“I understand,” Miles said. “Really, I do, Chelsea. I get it. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. I have to finish this marketing meeting, that’s all. We’re launching a new product next week, and I thought we would have the promotional materialswrapped up by now, but the design team reworked the whole project and I have to review everything again.”
“And that has to be you?” she asked. “You couldn’t delegate it to someone else?”
“I really can’t. I have to look at these pieces. Listen, you’ll be fine,” he said. “You know Dad loves you. He’ll be glad to see you, and you two can use this time to get to know each other a little better. It’ll be good for you to have some one-on-one time with him.” Chelsea didn’t necessarily agree with Miles’s assessment. Miles was just trying to make himself feel better, she thought, about the fact that he was standing her up.
She couldn’t believe he’d done this. Lying to his father and pretending the two of them were in a relationship was one thing, but this was the responsibility of an actual girlfriend. It wasn’t Chelsea’s job to go and have dinner with Miles’s father when he wasn’t even there.
I should have just canceled the dinner. I should have called Silas and let him know that Miles wasn’t able to make it, so we could both reschedule. Better yet, I should have told Miles to make that call.She would have done that, if she’d realized before leaving the house how bogged-down he was at work, but she had told herself that he was probably just a few minutes behind her.
Now, she sighed. “You’re not going to end up meeting me, are you?”
“Chelsea, I wish I could promise you that I will,” he said.
“Youcouldpromise me. You absolutely could.”
“I don’t know how late this meeting is going to run, and there’s no point in my coming out there if it’s going to be hours fromnow,” he said. “Look, just go have a meal with Dad. You know it’ll mean the world to him. I’ll make it up to you as soon as I can.”
Chelsea saw the curtains twitch. Silas had seen her. There was no going back now. She sighed. “All right,” she said. “I’ll see you later, then.”
She ended the call and got out of the car, reaching back into the passenger seat for the apple pie she’d made earlier that afternoon. It was still summer, so she wouldn’t have been teaching right now anyway, but knowing that she had taken a break from her work made her feel strangely unoccupied even though nothing had functionally changed for her yet. The days seemed longer.
Maybe it was the fact that there was less housework to do. Even her laundry was taken care of for her these days, sent out to a service that returned everything clean and pressed. There was no cooking to be done. A chef came to the house every morning, and Chelsea had learned quickly that if she visited the kitchen to try to find something for herself, she would be hustled into a chair and made to sit and wait while the chef prepared whatever she said she wanted. It all added up to much more free time than she was used to. She was surprised she’d even been allowed to make this pie on her own, although maybe it was because she had told the staff how much it meant to her to prepare something for Miles’s father. She’d definitely noticed some fond looks when she had said that.
Biting her lip, she made her way up the path and rang the doorbell. Silas’s house was even larger than his son’s, and Chelsea couldn’t help feeling nervous about being here. What was a person supposed to do in a place like this? Were there different standards of behavior?
The door was opened by a woman in her forties with her hair tied neatly back. Chelsea didn’t recognize her, but the woman smiled. “You’re the daughter-in-law.”
“I’m Miles’s girlfriend,” Chelsea said awkwardly. When had that been upgraded todaughter-in-law?
The woman laughed. “My mistake,” she said. “Mr. Aspin has been so excited all day about your visit.”
“I’m sorry, I-I don’t think we’ve been introduced,” Chelsea stammered.
“No, no, we haven’t. Forgive me. It’s just that I’ve spent all day hearing him talk about you. I feel as if I know you already.” The woman smiled. “I’m Melody Parker, Mr. Aspin’s home nurse. You can call me Melody.”
“Oh, I hadn’t realized he had a home nurse,” Chelsea said, smiling. She was glad. Knowing someone was here tending to Silas’s needs definitely put her mind at ease.
“I’m surprised your boyfriend didn’t mention it,” Melody said, raising an eyebrow. “He’s the one who made the arrangement.”
That’s true; that is the kind of thing he would have told me if I was really his girlfriend.She was going to have to have a talk with Miles about being more open with her if he wanted to sell the story they were trying to stick to. “He must have forgotten to mention it,” she said with a laugh. “He’s had a lot on his mind lately, with his father’s illness and his company to run.”
“Oh, yes, I’m sure that’s true,” Melody said. “Well, let me show you through to the dining room, all right? Mr. Aspin is so eager to see you, and the dinner is nearly ready.” She glanced at thepie in Chelsea’s hands. “I can take that through to the kitchen for you if you’d like.”
“Thank you.”
Melody took the pie from her hands and directed her down the hall to a pair of big, wooden double doors. “Just through there,” she said, smiling. “He knows you’re here, so you can go on in.”
Chelsea felt unaccountably nervous.If only Miles was here right now!She drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders. He was the one who’d chosen to make her handle this on her own. She could do it. She pushed open the doors.
Silas Aspin was sitting at the end of a long, mahogany dining table. Immediately, she relaxed a bit — he looked considerably healthier than he had the last time she had seen him. There was color in his cheeks, and while his smile was still a bit uneven in the wake of his stroke, she could see that he’d gotten some muscle control back.
He didn’t rise to his feet at the sight of her, but a big smile spread across his face. “Chelsea — you made it. I’m so glad you could join me tonight.” He glanced over her shoulder, “And where’s that son of mine?”
“Held up by work,” Chelsea said apologetically. “It’s just going to be you and me tonight — if that’s all right with you, I mean. If you would rather reschedule, we can do that, of course.”
Silas sighed. “I should have known Miles would work late,” he said. “He always does. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you — you must be even more familiar with his workaholic tendencies than I am at this point. You’re a saint for putting up with him.”
“Well, I know his work means a great deal to him,” Chelsea said, but she couldn’t help smiling at the realization that Silas was so fully on her side. “I guess it wouldn’t make much sense to reschedule.”
