Home For The Holidays
Chapter One
The lights of Portland danced in the mist and fog. It had been a long time since she had seen Christmas in the last place she had truly called home. She had always loved the place her parents had moved to when she was five. It was full of culture and the possibilities for adventure were limitless. Smiling, she pushed open the front doors of the place her family bought sixteen years ago. It was warm and inviting and the smells coming from the kitchen were incredible.
"One for lunch?" She lifted her head to see the young waitress smiling at her.
"Ahhh yeah, can I just sit at the bar?"
"Sure." The girl handed her a menu and let her seat herself at the bar. Not much had changed in the three years since she had been there. Sliding onto a bar stool she looked around at the festive decorations. She chuckled. Christmas had always been her aunt's favorite time of year and she would go all out on the restaurant and even bigger at the house.
"Can I get you a drink?" Looking up, her breath caught. She had been hoping to avoid any emotional outbursts till at least after she had a beer. "Faith Valentine!"
"Hey daddy." Faith smiled as her father came around the bar and scooped her off her bar stool. "Whoa! Hey take it easy." She winced with pain.
"What's wrong?" He pushed her back and looked at her.
"Just a little climbing snafu." Eliot Spencer looked at his oldest daughter.
"A climbing snafu is Parker for you fell." He frowned. No one wanted Eliot Spencer to frown at them, especially his daughter who hadn't made it home in three years. "Does your mom know your here?"
"I just walked in the door daddy." She scooted back onto the stool. "Is everyone here already?" Faith didn't know if she could handle the whole swarm of extended family descending on her all at once.
"No, Nate and Sophie are on the midnight flight from San Juan with the boys and Claudia. Then Steve, Katherine, the girls, Danny and Grace are going to be here tomorrow. Jodie, Charlie and Madison are going to be here Thursday." Faith loved her extended family but when they all got together it was a recipe for chaos.
"What about Kyle, Gracie and Sarah?"
"They drove up over the week end and Parker took them, Liam and Sophia to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry." She missed a lot the last three years. Her cousin Kyle was FBI agent in Los Angeles, Sarah was in law school at Berkley and Gracie attended medical school in Seattle.
"Is mom going to go totally parental on me?" No matter how close she was to her mom, it was her dad that had always been her biggest ally.
"You crammed in a lot of life lessons in the past few years Faith. I think your mom might lay off for a few hours." Eliot brushed her hair out of her face like he did when she little. "Sometimes it's hard for her. She feels like she missed so much." Faith wasn't sure who felt guiltier about the sporadic visits over the past few years, her or her mother.
"It wasn't like I was out having grandbabies and finding my first husband."
"Why do you always put having babies before marriage?"
"Isn't that the way the Spencer's do it?" Faith giggled. Eliot groaned.
"You are going to be the death of me Faith Valentine."
"I thought mama was going to be the death of you?" He smiled at his oldest child.
"The women in my life will be my demise." Going behind the counter Eliot poured his daughter some orange juice with a shot of vodka. He knew she would need a little liquid courage to face her mother. "Darlin' your mama loves you and your brother more than anything in this world and she just doesn't want you to feel like she didn't do everything in her power to make you childhood better than hers was."
"I had a great child hood. I got to travel around the world with you guys. I got to learn things from some very smart people."
"A hacker, a thief, a grifter, a mastermind and two hitters make life oh so much fun for a little girl and her brother."
"You all made it a wild ride but it was I ride I wouldn't change. Believe it or not daddy, I'm a normal, well adjusted twenty one year old woman."
"Who's hacked into the Pentagon's computer, stole the Mona Lisa and made the whole Seattle FBI office believe you were an undercover agent when you were twelve."
"What? That's not normal and well adjusted?" She smiled as he went behind the grill. "Uncle Steve wants me to come work for him when I graduate." Eliot glanced up from his chopping.
"What do you want to do?" She had the look on her face she got when she had her mind set on something. He would like to blame that one on Kenna too but this was all on him. That stubborn chin and the hard ass look in her clear blue eyes was all Eliot.
"I want to come home and work for the family business." She loved helping people, making things right when things went wrong. Faith Valentine Spencer was born to help people the unconventional way. Kenna had other plans for their daughter, college and law school then a good job at a good law firm with plenty of pro bono hours.
"We can sit down and talk about it this weekend." Faith spun around on the bar stool a couple of times like she did when she was a child and then stopped and looked him in the eye.
