with my dress.
“Dad,” Jake laughed, “at least say hello to Emily.”
Robert seemed to snap out of it.
“Sorry. You just… reminded me of someone.”
I smiled and didn’t think much of it. But it didn’t end there.
During dinner, I caught him looking at me several times. He wasn’t looking at my dress or my hands. He was staring directly
into my eyes.
Whenever I noticed, he quickly looked away. On the drive home, Jake joked,
“I think my dad likes you more than I do.”
I laughed.
At the time, it was only a joke.
The following week, we visited his parents again. Robert remembered exactly how I took my coffee.
When I mentioned that my car had been making a strange noise lately, he immediately offered to look at it. When I refused,
he said,
“A young woman like you shouldn’t end up stranded on the
