Although Isaac wasn’t the type to cheat on his wife, especially with a student, he was human and had more opportunity than most men. After what Keith, who’d once seemed equally devoted had done, Liz thought it was probably good Reenie worked so close.
“What’s up?” he asked, folding his arms and settling back onto the corner of his desk. “The last time you showed up here, you’d just quit your job and leased a thousand square feet of retail space. I’m almost afraid to hear what’s happening next.”
“This isn’t about the store.”
When she didn’t crack a smile, he grew serious. “Are Mica and Christopher okay?”
“They’re fine. It’s…” She cleared her throat “It’s Dad.”
Isaac stiffened slightly but showed no other emotion. “What about him?”
“He’s in town.”
He sat perfectly still for several long seconds, then sighed. “Did he call? Stop by? What?”
“I haven’t seen him yet. Keith bumped into him at the gas station a couple hours ago.”
“I guess it’s too much to hope that it was a chance meeting? That he was only passing through?”
“Probably.” Liz turned to examine the handmade rockets that covered one table. She didn’t want her brother to read the mixed emotions on her face. He was good at remaining aloof, at shutting off whatever he’d once felt for their father. Liz wished she could do the same, or channel her emotions into something simple and all-encompassing, like hate, but she wasn’t built that way. “Luanna has left him,” she said.
“No kidding.” When Isaac added a curse, Liz glanced up. “She would wait until now,” he explained. “She probably hung on for so long just to spite us.”
Liz toyed with the zipper on her sweatshirt. “What do you think we should do?”
“Ignore him until he goes away, I guess.”
“That’s not realistic.”
“Why not? He ignored us for years. Or he took Luanna’s side in every argument.”
“She was his wife, Isaac,” she said.
Her brother moved toward her. “I don’t care. She was in the wrong.”
Liz couldn’t argue with that. Luanna had constantly found fault with her, even in the beginning when Liz was still trying so hard to please. How long can it take to do a simple batch of dishes?…I swear you’d forget your head if not for your neck…. I don’t know what’s ever going to become of you…. Stupid girl…I’d be humiliated if you were my daughter….
That voice came to her even now, every once in a while, undermining her confidence. She’d heard a bit more of it than usual since she’d decided to take the risk of starting her own business. But that was between her and Luanna. Isaac wasn’t part of it. Or in any case, he didn’t have to be.
“I don’t want you hating Dad because of me.”
“I don’t hate him because of you. He’s earned my derision.”
Liz couldn’t believe it wasn’t because of her. When they were growing up, it had been Isaac who’d tried to protect her. She knew a lot of what he felt had to do with how she’d been treated. “It’s in the past.”
“He treats you like shit for years and years, and then one day he shows up out of the blue, and you’re ready to welcome him with open arms?”
It’s in the past was easy to say, but not so easy to act upon. She was nervous, frightened, hopeful—and those were just the emotions she could identify. “I guess I’m willing to give him an audience, and see what he has to say.”
“If you think he’s come to make you an apology, Liz, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. He won’t admit he did anything wrong. I’ve tried talking to him about it before. He says you and Luanna didn’t get along. As if the problem could be summed up so simply. As if he had no responsibility in the matter.”
“Maybe I wasn’t as good a girl as I thought.”
Isaac rolled his eyes. “No. I was there, too. You were sweet and innocent and…It wasn’t fair.”
But Liz must have done something to make Luanna target her. Isaac was treated with a mild sort of neglect, but he was never berated. “Okay, say our stepmother was completely to blame and our father let me down—”
“Which is true.”
“I’m thirty-two years old.” She slipped into the desk in front of him. “I can’t hang onto the resentment forever. I have to let go.”
“Can you?”
That was the big question. Liz wasn’t sure. She hadn’t expected to be faced with this decision, not right now and not after so long. Her father hadn’t even cared enough to stay in contact with them. So why was he here?
“What if he’s willing to be a better grandfather than he was a dad?” she asked instead of answering Isaac’s question. “It might be good for Mica and Christopher to know him.”
Isaac’s long fingers tapped the top of his desk. “And what if Luanna takes him back after a week or two, and things revert to the way they were? How will you feel then?”
Cheated. Betrayed. Like before.
She wasn’t up for it, she realized. Not when she had so much going on in her life.
She stood. “You’re right. It’s not a good time for me. Maybe in a couple years—”
The door opened and a male student sauntered in. Liz knew many more would arrive in a matter of minutes.
“Never mind,” she said. “You’ve got another class coming up. We’ll talk about it later.”
Isaac followed her to the door. “You can tell him to leave you alone if you want to, Liz. Remember that.”
“Right. I’ll remember,” she said.
“Who, Mr. Russell?” the student asked.
“No one you know,” he responded.
The boy’s eyes lit up. “Is someone stalking your sister?”
Liz noted the kid’s black hair, black pants, black T-shirt and black fingernail polish. A quick glance at the cover of his notebook revealed numerous drawings of skeletons, vampires and graveyards.
“Nothing quite so dramatic, Devon,” Isaac said with a chuckle. “This is still Dundee, remember?”
“How can I forget?” The boy slumped into a desk in the back row. “I’ll die if I don’t get back to Detroit soon. I’m tired of watching the grass grow.”
“There’s always homework.”
He slouched even lower. “Yeah, right.”
Isaac flashed Liz a smile as he held the door for her. “Call me after he’s caught up with you, okay?”
“How do you know he’s here to see me?” she asked as she stepped outside.
“Because he knows enough not to try and contact me,” he replied and waved as a sea of arriving students surrounded him.
“WHAT’S ACHOCOLATERIE?”
Carter paused from painting long enough to look down at the unshaven but well-dressed man. Liz’s father, who’d identified himself as Gordon Russell, had his arms crossed over a lightweight V-necked sweater and stood gazing out the front window. He’d appeared almost as soon as Carter had returned from the hardware store. Since then, he’d asked several questions