“If Kenny has any talents, believe me, they’re hidden so deep no one will ever discover them,” she scoffed, then noticed that she’d absentmindedly put another section of sandwich on her plate. Shrugging, she went ahead and took a bite.
“You sure about Kenny’s lack of talents?” her dad asked.
Annie studied him. “What do you know about him that I don’t?”
“Just that he’s a talented carpenter,” her dad said. “He’s been making furniture most of his life and selling it on consignment in a few galleries that specialize in handcrafted pieces by local artisans. I predict you’ll hear big things about Kenny one of these days.”
Her mom looked as surprised as Annie felt.
“How do you know this?” Dana Sue asked.
“I actually took the time to talk to him,” Ronnie said. “He’s shy, not dumb.” He gave Annie a pointed look. “Another lesson, by the way.”
“Are you trying to fix me up with him or something?” she asked, after swallowing more food and chasing it down with unsweetened tea.
“Of course not,” her dad said at once. “He’s too old for you.”
“Then why are we even having this discussion?” she demanded, irritated that she’d missed the chance to get to know a guy who sounded a lot more interesting than she’d guessed. Maybe she was a snob, just the way her father had hinted without saying it.
“I think I know,” her mom said, regarding her dad with an amused expression. “He’s distracting you, so you won’t think about food. You’ll just eat it. Worked like a charm, too.”
Annie stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve eaten a whole sandwich, sweet pea.”
Annie stared at the plate and saw that all the sections were gone. Her dad might have scarfed down more than his share, but not all of them. And her mom didn’t even like turkey sandwiches.
“I ate a whole sandwich?” she asked, still doubtful even after her dad confirmed it with a pleased nod. But wouldn’t that have made her feel sick? Annie didn’t feel ill, though. She felt okay. She’d actually had a whole meal with other people and hadn’t freaked out. An odd sense of triumph washed over her. She grinned at her dad. “Cool. Sneaky, but cool.”
“I think that about sums up your dad,” her mom said, but she was laughing, so it didn’t sound mean at all.
Annie recalled a lot of meals around this table, and almost all of them had been like this, filled with teasing banter and some serious talk about life and stuff. She’d missed that more than anything when her dad had gone. Her meals with her mom, the few times they’d even bothered, had been silent and lonely, even with both of them sitting right here. Lately, her mom was at the restaurant most nights, and never had time to sit down and eat with Annie.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” she told her dad, not caring if it made her mom crazy to hear it. Maybe if her mom finally realized how much it meant to her to have her dad back in her life, she would do something to make sure he stayed.
“Me, too,” he told her. “I’ve missed being in Serenity.”
“Not just that,” Annie said, anxious to get her point across. “I meant here with us.”
“Annie...” her mom cautioned.
“I’m just saying it’s great he’s here.” Annie’s tone had a touch of belligerence. “That’s how I feel. Dr. McDaniels says I need to own my feelings.”
She stood up. “I’m going to take a nap now. Make sure I wake up way before everyone gets here, especially if we’re going to have dinner first. I want to look really nice so they won’t worry I’m gonna collapse or something.”
“I’ll make sure you’re up in plenty of time,” her mom promised.
Annie looked at her dad. “And you’ll still be here, right?”
“I’ll be here,” he confirmed.
“Couldn’t you just stay here?” she asked, knowing even as she posed the question that her mom was probably freaking out.
“I’m close by,” her dad said. “We’ll see each other all the time.”
Obviously, he wasn’t going to put her mom on the spot, but Annie wasn’t afraid to do it. And she thought she knew the perfect way to pull it off. She’d bring it up at tomorrow’s family counseling session. She had a feeling neither one of them would want to deny her what she wanted if she kicked up enough fuss about it with Dr. McDaniels. Okay, it was manipulative. But she could live with that if it pushed her mom and dad one step closer to getting back together. Sometimes adults just needed a hard push to get them to do what they secretly wanted to do, anyway.
* * *
“Don’t even think about it,” Dana Sue muttered fiercely the instant Annie left the room.
“Think about what?” Ronnie inquired innocently, though he knew perfectly well what she was referring to.
“You’re not moving back in here and that’s final,” she said. “Not even for Annie’s sake.”
“She’s going to bring this up at that family counseling session tomorrow,” Ronnie predicted.
Dana Sue stared at him with alarm. “She wouldn’t dare.”
“Of course she would,” he said. “Didn’t you see that gleam in her eye? Our Annie is on a mission and she knows she has leverage.”
Dana Sue sank back in her chair, then reached for a spoon and began eating the remaining potato salad.
“Should you...” Ronnie began, only to fall silent at her withering look. She did toss the spoon back into the bowl, though.
“Well, this is one time she’s not getting her way,” Dana Sue said forcefully—though she didn’t look as if she believed that. “You’re just going to have to back me up on this.”
“What if I think she has a point?” he asked.
“Then you’re crazy,” she said bluntly. “It would be lunacy for you to move back in here under any circumstances.”
“There is a guest room,” he reminded her. “And I’m wasting money staying at the inn.”
“The guest room is about five hundred miles closer to my room than
