Four #2
I wondered briefly how much we were shelling out for the weekend.
Sam and I normally did our finances together, but Sam’s father was taking care of this, and then we were paying him when we got back.
I started to worry because we had to make payments for school as well, and between this and our regular bills, I saw dipping into savings in our future.
I was okay to take money out, but we needed a new water heater, and we were paying Aaron back for a minivan that was more than we would have spent. We didn’t have to pay him back, but it would be weird if we didn’t—
“Pa?” Hannah was finished, smiling, looking up at me like she was worried.
“This is nicer than my first apartment,” I told her.
“You lived in a potty?”
“Yeah.”
She found that hysterical. After we all washed our hands and Hannah used the rose soap and the aloe-and-clover-scented lotion, we made our way back to the front desk.
Apparently, we had suites and not rooms, and my anxiety rose as we traveled up the elevators. While I appreciated the suite—because sleeping in the same room with my kids meant that I would be celibate Thursday through Sunday—the cost looked staggering.
“It’ll be okay,” Sam whispered close to my ear.
“We need a new water heater,” I reminded him.
“I know,” he said, pressing a kiss to the side of my neck.
As the elevator slid open and we got out with Jen and Doug and their five kids, Regina reminded us to all meet in the lobby in twenty minutes so we could be on time for the reunion to kick off on the west lawn.
“Absolutely.” Jen gave her mother a thumbs-up before the doors swooshed closed. “Ohmygod, I need a drink.”
“It’s not even noon,” Doug reminded her.
She pointed back at the elevator. “We can go right back down to the bar.”
“We’ll get mai tais right after we unpack,” I promised her.
“Oh God, thank you.” She beamed at me.
Our suite was fantastic. It was easily 1,800 square feet—1,300 square feet bigger than my first apartment.
There was Italian marble and a gorgeous view, fresh-cut flowers—birds of paradise and dragon lilies—on the table, and a fruit basket.
It had a living room and two bathrooms, plus a guest toilet.
There were two bedrooms—one for the kids with two beds in it and the other with a king-size bed for me and Sam—and each had its own balcony.
I took Kola and Hannah to their room and showed them how to unpack while Sam took care of our stuff in the other. Once I had the kids situated, I led them back to our room.
We all lay down on the bed and watched Sam get his Glock out of the travel safe—he only had his main weapon when he wasn’t on duty—and assemble it quickly. As federal agents, marshals always had to be armed.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, B?” he said as he started hanging up his clothes, having done mine before even arming himself.
“Do we hafta go to church on Sunday when we get home?”
“No, we’ll miss church.”
“But I was gonna ask Miss Ginny about Cain again,” Kola told his father.
He turned from hanging up his suit beside mine to look at his son. “What about him?”
“Well, last Sunday, I asked Miss Ginny who Cain had babies with when he had to go away, and she said she’d tell me this week.”
“Why did you have to wait a whole week?”
“Because she was gonna look it up,” Kola explained. “I told her it was the evolution people, but she didn’t like that answer.”
Sam squinted and looked at his son. “The evolution people?”
He nodded. “The last time I was at the museum with Pa and Aunt Dyl, we learned about Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man, and so I told Miss Ginny that even though Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel were supposed to be the only people in the world, that outside of where they lived, evolution was going on. It had to be.”
“I see.”
“And I told her that’s where Cain got his wife from.”
“But she said you were wrong.”
“Yeah, so I told her she needed to show me.”
Sam sighed. “You know, some things you have to take on faith, buddy.”
“Like God?”
“Yes, like God.”
“Yeah, but maybe God made the evolution people, too, to see which one would work out better. Maybe the evolution people didn’t kill their brothers.”
“I would never kill Kola,” Hannah told Sam. “Maybe I’m a”—she looked over at her brother—“emolution people?”
“Evolution.”
“Evolution,” she parroted.
Sam looked at me.
“What?”
“Can you help me with this so we can go downstairs? I’m starving.”
“Me too!” Hannah said. “I want ice cream.”
“I want Honeycomb,” Kola informed me.
“You can have something much better than cereal.”
“Like what?”
“Like fruit and an omelet or—”
The retching noise he made cut me off.
Normally, I would unpack all my different hair, face, and body products and put them in place in the bathroom, but Sam assured me we certainly didn’t have time for that.
I was going to argue, but Hannah announced that she, too, was starving, just like her daddy.
I couldn’t very well make my baby wait for sustenance.
