He turned to her without letting go of Jake, who was struggling to find his feet. Her father’s face was red and he was sweating. Rosie was afraid that he was going to have a heart attack. He was too old to be doing this. She was literally going to kill her father. “Dad,” she said again, her voice pleading this time, and tears springing to her eyes. “Please. It’s not his fault. It’s my fault. He didn’t do anything.”

Now was the time. She should just say it, the truth. Jake craned his head around to look at her, even as her father was dragging him to the door. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She couldn’t do it here, not in front of all of these people. In a second, the moment had passed.

“Rosa! Kitchen. Now,” her father yelled to her over his shoulder. He pushed Jake through the door, and Rosie quickly darted toward the kitchen, desperate to escape the stares from the customers. Alex, one of the line cooks, stood by the counter watching her father, a baseball bat held discreetly at the side of his leg. In case my father needs backup, she thought. This is insane. I have to stop this.

As she slid past Alex, she heard her father address the dining room in a voice of strained cheerfulness: “Okay, people, the show was free, and so are the cookies! Alex, get these fine people some cookies.”

She pushed through the swinging door, took the kitchen in three steps, and went out the back, the screen door slamming behind her.

At the bottom of the steps she stopped and sat down.

She heard the door open and her father came out and sat down next to her without looking at her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Did you call the police?”

“Not yet, but I will. I wanted to check on you first.”

“You can’t. It wasn’t his fault.”

“Of course it’s his fault. He’s a grown man. He’s a . . . predator.” It seemed to pain her father to say this.

“No,” Rosie said, feeling her stomach drop to her feet. “He didn’t do anything. I mean, he really didn’t do anything. I took those pictures, Dad. He had no idea they were on his phone.”

Her stared at her. “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” he said.