'Let's find out.'
'Daddy?'
'Sorry, honey. What?'
'You went into a trance with a funny smile on your face.'
'I was just remembering one time-we had the craziest arguments-she just had to be the one who slept on the floor-guess I talked her out of that.'
He saw his daughter giving him a puzzled look and said hastily, 'Eat your supper.' He poured her a glass of orange juice and re-angled the picture.
'Why do you keep a computer in the kitchen?' she asked.
'Because this is where I live. It's the center of my life.'
Pippa's head appeared around the door. She was wearing one of Luke's capacious white bathrobes over her nightdress, and had obviously just gotten out of bed. But her eyes were bright, and she looked well. In fact, she looked like the old vigorous Pippa, and he could shrug aside the stillness that had worried him while she slept.
He came to stand in front of her, grinning. She grinned back, and the next moment they were in each other's arms, laughing, bear hugging with pleasure.
'Oh, boy, is it good to see you'.' he yelled. 'Pippa! My Pippa, after all this time. Let me look at you.' He held her away. 'Still as ugly as ever, I see.
''Yuk yourself. What any woman ever saw in you I can't imagine. You were bad enough then, but now you're a disaster. Fat-balding-'
'And you should see my dandruff.' he agreed.
They exploded into laughter again, hugging each other and dancing around the kitchen. Josie watched them with glee, cramming her mouth full, and chuckling between bites.
''Sit down and have some supper,'' he said, pointing her to a bar stool.
'Can I just have some coffee now and come bad when I've had a shower?'
''Your wish is my command. Fresh coffee coming up.'
She took the cup he offered and turned to leave, but Josie forestalled her, calling, 'Mummy, did you know that while we're here, you're Mommy?'
'I had a feeling I might be.' She smiled at Josie. 'Mommy it is.'
'Come and sit down,' Josie commanded.
'Well, I-' Pippa slipped a hand into the pocket of the bathrobe and fingered the pills that she must take very soon.
'I want to tell you all about the beach,' Josie persisted.
'Just a moment, then I must go and have a shower.' She sat down at the bar beside her daughter, who launched into a vigorous description of the last few hours, which had obviously been pure heaven to her. Pippa listened contentedly. This was exactly what she'd hoped for when she came here. All would be well.
'What's that you're taking?' Luke asked, seeing her slip something into her mouth.
'Just an aspirin,' she said quickly. 'Bit of a headache.'
A wise look came over Josie's face, aging her several years. 'Have you got another one of your headaches?' she asked kindly. To Luke she explained, 'She's always getting them.'
'Darling, don't exaggerate. I get tired with so much work to do in that stuffy boarding house, and today's been a long day.' Pippa laughed. 'I don't know why I'm having a shower as though it was breakfast time, when it's actually evening.'
'It'll make you feel better,' Luke said. 'Wash the cobwebs away.'
He was right. After a shower she felt like a new woman. She dressed hurriedly and returned to the kitchen, where Josie was trying to decide on the rival merits of toffee or banana ice cream, and finally honoring them both with her approval.
'You've cleaned both plates,' Luke declared, as though astonished.
'She's ten,' Pippa reminded him. 'What did you expect?'
Josie opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. She had been up for twenty-four hours, and before their eyes jet lag overcame her like a cloud. Her eyes closed, her head fell forward, and she would have fallen off the bar stool had Luke not caught her in his arms.
They went up in procession to the bedroom, where Luke deposited the little girl on the bed. 'Leave her as she is,' he said, pulling the coverlet over her. 'She doesn't want to be bothered with getting undressed now.''
'Night, Mommy,' Josie murmured with her eyes closed.
'Night, darling.' Pippa bent and kissed her.
'Night, Daddy.'
'Night, sweetheart.' He leaned down and kissed the child quite naturally, without a hint of the awkwardness many men would have felt.
That was Luke, Pippa remembered: easy, tactile, uninhibited, the warmth and charm always available on tap-as long as they weren't crushed by too many expectations.
He gave her another delightful demonstration a moment later as they returned to the kitchen.
'And now, eef Madame would care to be seated,' he declared in a horrible stage French accent, 'zis establishment will provide eggs by Luke of ze Ritz.'
'You remembered how I like them?' she exclaimed, astonished.
'Of course. I created this especially for you. Don't you remember?'
It was a brilliantly simple invention consisting of poached eggs and avocado, with a sauce Pippa had never been able to analyze. It was her first taste of it for nearly eleven years, and it was delicious.
'Just for me,' she echoed.
'I have to admit that I put it in the restaurants-'
'So I should jolly well hope! Is it a success?'
'The greatest. But it was always really for you.'
She looked into his smiling eyes and thought, I'm so glad that I'm not in love with you anymore. If I were, you could still devastate me. Lucky for me I'm wiser now.
He made fresh coffee, and drank some with her, watching her fondly like a recovered treasure.
'What happened to Luke of the Ritz,' she asked smiling, 'after he got back home?'
'Oh, he drifted around from one job to another.'
'Don't tell me he had trouble finding work? Not the genius I remember?'
'Work of a sort, but not the sort I wanted. Always having to scale my ideas down to someone else's guidelines, never allowed to do things my way.
'I used to pour out my frustrations to an old fellow I met on the beach. His name was Tommy, and he had a dog, called Catch, the fattest spaniel you ever saw. I guess I just naturally gravitate to beach bums, being half one myself-my mom would tell you that-but Tommy and Catch became my best friends for a while.
'I used to take them both back to my rooms, practice recipes on them, and we'd talk for hours. I visited him once at his home. He had a little place, but he didn't spend much time there because it was too far from the beach. If you've finished eating, let's go into the other room. It's more comfortable.'
Chapter Five
They ferried the coffeepot into the large room where he lived when he wasn't working. One wall was a huge window, overlooking the sea. Sofas and armchairs looked as though they'd been thrown down casually.
'Here,' Luke said, settling her on a sofa directly in front of the window. 'Coffee's on the table beside you.'
It was lovely to be waited on. Pippa kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the sofa. 'Mmm!' she sighed.
He laughed and settled into an armchair where he could see her face. 'Where was I?'
'Tommy and Catch.'
'Right. Tommy shouldn't have been living on his own, but his only relative was a daughter he didn't get on with. She said he could stay with her if he had the dog put down. Said he was vicious, which was a damned lie
