Page 74 of Her Hidden Smile

“Harvey. I’m all about personal safety, but don’t you think a handgun might be wiser?” Simon asked.

“Hell no. Somebody comes into my little girl’s bedroom, I want her to have the firepower to take him out.” He pulled the plate of pastries to him to see what was left. He picked a chocolate donut and pushed the plate back into the middle of the table.

“Thanks, Harvey, I’m going to decline on the SCAR. I’m good with the gun I’ve got.”

“Okay. But if you change your mind, just let me know.”

“In the meantime, I’m going to stay close to Millie.”

Simon gave me a slow smile. Yeah, he was one to be giving me looks; I remember how it went with him and Trenda. He had been staying real close with her too when things were looking kind of hairy.

Chapter Eighteen

Waking up with Renzo in my bed had to be the best thing in the world. Now I understood why Lisa was smiling all the time. I’d made breakfast this morning. Boy did he eat a lot. But he probably weighed twice as much as I did, and his was a physical job, so it made sense that he would need a lot more fuel.

Except for the fact that we still didn’t know who might have tried to break into my house, and now I had a gun—which was locked up at least—life was perfect. Heck, Renzo had even picked blackberries for me a couple of days ago so I could try making the peach and blackberry cake. I had him pick a lot because I usually screwed up my first two attempts of whatever I made.

Lisa and Bella were coming over this afternoon so I’d given myself enough time to make the cake three times. I was right, the first one was a mess. It came out cakelike, but the blackberries had exploded in the cake. I figured out they were too ripe and juicy. I used smaller blackberries and dunked them in cornstarch the second time around. When I opened the oven, I was confronted with a perfect cake.

Yay me!

The iced tea was cold, and so was the lemonade for Miss Bella. I also had some homemade peach ice cream to go with the cake. Hopefully this would be a hit. I grabbed a bowl of ice cream and headed to my computer. Today was grant day. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as donation day, but it definitely needed to be done.

I was halfway through my bowl of ice cream before I decided which two grants to apply for that would work well for the Burn Alliance. The first one wanted our financial metrics, our tax form and disclosure policies, key accountability metrics and measurable impact and results. I had all of that, so this one was going to be easy, but the second one was a little tougher. They wanted our adaptability story. That was going to take some research. Well, that’s why I got paid the big bucks.

I giggled. Yep, a salary of zero was certainly the big bucks.

I was lost in work when the fence sensor went off. When I looked at the clock on my computer I realized three hours had gone by. How in the world had that happened?

I got up and peeked out the front window and saw Lisa’s baby blue Dodge Charger. Bella spotted me because she was waving wildly from the front seat. I waved back as I pushed the button to open the gate.

I was hungry, so I couldn’t wait to see what Lisa had picked up for lunch. I opened the door and invited them in. I was surprised to see a bag that said Pearl’s on it. I was just conditioned to think Down Home when it came to takeout food here in Jasper Creek.

“I see that look, Millie. Trust me, you’ll like it. I got you a Rueben,” Lisa said as she went to the dining room table and plopped down the bag.

“I got a grilled cheese with ketchup,” Bella said excitedly.

“You mean ketchup for your French fries?” I clarified.

“No, for my grilled cheese. You dip it in the ketchup, and then it’s like you’re dipping it into tomato soup. It’s really good. Wanna try it with your sandwich?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

“Feeling adventurous these days, huh?” Lisa said as she pulled out the sandwiches, napkins, utensils, and ketchup packs.

“I’ve decided that adventurous has its advantages.” I tried to sound prim, but my laughter blew it all to hell.

“I hear you, sister,” Lisa grinned.

“What are you laughing about?” Bella asked us as she opened the wrapper around her grilled cheese sandwich.

“We’re agreeing it’s good to take chances,” Lisa told her.

“I’m getting dishes and drinks.” I headed to the kitchen.

“I’ll come help.”

We soon had the food prepped and the drinks poured and were eating lunch.