To his credit, the man didn’t flinch. “With all due respect, sir. I’m more concerned with what your daughter wants.”

Traci put her hand on the counter, slid it forward so that her long fingers touched A.L.’s hand. “Dad, John has been the one telling me that I needed to tell you what was going on. I... I just couldn’t do it.” The buzzer on Traci’s hip sounded. “I’ve got food to carry out,” she said, turning fast.

That was good. He needed a minute. His daughter...his little girl who really wasn’t a little girl anymore...hadn’t felt as if she could come to him. Hadn’t thought it was safe to tell him the truth.

Kids lied. Told half truths. Evaded questions. It was part of the growing-up process. And Traci had been no different. But those had been mostly little things, things that didn’t matter. This mattered. Maybe not eventually but for right now, this thing with Golf Course John mattered to Traci. And how he handled it was going to affect their relationship for a long time.

Golf Course John had pushed away his half eaten breakfast and was gripping his coffee cup with both hands. He was staring straight ahead, as if the pie case was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.

Rena was sipping her coffee. He was ignoring his because he wasn’t sure his throat would work.

It took Traci five long minutes to return to the counter. When she did, she had the same look on her face that she’d had when he’d shown her how to clean her first fish. She was going to get through this, no matter how painful. “Dad, I’m sorry but—”

“Stop, honey. You’re right. This is not the time or place. When do you get off?”

“I work until 2:00.”

“Okay.” He turned to the young man on the stool next to him. “Will you be available at 2:00?”

“I can be,” he said.

“Good. I’ll meet the two of you at my apartment at 2:30.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ten dollar bill. “For the coffees,” he said.

Then he turned and walked out the door. He wasn’t sure Rena was behind him until he got twenty feet down the sidewalk.

“Good job, A.L.,” she said conversationally. “I didn’t want to be the primary witness for the prosecution on a murder charge.”

“She’s been lying to me for months. It was never over.”

“That’s what it looks like,” Rena said. “I have to give John credit, he didn’t fall off the stool when you glared at him.”

John, not Golf Course John. It was probably time for A.L. to call him by his name. “You think they’re sleeping together?”

“They might be,” Rena said. “She’s seventeen. I know what I was doing at seventeen.”