by Jillian Neal
“She’s boring,” Keaton crossed his arms over his chest and kicked his legs until Dan set him back on the floor.
Glancing at his watch, Rainer Lawson breathed a sigh of relief as he reached his desk. It wasn’t yet eight.
“Wainer!” Henry rushed towards his future brother-in-law, looking thrilled that he’d arrived.
“Hey, buddy.” Rainer lifted Henry up in his arms that were now much more muscular since Dan had been working him out for the last five months that he’d been an Elite officer.
Henry gave Dan an extremely disappointed gaze. “He no no how da baby got in Mommy ee-ver.”
Rainer laughed, “They asked you, too?”
“Yep,” Dan tried not to visibly shudder.
“Well, let’s continue on our tour of the Senate, and we’ll see who else the twins can make extremely uncomfortable,” Governor Haydenshire sighed.
“I’ll be back,” Logan assured Dan, looking like he’d far rather stay and work than take his father-in-law on a tour of the American Gifted Senate.
Dan assumed the early morning tour was due to the fact that the Haydenshires and all of Iodex were trying very hard to keep Adeline’s royal heritage a secret until her trial, which was in two days.
As soon as Wretchkinsides learned of her wealth and status she would become an appealing target for kidnapping, and the Caliph’s son, Adeline’s father, was the lynch pin in proving her innocence.
“Take your time,” Dan huffed insincerely as he returned to his office.
~Logan Haydenshire~
“Logan, son, if your mother can learn to put up with your Grandpa, then you can learn to deal with Lucas.” Governor Haydenshire watched Logan pace in his office after Lucas had gone back to the farm with Mrs. Haydenshire and the twins.
“He’s driving Ad crazy with all of his wanting to buy her things and wanting her to experience things.”
“Logan, he loves her, and he feels badly he wasn’t there for her growing up. He wants to do things for her and with her now.” Governor Haydenshire restated something Logan had become very accustomed to hearing over the past week and a half that his father-in-law had been visiting from Australia.
“Dad, he’s been walking the farm looking for building sites for our new house!” Logan wanted to scream. Lucas had been rather insistent that Logan and Adeline should build a much larger home on the farm.
Governor Haydenshire chuckled and shook his head. “He’s going back to the other side of the world Friday, Logan. Try to be patient.”
“There is nothing wrong with our house! Adeline loves our house. It’s the first place she’s ever really felt safe. He wants her to live in some big mansion. But it’s not like it matters. As soon as Wretchkinsides finds out who her dad is, she won’t really be safe anywhere.” Logan finally allowed the real reason he was so thoroughly annoyed with Lucas Nguyen to surface.
“Logan, you know that if you let fear rule your life, you’ve already lost. If Lucas doesn’t testify Wednesday, then Adeline will never practice medicine anywhere. Are you going to let Dominic Wretchkinsides take that away from your wife, or are you going to look inside yourself and find the strength to help Vindico, and Rainer, and Garrett, all of them,” he gestured towards the Iodex side of the Senate, “end Dominic Wretchkinsides?”
Logan drew a steadying breath and tried to think of an argument for his father’s reasoning. It was a task he’d been trying since he was Keaton and Henry’s age, and hadn’t yet succeeded in by the age of twenty-one.
“Courage isn’t the ability to stand in a place without fear, Logan. Courage is looking fear in the eye and telling it to get the hell out of your way because you have something you need to do.”
“I know that, Dad,” Logan sighed.
“Now, a little advice from your old man,” the Governor quipped wryly. “You’ll find, if you’ll stop whining about your father-in-law’s extended visit, that you have a nice day here at the office with your friends and co-workers. There are occasionally reasons that people enjoy work other than the paycheck they bring home. Besides being fulfilling and what you were put on earth to do, it can also serve as an eight hour break from your in-laws.” Governor Haydenshire gave his customary smirk as Logan chuckled his agreement.
