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“We’ll talk about it all later,” he said, and kissed my forehead the way a father would kiss his daughter.
“Go pick out a bottle of wine and take it to the dining room,” I told him. “We’ll bring in our salads.”
“We? I thought the De Stagens were off.”
I smiled at him as if he were being silly and returned to the kitchen. While I was working in the kitchen, he obviously went to a phone to call my father and Lucille. Whatever he told them caused them to make their excuses and rush to come home. I saw by the way he was checking his watch and listening that he anticipated their arrival shortly. What puzzled me at first was that Cassie left the room almost as soon as he had entered.
He smiled at me, but I could see he was quite nervous. He didn’t seem to know what he was eating and drinking. I ate slowly, enjoying every morsel.
“Don’t you like your salad?” I asked, seeing how he was picking at it.
“Oh, yes, it’s fine.” He smiled and gestured at me with his fork. “That skirt and blouse.”
“Yes?”
“They’re your sister’s clothes, aren’t they? I’ve never seen them in your closet.”
“Yes, they are. We share things.”
“Shared?”
“Always. Not that my clothes would ever fit her and not that she liked them. We couldn’t share shoes, of course, but I wore her leather coat sometimes.”
“Why did you put that on now, Semantha?”
I thought about it. It was a good question. “I think I wanted to feel closer to her right now.”
“So, you’ve forgiven her for what she did to you?”
“I’ve always understood it without forgiving her, but I think my father’s forgiven her. That’s why I wanted to see my daughter, wanted her to know me.”
“But now you understand that he doesn’t want that, right? It would create other problems.”
“We’ll see.”
“What does that mean, ‘we’ll see’ ? You’re not going to go back there, are you?”
“No, not now,” I said.
He looked at his watch.
“There’s a light chiffon lemon cake for dessert.”
“Good.”
He returned to eating, now smiling at me almost every time we looked at each other. His growing nervousness almost made me laugh.
“I’m all right, Ethan,” I said. “Don’t worry.”
“Yes, you are all right, and you will be all right. We’ll take care of you, Semantha. I do love you.”
“I hope so,” I said. “Just be patient. Everything will be fine.”
He raised his eyebrows because I was talking to him as if he was the one who needed therapy. That almost made him laugh. He ate more vigorously and then helped me clean up the dishes. I prepared some coffee and brought it out with the cake. He was pacing in the dining room now and looking at his watch. He smiled at me and said he’d be right back. I watched him go out and hurry down the hallway to Daddy’s office. When he returned this time, he looked very concerned.
I cut the cake and put a piece on his plate. Then I poured his coffee. He thanked me but didn’t start eating or drinking any coffee.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
