Emily & Einstein by Linda Francis Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

truth before Saturday was ever over.
    “I can’t think of a better way to get around,” was all I said.
    The day was perfect. Warm, not too hot, the amusement park crowded, but not insane. She pulled me from the bumper cars to the Wonder Wheel, the Cyclone roller coaster, and the big slide. At the shooting gallery she won a stuffed animal and presented it to me.
    “I can’t take that,” I said aghast.
    “Why not?”
    “For starters, the man’s supposed to win the prize for the girl.”
    She shot me a crooked smile, but I ignored it as I handed over a series of tickets until I managed to win a stuffed animal for her. “There,” I said.
    She looked at me as if I had given her a priceless emerald sculpture rather than a cheap green toy made in some slave-labor factory in China.
    Amazingly, it was one of the best days of my life—right up until we ran into an acquaintance that was at the park with his kids.
    “Sandy Portman,” Barrett Higby said, slapping me on the back. “How are you? You’re looking well. Though I’m surprised to see you at Coney Island. I certainly wouldn’t be here if the offspring hadn’t insisted. Said I had to bring them out to see how the other half lives—the half without money. Some new push these kids have gotten in their heads to be real .”
    One look at Emily’s creased brow told me this wasn’t going to go well.
    The minute Barrett started to introduce himself to my date, I said it was great to see him, took Emily’s arm, and headed for a food stand that promised coffee.
    “What does that guy mean, regular family ?” she asked.
    There was a bite to her tone and I knew that the time had come for the truth. I half hoped the crowd of people at the food stand would distract her from fully absorbing the news.
    The clerk asked what we wanted. “Two coffees,” I said, then added to Emily, “I have money.”
    She glared at me. “Forget it. I’ll pay for my own.”
    Even I knew that not fully absorbing was something altogether different from not understanding at all. With no help for it, I said it straight out. “Emily, I’m wealthy.”
    First more confusion, before her brows slammed together just as the clerk handed us our coffees. “What do you mean, you’re wealthy?”
    “I’m rich. My family is rich. I’m Sandy Portman,” I added with emphasis. “As in the Portmans of Regal Bay.”
    “I thought the principals were the Regal family.”
    “Well, yes, they were, are. My father’s mother was a Regal. Silas Regal is my great-uncle.”
    “You aren’t struggling to make your way at the firm?”
    “Struggling?” I might have shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone struggle now and again? And let me just add, it’s harder than you’d think to work your way up the ladder when you’re related to the boss. Nepotism is such an ugly word, and quite frankly, can work against you as easily as not.”
    Emily poured sugar into her paper cup, more than seemed reasonable, before setting the sugar dispenser down with a little bang. “You lied to me.”
    I doubted she would appreciate the difference between an out-and-out lie and the obfuscation of truth by omission.
    We rode home on the train in stony silence, she refusing my offer of calling the car service. Since the cat was out of the bag, I would have preferred to wait for a driver to hie us back to the city, but no way was Emily going anywhere near a hired anything, and I couldn’t let her take the subway by herself. Whether she believed it or not, I was still the guy who was old-fashioned enough to spend a small fortune on tickets to win her a stuffed animal—a stuffed animal, I might add, that she crammed into the trash bin on our way out of the park.
    For a week, she didn’t take my calls. Good, I told myself, ignoring the desperation I felt returning, that strange hungry need Emily had put to rest for something more in life. I went out every night, drank and ate and did all the things I used to do, determined to forget