and striding after him. “If something untoward is going on with our nephew, I have a right to know what it is.”
“Untoward? What the hell does that mean? And what gives you that right? Don’t you think that if he wanted you to know, he’d have told you?”
“Untoward. Adjective, meaning unfavorable or unfortunate.”Chad enjoyed his expanded vocabulary. He’d worked hard to become a journalist. As a black man in the sixties, it had almost required memorizing the dictionary. And even then, he suspected he might have been hired by the newspaper as the token black man.“Untoward circumstances will force Ralph to divulge a secret he’s been sworn to keep. Untoward.”
“I wantyouto tell me,” Dottie whined. “We promised each other long ago we wouldn’t have any secrets from each other.”
“Oh, Christ on a cracker! The dude’s really in for it now. I can’t believe he agreed to something like that. Hell, I wouldn’t promise to tell any woman everything. A guy who does that is asking for a flowerpot to the head.”
“That was thirty years ago when I was stupid in love and would have promised you anything.”
“Oh no! Talk about brutal honesty.”Chad was trying hard not to laugh.“I don’t want to miss a word of this.”
She reeled back. “Don’t you love me now?”
“Of course I do! Would I put up with your antics if I didn’t?”
“Antics? I have no antics… Hey! You’re trying to change the subject on me, aren’t you?”
Chad shook his head as he observed from the stationary ceiling fan.“Nice try, man. But youknowshe’s never going to drop it.”
She jammed her hands on her hips. “Well, it isn’t going to work. I know you’re keeping something from me and I won’t stand for it!”
“You’ll have to, Dottie. I don’t know what you heard or where you heard it, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. Hecould have meant anything. Maybe he’s a secret cross-dresser. By the way, whatdidyou hear, and where’d you hear it?”
