Page 127 of Left Behind

As always, family began arriving early, women bringing a side dish and an extra pair of hands, while the men were shooed out of the house onto the long front porch to swap stories to their hearts’ content.

Sean had an ice chest full of cold pop and bottles of water, and the ceiling fans on the porch stirred the air enough to keep them cool, while the women had the air-conditioned house to cool their labors.

Aaron and Dani arrived, with B.J. right behind them, and then Cameron, Rusty, and Mikey came after, while the rest came stringing in. Finally, the only people left to arrive were the guests of honor.

“There they come!” Cameron said, pointing at the appearance of Wiley’s SUV, and right behind it was a car they didn’t recognize. It had to be her parents.

Sean got up and opened the door. “Mom! They’re here!” he shouted.

Shirley dropped what she was doing, wiped her hands, and went out to greet them.

***

When the house came into full view, Linette gasped. “Who are all those people?”

“Kin,” Wiley said. “You’ll meet them all and love them. Anyone I love, they love.”

“Will they love me, too?” Ava asked.

“Especially you,” Linette said, as she unbuckled her seat belt.

“I’ll get her,” Wiley said. He jumped out, opened the door for Linette, then got Ava out of her car seat. “Two prettiest girls in the county, and they’re mine,” he said.

Chuck and Angela got out and hurried up to where Wiley and Linette were waiting.

“Jesus was a carpenter,” Chuck muttered. “We just walked into the land of giants.”

Angela sighed. “And aren’t they something? Lord, but the blood runs true in all of them. I’ve never seen so many good-looking men, from the youngest to the oldest, with such strong family resemblances.”

“Come on, Mom,” Linette said, and they headed to the house together.

Shirley emerged from the house as they came up the steps. The strands of gray in her dark hair looked like silver, and her sons wore varying versions of her face. Because her sons were so tall, she never thought of herself that way, but found herself towering over both of Linette’s parents.

Linette immediately began introductions. “Mom…Dad…these are Wiley’s people, some of whom I have yet to meet. Everyone, this is my dad, Chuck Elgin, and my mother, Angela.”

“And for those who have yet to meet them, these two beauties are my fiancée, Linette, and my little sister, Ava.”

Cameron’s son, Mikey, had been drawing pictures in the dirt when the strangers arrived and had gone back to the porch to stand beside his daddy. But then he saw the little girl with blond hair get out of his uncle Wiley’s car, and he stared. And kept staring.

Even after everyone had gone inside and even more introductions were made, Mikey was still and quiet, something Rusty had never seen happen.

“Cameron, look at Mikey,” she whispered.

Cameron quickly scanned the room, expecting to have to dig him out of a corner he wasn’t supposed to be in, and then saw him sitting on a rock bench in front of the fireplace, staring. He followed his son’s gaze, straight to the little blond sitting in Wiley’s lap, and sighed.

“Well, damn,” he said.

“I’ve seen that look before, but you were wearing it when we first met,” Rusty said.

“He’s barely seven,” Cameron said.

Rusty shrugged. “So’s she, but going into second grade, I hear.”

“That doesn’t happen this young,” Cameron said.

Rusty shrugged. “I’m not advocating for anything. I’m just pointing out the obvious. Pope men love once. You’ve told me that a thousand times.”

Cameron looked down at her, seeing the woman she was now, but remembering the wild, reckless woman who’d chosen undercover work for the FBI as her livelihood. And there was a part of her in their son, too.

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