Back down in the lobby, everyone else was there so we could walk to the west lawn. It turned out to be a lot closer than we’d thought, and there were white tents set up everywhere with a banner that read Miller-Kage Family Reunion.
Thomas’s oldest brother, Frank—who had planned the whole thing and was much wealthier than his other three brothers and two sisters—came barreling up to us to say hello.
A representative from the hotel went to the podium on the dais and welcomed the families to a great time in the valley of the sun.
It was assigned seating because people were supposed to mix up and mingle and not just stick to their own family clusters.
I walked around, looking for our names, until I found them at a table with an older couple and two beautiful women who had to be their daughters.
Once we sat, I introduced myself, Kola, and Hannah to Jim and his wife, Anita, and their two daughters, Renee and Joyce. When I saw Sam cutting across the tent—he had been waylaid a couple of times by his cousin Levi and others—I waved so he’d see where we were.
When he joined us, of course, the women sat up straight and leaned forward, both very happy to meet him.
I understood. If a big, virile, strapping alpha male was your wet dream, you needed to look no further than Sam Kage.
The killer smile was on display, as was the stubble over his square jaw and under his lip; he had laugh lines in the corners of his eyes and bulging muscles.
Power rippled off the man, combined with dominance and strength.
I would have been very interested as well if he wasn’t already mine.
“So, how are we related?” Sam smiled at Anita, the mother.
“We’re not really.” She smiled at him. “Frank married my mother, Donna, after his first wife passed away, and she already had me and my brother, Paul.”
“Got it. Is your mother here?”
“Yes, she’s at the table with Frank and a lot of other people I don’t know.”
“This is huge.” Sam grinned as Hannah reached up and touched his chin. “Yes, B?”
“Daddy, I’m hungry.”
“I know, love. We just have to wait until they call our section to go up.”
“Where’s your mommy, bunny?” Anita’s daughter Renee asked Hannah.
Now, maybe she asked because there were two more free chairs at our table—it was supposed to seat ten.
Maybe she thought Sam and I were cousins and we were waiting for our wives since we were both wearing wedding rings.
Who knew? It still happened sometimes when we went out, and normally, I wouldn’t care, but this was a family reunion, and I wanted people to know that the big guy was with me. I opened my mouth to set her straight.
“I don’t have a mommy; I have Pa and Daddy. Do you have a mommy and daddy?” Hannah asked cheerfully, taking advantage of the moment between the end of her question and me deciding what to say to take control of the conversation.
Renee flushed beet red, and her eyes got huge. “Yes, I—”
“Do you have a big house? ’Cause I do, and I have a cat named Chilly. Do you have a cat?”
“No, I—”
“Chilly’s all white, except he has black on his ears and his nose. I can draw you a picture of him if you want. Do you have a dog since you don’t have a cat?”
“I—”
“Kola was born in Neverland, but not like where Peter Pan lives. It’s a different place,” she said authoritatively.
“Do you know where that is? I know where that is. I know where Uglay is too. That’s where I was born.
Do you know why I have a daddy and a pa?
Because where Kola was born, pa means daddy. So, that’s why Pa is Pa.”
“I—”
“Where’s your mommy?”
“R-r-right … there,” she stammered, pointing at her mother.
“You’re her mommy?” Hannah asked Anita brightly.
“Yes, darling.”
My girl was a chatterbox, and she had gotten that from me. I loved it. She was a steamroller.
“How come she doesn’t have a cat?” My daughter was very concerned about this development.
“She’s allergic to them.”
The piece of information floored my daughter.
Hannah scrunched up her nose like that was the worst thing she’d ever heard in her whole life before she whispered to Sam, “Daddy.”
“Yes, B?” He chuckled.
“She’s allergic, so she can’t come to our house.”
“Okay.”
“Tell her, ’kay?”
“I will.”
Hannah’s eyes flicked to the woman suspiciously.
Renee leaned forward, eyes on me. “Forgive me. I meant no offense.”
“Yeah, open mouth, insert foot, Renee.” Her sister rolled her eyes before she turned and smiled at me. “So, Jory, what do you do?”
I explained about my graphic design business and then asked her what it was that she did.
Interesting to learn that Joyce was a public defender in Miami, where she lived.
Of course, Sam telling her he was a deputy US marshal was the high point.
Big, beautiful man, and he worked a sexy-sounding job on top of it? Game over.
Once we were called up, I walked with Hannah and Sam with Kola. We were on opposite sides of the buffet table, so of course Kola and Hannah talked over it.