“What are you doing today, Antonia?” she asked as Antonia was about to leave the kitchen. She was surprised that Lara had spoken to her. Her father never asked about her plans.
“I go to the movies on Saturdays,” she said politely, hesitating in the doorway.
“That sounds like fun. Maybe I could go with you sometime.” Antonia looked even more shocked at that, and almost asked her why. “I love going to the movies.” Antonia smiled shyly at her, and didn’t know what to say.
“So do I,” was all she could think of and left as quickly as she could before her father got mad at her.
“We should go with her sometime,” Lara said gently to Brandon, who looked at her over his paper with surprise, didn’t say a word, and went back to reading again, as Antonia quietly slipped away down the hall, and disappeared to her room. She heard her father’s voice in the distance before she closed her door.
“You don’t need to do that, you know.”
“Do what? Offer to go to a movie?” Lara was surprised. It seemed like a harmless suggestion to her.
“Make friends with her. She’s used to being on her own. She’s very independent, and very shy. She probably goes to the movies with her friends.”
“Do you know that? Have you asked?” She was startled by his reaction to her speaking to his daughter, and how little he knew about her himself, or seemed to care. It was a side of him she hadn’t seen yet, and was startled by.
“No. She’s been going to the movies on her own for years. I have no idea who she meets there.”
“You should. Why don’t we take her to dinner sometime?”
He scowled at that.
“At her age, I’m sure she’d rather be with her friends.” Introducing Lara to Antonia had been a big step for him, and so was letting her spend the night. They’d been dating for a year, and he’d been extremely cautious with her. Fabienne had made him gun-shy about long-term relationships, and had driven him back into his shell. He never wanted another relationship like theirs, and he still felt extremely burned by it. She had left him after several unhappy years, and abandoned him with a child to raise on his own.
He was forty-seven years old now, and had no desire to marry again. All he wanted to do was get Antonia through the next four years, see her off to college, and concentrate on his businesses as they continued to grow. His dreams of a house in the suburbs and more children had vanished with Fabienne. He knew now that they were a fantasy that wouldn’t suit him anymore. His life had taken a different turn. He no longer trusted women, but Lara was an exception to the rule. She was an independent woman with her own business in real estate. She never pressured him and wasn’t intent on marriage, so he had gotten more involved with her than he had with any woman since Fabienne. He had taken a long time to introduce her to his daughter. Lara hadn’t pressured him about that either. She was an easygoing woman who was content as she was. She had lost a brother when she was very young, and it had convinced her that she never wanted children of her own. She had watched it almost kill her parents, and age them overnight when he died. She was content to date Brandon, with no particular promise about the future, and he had told her early on that he had one child from his first marriage and didn’t want more. He said he didn’t have the energy for a child or a wife, and she accepted that. But Antonia seemed like such a quiet, lonely child that it touched her heart. She knew that her mother had left them seven years before, when Antonia was very young to lose her mother. Brandon always insisted that she was fine, but Lara couldn’t help wondering if he was right.
“Would you mind my going to the movies with her sometime if she wants to?” she asked him directly and he hesitated, and then nodded.
“I suppose it would be all right. But you’ll find that she keeps her distance. She disappears all the time. Most of the time you either don’t notice her she’s so quiet or you can’t find her. She vanishes like a ghost. She’s a little odd, and very much a loner.” Lara suspected that Antonia had had no other choice, with a workaholic father and her mother gone.
They left at lunchtime to go to a new restaurant Brandon wanted to try, and had promised Lara he would take her to. And the following Saturday, Lara was at breakfast again. They had no plans that day and it was raining. Brandon said he had a little work to do, and Lara invited Antonia to the movies. She didn’t know what to say, so she said yes, not wanting to be rude. She wondered why Lara was making an effort with her, since her father never did. She seemed nice.