Her father tilted back his glass, finished the drink in one swallow, and poured another one. He fixed one for Jack and opened a bottle of wine from the fully stocked wet bar for Katie.
“Thanks, Daddy.”
He offered a forced smile and sat beside her on the leather sofa. “Does he make you happy?” he asked from nowhere.
It took her a minute to realize he was asking about Dean. “He does.” Keep it simple. Don’t offer too much information.
Gaylord sipped his second drink. “Good.”
Jack wasn’t so quick to applaud. “Really, Dad? That’s it? You grilled me for an hour about Jessie before you met her.”
“I didn’t know Jessie. I know Dean. He’s a good man. Hardworking. Hell of a lot better than some of the men your sister’s dated.”
“I think I should be offended,” she teased.
“You should,” Gaylord said.
She laughed. Despite the somber reason for the three of them to be on the plane together, she found herself smiling. “Oh, Daddy, I wasn’t that bad.”
“Yes, you were!” both her father and Jack said at the same time.
Now all three of them were chuckling.
“Dean even has you wearing proper clothes. I hope he burned those skintight jeans and barely there skirts.”
She’d left those in the closet at the hotel. But she still loved her high heels.
“Is he gonna make an honest woman of you?” her father asked.
“No one says that anymore, Daddy.”
“I do.”
She smiled…not sure where she and Dean were going. “You’ll be on the list of the first people who will know if that’s what we decide.”
“I guess that’s all I can ask for then.”
Katie leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for trusting me.”
“Oh, honey, I’ve always trusted you. It’s the guys I didn’t trust.”
She sipped her wine and thought of some of the untrustworthy men she’d brought into her life. “I was really bad, wasn’t I?”
“Yes!”
“Yes.”
Again, they sat there laughing. She couldn’t imagine sitting back and letting Savannah make the mistakes she’d made. How had her father done that? With all his money, his power…how did he stand it? Perhaps in the near future she could ask him those very questions.
“So…Annette’s in Florida,” she finally said, broaching the subject they were all avoiding.
“Show some respect, baby girl. She’s still your mother.”
“She stopped being a mother too many years ago to count.”
Gaylord scolded her with a look.
“OK, fine. So…Mom’s in Florida.”
His face softened and he shrugged. “So I’m told.”
“What happened?”
“Car accident. She was driving…it was late. I didn’t ask those details.” Gaylord spoke in short sentences and stared into his glass.
“Who did you ask? Is she still with that Pierre guy?”
Her dad and Jack exchanged a look.
“What?”
“No. Pierre is long gone apparently,” Jack said.
“She was living with him…in Italy, right?”
“Not for a while.”
OK, now she was completely confused. “We get Christmas cards from Italy. I think there were a couple years there they came from France. She always talked about Pierre.”
Jack shrugged.
Her dad sat unusually quiet.
“You guys know something I don’t.”
Jack stared at their father.
“What?”
Gaylord turned to her and released a sigh. “Pierre was her cat.”
Her father could be speaking a different language and she’d understand him better. “Her what?”
“Her cat,” Jack said again. “Mom’s been living in Florida for years. There never was a man named Pierre. Or if there was, she ditched him and kept the cat.”
“But the cards…”
“Came from overseas, I know. I got them, too, Katie. It was a lie. All of it. Annette’s been in Florida most of the time she wasn’t in our life.”
“Doing what?” Outrage fueled her veins.
Jack hunched his shoulders. “Living, basking in the sun…cruising the Caribbean? How the hell can I know?”
Katie noticed her father studying the ice inside his glass. “Daddy?”
Gaylord stood and filled his glass a third time. “She,” he cleared his throat. “She did live in Italy. Visited France. I sent the checks to Milan for a while.”
“Sent checks?”
“She never remarried, Katie. I didn’t fight alimony.”
“She’s been living off you all this time?”
Gaylord tilted his glass, spoke through the thick flavor of his drink. “It’s only money.”
“Money she didn’t deserve.” How dare she!
“She moved back to the States several years ago. Her cards to you children were nothing more than fabricated lies.”
“Why? Why would we care if she lived here or across the sea? She couldn’t be bothered with us either way.”
Her dad moved about the cabin of the plane.
“Stop protecting her, Dad.” Jack’s voice rose, something he seldom did with their father. “You told me you’d talk to both of us together. Well, Katie and I are both here, so spill.”