“Oh, yeah, I just love animals, they are so loving and caring. Just like me,” she said as she laughed.
"I see." Her face was caught so well by the flickering light.
“Although we had a farm, Mom was a vet and Dad worked the land. We had the best of both worlds until Mom died,” she said as she bowed her head. “After that, Dad was never the same. They had been together since high school, and their only love was each other.”
“It sounds nice. I wish I could find a nice woman like that. I’m getting to the age where I should be settling down a bit more,” I said as I imagined us growing old together.
“Well, you never know. It might happen one day,” she said as she winked coyly.
The dinner we had was excellent, and the service was perfect. The waiter’s choice of the wine was dead on and matched the meat perfectly. The dessert we had was a fine ice-cream, and Kendall had a lot of fun at my expense when it was running down my chin. She didn’t smile when I offered her my spoon with some ice cream on, that part of the dinner was priceless. Her mouth had opened as I slowly inserted the spoon and she sucked off the ice cream, it was very sensual and set the tone for how I felt about her.
***
We left the restaurant, and I told Kendall I had a large photo album I wanted to show her if she was willing to come back to my house to look at it. She graciously accepted my offer, and we headed off home.
“Have a look, and I’ll make us coffee.” She belonged there with me.
Kendall sat on the couch, her dress rode up her thighs, and I couldn’t help but notice, then she placed the album on her lap and started looking at the pictures in reverse order, she said she wanted to see where I started and not how I came to become me.
“So, when was this last picture taken? Oops, sorry, I forgot. You won’t remember,” she said softly.
“No need to apologize, you are human after all,” I said with a cheeky grin.
As I looked at the pictures, I had a strong sense of my Dad, it was hard to explain, but it made me feel a little uneasy. We continued looking at the pictures, and Kendall told me other stories of her childhood when one of my photo’s related to her past.
“Ah, this one. We did the same, my friends and I built a raft from old plastic drums and went sailing in the lake,” she said pointing at the picture of me and Peter on the water. "But as we were girls. It fell to pieces, and we had to swim to shore,” she said as she laughed. She had a warm smile.
“Well from the look of ours, it didn’t look like it would fall to pieces,” I replied.
“I’m not sure if I should ask, but why is your Dad always with you and not with Peter as well?” Kendall asked as she looked into my puzzled eyes.
“I wish I could answer you, Peter and I have asked ourselves the same question since my accident, and we have no answers either. Peter said I was Dad's favorite, but why I don’t know,” I replied still uneasy about it all.
We arrived at some photos of Dad and the business when it first started, I looked at them and had a little flashback, I could picture my dad yelling at the builders and yelling at me, yet he comforted me after and said he was sorry.
I was puzzled by this, why would he scream at me and then apologize? Was he just in a mood? I had a thought of him, what about if he had been abusive toward me and I had shut this out of my mind? My mind filled with images and thoughts, most of them involved my dad abusing someone, yelling at them or being a bit of a dick.
“I understand what Peter meant now,” I said to myself out loud.
“What’s that?” Kendall asked.
“Peter said I inherited some of Dad’s good bits and also some of his bad parts as well,” I said. “Perhaps I had turned into my dad without realizing."
“It’s possible if you were with him a lot of the time,” Kendall replied.
“But why did he not like Peter? I mean, was there something he did as a kid that Dad didn’t like?” I asked.
I had an image of my Dad, he was playing with Peter, and I was crying at the side of the garden. Then he stopped what he was doing and came to see what I was crying about. I can remember saying Peter is not my real brother, and Dad called him over and spoke to us in turn.
When he spoke to us, he finished by giving us a mighty wallop which started both of us crying. He also said to me he was going to make me tough like him. Was I the weak one and Peter the strong one? I wasn’t sure this was a good answer, why would he leave all the fortune to me?
“I’m feeling a little uneasy, I’m having all sorts of flashbacks and images popping up of my Dad, which don’t make any sense to me,” I said to Kendall. I felt a little unwell.
“It’s okay. We’ll stop looking at the pictures if they are upsetting you and making you feel a little anxious. At least I’m here with you, so you have no need to feel alone,” she said.
Kendall closed the photo album and placed it on the couch, she took hold of my hand and rested her head against my wanting shoulder. I was a little more relaxed, and the thoughts were happily diverted by having Kendall this close to me. Then she stroked my hand, and I placed my arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer into me.
I felt safe with her. She was truly beautiful in every sense of the word.