Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [53]
“But if he is cheating, he’d be good at hiding it. I mean the man is the top private investigator in Chicago. He’d be hard to catch.”
“Yes, but I’m a former librarian, and you know one of our mottos: If we don’t know the answer, we know where to find it. So don’t worry. I’ll find the answer.” Faith just hoped it was the answer they both wanted to hear and not one that would break up her family.
“So how are you settling in?” her dad asked Faith at work the next morning. She was seated in his office to go over an insurance fraud case.
“I’m doing good. How about you?”
“Overworked and underpaid.” It was a long-standing joke of his.
“Well, you’re the boss. Maybe you should ask for a raise. Or take some time off. You should take a vacation. You and Mom together. Doesn’t that sound like a great idea?”
“Hmmm.” He’d already focused his attention on a file he was studying on his computer screen.
“When was the last time you and Mom got away?”
“Hmmm.”
“Hello?” Faith rapped her knuckles on his desk. “Dad, I’m talking to you here. When was the last time you and Mom got away?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then it’s been too long. Your anniversary is coming up soon. You should go somewhere romantic.”
He gave her a look. “Like Italy?”
She squirmed. “Or someplace else. Or a cruise.”
“Just shoot me now. Being stuck on a boat with a thousand other people is my idea of hell.”
“Okay then, no cruise. And it’s a ship not a boat. But there are plenty of other options. Isn’t there someplace that you’ve always wanted to see?”
“Yes. The National Security Agency in Maryland, but it’s a restricted area.”
“And not a romantic location.”
“I don’t have time to take off.”
“Sure you do. You’re the boss. Who’s going to say no to you?”
“Me.”
“Let’s get a second opinion,” Faith said as her uncle joined them. “Uncle Dave, don’t you think it would be a great idea if Dad and Mom took off on a romantic getaway for their anniversary?”
Her uncle eyed her uncertainly. “Is this a trick question?”
“No,” Faith said.
“You see, he doesn’t think I should leave either,” her dad said.
“He didn’t say that. Aunt Lorraine said you wouldn’t have the gumption to go,” Faith said, hoping to goad her dad into proving her wrong.
“I doubt she said gumption. She probably said I didn’t have the balls to go. And I don’t care.”
“What’s so important here that you couldn’t get away?” Faith demanded.
“A number of things.”
She leaned forward in her chair. “Tell me about them.”
“There’s no time. I’ve got a meeting in five minutes.”
“Uncle Dave, tell him to take a vacation.”
“Take a vacation,” her uncle obediently said.
“There, you see? Your brother agrees with me.”
“I’ll think about it,” her dad said absently.
“You will not. You’ve already wiped it from your memory banks. This is important, Dad. You really need to focus on this idea, okay?”
“I said I’d think about it, and I will.” Now he sounded irritated.
Fine. She was irritated too. The least he could do was cooperate with her here. She was trying to save his marriage. Not that she could tell him that.
Her dad had always been an uber-workaholic, but her mom was right. Now that Faith was tuned in, she was picking up weird vibes from her dad. Not necessarily “I’m cheating” vibes, not that she was sure she’d know what those were like coming from her dad. But she was getting the feeling that he was hiding something.
She could tell she wasn’t going to get anything more out of him right now, so she withdrew from his office and cornered Gloria later that morning. Casually cornered her.
“My dad seems a little more stressed than usual,” Faith said with daughterly concern, which wasn’t faked. She truly was concerned. “Do you think my botched wedding upset him more than he let on?”
Gloria shrugged, her shoulders broader than usual in her poppy red sweater set. “As if I know what goes on in that mind of his.”
“Come on, Gloria. You are such an astute woman, and you’ve known my father for ages . . . I mean a long time,” she hurriedly edited. The frown on Gloria’s face clearly indicated that she didn