It instantly evoked alarm. ‘Henry, you should have told me. You should have gone to the hospital immediately...’
‘You know I don’t like hospitals, Eileen. People die in hospitals.’
‘Henry,’ her voice wobbled, ‘you’ll be the death of me.’
‘I love you, Eileen.’
‘I know that, Henry.’
‘After I rested for a while, I felt better. I made Caitlin promise not to tell you about my heart because I realised then you’d be angry with me for not telling you.’
David had to have coached him, Caitlin thought. Her father had been miserable, lonely and depressed. He would never have thought up such an array of excuses by himself. But there was a solid ring of truth and substance to everything he was saying. It was all deliberately slanted to smooth things over. It was working. Privately, she blessed David for producing this little miracle. It was worthy of a master magician.
‘You shouldn’t have hid it from me, Henry.’ All the hurt wasn’t gone, but it was going.
‘Please forgive me, Eileen. I dressed up for you and...’ he eased back so he could present his gifts to her ‘...I hoarded all the money you gave me to buy this for you.’
Her mother had said he’d been hoarding money. Maybe he was telling all the truth, Caitlin thought dazedly.
‘I want you to wear it all so everyone will know that after thirty years, you are still the bride of my heart,’ her father declared.
‘Oh, Henry!’ Her hands unclasped and slid up over his shoulders.
They hugged and kissed and Eileen Ross was so overcome with emotion she didn’t even think of how her lipstick might get smudged.
Caitlin was deeply moved. It didn’t matter that David had had a hand in orchestrating the whole scene; the timing and the clothes were perfect. Her mother was pleased, God was in his heaven, and all was right with the world. The feeling that flowed between her mother and father was genuine. Despite all their differences, they loved each other.
She glanced back at David. There was a satisfied smile on his face. He caught her glance and gave her an enquiring look, as if to ask, ‘Have I done what you wanted?’
She smiled back at him.
It was a mistake.
David instantly took it as an invitation and started walking purposefully towards her. Caitlin forgave him a lot for bringing her mother and father back together again, but she was well aware that, to David, it was the means to an end that had absolutely nothing to do with her parents’ happiness.
To Caitlin’s mind, there was a great deal more to be sorted out with David before she could happily consent to a resumption of their relationship. In fact, she was not going to resume what they’d had before. It had to be different. Both of them had to work at making it different.
The problem was, she didn’t know if what David had been doing this afternoon was for the sake of expedience—to get her back at his side—or whether he was truly prepared to reassess where they were and aim for something better. Something closer. Something far more meaningful to both of them.
Her eyes flicked back to her parents. Love that could surmount every difficulty. That was what she wanted.
‘Eileen...’ Her father was lifting his head from their embrace. ‘I’m not going to say...’
Caitlin produced the most raucous cough her throat could manage on instant notice. It was a desperate measure to stop what was surely coming. Her father was about to destroy everything by saying he was not going to say he was sorry. The successful outcome of David’s coaching had gone to his head! In the triumph of the moment, he was assuming that his wife would succumb to anything!
Caitlin knew better.
The cough succeeded in distracting her father and drawing his attention to her. Fortunately he still held her mother in his arms so Caitlin was only in her father’s line of vision. She made a dramatic roll of her eyes, drew her finger across her throat in a swift slicing motion, bent her head and used a chopping action with her hand on the back of her neck. Her father got the message.
Her mother lifted her head in adoring enquiry, ‘What were you not going to say, Henry?’
‘I’m not going to say you’re anything but wonderful, Eileen,’ he said lamely, then struck on some inspiration. ‘But I would like you to take off those gold chains because...well...’ He drew back to offer her the basket of gifts. ‘I looked it up in the library, Eileen, and for a thirtieth wedding anniversary...’
‘Pearls! You bought me pearls, Henry?’
The eager delight in her mother’s voice meant the critical moment of danger had been successfully bypassed. Caitlin breathed a sigh of relief.
David came up behind her. His arm slipped around her waist. ‘Your father got the message,’ he whispered in her ear, his breath warm and disturbingly erotic.