The rain was suddenly assaulting us. From his shack at the bottom of the lot, the attendant yelled to us over the pounding of the downpour, “Get in the truck!” He indicated a livid green Ford pickup that was sitting alongside our fateful parking space. “It’s okay, it belongs to the hotel!”

We scrambled onto the running boards and into the truck, gasping as the water poured from our clothes onto the bench seat and the rain did a Gene Krupa solo on the roof above us.

“When was Gail born?” I asked when I had my breath back.

“Her twenty-first birthday was two weeks ago. You can count backward from nine, can’t you?”

“But she says she’s been drinking at the bar here—”

“Please. No one questions a girl like Gail about her age.”

I could hardly think straight. I asked her in a near-whisper, “What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t want anything. I’m going to tell you what you’re going to do, and you’ll do it.”

She took a handkerchief out of her bag and started to wipe away the thick lipstick on her face. “First, understand that I had my fill of men in your profession long ago. But Gail seems to believe you’re the one person who can help her complete this work she’s written, and it means everything to her. Even if there were someone else who could do the same for her, there’s no time left to find them. So you’re going to help this girl who’s grown up so splendidly without a father.”

I snapped, “You don’t have to order me to do that. I’m doing this strictly because I believe in her music. It’s wonderful to see someone who’s young and passionate about—”

“Young and passionate and desirable,” said the woman who was Gail’s mother. I felt the blood rushing to my face, and not from anger. “Which brings us to what you aren’t going to do. I know my daughter, and it’s likely she has at least the beginnings of a crush on you. I’m not saying it’s profound or that it couldn’t blow away in an instant. But you understand the position you’re in here. You may very well be her father. As long as the two of you are working together, you can do absolutely nothing that would encourage or reciprocate any romantic feelings she may have for you.”

I would have cursed her, but she was Gail’s mother. “Do you think I’m depraved?”