Athena's Daughter (22 page)

“And you’re holding your guitar, see?”
Elizabeth shook the picture to regain his attention. “Mama played
your records so I could hear you play the guitar. And I asked her
if you would teach me to play the guitar, and she said she was sure
you probably would.” Pasting on her patented puppy-dog look,
Elizabeth turned to face him. “Will you?”

After a quick kiss on her forehead, Derek
smiled. “Of course I will. But we’ll probably need to wait a year
or two.”

“Why?” Elizabeth looked offended. “I’m smart.
I’m in the first grade.”

“It’s not that,” Derek hurried to explain.
“It’s just that your hands are still too small.”

With a perplexed frown, Elizabeth handed the
picture to her father and held her hands up in front of her. After
a moment of examination, she showed them to Derek. “No, they’re
regular size. See?”

Derek’s lips twitched for a moment before he
replied. “I see that. But the guitar … Here, I’ll show you.” He
deposited the picture on the dresser and set Elizabeth on her feet.
From under the bed he pulled out a black guitar case and put it on
the bed.

“What’s that?” Elizabeth leaned close to
see.

“One of my guitars.” With quick efficiency,
he flipped the catches and opened the lid.

“Wow,” Elizabeth breathed as he removed the
guitar from the case. “It’s pretty.”

“That it is.” Derek pushed the case aside,
and sat on the edge of the bed. “Hop up and sit next to me.” He
patted the space next to him which Elizabeth was quick to occupy.
After strumming four or five chords, he leaned closer to his
daughter. “Do you see how my fingers are on the strings here?”

“Uh-huh.” Elizabeth nodded and studied the
fingers of Derek’s left hand. “I see them.”

“And look at how my other hand is strumming
the strings.” He demonstrated again under the little girl’s intent
regard. “This is the way you hold a guitar to play it. Now you try
it.”

As Derek carefully placed the guitar in
Elizabeth’s lap, Athena bit back a peal of laughter. The instrument
was as big as Elizabeth, and completely dwarfed the little girl.
This didn’t appear to deter her in the least, though. Face set with
determination, she attempted to emulate Derek’s posture, and
stretched her arms at maximum length to get her hands in
position.

Determination changed to irritation when she
was unable to wrap her hand around the neck of the guitar, much
less get her fingers on the strings. As for strumming the
instrument, Elizabeth’s right arm was too short to allow her hand
access, and after a brief struggle she sighed in defeat. Soft brows
drawn together, she turned to face Derek.

“Daddy, you’re just going to have to get a
new guitar. This one doesn’t work right.”

Eyes shining with mirth, Derek rubbed a
finger hard under his nose for a moment. “You may be right,
Elizabeth,” he said in a voice full of suppressed laughter. “It
does appear to be a bit large. I suppose we’ll have to put off the
guitar lesson for another day.”

As if by magic, Elizabeth’s frown disappeared
to be replaced by excitement. “Can we go to the park, then?”

Floundering at the abrupt change of subject,
Derek stammered. “The, um…go to the park?”

“Yes!” Elizabeth allowed him to take the
guitar from her with no protest. “We can play on the slide, and you
can push me on the swings and the merry-go-round, and help me on
the monkey bars.”

“Monkey…” Derek shot a quick glance full of
confusion at Athena who nodded at him in reassurance. Seeing it,
his face cleared, and he smiled at his daughter. “All right, then.
The park it is.”

“Yay!” Elizabeth bounded from the bed and
raced to the door, pigtails streaming behind her.

“Elizabeth Diane Chand…Marshall!” Athena’s
voice stopped her daughter’s flight. “Do not leave this room unless
your father and I are with you.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth agreed, and stopped short
of opening the door. Instead, she twisted the knob back and forth,
keeping rhythm to the words, “Go to the park, and swing on the
swing set,” sung under her breath.

After assuring herself that Elizabeth was
indeed not opening the door, Athena made her way to Derek who was
sliding the guitar case back under the bed.

“Sorry about that,” she told him. “But she
really loves the park. There’s nowhere for her to play outdoors
where we live now, so she takes every opportunity she can get to go
to the playground.”

