I shot her a look as I sat Zoey down on her feet.
“What does it say, Miss Gentry?” she asked.
“Zoey, did you make this with your uncle?” I asked.
“Yeah. We made it this morning. I wanted to make a ‘thank you’ card, but I needed help spelling. And gluing. And cutting.”
“Well you did a great job,” I said. “I’m going to hang it on my fridge when I get home.”
“What did Uncle Ryan say?” she asked.
I looked over warily at Catherine and she shrugged her shoulders. I was hoping she would bail me out of this situation. Give me something to tell this little girl that would satiate her curiosity. I made it a point to not lie to my kids. In my mind, that was the worst thing someone could do to a blossoming child. Sometimes I tried to dampen the harshness of the truth, but I never tried to conceal it.
“Your Uncle Ryan told me you guys were asking a lot about me and he wants to know if I’ll eat with him again,” I said.
“Will you!?” Zoey asked.
Her beaming smile made me sigh as I cupped her cheek in the palm of my hand.
“I’ll think about it,” I said. “But I’m not hungry right now.”
“Will you eat with him when you are hungry?” she asked.
I could hear Catherine giggling beside me and I wanted to stomp down on her toe.
“If I can get all of my work done and I’m still hungry, then I might,” I said.
“Okay. But if you do, can we come with you?” she asked.
“You’ll have to ask your Uncle that,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll ask him when I get home.”
I bit back a groan as Zoey skipped off to go play.
“Well, that was fun,” Catherine said.
“I hate you.”
“That should be your slogan for the day,” she said.
“What the heck am I supposed to do with this?” I asked.
I waved the card around in the air before Catherine plucked it from my fingers. She scanned the picture on the outside before flipping it over and I could tell she was trying to bury the ironic smile trying to cross her face.
“As odd as this is going to sound, I think you should do it.”
“Really? After the entire story I just told you, you think I should call up one of the richest men in San Francisco and have dinner with him?” I asked.
“Remember what I told you? Ryan doesn’t do things twice? He’s notorious for it. But he’s reaching out to you again. And he doesn’t do that.”
I looked down at the letter before I snatched it away from her.
“I’m just saying it’s worth a shot,” Catherine said.
“And I think you’ve had a blood vessel hemorrhage in that brain of yours.”
“Just give it some thought.”