Adding Up to Family

by Marie Ferrarella

  “You know you’re the best,” he said.

  Her eyes crinkled again. “Maybe not the best, but at least in the top ten.”

  And then Becky deliberately turned her back, signaling that their conversation was at an end and that he should get moving.

  She smiled to herself when she heard the door finally close.

  Chapter Fifteen

  On the home front, things went along smoothly for another several weeks. The same, Steve felt, couldn’t be said on the work front. Because there were setbacks to the current project due to a failure in one of the missile’s firing pins, he had to put in long hours at the office, working on the redesign. It was a relief knowing that Becky was there at home to pick up the slack and take care of Stephanie. With some rearranging, Steve even managed to pull off two more camping trips with her and Becky that month.

  It dawned on him—though he tried not to dwell on it for fear of jinxing it—that he had not been this happy in a long, long time. Stephanie was still a mystery to him at times, but she was also more like her old self a great deal of the time, and that helped put everything into perspective.

  As for Becky, because of her, a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He didn’t have to worry and feel guilty about having to leave his daughter alone so much, because she wasn’t really alone in any sense of the word. Becky was always there for her and Becky was a decent, responsible person who his daughter enjoyed spending time with.

  A person who, Stephanie had confided to him once in a rare moment of sharing, treated her like an equal, not like some little kid. “I like Becky. She’s cool,” she told him.

  “Cool, huh?” he said, trying to understand just what that meant in “Stevi-speak.”

  “Yeah. Cool,” Stephanie repeated. “Maybe if you weren’t so busy being away all the time, you would have noticed that.”

  “I’m not always busy and I’m definitely not always away,” Steve told his daughter seriously.

  Stephanie didn’t surrender easily. “Sure feels that way.”

  Overhearing their slightly raised voices, Becky walked in—just in time, she felt, to rescue Steve.

  “C’mon, Stephanie. Be fair. If your dad was always as busy as you just said he was, he wouldn’t have been able to take you on those camping trips, would he?”

  The girl frowned and looked away with a deep sigh. “I guess not.”

  Becky grinned. “That’s better. Okay, you two,” she said, taking off her apron, “dinner’s on the table. Come and eat.”

  “You know,” Steve said to Becky, lowering his voice as his daughter made a beeline for the kitchen, “she was telling me how cool she thought you were.”

  Becky knew she and the girl were getting along, but this was news to her. She smiled. “Cool, huh?” she repeated, savoring the word.

  “Yes, that’s what she said.” He smiled back. “She also told me that I needed to notice that.”

  “Maybe you do,” Becky agreed, just before she walked into the kitchen ahead of him.

  The thing of it was, Steve thought as he sat down at the table, he did notice. Perhaps a little too much. He was actually trying hard not to notice, but wasn’t having all that much luck with that. Moreover, his rate of success was getting smaller every time he was in the same room with her.

  He didn’t know if he should be alarmed over that, or happy that he was finally coming out of his emotional coma.

  It was easier just to take the whole thing moment by moment and concentrate predominantly on how his daughter was faring, not him. There was no denying that Stephanie was blossoming. No matter how much he wanted to hold that at bay, his little girl really was growing up.

  But her questions, the ones that had until recently confounded him, no longer came his way. He assumed that Becky was handling that end of it, supplying answers that would have embarrassed him—and possibly Stephanie—no end if he’d had to supply them.

  * * *

  His workdays were long, often stretching on into the evening. One night he had to stay at the office until almost ten o’clock. When he came dragging home, all he could think of was making it into bed.

  But Becky had other ideas.

  As had become her habit, she had dinner waiting for him and insisted that Steve have at least a little of it before going to sleep.

  “You can’t be Super Dad unless you keep your strength up,” she told him. “So c’mon, please eat at least some of it.”

  He knew this wasn’t an argument he was slated to win, and the thought of having someone actually worrying about him was heartening in its own way.

  “Okay,” he agreed reluctantly, looking at her. “As long as you keep me company.”

  As far as Becky was concerned, he didn’t have to ask twice. Taking a seat at the table, she asked, “How’s the project going?”

  He sighed. “Flowing like molasses in January.” He took a few bites, then said what had been playing hide-and-seek through his mind for the last couple of days. “Is everything okay with you and Stephanie?”

  “Never better.” She studied him for a moment, wondering what had prompted him to ask that out of the blue. “Why?”

  He shrugged. “I was just wondering if she still confided in you or if she’s decided to fly solo these days.”

  Was he fishing, or just concerned in general? “If you’re going to ask me something specific, I’m afraid I can’t answer you. There are things that she tells me in confidence.”

  He looked at her sharply as his father radar caused alarms to go off in his head. “What kind of things?”

  She could see what he was thinking. “Not those kind of things,” she was happy to assure him. “Nothing’s going on that’s bad for her or remotely dangerous. Trust me, I’d be the first one leading the charge to get her to stop if that was the case.