“No, it’s perfectly fine.” Derek
straightened, and cast a fond glance at his daughter. “It’ll be
more fun for her than staying in this room. What’s that tune she’s
singing?”

After a moment of listening, Athena grinned.
“I think it’s ‘Chevy Van’ by Sammy Johns. It was playing on the
radio when we were driving over here.”

“Damn, it is, isn’t it?” Derek laughed under
his breath. He turned back to Athena and his eyes widened as he
seemed to remember something. “Oh, I have something for you.” He
bent again and rummaged in the pocket of a soft-sided suitcase,
coming up with an envelope he handed over. “Simon sent along your
pay. There’s a separate check for each week. He said he had to do
it that way for accounting purposes or something.” Derek shrugged.
“I don’t know about all that, but that’s why there are four checks
instead of one.”

Athena paused in the act of tucking the
envelope in her purse, and lifted the flap to look inside. “Four?
But I only worked three weeks.”

“Yes, well…” Derek cleared his throat. “I
told him it was my fault you left early, and I made him pay you for
the full month. You wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t acted like a
right prick, and I didn’t think you should be penalized for
that.”

Athena bit the inside of her bottom lip in an
attempt to stop it from trembling. “Thank you, Derek,” she
murmured. It was easier to keep her gaze on the envelope than look
up and let him see the tears of gratitude in her eyes. “You didn’t
have to do that.”

“Yes, I did,” he contradicted. “I know what
you want to use the money for, and it’s not right that you should
have to put it off longer because of my behavior. And when it comes
to that, I’m sorry for the way I acted.”

“It’s okay.” With a deep breath, she blinked
the tears away, and stowed the envelope in her purse. “I know it
was a shock to hear about Elizabeth.”

“Shock or no, I shouldn’t have said those
things to you.” Putting a finger under her chin, he raised her head
to look into her eyes. “I didn’t mean them, Athena.”

At the touch of his fingertip against her
skin, more than her lip started to tremble. The slight contact sent
bolts of heat radiating through her, leaving her weak and short of
breath. Embarrassed at her reaction, she thought about stepping
back, but she couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to move away from
him. A craving to have him touch her with more than just a
fingertip zapped through her as fast and unexpected as a flash of
lightning from a clear sky. She drew in her breath with a startled
gasp, and her tongue peeked out to moisten lips gone suddenly
dry.

In that instant, the look in Derek’s eyes
sharpened. The apologetic look vanished to be replaced by an
intensity with which Athena was very familiar. At the same time,
his touch changed. Though he didn’t move, she could have sworn his
finger was caressing her chin. How he could caress her while not
moving she didn’t know, but damned if he wasn’t doing it.

The tips of her own fingers tingled with the
need to touch him in return, to feel the warmth of his skin, and
explore the light beard that grew along his jaw line.

“Mama! Daddy!”

The imperious voice of her daughter brought
Athena crashing back down to earth. She jerked her head back in
surprise, breaking the mesmerizing contact with Derek. Shaking ,
she turned to see Elizabeth standing with small hands on hips and
lips pursed.

“C’mon, y’all,” the little girl demanded.
“Let’s go!”

“Hold your horses, munchkin,” Athena replied
in a voice at least a register higher than normal. Appalled, she
cleared her throat. “The park’s not going anywhere.”

Derek brushed past her, and swept Elizabeth
up in his arms. “But we need to hurry to those slides and swings,
though, don’t we?”

Athena squared her shoulders and let out a
quiet sigh that went unheard over Elizabeth’s delighted giggles.
What the hell was wrong with her, anyway? It was idiocy to think
anything would ever again happen with Derek. Just look at him –
laughing and whirling his daughter around in a circle; it was clear
he was unaffected by what just happened. Which meant that nothing
had happened. It was all her imagination.

Firming her lips, Athena resolved that she
wasn’t going to let Derek Marshall affect her like that again. He
was Elizabeth’s father and nothing more. Whatever had been between
them was over, and she was going to have to accept that and move
on. Even if it killed her.

