скачать книгу бесплатно
Brianna flashed a beatific smile. “Emma Sorenson.”
“Emma Sorenson?” countered Cassandra, returning inside from the backyard with Ruggs yapping at her heels. The roly-poly, mop-faced animal, probably a hundred in dog years, leaped up eagerly on Andrew, his big paws leaving grimy prints on Andrew’s dress shirt.
“Okay, Ruggsy, boy, that’s enough. Down, boy!”
“What do you mean, Emma Sorenson!” Cassandra repeated, staring Brianna down. “My dear sister, we were supposed to invite Lydia Dibbles, that new lady in church.”
Bree stared back, refusing to be intimidated. “I called Lydia and she wasn’t home, so I asked Emma at work the next day.”
“Well, I saw Lydia at church on Sunday and invited her!” Cassandra’s voice had reached a decibel level that would have amazed even her music teachers at Juilliard.
There was dead silence as everyone recognized their awkward dilemma. Andrew broke the silence good-naturedly commenting, “Ah, now I see. We’re expecting two dinner guests. Marvelous. I’ll put another chair around the table.”
Chapter Two
C assandra moaned in surprise as the doorbell rang. “Oh, no! I’ll get it, but it’s too late to ‘uninvite’ anybody. Bree, hurry and put another place setting on the table. Frannie, turn up the burner under the spaghetti. And, Daddy, get that smirk off your face. This isn’t funny.”
Andrew held up his hands placatingly, but there was an unmistakable gleam in his eyes. “I’m innocent in this little caper. But you know what they say, girls. The more the merrier.”
Brianna shook her head in mock despair. “Oh, this is going to be a fun evening. I can see it already.”
“Just keep smiling, girls, no matter what happens!” With that lame bit of advice, Cassandra turned on her stacked heels and strode down the hall to the wide marble entry. She wiped her moist palms on the ruffled apron that covered her knit, lime-green dress, then flung open the double doors with a welcoming smile in place.
Lydia Dibbles, an attractive fortyish matron in a smart pale-blue leisure suit, stood on the sprawling, lattice-trimmed porch. She was a short, buxom woman with bright, violet eyes, a generous smile in her round face, and silver streaks in her auburn hair.
“Lydia, welcome,” Cassandra said with a little too much relief in her voice. Maybe the other woman wouldn’t show up after all and they would be saved the embarrassment of this doomed “double date.” “Come in, please come in.”
Lydia stepped inside. “Thank you, Cassie. My, you look pretty tonight. Your cheeks are red as roses. I bet you’ve been slaving over a hot stove all day.”
“You could say that. May I, um, take your coat?”
Lydia shrugged. “I don’t have a coat, dear.”
Cassie laughed self-consciously. “Of course you don’t.” She was about to shut the double doors when she spied another figure in a gray pantsuit coming up the walk…a tall, slender woman with a brown page-boy and wire-rim glasses.
“Emma? Emma Sorenson?” Cassie asked as the woman scaled the porch steps.
“Yes, I’m Emma. And you must be Brianna’s sister.”
“Yes, I’m Cassie, the oldest.” She beckoned Emma inside. “I’m so glad you could come to dinner, Emma.” Cassie looked apprehensively over at Lydia and added, “Both of you.”
The two women gazed at each other and exchanged polite but curious smiles.
“Emma, this is Lydia,” Cassie said brightly. “Lydia, Emma.”
“Goodness, I didn’t realize this was going to be a party,” said Lydia, looking mildly flustered.
“Just a small dinner party,” Cassie assured her. “Come with me, ladies.”
“You have a lovely home,” Emma stated, gazing around as they passed through the parlor to the dining room. “Such a stately old house. I bet it has a wonderful history.”
Cassie chuckled and said under her breath, “Oh, yes, we’re making history in this house all the time.”
As they entered the dining room, her father came to her rescue, bounding toward their visitors as if two guests had been the operative number all along.
“Well, ladies, welcome! I’m so glad you could join us for dinner.”
“Thank you, Reverend Rowlands,” Lydia said shyly. “I’ve so enjoyed your messages. You have a wonderful way of speaking. I always leave church feeling blessed.”
“Well, thank you kindly. You’ve certainly made my day.”
“Daddy, this is Lydia Dibbles,” said Cassie. “And this is Emma…”
“Sorenson. Your daughter Brianna and I work together at the family counseling center, Reverend Rowlands. She has a heart of pure gold, that girl. Folks love her.”
“Yes, she has a real heart for people,” said Andrew, leading the two women toward the linen-draped table. “And, please, both of you call me Andrew. The title Reverend intimidates even me.”
Lydia twittered, “Oh, Andrew, what a precious sense of humor you have!”
While her father kept their two guests entertained, Cassandra excused herself and headed for the kitchen. “Is the salad ready, Bree? Let’s get this dinner over with before everything blows up in our faces.”
