Bride & Groom

out. We’re not even distant relatives.”
    I’d have felt comparatively relieved to learn that they were. In the world of purebred dogs, “line breeding,” as it’s called, is so common that breeders need a special term, outcross, for the mating of unrelated animals. By comparison with close line breedings—father to daughter, son to mother, brother to sister—a cousin-to-cousin mating of human beings would’ve struck me as unremarkable. But show dogs don’t usually choose their own mates. And if they did, the females wouldn’t knowingly, deliberately, and perversely go around picking studs who looked uncannily like their own mothers!
    No one voiced any additional remarks about John’s appearance, in part because we were busy taking seats, accepting Mac’s offer of drinks, and devoting ourselves to the appetizers that Olivia had placed on the low table between the couches. The hors d’oeuvres weren’t the usual raw vegetables and dips or selections of cheese and crackers, but slices of smoked salmon rolled around arugula and cream cheese, long strips of peeled cucumber wrapped around seafood, miniature crispy brown potato pancakes, and other such delicacies.
    “Incredible!” I said to Judith.
    “Thank you,” said Judith, “but Olivia deserves half the credit. We’ve always cooked together.”
    “I’m just the prep cook,” Olivia said. “Mom is the head chef.”
    Claire said, “I have yet to discover anything that Judith doesn’t do perfectly.”
    Judith laughed. “It’s so seldom that anyone asks me to sing.” To Steve and me she said, “Ian did not inherit his talent from me. I’m tuneless.”
    So far, except for the small matter of Olivia’s having more or less married her mother, the evening was far less awkward than I’d feared. Indeed, if viewed by a stranger, the scene could have been designed to illustrate hospitality and domesticity. A fire burned in the fireplace. Seated on the floor by the hearth, Ian tossed in a fresh log and then returned to * stroking Uli, who dozed next to him. On one couch were I Mac, Claire, Steve, and I, with little Gus between us; on the , other couch were John, Olivia, Judith, and Claire’s husband, I Daniel. With the possible exception of Ian, we’d have seemed an attractive, appealing group. Mac had poured liberal drinks for everyone except Gus, of course, and me— I’d lost the coin toss for designated driver. Still, a stranger might have assumed that my mineral water was gin or vodka. An old-fashioned observer might have noted that the numbers were uneven: Ian was not part of a couple. What’s more, in contrast to everyone else, Ian looked vaguely unhealthy. His skin was pale, and, as I’d noticed at the bookstore when Mac and I had given our talks, his pale blue eyes seemed somehow to make him look watery, even gelatinous. I had a ludicrous vision of him as a poached egg in aspic.
     

CHAPTER 28
     
    I kept the unflattering image of Ian to myself. In fact, I remained unusually quiet over drinks. Judith and Olivia kept excusing themselves to check on dinner. At Judith’s request, Ian brought in an armful of logs for the fire. John Berkowitz talked with Ian about a Bach concert they’d both attended. John shyly admitted that he played the piano a little. The three veterinarians, Steve, Mac, and Claire, I discussed animals only as ordinary pet owners might have done. Mac asked Steve about Sammy, and Claire again advised Judith to get a puppy. “If Uli’s mind starts to go,” Claire said, “it’s going to be impossible. You need to get one soon. It doesn’t have to be another Bernese. You could get anything.”
    Neither Mac nor Judith responded. Miraculously, I didn’t, either. Real dog person that I am, I tend to hand out unsolicited advice about all things dog on all possible occasions, but Judith didn’t need my advice. The main reason that I kept silent, though, was my certainty that if a veterinarian husband and his dog-person wife had one old dog, no other animals, and no plans to acquire any, there was bound to be a reason, and that reason was bound to be none of my business.
    An awkward lull followed Claire’s remarks, but lasted for only a few seconds. Judith restored animation to the party by announcing that dinner was ready. As all of us rose, it became apparent that Claire, Daniel, and Gus were regular guests of Mac and Judith’s and that the usual routine was for Gus to watch a video while the adults ate. Over