Marc spent the next week in Austin, helping his state prepare for another nasty round of storms while crafting the exact wording of his jobs initiative bill and following up with four state representatives regarding his educational reform policy. They were stalling, and he had the hard numbers to prove them wrong.

He’d argue all day if he had to.

And dealing with the TSP and the Texas Rangers as they tried to find out who exactly had threatened him and his children. Marc was pushing them as hard as he possibly could to find those answers.

By the weekend, and the end of the storms, the kids were clamoring for his attention. And to go back to Finley Creek and see their uncles and new aunts. And Ariella; they’d asked about seeing her again non-stop. Katie had drawn her picture after picture, card after card, since the kidnapping attempt.

Most of all the kids kept telling them they wanted to go home.

Isaac had never known any place other than the governor’s mansion as home. Not really. And Katie had been too young to remember where he and Carissa had lived before he’d been elected.

When he’d won, their whole world had changed. She had been pregnant with Isaac at the time. They had been so full of dreams back then.

Six months later Carissa had given him a beautiful baby boy and died from a sudden onset stroke. By the time the doctors had known there was a problem, it had been too late.

Rafe had been in the room visiting his new nephew when the stroke had happened, but even his brother hadn’t been able to save her.

Rafe had never forgiven himself, even though his brother certainly hadn’t been to blame. Marc knew that.

It had taken him a while to forgive himself, too. If they hadn’t gotten pregnant, she might not have had the stroke when she had.

Growing up as the darlings of Texas wasn’t doing his children any favors. They were starting to become unmanageable. And he was at the end of his rope.

Since the kidnapping attempt they had been even worse terrors than before. He couldn’t figure out why.

It was like their normal routine was suddenly Greek to his kids. Even Rayne was at her wits end with the two of them.

Marc had to figure out what was going on with the two little demons and fast. Before the entire staff of the Governor’s Mansion revolted. Tomorrow, he was going to have one hell of a talk with the two. See if he could figure out exactly what was going on. He finished fastening his cufflinks and looked at his sister-in-law Rayne. “Lock them in cages if you have to.”

Rayne smiled, the same dimpled expression his daughter had inherited. The hair was different; Rayne’s was so pale it was almost white. Carissa’s had been a warm honey blonde. Katie’s was somewhere in between.

It had once hurt to even look at Carissa’s baby sister. Now, Marc was just thankful he still had Rayne. He’d always see her as his own little sister now. It was something his wife would have wanted.

She worked as his personal assistant and had since Isaac had turned a year old and he realized he just needed someone there he trusted to help.

She had an MBA from the Finley Creek School of Business, and her undergrad work had been in political science. She was highly intelligent and even more highly sarcastic. He adored her. So did the kids.

She wasn’t quite thirty yet. And he used her as a babysitter far too often.

It wasn’t fair to her, but she had never complained. Rayne never would.

The kids were all the family she had left, too. “Go, have a good time. Meet a nice pretty lady, give my niece and nephew a new pretty Mommy soon. I think it’ll do you all some good. They’ve been talking about a fairy godmother or something all week. I’m not sure what they mean.”

Sometimes she was worse than the media outlets about his love life. Always snarking about him shriveling up and dying alone.

Lack of love life. Marc snorted. Hers was just as barren as his.

He’d asked her to accompany him to the fundraiser tonight, but she’d steadfastly refused. Rayne didn’t do social functions well, and she made no bones about it. Something about heavy-handed walruses and dark corners. She’d never fully explained what she meant by that, but she’d started refusing around three years ago. She hadn’t attended a function with him since.

But he had to.

“Tomorrow, we’ll head back to Finley Creek. You can take a few days off and I’ll handle the kids,” Marc promised her. She came through whenever he needed her, but they were his children, to raise. Not hers.

She would help him, but she was not a replacement for Carissa.

Rayne had very clear on that before she took the job. Not that Marc had disagreed or anything like that.

What he often asked of her wasn’t fair. She needed to be getting on with her own life, instead of taking care of what her sister had left behind.

“Go. I’m fine with the kids. I like them better than most people, anyway. And I’ll try to figure out what they mean by a fairy. I think they’re plotting something.”

Marc had no doubt that was exactly what they were doing.

He’d have to figure it out later.