Ripples flowed over the surface of the
vegetable oil in the skillet, and Athena approached it with
trepidation, a bowl of cut potatoes clutched in her hands. She
hated dropping things into hot oil, but there was no other way to
make the French fries Elizabeth was expecting. Screwing up her face
in a proactive grimace, she dropped a handful of potatoes into the
oil, and scampered away from the stove as they began to sizzle and
pop. When the activity in the skillet throttled back to a
reasonable level, she tiptoed forward and added the rest of the
potatoes to the pan with quick, jerky movements, careful to keep
her skin away from any stray flying bits of hot oil.

Another skillet sat on the stove with six
thin hamburger patties keeping warm over low heat. Athena gave them
an assessing look as she prodded the fries with a spatula. Before
it was over, the burgers would become homemade versions of Big
Macs, Elizabeth’s favorite meal. Sure, they could have just gone to
McDonald’s for supper, but they’d already eaten lunch at Sonic –
Elizabeth’s second favorite burger place since they got to eat in
the car – and just because Athena deposited six thousand dollars
into her savings account earlier, she saw no reason to waste money
on eating out when she could cook it much cheaper at home.

With the fries attended to, she dropped
cheese slices over the burger patties, and turned to set the table.
Three places, since Elizabeth insisted her father join them for
supper. The two of them were in Elizabeth’s bedroom reading
storybooks while waiting on the food to be ready, and Athena took
the time to collect three plates that actually matched. Not that it
mattered. Matching tableware couldn’t make up for the run-down
appearance of the apartment.

She couldn’t bear to look at Derek’s face
when he saw where they lived; she was too ashamed of the dingy
walls, the dull floors, and the sagging, elderly furniture.
Oblivious to her mother’s distress, Elizabeth dragged Derek on a
tour of the small apartment with the same unrestrained joy she’d
shown at the playground, during lunch at Sonic, and on the
impromptu tour she’d insisted they give him of her favorite spots
in Memphis. After showing Derek the river, Elvis Presley’s house,
and her school, Elizabeth made Athena drive through Chickasaw
Gardens so she could point out her favorite houses in that
beautiful neighborhood. It was when they were leaving that she
invited Derek to supper.

After depositing the burgers on the sesame
seed buns, Athena checked the fries before removing three homemade
chocolate milkshakes from the freezer. While she was at the fridge,
she pulled out the lettuce she’d shredded earlier, a sliced onion,
pickles, and a bottle of Thousand Island dressing, the fast food
chain’s not-so-best-kept-secret “special sauce.” By the time she
finished constructing what she and Elizabeth called Big Chandlers,
the fries were done and she added them to the plates with dollops
of ketchup for dipping.

“Elizabeth, Derek,” she called. “Supper’s
ready.” And if that didn’t sound surreal then she didn’t know what
did.

But it was no more surreal than sitting down
at the kitchen table to eat and seeing Derek sitting across from
her as he and Elizabeth carried on a conversation about the book
he’d been reading to her. From their discussion, it was apparent
they were reading
The Worst Witch
, and Athena hid frequent
smiles behind her napkin at Derek’s interest in Mildred and Maud
and the situation with Mildred’s cat, Tabby. He seemed as
passionate about the book as Elizabeth, and Athena couldn’t help
but melt a bit at the sight of the hard-rocking guitar player
caring so much about a book his six-year-old daughter loved.

Intensified melting came about when she took
in the whole scene and for a moment saw them as a family sitting
down to supper together in the kitchen. If she hadn’t let her fears
and insecurities get the best of her all those years ago, the cozy
tableau before her might have been a reality instead of the
dreamlike situation it was.

That was something else she was going to have
to get over – worrying about the ‘what ifs.’ The enormity of her
bone-headed actions erased the possibility of A Happy Family. What
she needed to focus on was the fact that Derek was now part of
Elizabeth’s life, and to be grateful for that. Even if he no longer
had feelings for his child’s mother, at least it appeared they were
going to be able to have a civil relationship, and might even end
up as friends. The past was just that – past. It was time to move
on and make the best of the present.

Several hours later, Athena and Derek
collapsed on the couch after tucking Elizabeth in bed. The little
girl was overjoyed to have both her parents present in her bedroom,
and garnered extra kisses and hugs before allowing the lights to be
extinguished. For the first time in Athena’s memory, her child had
not even glanced toward the now-empty picture frame where Steve’s
photo once resided.