Husband for a Weekend

Diana smoothed her hair. “What? You mean tonight?”

“That’s right. Tonight.”

“Oh, I suppose. It could be.” She pictured their dear faces. She loved them so much. “They are the sweetest girls, aren’t they?”

“The best. I’m the luckiest dad in the world—not to mention the happiest husband.”

Diana leaned toward him and kissed him. “You are a very special man.” She sank back against her seat—and remembered how worried she was. “But Frank, if this is a party, it’s still not it.”

“It?” He looked bewildered. Men could be so thickheaded sometimes.

Patiently, she reminded him, “The awful, secret things that are going on with our daughters.”

He bent in close, kissed her cheek and then brushed his lips across her own. “We are going to dinner at our daughter’s house,” he whispered. “We are going to have a wonderful time. You are not going to snoop around trying to find out if something’s wrong with Abby. You’re not going to worry about Melissa.”

“I hate you, Frank.”

“No, you don’t. You love me almost as much as I love you.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “More. I love you more.”

He kissed her again. “Promise you won’t snoop and you’ll stop jumping to conclusions?”

“And if I don’t, what? We’ll sit here on the side of the road all night?”

“Promise.”

“Fine. All right. I promise.”

He touched her cheek, a lovely, cherishing touch. “Can we go to Abby’s now?”

“I’m not the one who stopped the car.”

He only looked at her reproachfully.

She couldn’t hold out against him. She never could. “Oh, all right. I’ve promised, already, okay? Now, let’s go.”

With a wry smile, he retreated back behind the wheel and eased the car forward into the flow of traffic again.

* * *

Abby opened the door. “Surprise!” Abby, Greg, Melissa and Josh all shouted at once. They all started clapping.

Greg announced, “Happy Anniversary!” The rest of them chimed in with “Congratulations!” and “Thirty years!” and “Wahoo!”

Frank was laughing. “Well, what do you know?”

Diana said nothing. One look in her older daughter’s big brown eyes and she knew for certain that she wasn’t just imagining things. Something was going on in Abby’s life. Something important.

They all filed into the dining room, where the walls were decorated with posters of the Grand Canal and the Tuscan countryside, of the Coliseum and the small, beautiful town of Bellagio on Lake Como. The table was set with Abby’s best china and tall candles gave a golden glow.

Greg said, “We thought, you know, an Italian theme—in honor of your honeymoon.”

“It’s lovely,” said Diana, going through the motions, hugging first Greg and then Josh.

“Thank you,” said Frank as he clapped his son-in-law on the back and shook hands with Josh.

Melissa came close. “Mom.” She put on a smile. But her eyes were as shadowed as Abby’s. “Happy thirtieth anniversary.”