Trey nodded. “Excellent. I’ll let you know.”
Then, he disappeared into his office, as if the man who had become my only source of stress-relief suddenly meeting my daughter wasn’t such a big deal.
“Shit,” I hissed beneath my breathing.
* * *
“So,Aurora. I take it you enjoy coloring?” Trey asked.
My daughter nodded as she reached for something in her glitter backpack. “I wanna be an artist someday.”
Trey grinned. “Taking after your mother?”
My daughter looked up at him. “Huh?”
Trey cast me a look. “Your mother paints and sculpts. That’s what I meant.”
Aurora gasped. “You do, Mom? Where’s your stuff? I never see you do it! Why do you get to paint in the house and I don’t?”
Trey blinked. “Oops.”
I sighed and reached for my daughter’s hand. “Rori, we can talk about it later, all right?”
“But, Mom. If you get to paint inside—”
I cut her off quickly. “I don’t. I haven’t in many years, okay?”
I felt Trey staring at me as Aurora leaned back in her chair.
“Okay.”
I patted her knee. “Right.”
I tossed Trey a look and knew I’d hear about this later. But, for some reason, Aurora didn’t want to engage him in conversation. Usually, she was the first to speak and the last to have a word. Yet, she didn’t communicate until either Trey or I addressed her directly.
“Sweetheart?”
“Hmmm?” she hummed between bites of her soup.
“Mr. Trey asked you if you had a good day at school.”
Aurora swallowed hard. “Uh, yeah. It was good.”
Trey nodded. “What’s your favorite topic?”
Aurora shrugged but didn’t say anything, and it shocked me. Who was this girl, and what had she done with my daughter?
“Sweetheart,” I whispered, “he wants to talk with you.”
Trey held up his hand. “It’s all right. She’s uncomfortable, and I get what that’s like.”
That was news to me, though. “Rori?”
She looked sheepishly up at me. “Yeah?”
I took her hand in mine. “Why haven’t you told me you’re uncomfortable if you are?”
She shrugged softly. “I don’t know.”
