Home Free - Fern Michaels [11]
He continued to read for the next fifteen minutes. He had not finished when his reading was interrupted by the buzzing of his sat phone. He pressed TALK and heard Lizzie Fox identify herself and quickly announce that she was at the White House, and the president was standing next to her. Instinctively, at the mention of President Connor’s name, Charles stood at attention. He listened closely and found himself nodding, then realized Lizzie couldn’t see him agreeing with her. “I understand, Lizzie. I’ll tell Myra and the others that you’ll arrive in time for dinner.” He replaced the sat phone and remained standing for a few minutes, continuing to stare at the phone. He wasn’t sure if he was elated or depressed at what he’d just heard. More to the point, what would the girls think when Lizzie arrived to share her news?
Lizzie’s arrival meant two things—he had a dinner to prepare, and he had to call all the Sisters, since Lizzie’s unexpected visit concerned each and every one of them.
These days, since their pardons and the capture of Hank Jellicoe, rounding up the girls wasn’t as easy as it used to be. Kathryn was trucking again; Yoko was extra busy getting ready for the Christmas season at her nursery; Nikki’s law practice was setting all-time records, causing her sometimes to work until ten or eleven at night, which meant that Alexis, her new office manager, was also working late. Isabelle was up to her eyeballs, as was Annie, with the last-minute punch list on her new farmhouse. Maggie’s social life had kicked up several notches, and she was rarely available after six. Which pretty much left Myra, who was at the ready for the most part. The truth was, Myra was so bored, she was actually puttering in the kitchen with a stack of cookbooks. The dogs were eating very heartily these days. For the most part. Preparing dinner was definitely his job.
Another question facing him at the moment was the boys. Should he include them in the unexpected meeting or not? He knew for a fact that Jack and Bert were working almost twenty-four /seven, and Harry’s training was just as time-consuming. Ted and Espinosa had for some reason fallen into the background as Ted grappled with his newfound social freedom and all the opportunities that had suddenly presented themselves to him. Espinosa appeared to be odd man out and was spending hours and hours of quality time with his family at Annie’s old plantation home, which, in Charles’s opinion, was a good thing. At the end of the day, family was where it was at.
Lizzie, if he remembered correctly, had only said call the girls. She hadn’t said call everyone or call the guys, too. So that had to mean this little gathering had something to do with the meeting the Sisters had had with the president at Kathryn’s surprise birthday party in Las Vegas.
For some reason, with so much time going by, whatever that had been about, he’d assumed it had fizzled before it got off the ground.
That left the boys. Or the guys, as the Sisters referred to them.
Two days ago, he’d spoken to Lizzie, and she hadn’t said a word about traveling to Washington. She’d also told him that she, Cosmo, and Little Jack wouldn’t be joining them this year for Thanksgiving, because the casino industry was holding a huge dinner the night before Thanksgiving and honoring Cosmo as Lawyer of the Year. The day after Thanksgiving, Cosmo was also being cited as Man of the Year by the state of Nevada, with a huge gala that would also kick off the Christmas season in Vegas.
Which all boiled down to one thing: Lizzie’s meeting was important and girls only. He hoped he wasn’t wrong, or the boys were going to get their Jockeys in a knot. He sighed. Sometimes, men were more angst-ridden than women.
The sun was just commencing its march to the horizon when Charles entered the kitchen to see Myra in her robe, drinking a cup of tea. He felt himself frown. Myra did like to get up early,