“Is that how we greet people?”
The girl’s eyes zipped back and forth from her mother to the stranger a few times before settling on her parent.
Devlin’s lips curled up slightly. “It’s okay. He’s a friend.”
It took Cassandra at least five seconds to lay her five fingers on his palm.
Randall gently kissed the back of her hand before taking a step back, “My lady,” sweeping his left arm out to the side, and bowing, “it is truly an honor to make the acquaintance of such royalty.”
Cassandra’s mood lightened at Randall’s grand gesture and quirky, accented words.
He moved closer, put his left hand near her right ear, made a swift crossing motion with both hands, and produced a mini red rose out of thin air.
Cassandra’s eyes bulged.
Inwardly amused, Faith regarded the ‘magician.’ So that’s why we had to stop at the flower shop on the way here.
Randall presented the rose to the little girl. “A beautiful flower for a beautiful young maiden.”
Cassandra took the gift and touched it to her nose. “Mommy,” she faced her mother, “it’s real. It’s a real flower.”
Devlin smiled. “Is that so?” She eyed the gift-giver. “I didn’t know Mr. Randall had such mystical powers.”
Cassandra sniffed the rose again before smiling at him. “Thank you, Mr. Randall.”
He dipped his head. “You are most welcome, Miss Cassandra. Enjoy.”
A timer buzzed.
Ashford whirled. “That...would be dinner.”
Faith set Cassandra’s feet on the floor, and the little girl ran into the kitchen, her aunt and grandfather on her heels.
Meandering away from the front door, Randall pulled up alongside Devlin, and the two made their way to the dinner table.
She grinned at him. “Neat trick with the flower.”
“That’s the only one I know.” He faced her, a twinkle in his eye. “Always a great ice breaker with the ladies.”
Devlin snickered.
From the kitchen: “Mommy, can Mr. Randall sit next to me?”
“And it would seem,” she poked her chin toward the out-of-sight voice, “you haven’t lost your touch.”
He laughed before leaning closer to Devlin a moment later. “I have to know. What’s the deal with your father and the,” Randall tapped his throat? “Is he a,” his words hung in the air?
She turned toward him, her lips hiking higher.
Randall frowned. “For real?”
She nodded.
His eyebrows still slanted inward, he stared at the holy man. “How the hell—heck...how the heck is that possible?”
She chuckled. “I’ll fill you in after dinner.”
When everyone was seated at the table, Devlin took her husband and her daughter’s hand and looked at her father. “Dad.”
Bowing his head, Mahoney claimed Faith’s hand and extended an upturned palm toward Randall. “Heavenly Father...”
Randall’s gaze went around the table, and he saw lowered heads and a circle of joined hands, broken only by him.
“...we thank You...”
Feeling tiny fingers tugging on his left sleeve, he smiled at a smiling Cassandra, grasped her hand, and her grandfather’s, and bowed his head.
“...for this food and for the hands that prepared it. May it nourish our bodies as Your Word nourishes our souls.” A tick. “And we thank You for bringing our,” he squeezed his daughter’s hand, “Faith back to us.”
Her heart rising closer to her throat, Faith swallowed and shut her eyes a little tighter, hoping to tamp down her emotion.
“We also thank You,” the priest lifted Randall’s hand a tad higher, “for the young man who played a big role in Your rescue plan.”
Randall’s lips crept higher.
“You are good, Father, and we ask for Your continued blessings. Keep us in Your...”
∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞
.
Chapter 33
DEFCON 5
7:24 P.M.
“Jess, Curt,” sitting at the end of the table, Cassandra at the opposite end, her dad on her left, Ashford on her right, Faith laid her napkin on the table, “that was delicious. I can’t remember the last time I had a home-cooked meal. Thank you.”
On her husband’s three o’clock, Randall across from her, Devlin stood, picked up her plate, as well as her man’s plate, and took the dishes to the sink.
Ashford smiled. “You’d probably get more of those if you,” he threw a look toward her father, “moved back to Virginia.”
Mahoney grinned at his son-in-law.
“You too?” Faith rose from her chair while scooping up her plate and utensils. “I can understand that coming from,” she thrust out her left elbow toward her parent, “him, but I at least thought I had,” she sent a hip into Ashford’s chair as she passed by her brother-in-law, “you on my side.”
Devlin clanged pots and pans together while readying the basin for soap and water.
“Hey,” his hands went up, “I’m Switzerland. I take no sides in all this.” After a casual glance at Faith to confirm her back was to him, he turned to Mahoney and gave the man a wink.
The elder man responded in kind.
Rising, Ashford grabbed his father-in-law’s plate and pointed at Randall’s. “You done?”
Randall waved him off. “Let me clear the table.”
“Yeah,” Faith rolled up a dish towel and used it like a whip, gently connecting with Ashford’s upper arm, “you and Jess cooked all this.” She took the stoneware from him. “Go. Get out of here. Noah and I can clean up.”
Devlin shoved a handful of knives and forks into the dish drainer’s plastic cup a little harder than necessary. Noah and I? Well, at least you can remember this one’s first name.
“Sold.” Ashford backed away from the table, his hands in the air. “I accept your offer.”
“You, too, Jess.” Faith made a move for the cloth rag in her sister’s hand. “Let me take over for you.”
Devlin boxed her out with a clockwise shoulder pivot. “I’ve got it.”
Faith scowled at her sibling. “What the hell’s your problem, anyway?”
The dish washer confronted her younger sister.
Faith raised a finger. “You’ve been...”
After spying her daughter...
“...pissy with me ever since—”
...Devlin lifted eyebrows at Faith.
Noticing the incoming daggers, Faith regarded her niece, did a one-eighty, leaned against the counter, folded her arms, and looked away. Crap.
“Cassie,” Devlin poked her chin at Cassandra, “go get ready for bed. It’s late. And you have school tomorrow.”
“But Mom it’s not my bedtime yet. It’s only—”
“Cass—” Devlin
