“You need to have a partner, a man who would be there for you.”
“Well, if and when I find one,” she said, chuckling, “I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“It’s not that funny,” he said. “Being alone sucks.”
“I know,” she said. “You fill the gap though, so there’s been no void in my life for a very long time.”
“That’s not good either,” he said, with a shake of his head.
She chuckled and said, “Are you chopping and frying that bacon, so we’ll have layers here or what?”
With that, he completely devoted himself to the next project, and, after they had the dish in the oven, completely slathered with sweet cheese, he looked at her and said, “That smells so good.”
“Twenty minutes,” she said. “That’s all we need, twenty minutes.”
He nodded. “I’ll set the table.”
He worked on that, as she cleaned up the dishes from preparing the dish. It’s not that it had to be a big mess, but somehow she always ended up with one. She didn’t understand that. Her mother could cook up a storm, and the kitchen always looked great. In Sammy’s case, the dish looked great too, but, by the time she was done cooking, a huge mess awaited her in the kitchen. She cleaned up, and, by the time she was done, the table was set, and now the cheese had melted, and the casserole was thoroughly heated. Her father opened a bottle of wine, and she brought out dinner. He was seated at the table, and, just as she was about to join him, her phone rang. She looked at it and frowned.
“You going to answer that?” her father asked, as he picked up the great big serving spoon and served himself a hefty scoop.
She smiled at the amount. That was a lot of food for somebody who supposedly wasn’t hungry. “I will,” she said. “I just don’t know the number.”
He peered over and said, “Oh, Private Caller, huh? A secret admirer?”
“I doubt it,” she said, and, when she went to answer it, nobody was there. She shrugged and said, “Must have been a wrong number.”
“Oh, he’ll call back,” her father said, with a wink. She smiled, and, when the phone did ring again, she planned to ignore it, until she saw Annie’s name. She answered it and put it on Speakerphone. “Hello, Annie. I’m here with Dad, having dinner. How are you?”
“I’m okay,” she said, but her voice was shaky.
“Something else happen?”
“Well, I was followed home from town today,” she said. “At least I think so. I’m starting to feel paranoid.”
“Well, sometimes it’s for a good reason,” she said. “We don’t want you to make light of something that’s important.”
“That’s not helping me much,” she said.
“No, it probably isn’t, and I’m sorry. I’m not sure what to say,” she said. “What kind of a vehicle was it?”
“It was a truck, like my ex’s.”
“But did you recognize him?”
“No,” she said. “I didn’t. That’s the thing. It was just a big truck. Anybody could have had been driving it.”
“Well, lots of people do have them,” she said. “We can’t go looking for boogeymen where there aren’t any.”
“But what if there are, and I didn’t see it coming?” she cried out.
“Are you home now?”
“Yes, my vehicle was taken by the garage, and new tires put on. They sent a courtesy car to pick me up when it was ready.”
“That was nice,” she said. “And now you are home again with good tires, right?”
“Yes, all good, except for the cost,” she said. “That was not cheap. It pisses me off. I don’t have that kind of money.”
“Not many people do,” she said, “so there’s lots of things to consider.”
“I know. Anyway I just thought I’d let you know I was home.” With that, her friend hung up.
Frowning, she looked at her father and shrugged. “You heard as much as I did, but I don’t know what to make of it.”
“Sounds like that husband of hers is getting to be a headache.”
“Possibly,” she said, “but we don’t know that for sure.”
“The trouble with this scenario,” her father said, “is you won’t know anything until it’s too damn late.”
She winced at that and said, “Well, let’s hope not.”
When her phone rang again, she looked at it and said, “It’s a Private Caller again.”
“Well, answer it,” he urged.
She glared at him. “The first call was nobody.”
“Doesn’t mean this one is,” he said. “You have to break out of your shell sometimes.”
“I’ve broken out of my shell,” she protested. He just rolled his eyes at her. She glared at him but answered the phone anyway. “Hello?”
“Sammy?”
The man’s voice made her sit up straight. “Yes. Is this Eton?”
“It is,” he said. “I just wanted to invite you out for coffee.”
She stared at her father, who by now almost danced in place. “How did you get my number?” she asked.
“It’s pretty easy to get from a directory. Remember the business I’m in?”
“I don’t think I want to,” she said. “It’s a little creepy.”
“Well, I figured it would be a long cold day before you’d give your number to me,” he said, chuckling. “Remember? I’m harmless.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” she finished quickly.
At that, her father gasped in outrage and shook his head at her.
“Coffee could be nice,” she said cautiously, “but why do I feel like there’s an ulterior motive involved?” Again her father stared at her in shock. He reached over and spanked her lightly on her arm. “Fine,” she said.
“Coffee at a little café in town, how is that?”
“When?” she asked, staring down at her dinner.
“Half an hour? How does that work for you?”
She thought about it, but her father was busy nodding his head. He leaned forward into the phone and said, “Perfect. She’ll be there.”
She gasped and quickly hung up the phone. “Seriously, Dad? Did you just do that?”
“You know I did,” he said. “That poor guy could wait in the rain until he died from a chill before you’d have answered.”
“I was getting around to it,” she said defensively. “I try to think before I speak, you know?”
“Well, now you don’t have to,” he replied. She just rolled her eyes him. He motioned at her dinner. “You better eat up because you’re just going for coffee. You might get a dessert down there, if they’ve been baking and didn’t sell out.” He frowned at her, thinking about that. “I haven’t had anything from there in a long time.”
“I can bring you back something, if you want,” she said, with a gentle smile, because her father did love his sweets. “But remember. There is also still cake.”