He went to the marble bar to open a fresh bottle of Chardonnay, Lucille’s favorite.

“You look terrific,” Ethan said.

I had decided to wear the strapless aqua blue dress I had worn for Daddy’s last birthday party. I expected to hear Daddy say something about it, but he didn’t. Mother had once told me that Daddy was as oblivious to what she wore as any stranger might be. He hadn’t been that way with Cassie, but she was right when it came to her or to me. “But,” she had added, “he never fails to tell me how beautiful I look. It’s a standing joke for him to ask me if I have just bought a dress, even though I have worn it two or three times.”

I did notice, however, that Daddy never seemed to fail to remark about Lucille’s clothes. At least in that regard, his behavior toward a woman other than Cassie had changed, but then again, I wasn’t there when he had first begun seeing Mother. Perhaps he had given her as much attention then, too. Cassie, of course, had blamed Mother for Daddy’s indifference.

“She lets him take her for granted. She never surprises him,” she had said. I should have known back then, sensed how unnatural it was for a daughter to be so critical of her mother, but, like Daddy, I made excuses for her. Cassie was just too intelligent to be anything but objective and honest.

“Let’s wait for Lucille before making any sort of toast,” Daddy said, handing me my glass of wine. “Now, then, Semantha, you didn’t tell me Mr. Hunter was majoring in business and had won his college’s coveted future entrepreneur award. How could you overlook something like that?”

“I didn’t know about any award,” I said, looking at Ethan. “You never mentioned it, or I would have remembered.”

“Oh, modest, eh, Ethan?” Daddy said. “Let me give you some quick advice. No one blows your horn better than you do yourself. I don’t care whom you hire to promote your business or your career. They just won’t have the same passion. There’s no shame in being proud of your accomplishments, and more often than not, we have to blast our own headlines.”

“You’re right,” Ethan said. “I see that now, especially in this competitive environment.”

“Precisely. Ah, here she is!” Daddy cried. “Ethan, this is—”

“We already m

et, Teddy,” Lucille said.

I was surprised she had gone strapless as well and put on one of her more elegant black satin dresses with a pleated bust. She complemented it with a pair of emerald and diamond earrings and a four-leaf clover emerald and diamond necklace strung on gold.

“Well, look at that,” Daddy said. “Lucille’s wearing a special gift I gave her. You should be honored, Ethan. Those earrings and necklace marked a little anniversary of ours.”

Lucille laughed. “Your father insists on giving me gifts every month to celebrate our first real date,” she said.

“I don’t blame him,” Ethan said.

Lucille’s eyes seemed to glitter when she looked at him and gave a little nod of thanks.

“Glass of your white wine?” Daddy said, pouring it.

“Yes, my dear.” She moved to the bar.

I stepped closer to Ethan. “Their little anniversary was the first night I met you,” I whispered.

“Then I’ll have to start giving you a gift, too,” he replied.

“Well, then, let’s toast the hope that Ethan enjoys his visit,” Daddy said, raising his glass.

Lucille held her smile. “I think I can safely say he’s already done that,” she said.

Ethan blushed and drank rather than speaking.

Our conversations that night both during cocktails and at dinner moved through more topics than ever. I could see that Daddy was quite impressed with how much Ethan knew about the current retail scene, including some favorable and not-so-favorable business tax laws. Whenever the conversation got too dry for her taste, Lucille changed the topic to something to do with their upcoming wedding. Discussion of food and music led to more about the wedding menu and the choices she had made for the orchestra.

“This sounds like the wedding of the century,” Ethan remarked.

“To us, it is,” Lucille replied. “But you’re very nice to say so.”

To my surprise, she gave Mrs. Dobson a compliment on the dinner as well, but afterward, she did say that for real lobster Alfredo, we would have to go to Eva’s Bistro in Lexington.

After dinner, we went into the den, where Daddy showed Ethan all of his fine electronics, his stereos and high-definition television.

“Not that we have that much time to spend on home entertainment these days,” he said.

Tags: V.C. Andrews Heavenstone
Source: readsnovelonline.net