Page 36 of Her Righteous Protector

Hannah tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Hey, boys, let’s go on inside, it’s getting kind of cold. Zephyr, you can grab all your stuff and then we’ll go home, how does that sound?”

Max stood up straight and watched as Zephyr took off at a run to go back inside.

“We’re having chili, right? Are you going to make cornbread?” the boy asked over his shoulder as he ran to get his coat with the Chicago Bears logo on it.

“Yep, you can’t have chili without cornbread,” Hannah promised him. “And honey butter. Can you go into the kitchen for a minute with Grandma Julie and see if she has any cookies that we can take home?”

“Yay!”

Her mother gave Hannah a knowing look as she cupped Zephyr’s head and guided him toward the kitchen.

Max watched them turn the corner. Then Hannah swung her gaze to Max and gripped his arm and swayed against him, her green eyes turning almost black as her eyes dilated.

“What?” he asked. Something was really wrong.

“We didn’t talk about what comes next,” she gasped. “Nothing. We didn’t talk about any of it. What’s happening next? Are you flying home tonight? How are you getting to the airport? I’ve got to get Zephyr back home and get him dinner then put him to bed. But what about tomorrow? And the next day? And the day after?” She was talking fast, he could tell she was panicking.

“Calm down, Hannah, everything’s going to be fine,” Max soothed. “I’m going to be staying in Chicago. I’ll just grab a hotel for a while. We’ll figure things out as we go along.”

“Can you really do that? You can stay here?”

He put his hand over hers as they dug into the thick sleeve of his sweater. “Absolutely,” he said confidently. “I have leave stored up. I’ll just call my commander.”

“You’re not just going to take Zephyr away?”

Max gave her an incredulous look. “God no. That would be insane.”

Hannah started to tremble. She swayed forward and he caught her by her arms.

“Steady there.”

“This day has been a lot,” Hannah mumbled.

“You’re talking to the choir.”

“She only had oatmeal raisins and those are yuck, so I said no,” Zephyr yelled as he came careening into the hallway.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Hannah admonished.

It was funny to see Hannah go into auto-pilot-Mom.

Zephyr frowned. “She made me take some anyway, cause those are your favorites.” He looked up at Max with a frown. “Why are you here?”

“I was going to ask him if he wanted to come to dinner with us tonight.”

Max gave Hannah a grateful smile. “I would love to have dinner with you and Zephyr tonight.”

“He can’t eat all the cornbread, we have to have some for tomorrow,” Zephyr commanded.

Hannah sighed. “That wasn’t very nice to say either, Zephyr.”

“But Hannah, he’s h’mongous, he’ll eat everything, then we won’t have cornbread for breakfast,” Zephyr whined.

Max understood that; he didn’t like people poaching on his food either. When Hannah caught him grinning, she gave him a slight frown and shook her head.

“Zephyr, what have I told you about being polite?” she asked the boy calmly.

“That it’s a good thing,” he said looking at the floor. He peeked back up at Max. “I suppose you can’t help being really huge. I’ll share my food with you,” he said reluctantly.