by M Brereton
“My dad started when I was young. It gives them discipline and calms them down. It’s for defense only…”
“He walked up and punched you. I don’t think he was defending anything.” Eva pointed out folding her arms.
“He’s still learning.”
“I like punching,” Will stated unaware of the problem he caused.
“I can see that,” Eva stated, glaring at Noah.
“It’ll be okay,” Noah promised and as her eyes narrowed at him he added. “I know what I’m doing.”
“You better because we have a play date scheduled with the Canadian Prime Minister’s son. It wouldn’t do for your little soldiers to go punching him.” Eva threatened, jabbing a finger in his chest.
“Defense only. Remember, boys.” Noah told them and both boys nodded eagerly, and Noah said, “See, they get it.”
“I see,” Eva replied unconvinced.
“Now go play!” He told them and to his complete horror, Nate punched his brother and started a fight between them. Eva’s glare practically bored holes in him until he muttered, “I’ll go break it up.” Noah ran up to the boys and muttered, “You’re making me look bad.” Aloud, he commanded, “Don’t hit you, brother!”
“At least I didn’t have to do it this time,” Amelia remarked, and Eva’s eyes widened before she glared daggers at Noah.
“You couldn’t keep that to yourself,” Noah grumbled, and Amelia just shrugged her small shoulders. They were going to ruin his life.
* * *
While Noah and the Canadian Prime Minister held their meeting, another equally important meeting was taking place in the White House nursery. The meeting was recorded by the White House press between Jacques and Amelia.
Eva, Olivia and the wife of the Canadian Prime Minister sat having tea as the children made use of the expansive playroom. Mimicking her mother, Amelia thought it would be nice to invite their guest to tea also, but the boy paid little heed to what she was serving.
“Your hair is pretty.” The eight-year-old Jacques commented shyly in French. He was the image of his father with dark hair and sea blue eyes.
“Thank you,” Amelia responded in French and he beamed at her as she offered him a plate.
The twins and their cousin, Connor tried in vain to get his attention, but he brushed them off easily as he continued to stare at Amelia.
“Your name is pretty.” He continued.
“Thank you,” Amelia responded politely as he continued his intense stare which made her wish her Daddy was in the room. But going by her mother’s side glances at them she knew she didn’t have to worry too much.
Jacques was immensely pleased she spoke French and glad he didn’t have to hide his French accent to speak with her, but he wished she’d say more. “Do you like school?” He prodded.
“It’s alright, but Mommy says I need a more advanced class,” Amelia informed him.
“You are smart then?”
“Of course,” Amelia informed him smugly. “I get straight A’s”
“I’m not so good. Papa says I need to focus.”
Amelia said nothing to this, just nodded and wished him far away from her.
“They’re getting along so well!” Madame Travail remarked in French as she watched her son with Amelia. “Who knows maybe one day we will be planning the wedding!” She teased happily.
Eva however knew better. From her daughter’s stiff movements, she knew Amelia didn’t like being the boy’s sole focus, but as long as he kept his grubby little hands to himself, she would remain polite.
“Your bebe is so pretty,” Madame remarked. “They would make beautiful babies.”
Eva would sooner see the woman’s son emasculated before that happened, but she smiled graciously and accepted the compliment. On the other side of Madame Travail, Olivia sat silent and nervous. Why? Eva wondered. Liv was currently watching Connor like a hawk. Eva glanced in his direction and saw the boy was doing nothing wrong, so why was she that worried?
Now that Eva thought about it, Olivia was very protective of the boy. He hardly made public appearances and Noah practically had to beg to see his cousin. Eva could count on one hand how often she’d seen the boy.
On an impulse, Eva called him over glancing at Olivia as she did.
“Connor, may I speak with you?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Connor replied walking towards her with his tawny head down.
