Look Again - Lisa Scottoline [15]
“Dad, tell me.” Ellen sat next to him, worried. Cancer was the worst sort of coward, sneaking up on people, and her mother had died from lymphoma, having lived only three months after her diagnosis.
“I’m not sick, not at all.” He untwisted the tie on the plastic bag of bread, extracted two slices from the center of the loaf, and set them on his plate, open-faced.
“Then why did you go to the doctor?”
“Make yourself a sandwich, then we’ll talk.”
“Dad, please.”
“Suit yourself, but I’m hungry.” Her father popped the plastic lid of the tuna, then picked up the serving fork, speared himself a small mound, and patted it onto his bread with the tines of the fork, making crosshatches.
“You’re stalling, Dad. It’s tuna fish, not rocket science.”
“Okay, here it is. I’m getting married.”
“What?” Ellen was dumbfounded. “To who?” She had no idea. He was dating four women here. He was Romeo, with an enlarged prostate.
“Barbara Levin.”
Ellen didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know the woman. Her parents had been married forty-five years, and her mother had passed a little over two years ago. Somehow this meant her mother was really gone. As if someone had put a period on the sentence that was her life.
“El? I’m not dying, I’m getting married.”
“Why, is she pregnant?”
“Ha!” Her father laughed, then stabbed the tuna with the serving fork. “I’ll tell her you said that.”
Ellen hid her ambivalence. “This is kind of a surprise.”
“A good one, right?”
“Well, yes. Sure.” Ellen tried to get a grip, but a hard knot in her chest told her she wasn’t doing such a great job. “I guess I just wasn’t sure who the lucky lady was.”
“Barbara’s the one that matters.” He picked up a tomato slice with the serving fork. “You gonna congratulate me?”
“Congratulations.”
“I needed a cholesterol check. That’s why I went to the doctor’s.”
“Oh. Thank God you’re not sick.”
“You got that right.” Her father placed his tomato on top of the tuna, added a piece of bread, then lined up the two pieces, leaning over as if he were sizing up a putt. He pressed his sandwich closed, lowering his hand, then eyed her. “You don’t look happy, El.”
“I am.” Ellen managed a smile. She loved her father, but he had spent her childhood on the road. The truth was, everybody had a go-to parent, and with him away from home so much, Ellen’s had become her mother.
“El, I’m entitled to be happy.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
“You’re acting it.”
“Dad, please.”
“I don’t like to be alone and I’m not getting any younger.”
Silence fell between them, and Ellen made no move to fill it. The ugliest of thoughts popped into her head—the wrong one had died. She felt ashamed of the very notion, and confused. She loved her father.
“I guess I knew you’d get upset. You and your mother were two of a kind. Peas in a pod.”
Ellen couldn’t speak for a moment. Her mother had been her best friend in the world. That said it all.
“Life goes on.”
Ellen felt the knot again, then flipped her thinking. “So when’s the wedding? I need to get a dress and all.”
“Uh, it’s in Italy.”
“Italy? Why?”
“Barbara likes it there, near Positano.” Her father cut his sandwich and took a bite, leaving Ellen to fill in the blanks.
“Am I going? Is Will?”
“Sorry, but no.” Her father looked back at her over his sandwich. “It’s not a big deal, not at our age. We’re just doing it, no muss, no fuss. We’re getting on a plane end of the week.”
“Wow, that soon?”
“I told her you’d be fine with it. Her kid’s fine with it.”
“I understand.” Ellen tried to shrug it off. “I’m officially fine with it.”
“She has a daughter, too. Year older than you. Abigail.”
“I thought she had a boy in the Peace Corps.”
“That was Janet.”
“Oh.” Ellen smiled. It was kind of funny. “Well, good. I always wanted a sister. Can I have a pony, too?”
At that, he smiled, chewing.
“What does she do, my new sister?”
“Lawyer in D.C.”
“I always wanted a lawyer, too.” Ellen laughed, and so did he, setting down