Anne angles away to face me. “Don’t blame Dad. If he was imperious, it was because Mom needed direction. Mom was a ditz.”

“Only when she was with Dad. He didn’t take kindly to competent women.”

“But he has a heart, Mal. He suffered when the family broke apart. He’s been lonely.”

There are a number of things I might say to that, the first involving my mother, who did not need direction. She proved that ten times over after the divorce. She was a strong woman held down by an authoritarian thumb. Why she allowed it was another of the questions I wanted to ask, but that would take us off topic.

Levelly, I say, “I’m just trying to explain why Margo grew to be forceful. She wasn’t the boy Dad wanted, but he pushed her to accomplish. When she refused to go into law, there was a huge scene. Remember?”

“It wasn’t a huge scene. It was a discussion. He was perfectly reasonable. He said she had choices, and he ended it by saying she should do what she wants.”

Those might have been the words, but the tone was something else. I remember anger and shouting. I remember a level of hostility that drove me from the living room and had me hiding in my bedroom for hours. But that was me. I hated fights. Margo welcomed them, and Anne? Anne was always able to simply tune out the bad.

“I’m just saying,” I try to explain, since Margo isn’t here to defend herself, “that in some regards, she had it worse than we did. His expectations for her were high.”

Anne gives a twisted smile. “Oh yeah. Expectations. He had none for me. That made it easy.”

She tosses off the statement like it’s a good thing, but I wonder. The lightness is a cover for what sounds like hurt. Either that’s new, or I was simply too wound up in my own thoughts to see it before.

Wanting the space between us gone, I loop my arm through hers and lean just that little bit her way. “How is he about that now?”

“Expectations? Good, actually. He has mellowed, Mal. Blame it on memory if you want, but he doesn’t hold grudges the way he used to. And as for Sunny Side Up? He doesn’t know what to do with someone who owns an eatery, so he’s open-minded.”

“Does he ask you questions about it?”

“Sometimes, like how do I know to fry his eggs over easy or where do I get these terrific mugs. He doesn’t ask about the money part of it. I’m not sure he can relate to that.”

“To running a business?” I ask in surprise. “Business law was his specialty in private practice.”