"Girls are you done packing yet?" Mac called up the stairs.

They had spent the whole Saturday afternoon up in their rooms trying to figure out what to bring with them to Texas. Georgie and Maxie spent some time there with their Great Grandmother Maria every summer, but this would be the first chance Robin ever got to see the ranch.

The first voice to respond was his eighteen year old niece Robin. "I've been done!"

Her tone was just as angry as it had been for weeks now, ever since her first love died. One moment she would be mad as hell at the world and, in the next, is crying at the unfairness of it all.

Mac longed to be able to make her pain disappear but he knew, all too well since his brother's death, that it was something she would have to work through over time.

Maxie answered him next. "Almost done."

Almost I bet, he thought. That young girl seemed to have more clothes than her sister and cousin combined, and she always begged to buy more.

Four year old Georgie came bounding down the stairs. "Daddy, me too. I'm done too." she said she nearly tripped over her shoe lace causing both Mac and Felicia to laugh.

Robin stomped down after her and passed Mac without a word, heading to the dinner table.

"Maxie lets go!" he yelled "The food is getting cold."

"One minute, okay." shouted back a less then happy Maxie.

"Ya sure … Maxie, come and eat. Now," yelled Mac.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming" yelled Maxie.

She and Lucas bolted down the stairs in a fit of hysterical laughter.

"What so funny?" Georgie asked, as she hopped down the hallway and into the kitchen wearing the cutest pink and white bunny costume.

"Oh, its nothing. Just a joke Robin told us," answered Lucas as he winked at Maxie.

They both looked at Robin, smirking, but by now her expression was pure heartbreak. It was obvious Stone was on her mind again.

Noting the strained silence, Felicia diverted the conversation to something she knew would keep them all talking through the rest of the meal. "Girls, shouldn't Mac come to Texas with us?"

Max's head snapped to the side and he glared at his wife

"Felicia, don't ask them that."

But it was too late. Maxie and Georgie were both looking at him with hopeful expressions. Robin even regarded him curiously.

"Well, can you?" asked Maxie

"Sorry, honey, but I have to work," he answered.

"Take a break and come with us," suggested Felicia. "You've more than earned it. You're always there and hardly never here these days."

Guilt pierced his heart at her tone."We're working a big case right now."

Georgie pouted "But daddy…"

She was always the one who called him Dad or Daddy, not Mac. It never failed to touch him.

He loved the kids and hated denying them anything. Maybe that was why there were so much clothing, makeup and toys lying around this home.

If he could take a couple of weeks, or even days, to go to Maria's ranch he would. But he had tons of work to do. The paperwork was literally taking over his desk.

Letting out a breath, he made his voice sound final. "Its just not in the cards for this trip."

Maxie jumped up."Fine … I don't want you there any way … you're always working. I hate you!"

"Ditto," sneered Robin.

Both her and Maxie fled the room and moments later two doors slammed upstairs.

Lucas concentrated on his food, shying away from this family drama. In three bites he was done and hurrying upstairs after his cousins.

Georgie's lips started to quiver. Her little brown eyes filled with tears. "Daddy, don't you love us?"

Mac gave Felicia a look that said, Do you see what you did?

He brought his youngest daughter into his lap and said, "Of course, I do."

"Then why don't you want to come with us?"

"Next time," he murmured, dropping a kiss on her forehead. "I promise."

She smiled at him, her angel face full of trust, silently telling him that she would always believe in him to keep his word

Mean while up in Maxies room,

Lucas looked down at the wooden chest that was sitting in the middle of Maxie's bedroom.

"No way," he said, shaking his head.

Maxie told him, "It's the only way you can come with us."

"I won't even be able to breathe in there," he protested.

"Will too," she said. "I have hid in there during hide and seek plenty of times."

He tried another excuse, because the idea of riding in a trunk on a plane for hours seemed crazy to him. "My mom will notice I am gone in like five minutes flat."

"Not if she thinks you are at soccer camp. Tell her you singed up at school and forgot to tell her and that your riding there with a friend who is going to."

"What about my cloths and stuff",

"you still have cloths here from last time you spent the weekend , when your parents were at the doctors convention! Remember?

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "When did you get so good at scamming?"

"I'm not good, yet, but I will be one day," she said with a smile. Then she pointed at the trunk. "Now get in."