He poured a glass of milk for Sean and opened a bottle of Gewürztraminer and poured two glasses. He handed one to Sydney. “I hope you like white wine.”
“I like most wine,” she said. “Thank you.”
They sat down and dug in.
“Mmm, this is delicious,” Sydney said.
“My own personal recipe. I’ve been on my own up at the ranch
for the last five years. I had to learn to cook. This is actually made with four different cheeses.”
“Let me guess. Cheddar, of course, Monterey jack, parmesan, and…”
“It’s the last one that always tricks people up.”
“Wait a minute, I’ll get it.” She took another bite. “Is it Roquefort?”
“You’re as smart as you are beautiful.” He grinned.
“What’s rockport?” Sean asked.
“It’s just a kind of cheese,” Sam said. “It’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yum,” he said, holding out his plate. “Can I have more?”
“You sure can.”
“I’ll get it, Sam.” Sydney stood. “You want more milk too, honey?”
“Yes, please.”
She rose a few moments later to take her torte from the oven. “This needs to cool for a few minutes. Then we’ll have it hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Does that sound good?” she asked Sean.
“Sounds great!”
She smiled. What a cutie! He was so much like Duke. They were cousins after all. She couldn’t wait for the two of them to get to know each other.
Sean got up to run around and Sydney asked Sam, “Did you hear about the DNA test yet?”
“No. Tomorrow, probably.”
“Well, you and I both know what it’ll say.”
“Yes, but I want to have it in hand before I talk to your parents. I agreed to do this, Sydney, but only if they’re willing to be fair.”
“They’ll be fair,” she said, hoping to God she was right. “They won’t want to put Duke through a lawsuit or anything.”
Sam shook his head. “I don’t want to do that either. I really don’t. I’m just not sure there’s any other way, especially if they won’t cooperate.”
“They’ll cooperate. The only thing is, you’re going to have to meet them halfway.”
“I just wish you’d told me five years ago. Then we wouldn’t have this problem.”
“We’ve been through that, Sam. I made the decision I thought was right at the time.”
“You made a mistake.”
“Yes, I can see now that I did. But that’s all hindsight and retrospect. At the time, I had no idea you’d want to know. I thought I was doing you a favor.”