Stairway to Heaven
“Come on, baby. Please just relax. Let’s have dinner, just you and me, no Lucas, no serving staff, no Mom and Dad, no one but us.” Logan pled on Tuesday night as he watched Adeline pull off her scrubs and slip into a pair of tight jeans and a sweater. She was a disaster, a beautiful disaster.
She’d been so nervous about the trial the next day and about Lucas making his involvement in her life known, not only to the Realm, but to the Non-Gifted world as well, that she’d been sick when she’d gotten home from work.
“Was Lucas upset?” Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip. She looked morose. Logan quickly tried to determine how much to tell her and how much to bend the truth.
“I explained to him that I wanted to take you out to get your mind off everything. He was okay with it.” Logan stumbled over the last few words.
Lucas’ visit to Haydenshire farm had been eventful. Keaton had asked him repeatedly how his new baby sister had come to be in Mrs. Haydenshire’s stomach.
He’d been informed by Logan’s mother, rather tersely, that she changed the linens on the beds on Fridays and only on Fridays, unless someone was sick. She’d continued her polite rant by stating that she didn’t particularly care if the serving staff at the Australian palace changed the sheets every three days, she wasn’t doing that and wouldn’t allow the two servants who had traveled with Lucas to do it, either.
He’d gotten in a screaming match with Logan and Governor Haydenshire when Lucas had been spying on Logan and Adeline in the living room of the farmhouse on Christmas day. Logan had flirted with his wife, and after he’d swatted her backside, he’d pulled her in his lap and had run his hands over several other places.
Lucas had gone on and on about how disrespectful that was, not only to Adeline but to him and to the Haydenshires as well, and that it was completely inappropriate thing to do on a formal holiday, when the Haydenshires were entertaining foreign guests.
After Adeline had defended Logan to her father and insisted that she’d enjoyed his flirting, she’d dissolved in a puddle of tears. Her confession and standing up to her father had taken every bit of her resolve.
She and Logan had returned to the guesthouse long before anyone else left the farmhouse and long before they’d gotten Christmas dinner.
Emily and Rainer had brought each of them plates heaping with food later that night. Lucas seemed to have been under the impression that Adeline would be spending the majority of her time with him. He’d repeatedly asked why she worked such long shifts at the hospital, insinuating that as she was married to one of the Crown Governor of the American Realm’s sons that her work should be done on a volunteer basis.
The entire way the Haydenshires existed, their lack of pomp and circumstance, the fact that though Logan’s father was the Crown Governor he still didn’t believe himself to be anything more than a servant of the Realm truly baffled Lucas. He’d been raised one of the Australian Caliph’s sons in a palace and was admired and respected by the Australian Realm, not for his actions, but for his name.
Logan had attempted to shield Adeline from the stress of her father as much as he was able. He’d planned their night out alone, before the trial, with a great deal of finesse. He was taking her to one of their favorite restaurants: the pizza place they’d gone on their first date. He’d decided to try to give her an evening with just a little bit of their past. He hoped that taking her back to a time and place when life wasn’t quite so complicated might give her a chance to breathe and relax, if only for a few hours.
Adeline pulled her brush through her long, silky, black hair. Logan was momentarily entranced by its sway.
Setting the brush down on their dresser, she spun and flew to Loga
n with her chin trembling again. Logan wrapped his long, muscled arms around her tightly. “I’m right here, baby, and I will take care of you. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, ever.” He’d made that vow adamantly. He must’ve said those words a hundred times that day alone.
She nodded against him, but she didn’t really believe his promise. Truthfully, besides Logan’s testimony at her trial the next morning, he had very little power over whether or not she would be able to continue practicing medicine.
If she was found guilty of possession or use of drugs, then that would be the end of her career. Whether Governor Haydenshire could keep her out of jail or not, he couldn’t force Georgetown Hospital to break their long term policy, no matter how trumped up the charges were.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s just get out of here for a little while. We’ll get our mind off of everything. I just want to be with you, and,” Logan kissed the top of her head, “truthfully, I’m probably just gonna keep saying random, stupid shit until I get you to laugh for me.” He let her infectious giggle soothe his soul.
