Chapter 12

"You've been married since February and you didn't tell us?" Jamie said accusingly. "Don't you think we had a right to know, Mom?"

"Cool it, Bro," Phillip said. "Don't you think they would have told us if they could? They aren't like ordinary people that go to an office every day; ordinary people don't go to work not sure if they're going to come home or not. They were trying to keep us safe. If nobody knew we were part of Lee's family, we couldn't be targets for the bad guys."

"Okay, so now he decides to come clean only because some girl in Texas, some girl we never knew existed, needs someone to take care of her?"

"James Edward King," Amanda said, forestalling Lee, who was about to lose his temper and tear a strip off her younger son. "That's enough! We've tried to be patient with you because we understand that this is a big change for you, but 'that girl', as you call her, never knew her father because he was killed in Vietnam when she was just a baby, and she just lost her mother at the age of seventeen. Have a little compassion."

"Yeah, Jimmy, how would you feel if you woke up in the hospital some day and somebody had to tell you that Mom was dead?" Phillip asked. "Jeez, grow up, will you? You're acting like a brat."

"That will do, Phillip," Amanda said.

Jamie was quiet for a few moments before he said, "Mom, when you were in that hospital in California, I …I wasn't sure that you were going to come home."

Amanda put her arms around Jamie's shoulders from the back and leaned her head on his. " I know, Jim. We were all scared, and we didn't talk about it, which only made it worse."

"I blamed you for getting her into that mess, Lee," he said, looking at his stepfather directly for the first time.

"I know you did, Jim, and so did I. I've thought many, many times that if I'd never said a word to her that day at the train station, she'd be a lot happier and safer."

"And you'd be wrong," Amanda said firmly.

"Yeah, she might have married Dean, and that guy was such a total dweeb!" Phillip said.

"Totally," Jim agreed. "When Dad first came home, we thought, well, Mom and Dad will get married again and things will be like they were before when we were little kids, but we realized that it wasn't going to happen. For one thing, by then she was already in love with you, Lee - weren't you, Mom?"

"Yes, I was. I'll always love your father, boys, but it's a different kind of love. He's my friend, and he's a great dad, but Lee is my future, just like Carrie is his. Do you understand what I mean?"

Phillip nodded, and after a few seconds, Jim did too.

"Thank you, boys," Amanda said. "There are going to have to be some major changes around here; Leeanne is only seventeen, so we're thinking that we'll probably need to bring her up here to live with us. You know we don't have enough bedrooms for everyone, so we're going to need a bigger house. Your grandmother's friend Captain Weller knows a lot of people, so we're going to ask him to help us find a house with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Lee has about six weeks left on his apartment lease, so we'll keep that until it runs out at the end of August, since it would cost more to break the lease than to just let it run out. It's close to the Agency, so it's a good place to stay when he has to work late. I don't know how long I'll be in Texas; it will be at least six weeks, though, since Leeanne has casts on both legs and it wouldn't be a good idea to move her up here until those casts come off."

"Well, could we come down and stay with you for part of that time, Mom? Maybe we could help you. You know, take out the trash, cut the grass, stuff like that?" Phillip asked. "It's not like we're doing anything much this summer."

Amanda looked at Lee, who nodded. "That sounds like a good idea, fellas," he said. "It would give you a chance to get to know Leeanne, too. She's only seventeen, but she's already finished a year of college courses and she's a really fun person to be around. Our plane leaves National at six tonight, and Joe is going to drive us to the airport so we can leave the Jeep here for your grandmother," Amanda told them.

"What about the 'Vette?" Phillip asked.

"That stays in the Agency parking garage," Lee said firmly. "It's secure there, more secure than it would be on the street in front of my apartment."

Phillip looked disappointed.

"When you're old enough, Phillip, you can drive it, but that's still a few years away. It stays in the Agency garage while I'm gone."

"Yes, sir."

"Now that we've worked that out, I'm going upstairs to tell your grandmother the family meeting is over, and then I need to pack for a summer in Texas," Amanda said.