She had to stop herself before she blurted the unretractable: you kinda almost maybe sorta had the fatherly thing down in spades. But those were thoughts and dizzying emotional heights she didn't dare revisit so casually. Still, it was hard not to remember him as the patriarch of their house. A house he built, in point of fact.

And now, here he was, coming to her for help. Oh -- he didn't couch it in those terms. She never expected he ever would. But that's what was happening. Horner wanted her help; her responsibility; her duty. He wasn't disparaging it, but commending it. Just by wanting it.

She lined up the four wine bottles on the counter, twisting them until all their labels lined up. "What's she like? You can't let me walk into this blind, y'know..."