She smiled faintly. “You just want to show me off again.”
He chuckled, a low, warm sound. “Of course. You’re my daughter. Smart, beautiful… and occasionally bossy.”
Lily rolled her eyes playfully. “I’m only bossy when someone tries to give me dry toast and call it breakfast.”
He laughed again and reached for another slice of bread. “Fair enough.”
They fell into a short, comfortable silence. The kind that came from years of shared dinners like this, sometimes light, sometimes heavy.
Tonight, Lily knew what was coming. She could feel it in the way her father tapped his spoon gently against his bowl.
Sure enough, he spoke again, softly this time. “Lily, we’ve talked about this before… When are you going to leave that acting and modeling path behind?”
There it was.
Lily lowered her for
