Page 125 of Just Like Starting Over
“That’s the one. She’s also my daughter.” Sierra beams. Elke blinks. “Sierra, this is Elke Dekkar.”
“Michael and I studied together in grad school,” Elke tells her. “In Maastricht.”
“Where?”
“Holland,” I say.
Sierra bites her lip, looks between us, then turns to me again. “I need your help, Mike.”
“With what?”
“Do I have to tell you here?”
“Yes.”
She wrinkles her nose, then drops her voice to a whisper. “Luke gave me tickets to his band’s concert, and Lila wants to go, too, but Mom won’t let us go on our own.”
“That makes perfect sense to me.”
Her eyes flash and Elke watches her with interest. “It doesn’t to me. It’s not far. We could just walk over there…”
“But concerts can get rowdy. You should have an adult with you.”
Sierra smiles. “That’s where you come in.”
“Me?”
“Mom and Merrie will be working that night. Una will probably be asleep. Lila’s mom was going to come down from Toronto, but she can’t get a hotel room. Everything’s sold out, and Lila’s mom doesn’t camp.”
“Nor do I,” Elke says softly, reminding us both of her presence. She keeps her gaze on her menu but I doubt she’s unaware of Sierra’s poisonous glance. The corner of her lip twitches, just a little.
“So, you have to go with us, Mike, otherwise we won’t be able to go at all.”
I have no idea what to say to this. Elke puts down her menu to consider me. Her eyes are sparkling because she knows I’m cornered. “Attending a rock concert with young girls. Somehow,Michael, I did not envision this as your choice of entertainment.”
It’s not and she knows it.
“Can’t you go with Willow or Daphne or someone else who is already going?”
“No! It has to be you. You would befixingthis for Lila and me.” She’s completely convinced of this and I don’t want to disappoint her.
It is a Dad thing. I remember Dad refusing to take Abbie and Daphne to some concert in Toronto. I think Richard Bradshaw took them.
I would rather be the kind of father Richard Bradshaw is, absolutely.
Before I can say so, Sierra bends down and lowers her voice. “And then you can take Mom to your place, so she doesn’t get impatient with Lila and I staying awake late and talking.”
Elke’s eyes round and she blinks rapidly at me as she picks up her menu again.
I look at Sierra. “Nothing is happening unless it’s what your mom wants to happen.”
“Exactly!” Sierra is triumphant. “Not much duck confit left, just FYI, Mike.”
And then she’s gone, leaving me to defend myself alone. There is silence at our table, and it’s not because we’re both so busy deciding what to order.
Elke puts down her menu to survey me. “It seems your life has gotten a little more complicated in the past year, Michael. Perhaps more interesting.”
There’s an understatement.