When he came nearer Eva remarked, “We’re family you don’t have to add…address me so formally.” She finished brightly as she covered her shock at seeing Connor’s eyes when he looked up. “You’re such a handsome boy. You’ll grow up tall and break hearts just like father.” Eva commented, and Olivia paled, confirming her suspicion. “We never chatted before. How are you?”
“I’m good.” He replied shrugging his shoulders and Eva said. “The twins have started Pre-K. When are you going?”
“I don’t know,” Connor mumbled, dropping his eyes to the floor.
“Look me in the eye when we speak, Conner.” Eva demanded, “Don’t you want to go to school?”
“I don’t like them always telling me to do stuff.” He admitted looking Eva in the eye and letting her know she fell in that category.
“You wouldn’t.” Eva smiled, liking this side of him. He would be just like him, Eva mused. “What would you like to do right now?”
“Go home,” Connor informed her.
“And do what?”
“Play.”
“Play what?”
“Football, but I have no one to play with.”
“The boys are already quite good.” Eva teased.
“No, they’re not!” He declared “I’ll be better!”
Eva sealed the trap saying “Not if they have your cousin Noah teaching them. He’d make sure they were unbeatable.”
“Will cousin Noah teach me too?”
“Of course, he will!” Eva informed him happily. Plus, it’ll give Noah a chance to finally get a good look at his young cousin.
“Alright!” Connor exclaimed as he fist-pumped then he frowned, saying, “But Mommy says he’s the President and he doesn’t have time to play.”
So, that’s how she was keeping him away, “He’ll make time sweetie. Don’t you worry about that.” Eva promised him sincerely and Connor ran excitedly to his mother to give her the good news.
Eva listened with half ear to her guest’s incessant plans for Amelia and her son with half an ear as she debated if to outright tell Noah or let him see it for himself.
Then there was the guilt of knowing that she was the reason Connor would never know his father.
22
Family Ties
Eva was pulled from her dark thoughts by Amelia’s shriek then all hell broke loose as the twins ran to their sister’s aid. This of course entailed doing what their father taught them to do – protect their sister which meant piling on Jacques and pummeling him with their small fists.
“Oh God!” Jacques’ mother recoiled in horror as their punches turned to kicks and bites as Amelia and Eva tried to pull them off the boy while Connor laughed hysterically in the background.
To make the scene infinitely worse, Noah and the Canadian Prime Minister Jared Travail chose this moment to join them. Noah rushed in and took Amelia’s place and both parents stood with a kicking fighting twin until Noah said, “At Ease!” and they immediately stopped.
“I am going to kill you!” Eva gritted out under her breath so only Noah could hear.
“My baby!” Madame Travail cried as she dried Jacques’ tears and tried to right his clothes.
“Mommy, I’m sorry. He pulled my hair and it just came out,” Amelia apologized, thinking the chaos was her fault.
“No sweetie, you did the right thing. He shouldn’t have done that.” Eva soothed as she put Will down and held his hand. “Daddy is the one in trouble,” Eva clarified.
“Can someone tell me what happened?” Jared asked.
“
Stupid pulled her hair,” Connor supplied, and Olivia shushed him.
“Did you do that Jacques?” His mother asked.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her…” He began.
“And the boys didn’t mean to hurt you…”
“Yes, we did!” Nate corrected.
“Daddy said not to let anyone hurt Milia!” Will chimed in.
Eva glared at Noah and Jared started to laugh, “Don’t be too mad, if I had a daughter I would’ve probably done the same thing.”
“See! This is why we get along so well.” Noah chimed in, accepting the peace offering.
“I’m terribly sorry for what happened today.” Eva apologized.
“Water under the bridge. Kids will be kids. We can’t all be diplomatic.”
“So, are we still on for poker?” Noah asked.
“Poker?” Eva asked.
“Yeah poker?” Noah repeated
“I’m not much of a player…” Jared hedged.
“I notice all card sharks say that before they take my money.” Noah teased, “We can say we’re negotiating some crap, so they’d leave us alone.”
