Ellie’s apartment is as nice as her clothes and her car. It’s sleek and bright and museum-like. I can only imagine that Caleb’s room is a dark cave compared to the rest of the place.
“This is amazing!” I say when Ellie shows me the guest room where I’ll be staying. It has a giant bed, its own bathroom, and—the kicker—a balcony that overlooks the Four Palms Resort next door. I have a feeling I’ll be hanging out there for hours (with a very cold lemonade in my hand so I don’t pass out from the heat). Even though it’s early evening, the air is still hot and sticky.
“You’ll be sharing this balcony with Caleb,” Ellie says as we go to check it out. “His room is right next door.”
“Most of the other apartments here have balconies way bigger than this,” Caleb mutters. “They should have designed it so that all of them were the same size.”
Ellie pats him on the shoulder. “Caleb is interested in architecture, just like his father. Aren’t you? Tuck in your shirt, dear. It looks sloppy.”
Caleb just grunts and keeps tapping away on his iPad. These two certainly have a weird relationship.
I glance at my dad to see how he’s dealing with Caleb’s “cheery” mood, but he’s grinning at us like everything is perfect.
“What are those tents for?” I ask, spotting a couple of brightly colored canopies set up inside the resort.
Ellie smiles. “They’re for a little event we’re putting together next week, a mini Renaissance festival. We thought it might help to bring in some business.”
“Wow, does that mean you’ll have jousting and stuff?” I ask, remembering a festival my dad took me to when I was little.
“Jousters, musicians, jugglers—you name it!”
“And catapults,” Caleb chimes in. For once he actually looks up from his tablet. I realize that his eyes are the exact same shade of gray as Ellie’s. “There’s a design-your-own-catapult competition for kids,” he goes on, his face suddenly full of excitement. “I’m going to win it.”
“Now, let’s not brag, dear,” Ellie says.
But Caleb is already back to tapping on the screen.
“Ellie, why don’t we let Rachel settle in and then we can go get some dinner at the resort,” Dad says.
“Oh,” I say. “I was hoping we could go to one of the restaurants at Downtown Disney tonight. Remember, Dad? We always talked about checking it out. It’s free to get in.”
Dad opens his mouth to answer, but Ellie jumps in. “But it’s Sunday. We always eat at the resort on Sundays. Don’t we, Teddy?”
My dad nods and gives me an apologetic smile. “Ellie’s big on traditions.”
“They make families strong!” she chirps.
I can’t help feeling disappointed, but I have to remind myself that it’s only my first night here. It won’t kill me to wait a day to dive into all the stuff on my list.
We all start to go back into the room, but suddenly Ellie reaches out and grabs my arm. “Stay out here with me a minute,” she whispers.
I stare at her in confusion. Do I have something in my teeth and she’s too embarrassed to tell me in front of the others?
When Dad and Caleb are inside, she pulls me over to the corner of the balcony and says in a loud whisper, “I wanted to tell you how much your father means to me, Rachel. He’s the best thing to happen to me in a long time.”
“Oh. Good,” I say. My cheeks are already flushed from the heat, but they’re suddenly even hotter.
“I can’t wait to marry him,” she says, her eyes shining.
My jaw drops. Marry him? Is she saying that she and my dad are engaged?
“But shhh,” she adds. “Don’t say anything to your dad, okay? I want it to be a huge surprise when I pop the question.”
Before I can stammer out an answer, my dad calls from inside: “Rachel? Ellie? What are you two doing out there?”
“Just some girl talk!” Ellie calls back, giving me a big wink. Then she squeezes my shoulder and hurries indoors.
I’m in a daze as I stumble back into the frostily air-conditioned room. Caleb’s already disappeared and Dad is lugging my bags into the corner.
“Roo? Are you all right?” he asks when he sees what must be a stony look on my face.
Am I all right? I have no idea what to make of what Ellie told me. Part of me hopes I hallucinated the whole thing. Heat makes people do that sometimes, doesn’t it?
“Yeah,” I say, forcing myself to smile. “Just tired.”
He pulls me into a quick hug. “I’m so glad you’re here, Roo. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.” A pained expression flashes across his face, like having me here actually makes him sad for some reason.
“I’ve missed you too,” I say.
“We’ll let you relax for a little while, and then we’ll get some dinner. Okay?”
I nod as he leaves the room. Then I stand there, still dazed, replaying what Ellie said. My parents aren’t even divorced yet. How could my dad get engaged again? And when Ellie said she’s going to “pop the question,” did she mean sometime in the far-off future or did she mean tomorrow? Oh my goldfish. What if she does it while I’m here? Even if she seems nice, how am I supposed to be okay with that? It’s totally bizarre!
But I guess if they’re happy…
Are they happy? Ellie certainly seems that way, but Dad? He was smiling a lot, but now that I think about it, he hasn’t laughed once since I got here. That doesn’t seem like the dad I know at all.