Page 87 of Gideon's Gratitude

“Doesn’t that break confidentiality rules?”

She shrugged. “Quite possibly. I wasn’t going to argue. I told your father, who called Cherish…”

Neither my sister nor my father looked the least bit cowed. In fact, Cherish’s brown eyes sparkled. She’d won this round.

I glanced around. “Where are all the kids?”

“Pia has them all corralled downstairs.” Chad ducked his head. “Practice, you know?”

My heart stuttered. “I thought…” I glanced around the room. This was sonotthe time or place.

Chad shrugged. “We saw a geneticist a few months back. She said the schizophrenia was likely not genetic and saw no reason we couldn’t have children.” His dark-gray eyes—so like mine—were shadowed.How much of this is Chad and how much is Pia?Chad’d sworn he’d never have biological children in case he passed on a faulty gene. His disease was well-managed with medication and vigilance, but that didn’t mean he might not slip. He walked a hell of a tightrope, and having a child was a risk.

I flashed back to Gideon, and the man’s situation. I bumped up the need to look into that mess sooner rather than later.

Chelsea launched herself from the chair and strode over so she stood before me. She was a foot shorter, but it didn’t feel that way when she glared up at me. “Where the hell were you?”

Hmm, she stuttered on the word hell and had likely pulled back on the actual curse she wanted to use. Well, wasn’t this interesting. Sherarely held her tongue when the children were around. For her to be circumspect with adults only in the room was…interesting.

“I was fine. The doctors cleared me.”What’s one little lie?“I just needed a break, so I headed out of town.”

Cherish, who stood behind the chair where Mother sat, planted her hand on her hip. “I grilled Jean-Michel.”

“He didn’t know—”

She shot up her hand and pointed.

I held still.

“I even called Thea.”

Ouch.“Really, I think that was unnecessary.”

“Unnecessary? You put us through all that worry, and you thought we wouldn’t move heaven and earth to find you?”

Was there a right way to answer that question? I doubted it. “Well, I’m here now. I’m fine. Everyone is fine. You can all…” I pointed toward my front door and made a shooing motion.

Cherry snorted, and Channing yawned.

The doorbell rang.

My father rose, a little unsteady. “Been sitting too long.”

Or those seventy years were catching up with him. Hard to tell.

He shuffled to the front door with Channing hard on his heels.

I used the momentary distraction to survey the room. Mother, the twins, their partners, Charmaine, Chelsea, Chad, Chuck, and his wife…yep, every member of the family was here.

The scent of pizza assailed me as Channing and Dad stepped into the room.

Mother rose. “I’m going to call the grandkids.”

Chuck pushed off from the sofa where he’d been leaning. “And I’ll get plates. We can put the kids at the kitchen table and the adults can eat in the dining room.”

“Or we can just stand around. It is, after all, pizza.” To the best of my recollection, Pia was the only member of the family who ate her pizza with a knife and fork. That was considered sacrilege in the Chamberlain family. And if we stood, it’d be easier to corral them right out the door.

Chelsea laughed. “God, you’re so transparent. I’ll get the water and soda.”

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