“You’re making a play date?” Eva teased.
“No!” Noah denied.
“Seems like it,” Olivia muttered.
“I finally found a guy I wanna hang out with, that’s all,” Noah explained.
Eva realized he was trying to fill the hole left by Cooper and even though she couldn’t stand his wife, for Noah to gain a friend she’d bear the woman’s presence. “Do you want me to join you?” She asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, that’s alright. Eric and Uncle Wayland can join us.” Noah informed her then added to Jared “You know what else I wanna do, we should see a hockey game!”
“Now that! I can get behind!” Jared declared as the men walked out making their plans.
* * *
“I have news,” Alex informed him with a smile as Noah arrived at FBI headquarters.
“So, you said on the phone,” Noah said, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket. He also left the Secret Service cooling their heels downstairs for this trip. Eva was at another charity function and he didn’t want her worrying over anything, so he came by himself.
“He’s waiting downstairs. I haven’t told him anything other than you want to meet him.” Alex explained as he led the way.
They walked the distance in silence as Noah tried to control his own excitement and trepidation. After all, he was meeting his in-law for the first time.
“Mr Decker?” Alex called as he entered the interrogation room. Two men stood, one Noah already knew.
“Slumming, Mr President?” Nolan teased.
“I have a right to check out my security forces,” Noah replied, keeping his eye on the other man as they shook hands.
“We’ll let you two talk,” Nolan said and left with Alex.
When the door closed Noah said, “You can sit down, after all, going by what Alex tells me, I don’t think I should stand on ceremony for my in-laws.” The man’s jaw dropped open and Noah continued as if reading from a file, “Simon David Decker: age sixty, sister Suzanne deceased and Rosalind Decker sixty-three, mother Francine Decker age eighty-three. Am I right so far?” Simon nodded his graying, reddish-brown head then Noah ordered softly, “Tell me about Suzanne.”
“She was the youngest. She was twenty-three when this loser Terrance started calling at our ranch. Three months later, she left us a note saying she was gonna marry him. She was in love, she said. Mama never liked him and sent Papa after him. Six months later Papa came back empty-handed. She started sending letters once a month, but then they stopped after a year. Not one ever mentioned that ass ever married her. We still have the letters.”
“Do you know Terrance’s last name?”
“Green,’’ he said, but I think he lied. He was as shifty as you can get that one. Never got a full story outta him.”
Now he knew where Eva got her evasiveness from.
“You’re saying we’re related to your wife?” Simon asked tentatively.
“That’s what the DNA test says,” Noah informed him with a smile.
Simon frowned then his face suffused with rage “According to the news the First Lady’s mama was gang-raped before she was killed. That means …Oh God! Suzie!” He turned away as tears racked his five-ten frame. “The police said she died in a fire. They said we wouldn’t be able to recognize the body. Who was it that they gave us to bury then?”
“Maybe they made a mistake. DNA records then weren’t what they are now.” Noah hedged, but his gut told him Welker was involved somehow.
“We can’t tell Ma what happened to Suzie; this will kill her for sure.” Simon decided.
“It will be hard to hide once Eva is introduced,” Noah said calmly.
“Is she here?” Simon asked expectantly looking behind Noah.
“No, I wanted to straighten a few things out first,” Noah said seriously.
“Like what?”
“Like Eva’s privacy for one thing.” Noah clarified “If she wants to announce to the world she found her mother’s family I’ll support her, but knowing her she probably wants to keep it low key which means no money-grabbing schemes to benefit from this. It will hurt her feelings then I’ll have to hurt you.” He threatened.
Simon smiled and promised, “No problem, nephew. We waited so long for Suzie to come home, in a way she is. We aren’t going to do nothin’ to jeopardize that.”
“Good,” Noah replied, still not smiling. “Go home. I’ll bring her to you first. Then you can meet your grandnephews and niece.”
“Oh yeah,” Simon exclaimed. “I forgot she got babies.”
