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“Very good,” I replied without thinking.
We hung up after I rebuffed several more attempts at details.
Rylie came back to the couch after I put down the phone. “She doesn’t know about Adam?”
I shook my head. “No, and I’m not sure how to tell them. Our fathers hate each other with a capital H. I mean, putting them in the same room would likely lead to an explosion.”
She sat down. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
I cocked my head. “You don’t know my father.”
“My dad was the same way about Sam, my husband.”
“But I can’t make mine change.”
She sipped her coffee. “Sure you can.”
“No way.”
“My dad and his dad ran—well, still run—competing restaurants in Pittsburgh. My dad hired away some of Sam’s father’s employees, and he retaliated by hiring my dad’s chef and stealing some recipes.”
I giggled. That sounded small scale compared to Daddy’s feud with Adam’s father.
“Don’t laugh. This was serious shit. They were ready to kill each other, until we ended it.”
“How?”
“I told my father he wasn’t welcome in our house, and he wouldn’t ever get to see his grandchildren, if he didn’t bury the hatchet with Sam’s dad.”
“And that fixed it?”
“Only after Sam said the same thing to his father. I knew my dad loved me more than the fight. But I—we—had to force that choice.”
She made it sound easy, too easy.
We settled in to watch the television.
Later, when Adam finally arrived, he looked terrible.
“Evelyn?” I asked.
His downcast eyes told the story even before he spoke. “I’m so sorry.”
I fell into his arms, crying for what seemed like an eternity.
What had she done to deserve what had happened to her? What had any of them done? None of it made any sense.
* * *
Hours later,Rylie had gone home, and I lay in bed next to Adam, my arm draped over him and my head in the crook of his shoulder.
His heartbeat was still rapid. All this time, and he hadn’t calmed down yet. He’d discovered a dead body tonight, and shot the killer. How did you sleep after a day like that?
We’d gotten into bed to hold each other.
He embraced me silently, occasionally stroking my back.
I soothed him as best I could, trying not to be clingy.