  “No, these are ‘secret’ things, ‘girl’ things that we’re talking about. What I can tell you is that you have a normal daughter who’s experiencing all the same ambivalent, confusing feelings that have haunted adolescents, no matter how intelligent, since the very beginning of time.” She smiled at him. “Now I have a question. Why did you ask me if she still talked to me?”

  He shrugged again, addressing his food rather than her. “Because she doesn’t really talk to me anymore.”

  “Sure she does,” Becky contradicted. “She just doesn’t ask you about the embarrassing stuff—for which I think you’re actually very grateful, since that was why you went looking for help in the first place. Right?” she asked, peering into his face.

  He raised his head and looked into her eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just that I do want Stevi to know that I am there for her even if the subject is embarrassing. I want her to feel that I’m her dad in good times and bad.”

  Steve suddenly realized that he’d gotten so wound up in the conversation, he hadn’t noticed that he’d finished eating. His plate was empty. He had to admit that he felt better now with a full stomach—and a relieved mind.

  “Have I ever told you how happy I am that you came to work for me?” he asked her.

  Becky pretended to think for a moment, although she knew what the answer to that was right off the top of her head. “No, I don’t believe that you have.”

  “Well, I am,” Steve told her seriously. “I’m very happy.”

  She managed to keep a straight face as she asked, “Does that mean you’re going to give me a good review on Yelp?”

  “Yelp?” he repeated. His world didn’t touch on social media or anything that went beyond research. “Is that a thing?” he asked, slightly confused.

  Becky laughed. “Never mind. I’m just pulling your leg. Oh, before I forget, Stephanie was invited for a sleepover.” She beamed as she told him about what was, for the girl, a major event. “Her very first, from what I gather.”

  “Oh.�
� The word was uttered without any emotion. And when Steve didn’t say anything further, Becky looked at him expectantly.

  “Well?” she asked, taking his plate and glass to the sink.

  “Well what?” He had no idea what she was waiting for him to say.

  Becky turned away from the sink. “Can she go?”

  The idea of a sleepover had never been raised. To his recollection, Stephanie had never mentioned wanting to sleep over at anyone else’s house. The whole idea seemed almost out of character for her.

  Finally, he asked, “Does she want to go to this sleepover thing?”

  “Absolutely,” Becky said with conviction. “She’s rather excited that she was asked. Between the two of us, I think this makes her feel like a normal girl.”

  A thought suddenly occurred to him. “There won’t be any boys at this thing, will there?” he asked, his imagination already beginning to run wild.

  Was he serious? After all, Stephanie was ten years old and a sleepover involved supervision from the hosting girl’s parents.

  Keeping all that to herself, Becky treated his question as if it had been voiced in earnest. “Well, I think the girl’s father will be somewhere in the house during the sleepover, but most likely he’ll be with the girl’s mother.”

  Steve got the message she was trying to convey. Relieved, he had a few more questions. “What do you think about this?”

  “I think that it’ll be good for Stephanie. It’ll help her learn how to interact with other girls. Up until this point, she’s been a bit of a loner,” Becky tactfully pointed out.

  He knew that. He supposed he was just worried about her being hurt. “Do you have the name of the girl who’s having this sleepover and the name of her parents?” he asked.

  Becky found it hard not to laugh at him. It was either that or take offense at what was implied, and she chose the easier route.

  “Yes, I have their names.” Since he was looking at her expectantly, she paused to write them on a pad, then gave it to him.

  As he studied the names, she could almost see the thoughts forming in his head. “You’re going to run a background check on those people as soon as you get into work tomorrow, aren’t you?” she asked knowingly.

  Steve raised his eyes to hers. For just a second, he thought of denying her supposition. But then he decided that if he lied to her and she found out, rebuilding that trust would take time and would be difficult. Besides, she seemed to be able to see right through him. It would have been unnerving if he wasn’t rooting for her to succeed. No way around it—he liked this woman.

  No, he corrected himself, he more than liked her.

  “Yes, I am,” he answered simply. “You don’t think I should?”

  Becky wasn’t about to tell him not to. He was Stephanie’s father, and this was something new for the girl. She didn’t have overly developed people skills and Becky could see why he’d worry.

  “I think that you should do whatever makes you happy,” she told him.

  The problem was, what would make him happy had nothing to do with a background check on the Alexanders.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Becky said as Steve began to leave the room. When he turned around to look at her, she elaborated, “Can Stephanie go to the sleepover?”

  He wanted to say yes, but years of caution had him stating, “I’ll get back to you on that.”

  “It’s tomorrow.”

  He nodded. Still, he had to do it his way. Just faster. “I’ll get back to you quickly on that,” he amended.

  “Or,” she interjected, raising her voice a little because he’d begun to walk out again, “you could trust my instincts and say yes,” she told him, addressing her comment to his back.

  He turned to her once more. “I’m her dad, Becky,” he pointed out. “I need to know who I’m entrusting with my daughter.”

