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escape the sometimes-claustrophobic atmosphere of Chesterton, Virginia, where she and the rest of her family lived.
    Dawn looked around the shop in search of her father.
    The owners of Big Ben’s took the name literally. More than two dozen replicas of the iconic Big Ben clock were sprinkled around the room in the form of figurines, statues, and posters. Several Union Jacks were hanging from the walls and ceiling. A red telephone box was in a corner. Even the floor mat at the front door was emblazoned with the words “Keep Calm and Carry On” with the British royal crown above it. Dawn had always gotten a kick out of the place because of how quirky it was.
    She did another sweep of the room and finally spotted her father. While most of the customers in the shop were wearing casual clothes—jeans, cable-knit sweaters, boots, and wool coats—her father was the only man wearing a suit and tie.
    Overdressed like the day I met him , she thought with a small smile.
    He sat at a table in one of the far corners, sipping from a porcelain teacup. As she drew closer she noticed a biscuit sat on the paper napkin in front of him. Beside it was a leather-bound photo album.
    He still looked sickly, but she could tell he was a man who would not allow illness to make him neglect his appearance. Everything on him from his tie to his calfskin shoes was impeccable.
    Her father slowly looked up. When he saw her, he reached for his bamboo cane and started to rise from his chair.
    â€œPlease, no! Don’t get up,” Dawn said, waving him back to his seat. She removed her coat and pulled out the chair across from him. She tossed her coat over the back of the chair and sat down. “Thank you for coming.”
    â€œNo, thank you for inviting me. I was hoping you would agree to see me again.”
    Dawn clasped her hands in her lap. Father and daughter fell into an awkward silence. Her eyes scanned over him while he continued to stare at her eagerly. Again, she was taken aback by the idea that this was her father. He had made her. She shared DNA with him, and yet he was barely more than a stranger to her.
    â€œSo,” Dawn said, after clearing her throat, “I see that you didn’t bring your bodyguard this time.”
    â€œMy bodyguard?” Her father squinted in confusion then his face brightened. “Oh, you . . . you mean Xavier! No, I didn’t think it was necessary for him to be here this time.”
    â€œOh, well, that’s . . . that’s good. I’m glad he doesn’t feel like he has to protect you from me anymore,” she said with a forced laugh.
    Dawn didn’t know why, but she was a little disappointed that Xavier hadn’t come this time. She had been thinking about the stuffy handsome lawyer off and on for the past week.
    Well, maybe a little more than off and on, she thought, correcting herself. Actually, Dawn had thought about him more than she cared to admit. Again, she didn’t know why. He wasn’t her type and she had already resolved that men were too complicated to try to pursue anything with them right now. But still, he lingered in her memory like a fish bone stuck between her molars; she couldn’t get him out of her mind.
    â€œThe usual, Dawn?” a waitress asked as she walked past their table.
    Dawn snapped out of her thoughts. She looked up and nodded. “Yes, thanks, Tracey.”
    â€œSo they know you by name. Do you come here often?” her father asked.
    â€œFor the past twenty years or so. But I came here a lot more when I went to Georgetown.”
    â€œYou went to Georgetown? ” He shook his head in bewilderment. “You are a very smart woman, aren’t you?”
    She looked up from the teacup and blueberry scone that the waitress sat in front of her. Dawn cocked an eyebrow as she shook out a napkin and tossed it across her lap. “Did you expect me not to be?”
    â€œWell, frankly, I didn’t know what