“You always make me laugh. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” She continued to cling to him fiercely.
“Well, that works, because you’re the greatest thing in my whole world. Nothing matters to me but you.”
Adeline pulled away from him and gazed into his eyes. “I know you’re kind of stressed out about Lucas, and Wretchkinsides finding out, and everything, and I know this is kind of stupid.”
Logan furrowed his brow as she went on.
She shrugged sheepishly. “I’m kind of excited that I get to be with you so much more now that you’re gonna take me to work and pick me up to keep me safe. I know that’s silly.”
“I’m excited too, baby. I mean if there wasn’t a deranged, psychopathic, murderer, backed by an entire criminal organization involved, I’d be thrilled,” Logan quipped dejectedly.
Adeline giggled again. “I was sort of not thinking about that part. Besides, you and Rainer are going to catch him, and then we’ll be safe.”
“Vindico has the whole damn force trying. It’s not just the taskforce anymore. We’re just not getting very far.”
“But you will. I know you will,” Adeline seemed to have no doubt in Logan’s abilities whatsoever. He would never deserve someone that loved him like she did. He hugged her tightly.
“You ready to go?” He wanted to get out of the house, away from the trial, Wretchkinsides, and away from the Australian royal family. He wanted just a little while to let the world slip away. He needed the two of them to exist alone together.
~Governor Stephen Haydenshire~
“You’re sure Lillian’s up to this? I don’t want her going to any trouble on my account.” Jack Stariff sounded quite concerned as he and Stephen slowly meandered from the barn, where all of the cars were parked, to the farmhouse kitchen.
Stephen sighed. Truthfully, he wasn’t certain that she was up to a dinner with Jack and Lucas. “She seems happier now that she’s able to be up and around a little. I try to keep her from doing too much. Her mom and the kids have been coming by and helping out. I’ve offered a dozen times to hire her some help, but she doesn’t want it. When the twins were born, she’d end up firing them and yelling at me after just a few hours.”
Jack chuckled heartily. “And how’s our newest baby girl?” he hesitantly asked as they crested the porch.
“No one seems to be able to tell us exactly. She shows some signs of Gifted energy, but she also shows signs of having Down syndrome. None of the tests are conclusive, and they upset Lillian. I don’t want her to have any more done.”
It tore him apart to think of what his precious little girl might be going through, and what was happening to his wife, all at the hands of Roberto Vasquez. How could he have let one of Wretchkinsides’ men get that close to Lillian? He’d never forgive himself. He couldn’t help Abigail yet, so keeping his angelic wife from tears had become his only goal.
“Lill tries not to think about it,” Stephen warned.
Jack nodded his understanding that he was not to ask her about the baby’s health.
“I’ll be glad to get this trial behind us, and truthfully for her to stop playing hostess to the Caliph’s son. I want her to relax.”
Opening the side entrance to his home, Stephen smiled and let the peace that it always brought him wash through his weary soul. Lillian gave him his smile, that half grin with the twinkle in her sky-blue eyes that he’d always known held the secrets to the entire universe. It was the very smile that had him turned inside out from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her.
They’d gone out on one date to a school formal at the Academy. The following Monday her car had broken down in the Academy student parking lot. Anxious to spend more time with her, he’d offered to drive her home. He’d never forgotten Lillian Anderson giving him that mischievous, all-knowing grin with the sparkle in her eye as she nodded and climbed in his truck.
The truck his father had made him work until he’d earned enough to pay the current market value for the F-100 that was ancient then. He’d had to earn enough to pay for the car, the insurance for a year, and enough for six months of gasoline.
Stephen had excitedly given the money to his father when he’d amassed the required amount. His father had handed him the keys to the truck and then put all of the money in a savings account for Stephen.
