Sara was fidgeting with the waistline of her skirt. Abby knew she was nervous.
"Hey," she said, giving her daughter's arm a comforting pat, "It'll be okay."
Sara looked up and smiled at her, her eyes revealing her fear. Abby smiled comfortingly back. She was nervous too, but it was more important that she be together for Sara.
"Well," she said finally and she rang the bell. They had been standing there for a while – in silence – and neither of them had dared to ring it yet.
"Mom?" Sara began and her voice was low and tense, "What if he doesn't like me."
Abby pulled the girl into a quick hug.
"Then he's crazy," she said and she grinned at her again. The girl opened her mouth to say something again when the front door swung open.
"Abby! Sara!" Eleanor exclaimed pulling her granddaughter into an embrace and smiling widely at Abby, "I'm so happy that you could make it."
Abby nodded and smiled back. Eleanor really wasn't all that bad. When Carter left she had been more than supportive and she had gone beyond the call of duty paying tuition annually for Sara to attend the top school in the state. She had them over at least once a month and she always made sure to keep in touch with Sara through phone calls when she traveled to Florida every winter.
"Come on in," she said, gesturing toward the confines of the mansion, "We're all waiting."
"We all?" Sara asked timidly.
"Yes, John and his gi–" catching the hint from a hard glare from Abby she caught herself and said, "Your father and his friend." Abby had neglected to tell Sara that her father had picked up a young girlfriend during his absence.
They walked slowly to the dining room, Abby keeping her arm protectively around Sara's shoulder. Anyone who tried to hurt this girl would have to deal with her.
Carter was wearing a shirt and tie (a tie?!) and the girl next to him was clad in a semi-formal pair of slacks and a blouse. Abby groaned inwardly. No one had told them they were supposed to be dressed up. Eleanor was wearing a suit, but then again, Eleanor was always wearing a suit.
Abby suddenly felt very underdressed in her jeans and long-sleeved tee and she could tell by the way that Sara was playing with the cuffs of her uniform sweater that she was uncomfortable too.
They took seats next to each other and Carter cleared his throat.
"Hi," he said and Sara and Abby looked at him with identical expressions of exasperations and confusion. They remained silent and Carter continued in his blundering way, "Um, you've grown quite a bit, Sara."
"Yeah, that tends to happen over six year," the girl muttered quietly and Abby put a hand on her leg under the table, trying to keep her from doing something she would regret.
Carter looked abashedly at his plate and began to fiddle with his fork. Abby was watching his fingers push the fork sideways on his napkin and then pick it up and turn it over and over in his hands. She wished he would stop it. It was making her nervous to watch and she didn't really want to be any more nervous and upset than she already was.
He saw her eyeing the fork and immediately put it down, placing his hands resolutely in his lap before removing them and gesturing toward the woman next to him.
"This is Monica," he said and Sara and Abby both turned their attention to her silently.
Eleanor called attention to her end of the table by tapping a knife lightly against her cup.
She chuckled but nobody else grinned and Abby wished she could just leave.
"How about we get dinner started?" she asked.
"Sounds good to me," Abby said with a plastered-on smile, being sure to avoid eye-contact with Carter.
"I hope you all have good appetites, because there's plenty of food. Let me just see what's keeping Elsa with the salads." She stood up and left the silent table, the sashaying of her skirts the only noise apparent in the room.
They all eyed each other nervously for a few seconds before Monica spoke up.
"So, you're John's daughter?" she said and the smile on her face looked as though it would taste like candy if someone took a bite of it. Too sugary sweet and very fake.
Sara nodded and tried to smile, but her nerves and apprehension made it look more like a grimace.
John? was all that Abby could think. Who – aside from his mother – called him John? He let her call him John? She still made a point of not looking at him and however childish it felt, it gave her some satisfaction knowing that he was aware that she was mad.
"What grade are you in?" Monica asked, her voice like cotton candy, but her words hacking like a knife into the tense silence.
"Sixth."
"Wow, that's great!"
Abby could tell that Sara didn't like this woman. Though she had nothing wrong, she still gave off the impression of looking down upon you and Abby assumed that her bank account was probably busting at the seams. She may not be as rich as the Carters, but the jewels that dripped from her neck and ears and wrists made it apparent that she was pretty close.
Sara nodded and rolled her eyes slowly around the room, not wanting to look at either of the questioning faces across the table either.
Eleanor returned just then and smiled briskly at them.
"Well, the salad is on its way," she turned her attention to Abby, "Abby, there's a new restaurant in town that I just must take you and Sara to the next time you have a chance. I hear the food is just to die for."
Abby nodded.
"That sounds great. I'm off Monday afternoon, but Sara and I have plans," she could feel Carter's eyes digging hungrily into the side of her neck, "so it'd have to wait a week or so." Eleanor nodded.
"I understand entirely. You just give me a call when you know for sure and I'll make a reservation."
Abby glanced sideways at Sara who was staring at Carter. She kicked her lightly under the table and Sara go the point, turning her attention to her plate and fingering a piece of hair that had fallen out of her hastily-tied-up ponytail.
"How have you been, Sara?" Carter asked, his first vocalization since his last attempt at conversation.
"Okay."
Abby could hear the tears in Sara's throat and she wanted to hug the girl on the spot and pull her away from Carter and anything that could possibly relate to him. The man was putting her daughter through all this on purpose. He had to be. Abby couldn't find anything within her that had a decent feeling about Carter.
"Abby?"
She looked up from her thoughts, thinking she had missed the question.
"Yes?" she asked lightly, looking at Carter finally. Her heart would have melted at the sight of his broken and disheveled spirit if only she could let it.
"How have you been?"
She stared at him, trying to build up her hatred again. She much preferred being angry to feeling guilty.
"Can't complain and yourself?" she said finally.
She knew that Sara wouldn't be able to accept Carter until she did and, looking at his face, she felt that maybe, just maybe, he deserved a second chance. Maybe, just maybe, he was hurting inside as much as she had when he left.