I grab a glass from the cabinet and turn on the faucet.“It would be unseemly.”
“Unseemly,” she repeats.She’s holding the dripping sponge at her side, and her mouth is partially open.She’s not blinking, either.
“Since you’re living with me.”I pause to take a long drink of water.
“I’vebeenliving with you.”
“I mean in my bedroom.Our bedroom.As my fiancée.”
She drops the sponge on the floor.“Hold up.You’re asking me to marry you while I’m scrubbing the baseboards?”
“Another reason to fire you.It’s super hard to propose while you’re cleaning.I need you to move on to a life of leisure so I can propose to you while we’re at a Michelin-rated restaurant or doing something else that people of leisure do.Perhaps even while sailing in Catalina.”
I rinse out the glass and put it on the draining rack next to the sink.Then I leave the kitchen.Emma chases after me, and when she catches up, she slaps a rubber glove on my arm and turns me around.I now have soap suds on my arm.
“Wait a second.You asked me to marry you and didn’t even wait for my answer?What kind of lame proposal was that?”
I laugh and lean down to kiss her.“Hold that thought,” I say.“Please consider this a dry run, even though you’re dripping all over everything.You willnotbe scrubbing baseboards when the real proposal comes.I’m gonna do it up right.But right now, I have to go tell Jasmine.First Jasmine, then the whole family.”
I walk out the door, and she runs out after me.“What are you going to tell Jasmine?What did you say about the whole family?”
I smile to myself as I hop in the Jeep I parked in front of the house.I point at her.“Remember, Emma Clark.You are so completely fired.I’ll be back in a half hour.And I love you.”
I take the Jeep up the rough road past the meadow.Summer lives in a rustic cabin with a pretty garden out front.I park by the stone path.Summer’s horse and Jasmine’s pony are tied to the hitching post in front of the house.I pass carefully behind them and jog up the steps.
Wiping my feet on the doormat, I open the door and walk in.The cabin has an open floor plan, everything in one large room.Summer and Jasmine are sitting at the kitchen table making friendship bracelets, even though they’re already wearing at least five each.
“Hey, Dad,” Jasmine says, not looking up from her project.
I hate that she calls me “Dad.”Why did she have to move on from “Daddy”?But things change, don’t they?And that’s why I’m here.
“Hey there.”I take a seat at the table.
“How was Catalina?”Summer asks.
She and Jasmine make kissing noises and break into hysterics.
“What’s going on here?”I give Summer a death stare.Has she been talking to Jasmine about Emma and me without asking me first?
“Don’t look at me,” Summer says, putting her hands up in surrender.“Your daughter has a lot of ideas.”
“Oh, yeah?”I look to Jasmine.
She puts her friendship bracelet down and rests her elbows on the table.“Here’s the thing, Dad.I’ve been playing matchmaker.”
“Is that so?”Out of the corner of my eye, I see Summer holding back from laughing.
“You don’t know a lot about women, Dad,” my daughter continues.“So I had to help you.Every time you guys were together, I would leave the house to be with Auntie Phyllis or Grandpa or Tiffany.”
“You did that?”
“I had to, Dad.You were making goo-goo eyes at her, and she was making goo-goo eyes at you, and I knew you would never ever ask her out because you don’t know how.”
“Since when do you say, ‘goo-goo eyes’?”I ask.
She sighs in exasperation.“I even started playing music to set the mood.”
“Set the mood?Set the…mood?”