  “Do you honestly think I’d just send Stephanie off without looking into the matter myself?” Becky asked him. For the first time since she’d come to work for Steve, she found herself feeling hurt. “In case I haven’t made myself clear before, Stephanie isn’t just a ‘job’ to me. She’s someone whose welfare is very important to me. I wouldn’t just let her go off with a pack of wolves—even if they were very attractive wolves and that was what she wanted to do.”

  “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

  “No, but you did,” Becky told him, wanting to get her point across. And then she took a breath, willing herself to calm down. “Never mind. I’m not the one who’s important here,” she said, rethinking the matter. “Stephanie is and I understand that you’re just trying to make sure she’s safe. These people are very nice, upstanding folks, and Stephanie is going to be fine over there. If all the parents wind up saying yes to the invitation, there’ll be seven girls at the sleepover. Seven’s a good number. Not big enough to be overwhelming, not so small that it might turn into some kind of a clique.”

  He looked at her, confused. “I don’t know what you just said there.”

  She smiled. “You don’t have to. You’re a guy and this is a girl thing. And I really think she needs to go. It’ll broaden her horizons. So do your ‘background check’ on these people and get back to me by noon.”

  Steve shook his head. “I don’t have to.”

  “Yes, you do. She needs to tell her friend if she’s coming by then,” Becky stated.

  “No, you don’t understand. I don’t have to tell you by then because I’ve changed my mind,” Steve told her, smiling. “I’m saying yes.”

  She’d been so geared up to argue him down that it took her a second to absorb his answer. And then she smiled back at him.

  “She’s going to be really happy to hear that,” Becky told him. “Although between you and me, I think if you weren’t going to let her go, she might have had her first experience with out-and-out rebellion by climbing out of her window and down that old tree that’s right outside of it.”

  “I really wish you hadn’t put that image in my head,” Steve muttered. “Now that’s what I’m going to worry about her doing if I tell Stevi she can’t do something or go somewhere.”

  “Why? You’re the one who took her camping.”

  He didn’t see the connection. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “You taught her how to be self-sufficient and improvise.”

  “All I did was teach her how to pitch a tent and how to fish,” he argued.

  Sometimes, the man was just too linear. “Extrapolate on that,” she encouraged.

  “Extrapolate?” he repeated, puzzled. And then, just like that, it suddenly dawned on him what she was saying. “I guess I’ve got no one to blame but myself,” he said with a sigh.

  “I wouldn’t use the word blame,” Becky commented. “What you did was equip her with skills that she will need to survive in this world. If anything, Steve, you should be commended and applauded.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “You do have a way of turning a phrase.”

  “If I do, it’s a holdover from my engineering days. I learned that no matter how bad something might be at the time, there was always a way to present it in a better light.” She could see that he was visibly fading. “Now, I believe you were going to bed before we got caught up in this debate.”

  “Right.” Even as he was saying the word, he had to stop himself from yawning. “See you in the morning, Becky.”

  “Count on it,” she called after him.

  The thing was, he realized that he did.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The quiet hit him the very moment he walked into the house.

  Not that Stevi ever created a high level of noise when she was home or listened to loud music. It was more a feeling than anything, like knowing that something was missing.

  This was probably the way it was going to b
e when Stevi moved away to college, Steve thought. He would have to get used to being alone.

  Still, with any luck, he’d have another seven years before he’d have to face that situation. Unless Stevi turned out to be some sort of a prodigy like Becky.

  No, he wasn’t going to go there. That was something he would tuck away for the time being. He didn’t want to have to deal with any of that right now.

  Aside from the quiet, he noticed that the enticing aroma of cooked food didn’t greet him the way it had all the other evenings recently. Even when he was late, he could detect the lingering smell of food that had been prepared for him.

  But this time there was nothing. There was no meal warming on the stove.

  Undoubtedly, Becky had taken advantage of the fact that Stevi was gone and had decided to go out. Not that he could blame her. To his recollection, since she’d started working as his housekeeper, Becky hadn’t taken any official days off, even though she was definitely entitled to them. The most she’d done was take a few hours off while Stevi was attending summer school.

  Instead of behaving like an employee, she was acting more like a member of the family.

  The other glaring thing that hit him, although he tried not to think about it, was that he found himself missing Becky. He was just accustomed to her being here to greet him and insist on his having at least part of his dinner.

  After throwing his jacket over the back of one of the kitchen chairs, he loosened his tie and opened the refrigerator door. He peered inside. Just as he’d thought, Becky hadn’t left anything prepared for him. Although he knew it was unreasonable, he couldn’t help feeling the sting of disappointment.

  No, this was good for him, Steve silently insisted.

  It just served to remind him that he shouldn’t become dependent on anyone, least of all this woman. Becky was his housekeeper, for heaven’s sake, not someone he had an emotional bond with. There was no reason in the world for her to have left dinner waiting for him. That she’d done so consistently in the past was a fluke, a bonus, not a requirement. All this did was serve to remind him that she had a life of her own, and she certainly didn’t owe him explanations or—