“No. But thank you.” She pronounced the words slowly and carefully, as if she and the chair were in balance but the words might upset that balance. “I’d rather do what we have to do, so that I can get back to the bank.”

Peter looked confused. “It’s over ten years.”

Dani said, “I’ll have a Perrier, please.”

The waitress eyed Peter past her order pad. She hadn’t written anything down. “You look like someone.”

I said, “Bring the Bud and the Perrier, okay?”

The waitress put her hand on the side of her neck and rolled her eyes in recognition. “You’re the guy who makes movies. I saw you on Arsenio.”

Karen’s jaw knotted.

The waitress said, “You’re Peter Alan Nelsen!”

Karen’s jaw knotted harder and the corners of her mouth pulled down.

Peter nodded, turning on the smile. “That’s right. In the living 3-D.”

“Wow.”

Karen said, “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” and glared at the waitress. “We’re trying to have a discussion here, and you’re not part of it.”

“You don’t have to get snippy.”

“And you don’t have to act like some sort of idiotic teeny-bopper. Just bring the drinks.”

The waitress gave Karen the ice treatment and went over to Nick and T.J.

Peter said, “Jesus Christ, she probably just wanted an autograph or something.”

“She can get it later. I’m the vice-president and manager of the bank here, and I am a mother. I have responsibilities. I can’t waste my time.”

Peter looked like a little kid who’d just been told to go to bed and didn’t like it.

Karen said, “I know you want to see Toby, but I’d rather you wait. He doesn’t know that you’re here and he doesn’t know who you are or anything about you. Give me this evening to talk to him and then you can see him tomorrow.”

Peter liked that even less.

Karen said, “If you come out now, you’ll just scare him.”

Peter shook his head. “Hell, what’s he got to be scared of?”

I said, “Any child would be scared, Peter. One day he’s comfortable with his life, the next a strange man walks up to him and says, hi, I’m your old man. Everything he knows changes, and everything becomes an unknown. Do you see?”

Peter frowned and sort of pooched out his lips. “Whose side are you on?”

“The kid’s. I’m also on yours and Karen’s.”

Dani said, “You’ve seen this kind of thing a lot, haven’t you?”

I nodded. “A couple of hundred times.”

Peter made a big deal out of sighing. Disappointed that he wasn’t going to see his kid. “Shit.”