“We've just been on the due diligence tour together. In Chicago and Minneapolis and L.A. And next week we're going to Europe,” he explained as Andy eyed her with suspicion.
“Are you my dad's new girlfriend?” Meredith smiled at the question, and Cal was quick to reprimand him.
“Andy! That's a rude thing to say, and you know it.”
“Well, is she?” he persisted, as the dog brought the ball back and dropped it at the boy's feet, but Andy ignored him. Interrogating Meredith was more interesting than playing fetch with the retriever. And his sisters seemed to be listening with interest.
“Actually, I'm married. Your dad and I are just working together. My husband is a doctor,” she said, hoping to gain safe passage from them. Their friends were circling nearby, and the two girls seemed anxious to rejoin them.
“What kind of doctor?” Andy asked her. “Does he take care of kids?”
“Sometimes. He takes care of people who have terrible accidents, he's a trauma doctor.”
“I fell off my bike and broke my arm once,” he said, smiling at her. He had decided that she was pretty, and not necessarily after his father.
“That must have hurt,” Meredith sympathized.
“It did. Do you have children?”
“No, I don't,” she said, wondering if she should apologize for it. The two girls were still watching her, but neither of them had said more than hello when their father introduced them. But they didn't make any move to step away either. They were listening to her answers to their brother's questions, and seemed satisfied by them. “I'm going back to New York in a few hours,” she said, as though to reassure them. She somehow sensed that they thought she was a threat, even if she was married, and she wanted to assure them that she would be gone soon.
Cal offered her a glass of wine, and the children went back to their friends then. And half an hour later, as he and Meredith sat on the patio, drinking wine and chatting, the last of the friends left, and his kids went upstairs to change for dinner.
“Your children are beautiful,” she said after they'd gone in, “and they all look just like you.”
“Charlotte always said that Andy looked like my clone, even as a baby. And both of the girls look just like my mother. I think it was actually part of why Charlotte never bonded with them.” But from everything else he had said to her by then, Meredith suspected that there were more severe reasons for her not bonding with them, mostly her long-term affair with another man, and the fact that she had never wanted children. “They're not used to seeing anyone come home with me. They've only met one or two of the women I've gone out with.”
“Why is that?” She was startled by what he said, and it explained why they had seemed so suspicious of her.
“I don't think that part of my life is any of their business,” he said bluntly. “There hasn't been anyone serious enough in my life to warrant introducing them to the children.” It was hard to believe that in the eight years since his divorce he hadn't been seriously involved with a woman. It made her wonder about him, and come to the same conclusion she had come to before, that he was commitment-phobic ever since his wife's betrayal, although he claimed to have recovered.
They sat outside for a while, enjoying the balmy evening, and then he invited her to come inside to the large elegant living room, filled with English antiques and handsome works of art. And a few minutes later, the housekeeper told them dinner was ready. And like clockwork, the kids trooped downstairs, and then stood in the door of the living room, staring at her. She felt like an animal in the zoo, as the two girls glared at her, and she couldn't help wondering what they were thinking.
Callan got up, and walked slowly toward them. “So how was school, guys?” he asked easily, as Meredith followed behind him.
“I hate school,” Andy announced, but without any particular fervor. It sounded like a standard response, and Julie said grudgingly that she liked her new teacher. Mary Ellen said nothing.
“Are you in high school?” Meredith asked her politely as they walked into the dining room, and Cal pulled out the chair next to his and Meredith sat down in it.
“I'm a freshman,” Mary Ellen said tersely, and the word that sprang to Meredith's mind was sullen. She was totally unlike her easygoing father. She was a pretty girl, but her lack of enthusiasm and seeming lack of warmth made her appear somehow less attractive. From what Meredith could see, there was very little charm about her, and more than anything else, she seemed unhappy. Meredith couldn't help wondering if she was always that way, or if it was just due to the presence of an unexpected guest, and seeing her father with a woman.
Conversation during dinner was awkward and slow, with the children saying little, and Callan pretending he didn't notice. And Meredith eventually gave up trying to engage them in conversation. The one thing they made plain, without actually saying it, was that they had no interest in talking to her, or even in answering her questions. And she wasn't all that at ease with children. After awhile, she had no idea what to say to them, and even Callan couldn't seem to draw them out much. They asked to be excused immediately after dessert, and ran upstairs so fast when he let them go, they almost knocked each other down in the doorway.
“I'm sorry, Meredith,” he turned to her apologetically as the housekeeper served them coffee, and Meredith relaxed visibly. It had been a strain having dinner with his children. “I think they were worried about you. They're not usually like this. They're good kids. I think they just couldn't figure out who you were, or why you were here. I'll have to talk to them about it.”
“Don't be silly,” she said politely, “if you never bring women home, no wonder they were worried. Isn't that a little unreal, though? Don't your dates want to meet your kids?” It seemed an odd way to live, to her. And it obviously had disadvantages, if his children sat like stones when he finally did bring a woman home, even if she was a friend in business.
“What my dates want and what they get are two different stories,” Cal said, smiling at her. “There's no point introducing them if they're not going to be around long.”
“That's a hell of a statement, Cal. How do you know that right from the beginning?”
“Because that's the way it's been for a long time, and probably the way it will be for a lot longer. If I change my mind about it, I can always do something about it later. It's a lot easier to introduce someone to the kids down the road, than to explain to them why I'm not seeing her anymore. They don't need to know that.”
“I think not dealing with it must make them very possessive of you.” Which was a polite way of saying that they had looked like little ax murderers as they sat there. Their eyes had bored holes into Meredith all evening, and she hadn't enjoyed it. No one would have. But she was afraid to say too much. They were his children after all, and it was hardly her place to tell him that he wasn't bringing them up right. She suspected they probably were nice kids. They were healthy and good looking, and seemed intelligent, but they sure hadn't been friendly. In fact, given a bit of rope, she suspected they would have been hateful to her, especially Mary Ellen. Meredith couldn't help pitying the woman who would walk into that, because she was in love with Callan, and it might happen someday, in spite of his protests.
They talked about business again then, and at eight thirty, right on schedule, he drove her to the airport. He helped her check her bags in, and then walked her to the first-class lounge, and she thanked him for an interesting afternoon and a pleasant evening, and told him she had enjoyed meeting his children.
“I wish I believed that,” he said apologetically. “They weren't exactly terrific, Merrie, and I know that. I guess I need to start introducing them to people, friends like you, if no one else.”