Chapter 9 – Billy Asks for Help

At the King Household, Amanda was trying to catch up on her laundry. It had been extra work having Alexi around and so she had gotten behind on it but knew she would quickly get it back under control. She couldn't help but smile when she thought of Alexi. He was a good kid but had been forced in a situation to save his parents and he had been scared. She wondered whether Phillip would have acted the same way if anything ever happened to her and he was responsible for saving her. When she thought about it that way, she realized that Alexi had done the best he could under the circumstances.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing. She half expected it to be Lee when she answered it but instead it was Billy Melrose.

"Hi Mrs. King. This is Billy Melrose, did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Hi Mr. Melrose. No sir, this isn't a bad time at all. I'm just doing laundry. Is there something wrong with Lee sir?"

"Oh no, Lee is just fine. He's heading out on an assignment and we were wondering if you could help out on it?"

"Me sir? Did Lee ask for my help?"

"Well not exactly but he did agree that you would be the most logical choice for the assignment."

"What exactly will I be doing?"

"Lots of baking Amanda and we both know you do that well. Your cover will be a baker and you just need to bake pies, cookies and other pastries that are pumpkin related. Can you do it?"

"Sure! When do we leave and for how long?"

"Lee will pick you up at 8am tomorrow at your house. I'm not sure how long the assignment will take. Lee will fill you in on what you need to know on the drive to CT."

"CT sir? So this is an out of town assignment?"

"Yes Amanda. You know, I never got a chance to ask you how the trip to Arizona was with Lee. Did everything go okay between the two of you? Anything I need to know about happen that will affect you working with him?"

"Did everything go okay? Yes, everything was fine. We got along okay the whole trip. I don't think there is anything you need to know Sir." Amanda blushed thinking about that final night with Lee and was glad she didn't have to share that personal piece of information with Billy or anyone else.

"So is there any reason you might not be able to take this assignment Amanda?"

"No, I guess not. It's just that my boys always march in the Halloween Parade and I wouldn't want to miss that but of course if I need to miss it, I'm sure it must be for something important so I'll try to make them understand why I had to miss them. Will I have to miss the parade sir?"

"We'll do our best to wrap things up so you can see them in the parade Amanda. Are you still okay with going?"

"Oh, yes sir. I'll go. Thank you sir."

"Okay, Amanda. Oh and Lee wanted to let you know that you will be posing as Boyfriend/Girlfriend this time so you can have separate rooms."

"That's good news Sir. I mean I know a lot of couples today share the same room but if Lee thinks it will be okay for us not to, than that will be great. Thank you Sir."

Billy was smiling listening to Amanda's Rambles. She always made him smile. "Keep Lee out of trouble on this one Amanda."

"I'll do my best Sir. Goodbye"

"Goodbye Amanda"

Amanda hung up the phone and stared at it for 5 minutes as she thought about what she was going to tell her Mother. She went back to the laundry room and finished her laundry. Later after she went back downstairs, she noticed her Mother was back from her afternoon Bridge game so she innocently went into the kitchen and said "Mother, I got a call from an old friend this morning while you were out."

"An old friend? Who was that dear?"

"I don't know if you remember her or not. We weren't that close. Her name was Sara and we took Home Economics at the same time."

Dotty looked at Amanda and said "No, I don't remember any Sara in your Home Ec Class. Why did Sara suddenly call you out of the blue dear?"

"Well Mother, I'm glad you asked me that. It seems that she is throwing a huge party and needs help with it including the baking so she has asked me to come help her."

"Oh, darling, that is nice of you to offer to go help her. Will you be gone long?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked me that too. She isn't sure how long it will take for me to help out with all the baking so it could be a week or two."

"Amanda that is a long time. Well you might have to take a day off in order to see the Halloween parade."

"Yes Mother, only I will be in CT. She moved there after graduation and that is where I will be doing the baking."

"Amanda? Connecticut Dear?"

"Yes, Mother. She has offered me a nice amount of money for helping her out and you know I could use that to help with getting the boys some nice Christmas presents."

"Well it is your life darling. If you want to traipse all the way to CT just to make a little extra money, who am I to stop you?"

"Thank you Mother. I was sure you would understand. I have to go get packed now."

"When do you leave?"

"A friend of hers will be picking me up at 8am tomorrow. I'll call you every night."

"Okay, at least you can say goodbye to the boys and have supper with them tonight. What about Dean?"

"Oh, don't you remember Mother? Dean was going to be away at another weather convention until just before Halloween."

"You are right, I had forgotten about that. Okay, well go ahead and pack Dear."

"Thanks Mother."

The rest of the night was quietly spent first having dinner, washing the dishes and then making sure the boys' homework was completed. Soon it was time for the boys to go to bed and Amanda tucked them both in and kissed them goodnight.

She went back downstairs to find Dotty reading one of her romance novels while sipping tea. She gave her a peck on the cheek and told her that she loved her and that she would see her in the morning before she left. Dotty wished her a good night and then stared after her as Amanda made her way up the stairs. She soon shook her head though and went back to reading her book.

TBC