“We have children,” Noah corrected possessively.
“When can we expect you guys?”
“You can’t, but we’ll be there.” Noah evaded.
“Security reasons?” Simon guessed, and Noah nodded then Simon asked him. “What ever happened with her dad?”
“He’s dead,” Noah stated flatly.
Something must have given away in his tone because Simon asked, “It was that shiftless loser Terrance, wasn’t it?” Noah just nodded once more, and Simon asked, “How did he die?”
Noah didn’t know how to respond to that. He turned away from Simon and muttered, “His throat was slit by someone close to him. He…he wasn’t a good person. He lied to Eva about her life. She knew nothing of your existence until she started searching for herself.”
“You act like you don’t like speaking about him”
“Eva doesn’t like it either,” Noah pointed out, turning to face him again. “He’s dead and he was the reason Suzanne died.”
“He was mixed up in something bad, wasn’t he?” Simon stated, “We knew he was no good, but Suzanne only saw stars when she looked at him. Ran when Pa said he wasn’t gonna let her marry him. If only she’d listen, she’d see her baby as First Lady. Evaline misses her, doesn’t she?”
“Eva barely knew her. She died when Eva was two.”
Simon frowned and asked, “I thought she died when she was older. The newspapers said…”
“It doesn’t matter what they said,” Noah interrupted. “They don’t know everything and neither does Eva. Her father changed so much of her history, even she doesn’t know the truth.”
“I wish that bastard was still alive. I’d…” Simon growled, making strangling gestures with his hands.
“Trust me, I would’ve loved to get my hands on him myself,” Noah informed him honestly. The damage Welker did span two generations, the man left a tainted mark on whatever he touched.
“Well, she has us now. We won’t let anyone hurt her anymore.” Simon promised, “Ah, oh…” Simon added as he stepped forward and shook Noah’s hand, “Welcome to the family. I think I can speak for the entire Decker clan - you definitely have our blessing for our Evaline.”
“Thank you, Uncle Simon,” Noah responded with a smile.
After that Simon rela
xed and started to relate stories from the Decker clan. Noah sat and listened gladly. The stories were funny, and two hours passed, but it wasn’t until Nolan knocked on the door, the men knew this.
“Don’t you have a country to run?” James asked Noah who glanced at his watch.
He stood sighing and shook hands with his new uncle saying, “I have somewhere I got to be. It was great meeting you.”
“Go do your thing. I shouldn’t have kept you so long. When you come down to Bigfork we’ll go fishing in the lake. Best trout in five counties!” Simon promised.
“I’ve never been fishing,” Noah admitted.
“Never been!” Simon asked in shock, his hands on his hips. “What have you been doing with your life, boy?” Noah raised an eyebrow and Simon brushed it off with a wave, “Ack! You’re President and never went fishing! You got a lot to learn!”
“When we meet again. You’ll teach me!”
“And another thing! You let our Evie get shot!”
Noah visibly winced and apologized quickly, “She’s fine now, but she doesn’t listen to me all the time. She tells me I take risks then dives in front of a bullet! Scared me to death! I don’t know what to do about that! If something were to happen to her I don’t know what I’ll do! But she won’t promise not to do it again. You make her promise. Do that for me and we’ll fish whenever you want.” Noah begged.
“Mr President.” Shadow One intoned from the doorway then signaled to go.
“I didn’t think Evie’s that bad,” Simon teased, but promised anyway, “I’ll sic Rosie on her. Rosie gets everyone in line.”
“Thank you,” Noah said before repeating as he left, “We’ll talk when we meet again.”
Simon stood there shaking his head at Noah’s retreating form before gathering his own hat and jacket to return to the hotel. He couldn’t wait to get home and tell everyone the news. The Decker’s were related to the FLOTUS and going by the President’s reaction she was quite the handful. He couldn’t wait to meet her, Simon thought as he smiled to himself then he frowned once more.