Page 120 of His Wounded Heart

“Uncle Dwake is bigger and louder.”

He is that.

“Simon was Uncle Drake’s boss. Did you know he taught Uncle Drake how to be a SEAL?” I fib. I don’t know if Simon was involved with Drake’s actual training, but he had trained SEALs.

“He was his teacher?” she hiccups.

“Yes.”

She looks past me. “Can you do what Uncle Drake does?”

I look over my shoulder and see Simon standing at the kitchen entrance.

“I can,” he answers, solemnly.

“He throws really far. Can you?”

“I can.”

“He runs really fast. Can you?”

“I can do that too.”

“You don’t swear a lot like Uncle Drake.”

Simon walks closer to us. “That’s one of the things I’ve failed at teaching your uncle. He’s not supposed to swear in front of ladies.”

“We not ladies, we family.”

Simon rests his hand in the middle of my back, above Bella’s ankles, offering me the support I didn’t even know I needed.

“Why do you have gray hair?” Bella asks.

“Because I’m older than your Uncle Drake, so I know more and that will help me take care of you and your Mama. The bad guys won’t get you. I promise.”

I feel my daughter’s body relax. “You do? Cross your heart?”

I look over my shoulder just in time to see Simon crossing his heart.

“That’s good,” she says in a happier tone of voice. She reaches over and drops the uneaten grapes back into the colander. “Mama, I want ice cream.”

“Not before dinner. You can have a slice of bread and some juice, how does that sound?”

She looks up at me, her eyes no longer wet with tears. “It doesn’t sound as good as ice cream.”

I hear Simon start to laugh behind me.

It seems there are two people in this kitchen that I love.

Chapter Thirty

“Your reading glasses are sexy,” Trenda says to me.

I glance over the top of my computer to look at her. She’s been saying silly things all morning, ever since she got a lesson plan from Mrs. Stapleton to print out and give to Bella so she can start working on it. Now she’s in the process of driving me insane.

“Thank you. I’m glad you think so.”

I look back down at my laptop and try to figure out why I’ve got a shut-off notice for my gas at the La Mesa residence, when my on-line account shows it’s paid in full.