Caleb dried a plate.
“I’m thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
He looked at her.
“My wife has been dead seven years.”
Vivienne’s face softened.
Caleb continued:
“I have not dated seriously.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Neither do I.”
“You were engaged.”
“That is evidence against my judgment.”
He smiled faintly.
Then serious.
“Sofia likes you.”
“I like her.”
“That makes this…”
“More important.”
“Yes.”
Vivienne leaned against counter.
“Caleb, I am not asking you to erase anybody.”
He looked down.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He did not answer.
Vivienne came closer.
“My mother loved my father until he died.”
“She dated years later.”
“I hated her for it.”
“I thought love was a room with one chair.”
Caleb looked up.
Vivienne continued:
“Then I got older.”
“Realized memory does not need vacancy.”
The sentence hit.
Caleb swallowed.
Vivienne did not touch him.
She waited.
He stepped closer first.
Their first kiss was quiet.
No snowstorm.
No limousines.
No dramatic audience.
Kitchen light.
Dish towel.
Spaghetti sauce on his sleeve.
Exactly right.
They dated slowly.
Helena’s reaction was complicated.
Not because Caleb poor.
Because mothers are suspicious of anyone close to daughters.
At least that was what she claimed.
Caleb did not fully believe.
One evening Helena invited him to dinner at Vale chalet.
Caleb arrived in clean shirt, dark jacket, boots Sofia made him polish twice.
Helena poured coffee after Vivienne went upstairs for call.
She looked at Caleb.
“You know people will say she chose you because you rescued her.”
Caleb leaned back.
“I changed tire.”
“Stories improve themselves.”
“Yes.”
“They’ll say you’re after money.”
“They already do.”
“They’ll say she’s rebelling against me.”
“Is she?”
Helena almost smiled.
“Always.”
She grew serious.
“I need ask you something.”
Caleb waited.
“If relationship becomes permanent, can you live with difference?”
“What difference?”
“Not love.”
“Money.”
“Security.”
“Visibility.”
“My daughter can buy house without mortgage.”
“You calculate grocery prices.”
“She has security detail when threat level rises.”
“You drive alone.”
“She grew up in rooms where people wanted something.”
“You grew up fixing what people broke.”
Caleb considered.
“Those are differences.”
“Not answer.”
He smiled slightly.
“Can she live with mine?”
Helena’s eyes sharpened.
Good.
He continued.
“I don’t want to become project.”
“I don’t want a lifestyle upgrade as proof relationship works.”