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Ira and I are sat next to each other. Carolyn sits at the foot next to Ira. There are three other place settings at this six-person table, but I can only think of five who are coming. Surely, my mom did not fly all the way from Europe for the first time in two years only for this lunch. I doubt she would even bother for my wedding!

“Who else is coming?” I’m assuming my father and Donovan are the other two, but who is the final place setting for? “Also, I saw my father’s car parked out front. Any idea where he is? I haven’t seen him since before his trip.”

Carolyn frowns, because she was just about to start blabbering about the babies Ira and I are destined to have. “Your father is talking with my bastard of an ex-husband.”

We both look at her. “He’s a bastard again, huh?” Ira asks.

“Damn straight. Apparently, he’s bringing a date.”

An eerie silence hangs over us. Ira’s father is free to do what he wants, but isn’t it a little tacky to bring a brand-new date to something like this? Then again, maybe it will create enough commotion to take the stares off us.

“There’s my sweet Kitty Cat.” My father chooses this moment to strut through the door, bowler hat still on even though we’re indoors – Silas Allen has never been huge on propriety when he can help it, especially in a house like this one. “Haven’t seen you in weeks.”

I get up to kiss my father on the cheek and help him into the seat at the head of the table. Normally, I would never guess he’s sitting there in someone else’s home, but the two seats across from Ira and I are most likely for a couple newer than us.

“Daddy.” I make sure he’s settled before sitting back down. “Things have been crazy lately thanks to the projects.”

“Yes…” My father spares Ira a glance before quickly looking away again. “The project.”

Another eerie silence. Carolyn smirks, and I know instantly who Ira got that grin from. “Seems like a really fortuitous project, doesn’t it, Silas?” She can’t wait for anyone to reply. “Can you imagine it? Our kids, together!” Sure, it’s not like we’re here or anything.

Ira sighs next to me, exasperated. “About that…”

“Indeed, about that.” My father can’t hide his irritation any longer. He’s staring Ira down, although eye contact is not made. “Would’ve been nice to hear it from the source.”

“I’m sorry, Daddy.” I give him my best good-girl look. The same one that got me out of so much trouble growing up – like when I racked up too many credit card charges as a teen or drove one of his classic cars into a ditch. I haven’t had to use this look for at least five years, and at my age it feels weird. “I was waiting for the right time to tell you.”

Ira’s eyes are on me. I don’t have to turn around to know that. “We’re not really a couple,” she mumbles.

Something pricks my heart. Her words? Her tone? The ensuing sigh that makes it sound like she never wants anything to do with me again?

I’m being irrational. Ira is responding to our parents’ meddling, not the fact we may have something more… emotional between us. Oh, you think I didn’t feel it, Ira? I definitely felt it. I felt it the last time we made love in that mansion in the mountains, and I felt it when you came to pick me up at my place today and gave me a quick kiss on the lips before wrapping your arm around me on the way to the elevator.

You’re distant. It’s understandable. Nobody wants to deal with this. Well, except Carolyn.

Still, do you have to be so callous at the moment?

“Don’t be silly, dear.” Carolyn flags someone from the kitchen and asks for a pitcher of lemonade. “You’re not a child anymore. You don’t have to hide your girlfriends from us.”

“I’m not hiding anything.” Ira’s gritted teeth would be a sight to behold if it weren’t my role in this situation. “Were Kathleen and I in a serious relationship, you would be the first to know.” She murmurs something that sounds like, “And the first to gab to everyone about it.”

Dad is still staring Ira down. The tension mounting between them is coming to a head in my body, and all I can imagine is my father walking over and smacking Ira right on the head. How dare she be so disrespectful to Silas’s little girl!

“What Ira is trying to say…” I look between both parents with a diplomatic demeanor. “Is that she and I are casually dating. We don’t know if it’s serious or not.”

She glances at me. I may not be a mind reader, but I’m pretty sure she’s thinking, “Don’t give them too much hope.”

Maybe it’s me who wants the hope.

“Regardless, let’s hope for something good to come out of this.” Carolyn shuts up when the server returns with the lemonade. She’s the only one who takes a glass. “Where is that man?”

It’s five more minutes before Donovan Mathison arrives with his date. At first I don’t recognize her, but I do identify some young tarty blonde on the arm of a man old enough to be her father. Grandfather? Probably.

“Family!” Donovan bellows, escorting his lovely date into the dining room. “So glad you could all make it. Sorry we’re late. We were, ah…” He and the woman practically rub noses in front of us, their grins covered in a sexual sugar that makes me gag.

Nobody is gagging more than Ira. Literally. On her ice water. At first I think it’s because of the behavior on display, but the woman says, “So good to see you again, Ira.”

I recognize her voice.