Family Merger. Leigh Greenwood

will know what I did. How is that better?” Cynthia asked.

      “It will be a lot better if you see your friends,” Kathryn said.

      They had been talking for nearly half an hour. Rather, Kathryn and Cynthia had been talking. Ron had been mostly listening, putting in a word now and then, responding when addressed directly. He felt as if they were conversing in a foreign tongue. The words were ones he knew, but they seemed to have different meanings from what he expected. He wondered if it was just a woman thing, or if there was some special bonding between them. He couldn’t remember Cynthia ever being so open and relaxed with Margaret Norwood or the governess, and they’d known her most of her life.

      They’d come back to find that Cynthia’s best friend, Leigh Stedman, had come by to see her. After refusing to see her, Cynthia had locked herself in her room, extremely upset anyone at school knew where she was or that she was pregnant. It had taken Kathryn several minutes to convince Cynthia to let her into her room. It had taken more than thirty minutes to convince her to talk with her father.

      Pacing up and down the large living room, he’d had plenty of time to rehearse what he meant to say. He’d even edited it to make sure he wasn’t too severe. But when Cynthia walked through that door, she didn’t look like a confident young woman any longer. She looked like the little girl who used to like to curl up in his lap and go to sleep when he worked late. He’d instinctively held out his arms, and she’d come to him.

      For a few minutes everything was the way it used to be. They held each other while she cried. But as soon as her tears dried up, she became stiff, their positions awkward. When he released her, she moved away, ultimately sitting in a chair rather than on the sofa next to him. She looked so small, sitting in that huge overstuffed chair with her feet tucked under her, he could almost think of her as his little girl again. But he would have been fooling himself. At first she’d talked exclusively to Kathryn. It was as though she was embarrassed she’d cried in front of him. He’d wanted to tell her it was all right, that she never had to be afraid to come to him when she was frightened or feeling alone.

      “I wouldn’t look at it like that,” Kathryn said. “You have a friend who knows what happened, and she still wants to be your friend.”

      “I don’t have any real friends,” Cynthia said.

      “I’ll bet you do,” Kathryn said. “You’ve only been here two days, and already you’re everybody’s favorite. People can’t help but want to be your friend.”

      Ron didn’t know if Cynthia believed that, but it seemed to improve her spirits.

      Cynthia chewed on her lower lip. “They won’t want a friend with a baby,” she said.

      “All real friendships expand to include other people—boyfriends, husbands, children, even other friends. You’ll see if you just give your friends a chance.”

      “Leigh’s parents are just about the most important people in Charlotte,” Cynthia said. “They’ll never let her have anything to do with an unwed mother.”

      “I think you ought to give Leigh and her family a chance to make that decision rather than you making it for them. I think you’ll find very few people are so narrow-minded, so unwilling to make allowances for mistakes.”

      Ron knew it must have been difficult for Kathryn to say that when her own parents had turned their backs on their daughter for the same reason.

      “Leigh told Lisette she’s coming back tomorrow,” Kathryn said. “You’ve got to make up your mind what you’re going to do.”

      “Do you like this girl?” Ron asked.

      “Of course I like her,” Cynthia said impatiently. “I said she was my best friend, didn’t I?”

      “Would you still want to be her friend if she got pregnant?” he asked.

      Cynthia shifted position in the chair before she answered. “Yes, I would.”

      “Then I’m sure she feels the same way about you.”

      “I expect it will hurt Leigh a great deal if you cut her off,” Kathryn said

      “There’s somebody else you need to see,” Ron said.

      “Who?” Cynthia asked.

      “Margaret. She’s helped take care of you from the day your mother and I brought you home from the hospital. She’s devastated you would run away from her.”

      “This has nothing to do with her,” Cynthia said.

      “She loves you. That means everything you do affects her. The same is true for Rose, Rosco and Gretta even though they’ve known you only half as long. If you don’t feel you can go see them, at least talk to them on the telephone.”

      “I didn’t think they’d care.”

      “Margaret cares a lot. She treated your mother like her own daughter.”

      Ron didn’t know whether making Cynthia think about how her behavior had affected others was the best thing to do, but he did know it would stop her from thinking she was isolated and unloved. Maybe if she could believe other people loved her, she could believe he loved her, too.

      “Gretta said Margaret’s been so upset she hasn’t been able to sleep,” Ron said.

      Cynthia got up. “I’d better call her now. She feels sick when she can’t sleep.”

      “That went better than I expected,” Kathryn said after Cynthia left the room.

      “Margaret Norwood has been like a mother to her. Cynthia’s been so worried about me, the baby’s father and her friends, she’s forgotten the woman who’s taken care of her since she was born.”

      “Talking to them and seeing Leigh will help pull her out of her isolation. I think you’ve done very well for one day.”

      “We’ve done well. You’re still coaching me, remember?”

      “You don’t need coaching.”

      “That’s because you think I’m so hopeless I’m hardly worth the trouble.”

      “No, I don’t.”

      “It’s only fair that you give me a chance to change your mind. Have dinner with me.”

      “Are you asking me for a date?”

      “Didn’t it sound like that? I haven’t done it in a long time, but surely things haven’t changed that much.”

      “I told you earlier I don’t go out with clients.”

      “I’m not your client. Cynthia is.”

      “You’re close enough.”

      “Then you pick what we do. A movie, dinner, the museum. I’m flying back to Geneva late tonight.”

      “I wondered how long it would be before you went back.”

      “I’m coming back right after the meeting. I won’t be gone more than a day at a time until we get this thing sorted out.”

      “You need to stop including me.”

      “You’re my advisor. Forget the professionals,” he said when she started to protest. “I’m not going to sue you for practicing without a license. Just consider me a friend who needs your advice.”

      “Do you?”

      “Especially tonight. I haven’t dated a beautiful woman since my wife died.”

      “You’ll have to ask someone else.”

      “When you decide what you want to do, let me know when to pick you up. Now I’ve got to call Geneva and find out how the meeting went today.”

      Then he was gone, leaving Kathryn’s sputtering protests hanging in the air.

      Kathryn