I heard her open the door and quiet voices, then she reappeared, leading Father Mallory by the hand.
“Are you allowed to date?” I asked him.
“Actually, yes,” he told me, nodding his greeting to me. “I can even get married if I ever find the right girl who’ll put up with me.” His words were cut off as Rosie ushered him into the kitchen. I glanced over, wondering how they’d fit four people in there. Gayle obviously felt it wasn’t possible as she came out carrying the breadbaskets for the table. I stood up and pulled out a chair for her. She sat down, letting me help her scoot the chair in.
In the months since my fight with Aleksander, Gayle had spent more time at my studio to make sure I healed all right. Then she’d just spent more time there. When it came time to go to court about Dawn, she’d gone with and given a statement to the judge, recommending I be made Dawn’s guardian and that she’d seen firsthand that my ‘disability’ would in no way hinder me from caring for a baby. I had been made Dawn’s permanent guardian just a few months before.
The sound I’d heard in her chest had turned out to be cancer, but had been found early enough Gayle’s prognosis was excellent.
“Oh, he’s found the right girl,” Jozef told me quietly, his tone sly as he glanced at Rosie. “Now he’s just got to convince her grandmother.”
I looked into the kitchen where Marcella cackled something in her harsh laugh when Father Mallory said something.
There was no fear in him. He accepted Marcella and Jozef as being a part of Rosie and her life. Just like Jozef had promised Rosie someone would. Since I’d left her in his care that night, they’d spent more time together. Rosie started spending her evenings there at the church, at first under the guise that she wanted to give Marcella and Jozef time to get reacquainted, then simply saying she was finding some peace and resolution there. I had poked around some, wanting to make sure she was all right after being taken from her family and Nicholas being killed. Father Mallory had at first been offering her support and some counseling, but their friendship and soon more had grown quickly from there.
Yes, he’d found the right girl.
Convincing her grandmother, however, would no doubt be the true test.
Bloodlust Page 31