"She won't listen. This is Chance's time to shine, daddy. I don't want to take that away from him." Faith watched her dad as he went back to his cooking. He loved to create things in the kitchen. Everything he made tasted more than amazing.
"Don't be quick to say no to Uncle Steve. Not that we wouldn't love to have you home all the time but maybe the change of scenery might do you some good,"
"Hawaii is tempting." Eliot set a plate in front of his daughter. She looked down.
"How did you know I wanted loaded fries?"
"When don't you want loaded fries?" The sound of the front door opening made Eliot look up. "Heads up, your mother just walked in with Chance and neither of them look happy."
"Great."
"You are going to college Chance Nathan Spencer."
"Dad joined the Army right out of school." Kenna stopped and turned to her son who was just a few centimeters short of six feet tall.
"Don't even go there. If you feel like you need to protect this country, you can do it after college." McKenna Shane Hawks Spencer was a force to be reckoned with. She was five feet six inches of pure Kentucky hellion when she needed to be and a sweet a sugar when she wanted to be. She turned to see her daughter and husband at the bar. "Faith!" She dropped the bags she was carrying and ran to her daughter and hugged her.
"Hey Mom." The younger woman tried not to alert her mother to her cracked ribs.
"What happened to your ribs?" Kenna knew when her daughter was hurting. She pushed Faith arms length away.
"I was climbing a rock wall at school and I slipped."
"You never slip." Faith didn't want to argue with her mother right now.
"Hey Chance." Sliding off her stool she went and hugged her brother.
"You know she's not going to let you off that easily." He always was the one to point out the obvious. She pushed away from him and looked around her. This was as quiet as it was going to get for awhile. Once her extended family arrived there wouldn't be a minute's peace until after the New Year. Chance would graduate tomorrow and in a week Christmas would be here. Taking a deep breath Faith turned around.
"I was sky diving and the chute didn't open right and I got hung up in a tree and when my training officer cut me down I landed on a rock."
"You have training officers in law school?" Faith could never lie to her mother. Hide the truth yes, but never lie.
"No but they do have them in Quantico where I'm taking some classes." Kenna looked at her daughter then her husband.
"Did you know about this?" Nothing scared Eliot Spencer more than the look his wife had in her eyes just then. He had faced men with guns and knives. The threat of his wife being mad at him made him fear for his self preservation.
"I knew she was taking some extra classes." He knew Kenna and she had been itching for a fight and he would rather she have it with him then one of their kids.
"Mom, I'm a big girl and if I want to go work for the FBI or in the private sector it's up to me. You raised us well and I think you should be proud of how well we turned out."
"I am proud of the both of you; I just want you both doing something safe and non dangerous.
"We grew up with danger mom. You taught us to take care of ourselves." Faith was too much like her and Eliot to even think she might win this battle.
"I guess I have to let you grow up sometime. I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon." She grabbed her bags and headed through the back of the restaurant.
"Should I go after her?" Chance looked at his dad.
"No, I'll give her an hour to calm down and then I'll go check on her." He looked at his kids. "Y'all know your mom and me didn't have the easiest time growing up and well I think she feels if you both have a good education and desk to sit behind she's going to feel better about those years we spent working and dragging you along with us."
"Leverage Incorporated is a family business dad. We know the rules and parameters and we want to be part of the business. That's why a safe college education isn't going to cut it." Chance was the quiet one. He had never been one to make waves or argue just to argue like his sister, unless he believed he was right. They had been fighting injustice for nearly twenty five years so Eliot and Kenna shouldn't be surprised that their children wanted to follow in their footsteps. His nieces and nephew had already told them if they needed any help, they would be there. "We were raised to be part of this team dad and to carry on the family business."
"I'll talk to her but just let's get though graduation and Christmas and we'll all sit down and have a family meeting." Eliot knew he would be having a knock down drag out with his wife before the day was through. She had sworn a long time ago that the Spencer's were getting out of the Robin Hood business after the two of them retired. Their children carrying on the business wasn't an option. If Alec and Parker wanted it for their kids and Nate and Sophie for theirs it was their choice, but the Spencer's were out.
"So much for a Merry Christmas. I'm sorry." Faith looked at her father and brother. Chance put his arm around his older sister.
"Not your fault Faith. We're all to blame for mom's mood." Eliot took a deep breath.
"It's been a long time since your mother as picked a fight, so it was bound to happen. He looked at his beautiful, handsome, loving children and wondered when their mother's temper was going to rear its ugly head. He chuckled. Maybe they got lucky and inherited Parker's now sunny disposition. He could only hope.