Marcus raised an eyebrow and grunted as he glanced at Luke.
“Rembrandt,” she breathed, and backed away from the image. It was probably worth as much as the mansion she’d been born in. Her father’s eyes bulged, and for once he was silent.
Dani looked again at the woman, this time trying to put away any preconceived notions. The woman was still vibrant and youthful; she couldn’t have been older than mid-fifties. Her black hair had a few vivid streaks of white, but for the most part she looked much, much younger. She was trim and fit, her teeth still shone white, and her smile was ready and free.
Elaina perched on the edge of the couch, and handed out coffee cups with small plates to each of her guests. It looked so old-world that the men seemed to be dressed incorrectly, as though they didn’t fit in the room.
“Dani, dear, come join us.” She patted the empty seat beside her, and Dani broke through her trance to find her way past a statue of... She stopped again and stared.
“Do you like it, dear?” Elaina asked. “I rather preferred his sculptures to the whole messy cubist stuff in his later years, but I seem to be alone in that.”
Dani nodded mutely, and sat on the other side of the woman from her father. It wasn’t until then that she noticed he was staring at Elaina. It was the same stare that a cow gets when hit between the eyes with a large hammer. Oh, shit.
“Dear, it was wonderful of you to bring your fiancée and her...” She looked at Marcus as though suddenly unsure how to proceed, “...family down to meet me, but I do wish you would have called first.” She smiled brightly and handed Dani a cookie. “I could have gotten the day off, or traded with someone. It’s not often my boy comes to see me!”
“Wait, you got job?” Luke sat up straight, his coffee cup clattering dangerously in the saucer he had balanced on one knee. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Yes, I got a job. Three years ago. And why do I have to tell you?”
“Well, if you needed money...” Luke waved his arms, nearly upsetting a vase. Dani didn’t want to know about the vase. She closed her eyes, unable to look.
“Oh heavens, I don’t do it for the money.” She turned to Edwin. “The truth is, I’m quite bored. Retirement seems to drag on day after day. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you, Edwin?”
“Hmm?” Edwin had a momentary look of a schoolboy caught daydreaming. “Yes, oh, yes, indeed. Lately the days seemed to all blend together, incredibly boring.” Marcus choked on his cookie and groped for his coffee to wash it back down where it belonged.
“Well... where?” Luke seemed lost, a little boy who had suddenly discovered this his mother had a life outside of him. If anything, he looked...petulant. Sulky. Dani blinked, trying to reconcile the adventurous, hero-type, mind-shattering lover with this new image. It was...interesting.
“Where what, dear?”
“Where do you work?”
“Oh!” Elaina smiled, and the room seemed to light up. Dani could understand why her father was acting the way he was; she was beautiful and smart and funny. And rich. Why would a member of a family that can casually hang a Rembrandt join the FBI? “I got a part-time job at Walt Disney World.”
Luke choked on his cookie. Dani scrambled into the kitchen to get him a glass of water, patiently ignoring the delicate crystal in the hutch. His mother was patting his back, in some bizarre attempt to dislodge whatever crumb had gotten stuck, Marcus was trying to give him the Heimlich maneuver, and her father was mindlessly taking another cookie and dunking it into coffee hot enough to burn. He didn’t seem to notice anything outside of the stars in his eyes as he stared wistfully at a sculpture of a man on a horse. Definitely a Remington.
Dani pushed Marcus aside and cradled Luke’s head against her arm, helping him to sip the water. He came up spluttering.
“DISNEY?” he said with a strangled cough. “What are you doing? Running around in a mouse costume?”
“I wish!” his mother said with some heat, waving off the suggestion with a pouty look that almost matched her son’s. “They get all the fun stuff. I drive the tram.”
“The train?”
“No, dear, the tram. It’s a large golf cart with a trailer; it gives old people a chance to get off their feet and ride through the park in comfort.”
He blinked a few times. “Why?”
She looked at him and crossed her arms. “Because old people need that sort of thing, Luke.”
“I mean...”
“I know exactly what you mean! You mean, why don’t I stay home all hours and wait by the phone on the off chance that my son might call me that day? You mean how dare I have a life surrounded by happy little children? Am I close?”
Luke looked from her to Dani, and to the other men. “Yeah?” he said slowly, “I suppose so...”
Abort! Abort! Dani edged away, not wanting to get caught in the fallout. She loved him, but she wasn’t crazy.
“Lukas Beauregard McConnell!”
“Beauregard?” Dani and Marcus and Edwin hit the name in a perfect chorus.
Luke crossed his arms and tried to disappear into the couch cushions. “Oh, shut up.”
“I will have you know, I work this evening. You are all welcome to stay the night, and Dani, dear, I would love a chance to get to know you better.” She turned to Edwin and then to Marcus, as though still somewhat perplexed as to how to deal with them. “Yes, well, we have the day to ourselves at any rate. How about if we go out to a late breakfast?”
Luke shook his head, sitting up and setting his water glass on the coffee table, only to have it immediately grabbed by three hands simultaneously trying to plant it on a coaster after another panicked look between the three of them, as though trying to gauge the worth of it. “No, Mom, really, I just came to get the statue.”
“What statue, dear?” Elaina busied herself with the coffee pot, pouring herself a second cup and doctoring it appropriately with sugar and cream.
“The one I sent you.”
She paused in adding a lump of sugar. “Oh, that! I didn’t know you were coming for it, you should have told me.”
“Well, where is it?”
It was her turn to look away, suddenly awkward and ill at ease as she gently set the sugar tongs on the tray. “I, uh... I gave it to someone, she... well, she was collecting items for a church rummage sale...”
“You gave away the statue I sent you?” Luke looked like a boy who just found his masterpiece had fallen off the refrigerator door.
“Well, dear, I’m sure it would have gone with the Rodin but, you see, I just don’t have the room to do it justice. It would’ve been too crowded, no one would’ve been able to see it...”
“I need it.” Luke had gone absolutely pale. So had Edwin, who was exchanging enough looks with Marcus that Dani was starting to wonder if they’d somehow managed telepathy. “I have to have it back, right now.”