that if she was straight and had dated guys. When she thought
about Dani, Emily half felt that she wanted the entire world to
know what a great person Dani was, but she also knew she
wanted to keep what they had between them. It was their
business, and no one else’s. That didn’t mean being secretive
or furtive, but she thought about how that photographer had
stolen their first intimate moment and she understood her
parents’ fears and warnings.
Because of who her dad was, and maybe even because of
her mom’s fame and success as an artist, she would often be a
target for the media. They weren’t telling her that she couldn’t
be a lesbian, they were trying to warn her that because of who
she was, things might be more difficult when it came to being
in the public eye. She hadn’t understood that either, but her
parents had, and they’d wanted to keep her safe from getting
hurt in that way, from tabloids and unforgiving stories, and
people who wanted to portray her in whatever way they chose.
Emily knew Dani was no secret, but she understood wanting
to protect someone from being splashed all over the media.
She wanted to keep some things private, just for them, and
she’d always want that.
“Thank you.” Emily had nothing more to say. No, she had a
lot more to say, but she realized that her stomach was
rumbling and that the dinner her mom had probably worked
hours to prepare was getting cold because everyone was
talking and not eating. “I can’t wait for you to meet her.
Eventually.”
“We’d like that,” Sandra said, taking Emily’s smile as a cue
to pass around the first of all the dishes on the table.
“We’d like that very much,” Peter echoed.