Don

He relented. 'Eggs okay?'

'Great.' Except I don't want them, Natalie thought. I'd rather have a bagel. I'm not used to all this heavy food in the morning.

Andrew was having no trouble with his. He ate like a lumberjack and never put on a pound. All the outside work he did, Natalie thought. He always had some project going. If he wasn't improving his property, he was helping someone else.

'Try that bacon. Thick-sliced. Really good,' he said.

'I don't eat meat.'

'A little meat isn't going to kill you.'

'I don't want to eat meat so please get off my back. After all, you don't drink.'

'Alcohol is bad for you. Meat isn't.' He looked up. 'And speaking of alcohol and those bloodshot eyes of yours, did you have a wild time with Lily Peyton last night?'

Here we go, Natalie thought. Still the judgmental father chastising the forever-child. 'We had fun, not a wild time. We went to Panache. I had alcohol and lived to tell.'

'Humph.' The famous, disapproving humph. 'How is Lily?' Andrew asked. 'Still got that store downtown?'

'It's called Curious Things and doing very well. So is Lily.'

'A hellraiser. Her father let her get away with anything and her mother was too meek to object. I always wished you'd been closer to Tamara.'

Natalie put down her fork. 'Lily is not and never was a hellraiser. She just likes to have fun. Tamara is more sedate.'

'You mean boring.'

'I mean sedate.' Her father didn't look at her. He simply made pronouncements like God on high and never saw the need to justify his remarks. Natalie felt her back stiffening with the old tension, then forced herself to relax. I will not be baited into an argument that upsets me a hell of a lot more than it does him, she vowed silently. Taking a deep breath she said, 'Lily and I are going to lunch today. Want to go with us?'

Andrew looked up, his eyes widening as if she'd just invited him to a slumber party. 'Lunch! What in the world would I have to talk with you two about?'

'Oh, I don't know,' Natalie said airily. 'Boys. Makeup. Curfews. Our paltry allowances. The usual things twenty nine-year-old career women discuss.'

Her father stared at her for a moment before a grin cracked the stone of his face. 'Okay. I keep forgetting you're not thirteen.'

'I noticed. And thank goodness I'm not. My teen years were miserable.'

Andrew shoveled in more scrambled eggs. 'Don't be silly. You were the smartest girl in your class, the most popular, and the prettiest.'

Natalie burst into laughter, almost choking on her orange juice. 'Dad, being the smartest girl in your class isn't a plus when you're a teenager.' She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. 'I was popular with girls but not with boys, and as for being pretty, I was skinny and I had braces. You wouldn't let me have contacts and forced me to wear those glasses with the horrid blue frames. I was a geek.'

Andrew shook his head. 'Never believed in contacts. And you've always exaggerated. You were lovely. You looked just like your mother when she was your age.'

Her mother, who had never even allowed her daughter to call her 'Mom.' She was always 'Kira.' And she had left both of them. One day she was there, the next she was gone, off to join a commune. They hadn't heard from her for over six months after she left. 'Don't ever compare me to that woman,' Natalie said with quiet venom.

Andrew's white eyebrows slammed together. 'That woman is your mother,' he said fiercely.

'Being a mother involves a hell of a lot more than giving birth, so don't tell me about how much respect I owe Kira St. John, no matter where she's living with and with what man-'

'Do not say anything else!' her father erupted. He took a couple of deep breaths and looked out the huge kitchen window at beautiful Lake Erie beyond. Last night's storm had left the surface littered with leaves and twigs, but the smooth water reflected the sun and puffy clouds. Harvey Coombs from next door already sat in his rowboat, fishing diligently, stained canvas hat jammed on his bald head. He'd once been a brilliant chemistry teacher. Then alcoholism had taken control of his life.

'Kira has always been the flashpoint between the two of us,' Andrew said finally.

'Which would please her because it means she's the center of attention. But, Dad, I really don't want to talk about Kira. I want you to understand about Lily. No one else had a mother who ran off to join a commune. The other kids teased me mercilessly about my crazy mother. Lily defended me like a pit bull. She's always been my best friend and she always will be.'

'She encouraged you to sneak out your bedroom window at night and roam around with her.'

'All we did was go to The Blue Lady and work on our music.'

'The Blue Lady Resort!' Andrew looked appalled. 'I had no idea that's where you went. The hotel burned down!'

'Not the dance pavilion. We thought it was romantic. And the acoustics were great.'

'Acoustics? Who cares about acoustics? It suffered damage from the fire. It's not safe. It should have been condemned years ago.'

'It's still romantic.'

'A long time ago it was romantic. The hotel was lavish. The pavilion was beautiful, built out over the water. Some of the biggest bands in the country played there. Quite the tourist draw. Then there was that awful business in 1970.'

'In the hotel, not the pavilion. The hotel is gone.'

'I don't care. The pavilion is a wreck. A danger. It should be destroyed.'

'It should be restored. You're handy with a hammer and nails. Maybe you should do it. It would give you something to fill up your empty life.'

Andrew scowled. 'I don't have an empty life.'

'I know you have your medical practice and your gardening and fishing and those civic clubs you belong to, but I'm talking about a real life.'

'Define real life.'

'Companionship.'

'I see Harvey Coombs next door regularly.'

'A wonderful companion. When he drinks too much he thinks you were CIA operatives together.'

'And many dangerous missions we worked if you'd only give him a chance to tell you about them.'

' Harvey should have written novels, not taught chemistry. I'm serious, Dad. You should see someone romantically.'

'I did. Viveca Cosgrove.'

Natalie rolled her eyes. 'Three years ago and not for long, thank goodness. Oh, I know she's beautiful but she's such a snob and she can't seem to stay with a man. She broke things off with you so she could date Eugene Farley who was too young for her.'

'And I thought I was the judgmental one,' Andrew said dryly.

Natalie ignored him. 'He was completely out of his depth with someone like Viveca and look what she did to him.'

'You didn't even know Eugene Farley,' Andrew said quietly. 'And his death was not Viveca's fault.'

'Not directly, but she was the root of the problem. Thank heavens she's ancient history,' Natalie said briskly. 'What worries me is that you haven't dated anyone since her.'

'Who says?'

'Come on, Dad.'

He drained his coffee mug and pushed his chair back from the table. 'I happen to be seeing someone now.'

Natalie's eyes widened. 'What? Who?'

'I'm not telling you. You'll be driving past her house, asking your friends all kinds of personal questions about her, maybe even dropping by her place to offer free veterinary service to her cat just to get in the front door.'

'I wouldn't dream of prying into your life any more than you'd pry into mine,' Natalie said slyly.