Final Justice by Marta Perry

Author:Marta Perry [Perry, Marta]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Romance, General, Religious
ISBN: 9781426818547
Google: ldZsJE8Bsb8C
Amazon: B0017SV012
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2008-06-01T18:36:13.488000+00:00

he said cheerfully. He bent and looked under the bed.

“All clear.”

“And then what?” Alexis didn’t seem satisfied yet, but then, she had more to fear than Jennifer would have.

“Well, then we sat on the bed together and said prayers. And then Daddy kissed me, and turned on the porch light so I could see if I needed to. And when he went out, he left the door open a little so I could hear him and my mommy talking downstairs while I was going to sleep.”

Alexis looked at him. The ball was in his court. He sat on the edge of the bed and patted a spot next to him.

He was almost surprised when she scurried across the room and climbed up beside him.

He cleared his throat. “Is there a special prayer you like to say?”

She nodded. “Grammie taught me now I lay me and God bless.” She patted the spot next to her, mimicking what he had done. “Do you want to sit here?”

Jennifer nodded. “I sure do.” She sat down on the other side of his child, and unselfconsciously took Alexis’s hand.

Seeming to take that as a hint, Alexis slipped her small hand into Mason’s and bowed her head.

“Now I lay me down to sleep…” The words to the prayer he’d said as a child came back to him, and he joined in saying them.

“Amen. God bless Grammie and Grandpop, and—”

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Final Justice

Alexis stopped. She glanced toward Jennifer. “I don’t know what else to say.” There was a lost sound in her voice that cut him like a knife.

“How about, ‘God bless all the people I love and all the people who love me’?”

Alexis nodded, seeming satisfied, and repeated the words. Then she slid under the covers and snuggled under the quilt.

He followed Jennifer to the door and turned off the bedside lamps. The porch light cast a pattern on the rug. “Is that all right?”

She nodded. “Don’t forget to leave the door open a little bit so I can hear you.”

“I won’t.” He stepped into the hall, leaving the door a good foot open. “Good night, sugar.”

“Good night.”

How long would it be until Alexis called him Daddy?

Even a few days ago he wouldn’t have thought it possible. Now he wanted to hear that more than anything.

Jennifer wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up going along on the trip to Charleston to see Alexis’s grandparents on Sunday. Not that they were really her grandparents, but it was simpler, and probably more reassuring to Alexis, to continue to refer to them that way.

And speaking of grandparents, it was odd that Mason hadn’t mentioned his mother in relation to Alexis. Had he told her yet? He certainly should have.

She glanced at his face, intent as he negotiated Sunday traffic in the popular tourist destination. She couldn’t ask him with Alexis in the car, but she should bring it up.

Marta Perry

119

He might say it was none of her business, which it wasn’t, strictly speaking. But he had dragged her into helping him with his daughter, so he could hardly object if she had questions.

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