Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“But in the Bible, it says––”
“Tolerance starts at home,” he told her, turning to face both Anne and Heather, “and I know you both know that, but sometimes we need a reminder.”
“Yes, but––”
“I see criminals every single day, and when I see them, I always think, that person started out as a brand-new human being, and someone took things away, either purposely or not, until all that was left was the instinct for survival at any cost.”
“What about evil?” Heather asked him. “True evil.”
“What do we need evil for when we have systemic racism, poverty, Covid, issues with immigration, economic inequality, no gun control, and the list goes on. There are so many problems right outside your door, why on earth would you ever send your kid out there, beyond your protection, over an issue like what they chose to believe? Or who they want to love?”
No one said a word.
“As a parent, you love your kid, protect your kid, listen to your kid, and support your kid. Period. Forever. So yeah, I’m Catholic, and I choose to believe that my God wants me to love my kids, no matter what path they take. And maybe someday they’ll be baptizing their kids,” he said, shrugging, “and maybe not. Either way, I’ve got grandchildren who they’ll want to share with me because they can always point to me and say, ‘My dad, he was always on my side.’ Because that’s it right there.”
They were all staring at him, and he looked at me as I tipped my head and smiled at him. And even though he couldn’t see my mouth behind my mask, he could see my eyes.
“Sorry about the soapbox. Let’s get you a beer, Brad,” he said gruffly, clearing his throat and opening the back door. “I’ve got––oh, sorry, hold on,” he said quickly as his phone started ringing. “You come take a look, grab whatever you want, I need to get this.”
I could tell Brad was very pleased at being invited across the threshold.
Taking a seat at the picnic table, when I saw that Hannah was safely standing on the piece of wood, I waved at her. “These need to go to the basement to set!”
She nodded, and climbed down as Mira got ready to go on the swing.
“Mira, honey, I don’t know if your mom’s comfortable with that!”
“No, no,” Anne said, smiling at me, “I am.”
“Never mind,” I yelled back. “Go for it!”
Anne was rewarded with her daughter, then her son, sailing over the tops of small trees into the big blue sky, having a wonderful time.
“Your family is lovely,” Heather said with a sigh. “I’m wildly jealous. Of my sister too. Everyone that doesn’t have the horror show of an ex-husband that I have. I—oh,” she gasped for the second time that day.
Turning, I saw my husband in a black T-shirt and olive-green cargo pants, his tac vest on over that, his badge on his belt as well as his gun, and tucked into the vest, like he’d be ready to put it on in a moment, was a black mask with a weird breathing thing on the side. Along with a black baseball cap, he had on his aviators, and all together, he looked like he belonged on the cover of Guns & Ammo. At the same time he crossed the deck to me, a large black SUV rolled into the driveway, parking behind the Holmeses’ one. Wes Ching, who Sam had promoted a while back, got out of the driver’s seat and walked to the gate. He was dressed the same way Sam was. Dobby stopped barking when Wes knelt and petted him through the chain-link fence.
“Where,” I croaked out, standing up, my voice cracking, unable to say more.
“We have a situation with a raid that didn’t go quite as planned,” Sam informed me, his hand slipping around the side of my neck as he reached me.
I lifted my head, he bent, and our foreheads pressed together.
“It’s fine,” he assured me, his voice soothing and low as he unhooked my mask from one ear before he tilted my chin up to kiss me quickly, softly.
“You’re wearing Kevlar, it’s not fine,” I said, trying to keep the strain out of my voice.
“I just wear this because it makes my arms look good,” he teased, kissing the side of my jaw before he ran his fingers through my hair and turned for the stairs.
“You’ll be careful, of course.”
“Goes without saying,” he said, pounding down the stairs.
Kola caught him at the bottom, and Sam curled his arm around his neck, said something in his ear, and kissed his cheek. Hannah was next, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, tight, face in the vest, trembling, that I could see from where I was, and nodding as he spoke to her. I knew that under the mask she was biting her lip. It was what she always did when he was called away in the middle of a day off.