Bree tossed the salad greens. “Let’s not panic. Maybe Daddy won’t mind having two dates.”
“Are you kidding?” countered Frannie as she drained the pasta. “Until a few minutes ago he didn’t even know he was having one date! If you two keep up your matchmaking schemes, Daddy will banish the three of us from this house.”
Cassandra stared skeptically at her youngest sister. “Why on earth would he do that? He loves having us here. We’re all he has.”
“And all he needs,” Frannie said. “Daddy’s perfectly happy with things just the way they are, so why shouldn’t we be, too?”
Brianna placed silver tongs in the salad bowl. “But we’ve got to be realistic, Frannie. Someday the three of us will want lives of our own. We’ll get married and move away. Then who will take care of Daddy?”
“Move away? Speak for yourself,” Frannie said. “I have no plans to leave home. I like it here. I like taking care of Daddy.”
“We all do,” conceded Cassie. “We have a wonderful family. I don’t know of any family as close as we are. But, still, someday one of us might meet someone and decide to…to get married.”
“Bite your tongue,” said Frannie with a grudging little smile. “I’m only twenty-two and I’ve still got to establish my reputation as a serious artist.”
Bree nodded. “I know, but I’m already twenty-four and wouldn’t mind meeting the right man. And with Cassie twenty-six, she’ll need to start thinking about her biological clock one of these days.”
“My biological clock?” Cassie exclaimed with mock indignation. “We’re talking about Daddy here, not me. And my biological clock is doing just fine, thank you.”
“I didn’t mean anything negative,” Bree assured her. “It’s just that you might want to start thinking about having a home and family of your own.”
Cassie put her hands on her hips and stared hard at her sister. “So what is it, Bree? Now I’m an old maid needing a man to make me feel fulfilled? That concept went out in the last century!”
Bree stared right back. “For heaven’s sake, Cassie, I’m just trying to make Frannie understand why we’re trying to find the right woman for Dad. Then any one of us can feel free to get married or travel or whatever. We won’t have to feel guilty about leaving Daddy to shift for himself.”
“Well, you two can go if you want to,” Frannie said with a determined little pout, “but I’m staying right here. Nothing could make me leave.”
“I’m not planning to leave either,” Cassie agreed. “I have my music, and I’m not about to let any man distract me from becoming a concert pianist. So there.”
“Well, I’m not leaving, either,” Bree said. “Besides, where would we find a woman who deserved our dad?”
“Fine,” Frannie huffed. “So let’s serve dinner and send our guests on their way.”
For the first few minutes, dinner went well. Brianna served the salad, Cassie the garlic bread and Frannie the spaghetti. The conversation around the table was polite, if a bit reserved. Then their father asked the question Cassie was dreading.
“Where are our bibs, Bree?”
“Bibs?” repeated Lydia Dibbles, mystified.
“Bibs?” echoed Emma Sorenson, her penciled brows rising.
“Yes, bibs,” Andrew stated as if his meaning were obvious. “We can’t eat spaghetti without bibs.” He smiled patiently at Emma and Lydia. “Brianna made us these gargantuan bibs that keep the tomato sauce off our clothes. She started with one for me.” He speared a meatball and held it up, red sauce dripping from the fork’s tines. “As you can see, I’m clumsy as they come.”
“A bib for adults! What a clever idea,” Lydia said.
Andrew nodded. “Exactly! And soon we were all using them. They free you up to slurp your spaghetti strands, if that happens to be your thing. I never could get the hang of twirling spaghetti on my fork.”
“Daddy,” Cassandra interrupted sharply, “I’m sure our guests don’t want to wear bibs. Bibs are for babies, toddlers…”
“Nonsense! Why wouldn’t they want to protect those lovely outfits?” With a twinkle in his eyes Andrew jumped up from the table, strode to the buffet and removed what appeared to be a stack of white terry cloth towels.
Cassie lowered her gaze and shook her head as her father tied a bib first around Emma’s neck and then Lydia’s. He went on to fasten a bib around each daughter’s neck, planting a kiss on the tops of their heads, and finally he tied a bib around his own neck and sat down, looking quite pleased with himself.
The women seemed dumbstruck at first as they gazed down at their enormous bibs, but then they began to giggle, and soon everyone in the room was laughing uproariously and making outrageous jokes.
“If we were wearing black, we’d look like penguins,” Emma said with a chuckle.
“I could wear this to the beauty shop when I have my hair done. It’s certainly large enough,” Lydia observed.
“Have you thought of going into business, Andrew?” suggested Emma. “Marketing bibs for adults. I’m sure it’s a fad many of us would welcome. You could personalize them. Oh, there’s no end to what you could do. Cover them with pictures, make them in bright colors…”
“What a wonderful idea, Emma,” said Lydia. “I may try my hand at a few myself. I know several little craft stores that might welcome them.”
