David Langier stood up to greet them. Joanne Croix thought as she crouched behind her father, 'Why would he be here? Does he want to set me up again? I can't deal with that. Is Jerry here?'
*
David scowled at his son. "Sit up straight. You want to try to make a good impression on them."
Daniel grumbled, "The only time you care about my posture is when...This better not be some sorta..."
"Jimmy!" David stood and urged Daniel to do the same. Out of defiance, Dan crossed his arms and stayed planted in his seat. 'No way am I meeting whatever misfortunate cow he has planned for me to meet.' "This is my son, Daniel. Boy, this is James, his wife, Karen, and their daughter..."
His father hadn't completed the sentence. Dan glanced up briefly at the parents and nodded with his full aggravation. That is, until he caught a glimpse of her down turned face before she disappeared behind her father. All he could do was stand up and breathe, "Uh, Joanne?" He'd sprang up so fast, his chair tipped back, but he didn't notice David catch it and set it upright.
"I thought he didn't have an accent anymore," James smiled.
"He doesn't. His English is probably better than yours," David laughed.
"Oh," Karen smiled at Jo. "So, you've met before. Good." Her mother was trying to keep up with the charade, which was obviously to make them think the parents didn't know anything..
Daniel made an effort to speak, but his father told him in crisp French, "Close your mouth. Tonight, you have no say in this matter. You will sit down and act as though you have sense. I told you I'd make up for what happened. Here's your chance."
"What was that, Dave? My French is kind of rusty, now," James chuckled. Karen gave him a nudge with her elbow and pointed Joanne to her seat. "But, I'm sure he was telling him to behave."
Daniel watched Jo glide across to the seat opposite him. She didn't look up. Not even for the instant that she settled in her chair, did she look toward him. As he quickly sat down, he could see her miraculous blush, though her skin color never changed. He couldn't believe this was happening. She sat there so close to him. When she finally did look up, he tried to turn away, but there was something about the way that she pursed her lips. Those full red lips parted slightly as she waited for him to turn away.
"You are correct. He has had trouble talking before he thinks. We should tell them the story. Perhaps, it would give him time to say something worth hearing," David's words were sharply directed at his stunned child.
Joanne tried not to panic. 'This is not happening. What is that man talking about? Why is Dan looking at me like this is my fault? He didn't yell at me, this time. I didn't know about this. Did he? Is that why he didn't talk to me all week?'
"I guess," James started, "You see, we and David knew each other about twenty years ago. At one point, I thought he'd steal my Karen from me, but it turned out he just wanted to find out about her friend, Frankie. That's Danny's mom. We were friends; the Langiers, Croixes, and Carters. So were you kids. All four of you."
David leaned in and smiled, "I would say the boys were inseparable." Joanne's mouth dropped open. 'Four? The old man smiled and it looked like he meant it.' She looked to Daniel, to see if he saw it too, but he busied himself with slicing at a dinner roll. He'd tuned out completely. Mrs. Croix had seen him watching Joanne. The woman had frowned at him. He couldn't come up with a legitimate excuse for why he would stare at the woman's daughter like that.
"Yes, they were like three peas in a pod," her mother continued. "We spent happy days at those beach houses. You would follow them everywhere. And when you weren't following them, they followed you."
"Right, we knew each other when we were babies," Jo laughed and put her napkin in her lap.
No one else laughed. James looked from David back to his wife. Karen pulled a small picture out of her pocketbook, and put it on Joanne's place setting. It was a grainy Polaroid of three children sitting on a bench looking up at the camera. She recognized herself immediately, and Jerry too, but she didn't know where the picture was taken or who the little light skinned girl next to her was.
"That is obviously you," Karen pointed to Jo, "that is Jeremy, and that is Donatello." Joanne looked over at Daniel. There seemed to be a subtle smile on his lips as he busied himself by pulling apart a slice of his roll. 'Yeah, Mom didn't cut my hair much when I was small.'
"Donatello," Joanne remembered Candy saying that name. "I don't..."
"That is his given name, dear. We were tired of his teachers misspeaking, and so we changed it to a more American one," David smiled directly at her this time.
"But, you hate me..." Joanne said.
The parents laughed nervously as Jo looked from one to the other. 'He does. Or he did, if he tried to get me to meet up with Jerry.' David's smile grew dim. "Those are harsh words. In the beginning, I wasn't sure it was you. Naturally, a father wishes to protect his son from the dangers of the world. I don't know how I could have mistaken you for that other girl, but..." 'Other girl? He thought I was Jesse? How could he ever... Jesse's nothing like me.' Joanne lost part of what he said. "... things that you said reminded me of your mother. Then, you didn't come back for over a month. It took me about that long to find your parents again. I was so happy to see you in the shop again. Unfortunately, Daniel was rightfully angry with me, and so we haven't said anything about you, since."
"And, you didn't help, either," her mother scolded Jo softly. "How was I supposed to know you were talking about Danny? Dogs? A fiancé? Dave hadn't told us about that in his e-mails. And what about Junior? You didn't speak of him at all?"
"It was hard on the boys. After Francoise died, David went to spend time with his mother. I try to stay in touch, but..." David's gaze dropped to the tablecloth. It was obviously an issue that David didn't want to say anything about. "Honestly, it hurt just to watch the way that the boy was with you the night that Candace invited herself over." David ventured a brief glance directly into Jo's eyes, to change the subject, before he directed his attention to her parents again. "You should have seen how fast your girl left. The boy was so far gone. He couldn't even be angry with Candace, as he should have been. That Candace did horrible things to my son. She still does. The girl has this penchant for sensing happiness and appears to put a stop to it."
Joanne stole another glance at Daniel, and he openly stared right back. He leaned toward her and dropped the mangled bread to his saucer. He dared her to say something. She kept silent as she placed her hands flat on the table on either side of her plate and concentrated on the continuous pattern that circled the rim. Daniel watched her feel the texture of the tablecloth.
"That Candace, you never know what she says is the truth. We learned it the hard way. Daniel was embarrassed to talk about how she had fooled him. He was convinced of her loyalty. I didn't speak of the engagement, because he told me not to. Didn't you, boy?"
"Pop," his voice was low and unconcerned as he studied her face again, "No one needs to hear about that, right now."
"It's part of the story. You wouldn't begrudge me a good story," David smiled as he noticed Daniel's hand inch toward Joanne's on the table. The girl hadn't noticed. He reached his fingertips and glanced them across the top of her hand. She looked up at him and moved her hand to her lap reluctantly.
"Of course, but I don't think I need to hear it." Dan stood up and placed his napkin over his plate. "You can tell them while we're gone. Dance?" He offered his hand to Joanne as he did, once, months before.
She shook her head at him and was about to decline, when he said, "It's just a dance."
She hesitated for a moment. She looked around the table at their parents' faces. David actually wanted her to go. Her parents, on the other hand, were of mixed mind. Her mother seemed encouraging, so she figured she wouldn't get that much grief if she left the weirdness at the table. 'Just this one time, Jo. It's just a dance. You can go back to avoiding him tomorrow.'
