Page 132 of Just One Look

“Elizabeth,”her father said.

She flapped a hand and kept laughing. “Sorry,” she gasped. “I’m sorry. It’s just … it’s every nightmare scenario at once. So … soawkward.I came to New Zealand to confront my demons, and here I’m …” She couldn’t go on.

Angus reached a hand across the table to Baxter and said, “Afternoon. Angus MacDonald. Who would you be, mate?”

Baxter shook hands and said, stiffly again, because he’d certainly never loosened up anytime here, “Dr. Baxter Wolcott.”

Elizabeth thought,Note to self. Remind Luka not to let me introduce myself as “Doctor” unless I’m on an airplane and somebody’s actually having a medical emergency.

Angus’s hand stilled around Baxter’s, and then he recovered and took it back. He said, “I’m married to this lovely lady these days.”

A moment of silence, and Baxter said, “Congratulations.”

“Cheers,” Angus said. “I reckon I’m the luckiest man in the world.” He put an arm around Lauren, too, and it was the lizards in mating season again. You could just about see the neck frills inflating.

Lauren said, “I just popped by for a chat.”

“About me,” Luka said.

“Partially,” Lauren said. “About you and Piper and Elizabeth.”

“What,” Baxter said, “does this have to do with Piper?”

“Luka slept with her,” Elizabeth said.

Everybody looked stunned, and then Luka smiled. He got it. That she was pushing it. That her father was challenging, and she was answering.

“Let me get this straight,” Baxter said. “You’re housing this man. You’re dressing completely inappropriately, presumably for his benefit, in front of me and your stepmother, and it’s not an accident, because you’re boasting about it.”

“Ex-stepmother,” Elizabeth said. “But otherwise, you’realmostright.”

“And he’s repaid you for all this,” he said, ignoring that, “by sleeping with your stepsister? Do you have no self-respect? No. I’ll answer that. Of course you don’t. You were always a mouse. You didn’t speak up for yourself. You didn’tstandup for yourself. I had to push you into everything you ever accomplished, and believe me, it wasn’t easy. And you repay me for that by leaving the country and throwing away everything you’ve achieved? By throwing away your dignity? By letting this … this Neanderthal push you around and humiliate you? Letting himdegradeyou?”

Angus had stood up halfway through that. Now, he said, “I don’t think you want to say any more, mate. Not to your daughter, you don’t.”

“When I want your advice,” Baxter said, “I’ll ask for it. And really?” he asked Lauren. “This is your new chapter? This is what you came back to New Zealand to find?”

Angus said, “Too right, mate. It’s what I told you. The luckiest fella in the world.” He wasn’t looking nearly so genial now, and Elizabeth saw the flint beneath the casual exterior.

A little bit like Luka.

Her father was staring at her now, though. At herarm.Why?

He said, “You’re burned.” And picked up her hand.

“Not badly at all,” she said, checking out the reddened diagonal splotch on her right forearm. “First degree. They’re all about like this.”

He turned her hand over and ran his thumb over another faint line of red. “This isn’t from the tea.”

“Oh,” she said. “No.” She could feel the hot blood creeping up from her chest and into her face.

He still had her hand, and his eyes were drilling into hers in the way that had always made her knees knock. “How did you get this?”

She pulled her hand back. “All right, Dad. First: Luka isn’t living with me, I’m living …” And stopped.

“You’re what?” Baxter said. “That’s some kind of rope burn on your wrist. You’rewhat?”

She didn’t have to tell him. She didn’t have to tell him a thing.