Alexis continued down the hallway to her childhood bedroom. Unsurprisingly, nothing in the room was hers. Winnie the Pooh characters adorned the walls. Denim blue bedding. For the nephews, her nephews. A simple wooden chest of drawers stood against the wall.

Alexis placed her small suitcase on the bed and unzipped it. She stared at the contents, all encased in clear, plastic bags and neatly labeled. Her eyes burned with fatigue and she abandoned her immediate plan to unpack. Instead, she rifled through her purse and fished out a black velvet ring box. She cupped the soft box protectively in her hand. Opening the bottom drawer of the dresser, she hid the box under a folded blanket. Next, she removed a folded red cloth from her suitcase and placed that beside the ring box. With great effort she closed the drawer and her fingers hovered in front of the handle for a moment longer, resisting the urge to reach back in and hold the items once more. Pulling herself together, Alexis stood up and quickly ran a brush through her hair before heading back downstairs.

In the kitchen, Tilly had dinner under control and was pouring the requisite pint of beer in anticipation of her husband's arrival when Alexis entered.

"Anything I can do?" she asked, trying not to gawk at the change in her mother's appearance since she last saw her. Her hair was streaked with grey and the lines on her forehead had deepened into a perpetual frown.

"Do you still know how to set the table or does your butler do that for you?"

"You know very well my butler is too busy supervising my chef to do that. I have a wench for chores."

Tilly handed her daughter a small stack of plates. "It appears I do, too."

Alexis turned to the table to set down the plates. "Are you going to warn Dad ahead of time?"

Tilly pulled cutlery from the drawer. "I should, really, because I haven't renewed his life insurance. Too costly at his age."

The sound of the front door made them both stop in their tracks. The women exchanged uneasy glances. Greg MacAdams' booming voice came through the entryway before he did. "Tilly, I am so hungry I could eat the ass off a skunk without any salt."

He appeared in the kitchen doorway, filling it completely with his height and breadth, and his gaze fell immediately upon Alexis. His dark hair was thinner than she remembered and he'd gained weight around the middle. She easily read the range of emotions in his clear, blue eyes. First shock, followed quickly by anger, and then something akin to relief.




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