She hoped Frances would invite them to stay for lunch as always. It was past one by the time the second rubber was finished and she was starving. But she didn’t. She was ushering them out. She had two hours alone with her father now before the kids came home. They left the den and moved toward the light. Audrey would be expected to say her goodbyes and drive away. It was like discovering a sun and being expected to move in the opposite direction. She wanted at least to have her own goodbye. She said at the very last moment, just as Sue went out the door, that she had to use the ladies’ room. There was one just off the kitchen but she went to another one, the one near Molly’s module. It smelled of middle school perfume, lemon and lilies. She took her time.

He was still in the lobby when she returned, looking at an article on the wall, “Modern Magnificence,” about the house. She could hear Frances in the kitchen, washing the cups by hand.

“Goodbye,” Audrey said, without conviction.

He took her arm and brought her to the glass windows that looked out at the pool, already covered for winter, where Frances could not see them from the kitchen. His lips were like his hands, plump and warm, wetter than she had imagined. He took her lower lip in his teeth and tugged gently. He moved to her cheek and let out a moan in her ear. She felt him grow hard against her.

“Papa?” Frances called from the kitchen.

They pulled away.

“Is it a secret, where you live?” she said quickly.

His grin blossomed. “Of course not. Graham Street. Portland, Maine.”

Frances had taken off her shoes again and she came around the corner without sound. “What’s in Portland, Maine?”

“Just a place I lived once. I was on the second floor, above a sort of grimy hair salon. It was an old sea captain’s house that had been broken up into apartments. Not a very wealthy sea captain, I don’t think, no view of the sea. But a pretty mansard roof.” He’d stuck his hands in his front pockets, pulling out the fabric casually, reminding Audrey of boys in her youth after close dancing.

“I didn’t know you’d lived in Maine,” Frances said.

“No?”

“No.”

“Thank you for today,” Audrey said and kissed Frances on the cheek. She glanced briefly at him. “Nice to meet you.” She tried to make it as flat and bland as she could, as if they were really saying goodbye.