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back to the plant and work on the payroll.”
    “Payroll!” spouted the large chef, “Ach! Worst part of owning a business!”
    “Don’t I know it!” answered Daniel, laughing with Sam.
    “I’ll bring you some pie, Mr. Bridgewater,” said Sam, “We have some nice peach and cherry. Would you like ice cream? On the house, Mr. Bridgewater. It’s an honor to have you eating here.”
    “Best food in the county, Sam,” said Daniel, beaming at the chef, “and best service too!” he added, smiling at Amy. “But actually, coffee is just fine. I’m not very hungry today.”
    “Amy, you work on him,” said her employer, “Nobody can resist our pie. You know it.”
    “I will, Sam,” answered Amy, smiling at the chef, who was heading back to the kitchen.
    “And don’t pester Mr. Bridgewater, Amy,” he yelled at her as he departed, “Let him eat in peace.”
    Amy and Daniel laughed and smiled as they watched Sam exit. Then they turned back to each other and returned to their earlier conversation.
    “You were saying about…other women?” asked Amy, eyebrow raised.
    “I was saying there are no other women for me,” he whispered and pulled her close to him across the table.
    “Okay, okay,” replied Amy, a reddish color flushing across her cheeks, “don’t get all mushy on me here at work.” She patted his cheeks with her hands and he pouted out his lips in a routine that had obviously occurred before. “So, what’s your next step, Mr. Bridgewater?” she asked grabbing her order book from her pocket along with her short pencil.
    “My next step is to find David,” he replied, placing the small photo in the middle of the table and placing his index finger on it like an arrow. “Wherever he is.”
    “You really think that will please your Father?”
“I don’t know if it will please him, but I have to do it and I have to find him before Father dies.”
    “And, if what you tell me is true, that could be sooner rather than later,” she whispered gently.
    “Yes. Listen, I know this means delaying dealing with our situation—with Father. I hate leaving you in limbo like this. Oh, God, I wish Father weren’t so difficult. In so many ways, he’s a wonderful man. Truly. You’d love him, I think if you got to know him and he got to know you in a gradual, normal way. But to thrust this situation on him when he’s ill and when the situation with David is up in the air—I’m afraid it would push him over the edge. I’m afraid it would kill him.”
    “Believe me, Dan, I understand. I don’t want to be responsible for anything happening to your Father. I’m patient. After all, I waited—how long?—for you.”
    “You did, didn’t you? And I’m worth it, aren’t I? It will work out, Sweet. Just let me find David first.”
    “How are you going to find him? Where do you start?”
    “Vickers is going to help me. He’s got an investigator.”
    “Like a private investigator?” she asked, eyes widening in excitement.
    “Right. Just like a crime show. Surely, his trail can’t be that cold. Surely, if someone who knows what they’re doing starts looking, they can track David down.”
    “Where do you think he could be?”
    “Who knows? Maybe overseas. Maybe in New York. I mean he was always interested in the arts. I guess he might go to an arts center.”
    “Maybe,” Amy said. She looked at Daniel. Her mind and heart were full of conflicting emotions. She was excited about the prospect of hunting down David. She was a very curious person and was always up for a challenge. She wanted to know where David was for Daniel’s sake more than for his father’s. Daniel seemed to really need to know his whereabouts. But she was worried too. She was worried about Daniel’s father. Of course he was old and old people died, but Daniel felt responsibility for his father and if he did anything—or revealed anything—to his father that upset him and precipitated his death, Daniel would probably never