He eased into the kitchen, closing the door behind Jack. Lillian was at the stove, and the twins were in the living room watching TV. “Hey, honey, you feeling all right?” He brushed a kiss on his wife’s cheek. He had to ask. He had to know.
“I’m fine, Stephen,” she assured him, growing weary of his constant checking. “Jack, I was in a chicken and dumpling mood. I hope that’s all right?” She shared a different smile with Jack, the one she reserved for the people she cared for deeply but weren’t Stephen.
“Lillian, I’ve never been fed anything here that I wouldn’t hold up to the finest restaurants in D.C. If you made ‘um, then I’m eating them.” He lifted her hand and kissed it in true Jack Stariff format.
She laughed and shook her head before she turned and slowly stirred the pot on the stove again.
“Hi da-yee,” Henry announced as he extended his hands up to the Governor.
“Hello, son, were you a good boy for Mommy today?” Stephen hoisted Henry into the air, grinning at him adoringly.
“Will and Book came ober, and Keaton and I colored Wily Ana,” Henry explained with a great deal of exuberance.
Stephen felt his heart sink as Jack began laughing. “What?” he demanded of his youngest son.
Lillian sighed, “Yes, they found magic markers in Emily’s old room. Thankfully, our daughter-in-law is still speaking to us.”
“We do not color people, Henry. Only paper; you know that,” Stephen couldn’t help but wonder if any of his children ever really listened to him.
“Do you remember when Will and Garrett finger-painted Levi?” Lillian chuckled as Stephen nodded and joined in her laughter.
Setting Henry back down so he could return to his television show, he let his gaze travel back to his wife. His mind returned to her climbing up into his truck all those years ago, with her long blonde hair whipped out behind her, wearing a navy blue mini-dress with a long white scarf tied around her waist.
She’d had on platform heels that strapped up her slender calves that made her legs look like they went on for miles. When he’d offered her his hand to step up into the truck, the skirt had been short enough to show off the top of her inner thigh. He’d lost the ability to breathe or to form coherent sentences for several long minutes after catching the glimpse of what he still considered to be the stairway to heaven.
‘I Think I Love You’ by the Partridge family was on the radio. “I love this song,” she’d announced, and turned up the radio that Stephen had added to the truck. He’d talked Sam into letting him wash cars all summer at his sh
op to afford the eight-track player.
She’d sung along as they left the campus, giving him that coquettish grin that said she was either hell on heels or a heavenly angel come to earth, but that he was going to have to hold on tight if he wanted to figure out which one she was. Turned out, she was the perfect combination of both, and he’d known then and there that she was the one.
Coming back to the present for just a moment, he took her all in. The sight of her standing, smiling at him, swollen full of his child still took his breath away. After all of these years and all of eleven of their children, his heart still skipped several beats whenever he gazed at her and what their love had produced.
Thinking about Will, Stephen replayed the scene of her standing in the bathroom of his tiny studio apartment crying. It was one week to her graduation and two weeks to their wedding, and she was two weeks late. She’d sobbed, and he’d held her tightly, letting her ruin one of his only good shirts, swearing to her that he would take care of her and the baby, and that she didn’t have to be afraid, that he would never let anything bad happen to her.
It had been the utterings of a twenty-two year old idiot. Though he’d meant every single word he’d repeated to her, he was too pompous and too arrogant to ever understand that there were things in the world that he couldn’t protect her from, no matter how much he loved and adored her.
Will had come one week late, and they’d told everyone that he was a couple of weeks early, assuring her parents and his that they’d conceived on their honeymoon. They now knew that no one had really believed them.
Shaking himself from his abstraction, Stephen smiled at her, still just as in love with Lillian Anderson as he was on that sunny, spring afternoon when his life had finally found its purpose.
“Where’s Lucas?” He tried not to sound as weary as he felt. Lillian chuckled as she beamed at him. She could read him like a book, and she knew he was rather tired of sharing his home with Adeline’s father and his serving staff.