CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
I stopped by my parents after I left the hospital and checked in to see what Pop had heard in the newsroom.
“Well, if it isn’t my big fancy lawyer daughter,” he laughed as he crossed the kitchen to meet me at the front door.
“TONY RAINES!” my mother yelled at the top of her lungs. “How many times do I have to threaten to kill you before you stop walking on my freshly cleaned kitchen floor?”
“Apparently more than you already have,” my father said as he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly. “I needed to hug my daughter!”
“Well, fine then,” my mother grudgingly agreed as she, too, crossed the kitchen and pulled me into her arms. “I’m so glad you’re okay. If anything had happened to you…”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t, now did it?” I said as I pulled away and looked toward the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?”
“Tony and Gina are bringing dinner over, didn’t I tell you?” my mother said as she returned to her mop and gave the floor one more swipe to clean up the prints my father had made.
“Nope, you sure didn’t!” I said as I sunk down in the comfy chair near the door and looked over at my father who had take up his position in the recliner. He looked up at me over the edge of his glasses and said, “You sure you’re okay, kiddo?”
“Yeah Pop. I’m fine, I promise,” I said raising my hand in a swearing in position.
“What’s happening at the firm?” he asked.
“Well, Roger is helping with Riza’s case. We think we can get her sentence reduced on the grounds that she was suffering from severe PTSD,” I said. “Jordie and I are handling all the other cases that are streaming in as the result of this exposure. I think we’re going to have to hire more help in the front of the office. Alma can’t keep up with all the calls and everything else!”
“That’s a good thing! Get her to organize the place and keep you all on track,” he laughed. My father had had several run-ins with Alma and come away from them re-thinking his entire office organizational policy. I thought he was nuts, but my mother said it had been a lifelong affliction.
“Where’s Beck?” my mother called from the kitchen. “He knows he’s welcome here anytime, right?”
“Mom, Beck doesn’t even know us,” I said. I had tried to remind my mother that she couldn’t just adopt everyone who came into my life. “Besides, I took him back to the rehab facility so he could finish his treatment. He wanted to be sober when Dax got out of the hospital.”
“When do they think that will be?” my father asked.
“Probably next week,” I replied. “They want to make sure the wound is healing properly and that there’s no infection.”
“He’s doing okay otherwise?” he asked as he looked at me pointedly.
“He’s fine, Pop. Why are you so nosy?” I laughed.
“I’m a reporter, it’s my job,” he said with a flourish of his hand. “Besides, it seems like you might like this guy or something.”
“Pop…” I warned.
“I know, I know, I’m not supposed to say anything about it,” he said waving me off. “Got it.”
“I should never have trusted you with that information. I thought as a reporter, you’d be safe!” I sighed. “I should have known better.”
My father pulled he paper down just enough so that I could see the twinkle in his eye as he smiled at me. He was happy that I’d met someone who loved me in all the ways that his difficult daughter needed.
“Hey, hey, hey! Whose hungry?” Teddy called as he pushed open the front door and walked through with a huge pot full of something that smelled like heaven. He looked at my father and me and quietly asked, “Mom mopping the floor again?”
We nodded as my mother yelled, “I heard that! Just don’t get my clean floor dirty!”
We all burst out laughing as Gina entered, carrying several full bags. I jumped up off the chair to help her as my father followed Teddy into the kitchen and lifted the lid on the pot.
I set the bags down and looked around at my family, marveling at how warm and welcoming they were and feeling excited about introducing Dax to them all.