“I wouldn’t mind working with you, Lydia. I have a sewing machine and have been known to be quite a seamstress in my time.”
“Oh, that might be fun, dear. What do you think, Andrew? Would you mind us taking your idea and running with it?”
“No, of course not, although maybe you should check with Bree. It was her idea in the first place.”
“No, that’s fine,” Brianna said quickly. “I’d love to see what the two of you come up with.”
When everyone had finished their spaghetti, Cassie served coffee and Frannie brought out her special strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was obviously a favorite of everyone’s.
When at last dinner was finished, Cassie breathed a little sigh of relief. Considering the catastrophe she had expected this evening to be, everything had gone amazingly well. Lydia and Emma were already behaving like long-lost friends, and her father seemed to be genuinely enjoying the company of his two dates. But now that dinner was over she wanted to send them on their way before she pushed her good fortune too far.
“Well, it’s been wonderful having you both here,” she told her two guests as she collected the dessert plates. It’s just too bad we have to make it an early evening. Daddy has to work on his sermon tonight, you know.”
“Oh, yes, Daddy,” Frannie chimed in, “don’t forget your sermon. You must still have hours of research to do.”
Her father looked from daughter to daughter with a question mark in his eyes. “My sermon?” He broke into a self-satisfied grin. “Actually, my sermon is done. I’m as ready for Sunday as I’ll ever be.”
“But, Daddy, you can’t be,” protested Frannie.
“Oh, but I am, muffin.” He grinned slyly. “I’m speaking on the importance of letting God do His work in our lives rather than trying to orchestrate the future ourselves. After all, we end up in quite a pickle when we try to—”
“Yes, Daddy, we get the message,” Cassie said, sweeping over and helping her father take off his bib. “I’ll collect the bibs, and then we can…we can, uh…”
Her father broke in. “Why don’t we adjourn to the music room and let Cassie give us a preview of Sunday’s cantata?”
“Oh, that would be delightful,” said Emma.
“No, Daddy, I really couldn’t tonight.”
Andrew wasn’t about to be deterred. “Well, then let’s gather around the piano and have an old-fashioned hymn sing. How about it, ladies?”
Emma clapped her hands. “Oh, I love to sing. What about you, Lydia?”
“I’m not much of a singer, but I’ll give it the old college try.”
Brianna and Frannie cast sidelong glances at Cassie, as if to ask, Now what do we do? Cassie shrugged helplessly, her arms filled with bibs. Nothing about this evening was going the way she had expected.
Her father gave a contented sigh. “Good dinner, girls. You outdid yourselves as usual.” He pushed back his chair and stood, then helped Emma and Lydia out of their chairs. As he motioned the women toward the music room, he tweaked Cassie’s cheek and said, “You’ll come play for us, won’t you, cupcake?”
Her shoulders sagged. “Sure, Daddy, I’ll be right there.”
“And Bree and Frannie, you’ll join us, too, won’t you?” her father urged. “You girls have such lovely voices.”
“Sure, Daddy,” they said in unison.
For the next two hours they sat around the piano singing every hymn they could recall, Cassie’s tapered fingers moving expertly over the ivory keys as her father’s rich baritone blended with his daughters’ lyrical sopranos and the eager, if unpracticed, altos of their two guests.
At some point Cassie lost track of time and realized, to her surprise, that she was thoroughly enjoying the evening. In fact, it was obvious that everyone was having a marvelous time, especially her father and his impromptu dates.
It was nearly midnight when Lydia and Emma said their reluctant good-nights, “Dear girls, we must do this again very soon! Your father is such a treasure! You must be so proud!” and slipped off into the night, chatting amiably, as if they had known each other forever.
With the ladies gone, Andrew beckoned his daughters close and drew them into what might have been a football huddle, his arms draped around their shoulders, their heads all nearly touching at the forehead. “My darling daughters,” he said in a soft, wily voice, “I know you love practicing your matchmaking schemes on me, but setting me up with two dates in one night? Isn’t that a bit much even for you?”
“Oh, Daddy, we didn’t mean to,” Brianna exclaimed. “I invited Emma—”
“And I invited Lydia,” Cassie said. “I didn’t know about Emma until—”
“Well, girls, next time coordinate your efforts, okay?” Andrew’s expression grew solemn, the sea-blue of his eyes deepening. “In fact, I would prefer that there be no more matchmaking efforts on my behalf. Is that understood?”
“But, Daddy,” protested Cassie.
“No buts, Cassie. I’m very happy with my life just as it is.” An unexpected tenderness softened his voice. “I had a wonderful life with your mother. She was the love of my life, and I don’t expect to find another woman I could love that way again. So, please, promise me, no more conniving to get me to the altar again. Promise?”
