Graham leaned over the table and raised his voice to be heard.

"He said he'd fought against it, thinking that it wasn't right for

him."

Graham realized that he was shouting.

And that he was very, very close to Caitlin.

"Turns out it was."

Her smile bloomed slowly across her lips and flowered in her eyes.

Nurtured by her soul.

"I'd like to meet this man."

He nodded.

He'd like that.

He'd like Caitlin to meet Kane and Jennifer.

And for them to meet her.

"Maybe we'll take a vacation down there someday. He lives in Southern

California."

Jake, engrossed in finding different ways of bending his fries and then eating them, suddenly came to life.

"Disneyland?"

His eyes grew wide.

Graham maintained a straight face.

"Yeah, I think he mentioned he lives near there."

"When can we go?"

Jake was almost on his feet, ready to dash out.

He couldn't hold his smile in check any longer.

Graham ruffled Jake's hair.

"Maybe soon."

Jake looked from Graham to Caitlin.

Of the two, Caitlin was the softer one.

"Tomorrow?"

"Not that soon."

Graham laughed just as his beeper went off, sending out a staccato

beat.

Jake looked accusingly at the beeper clipped to his father's belt.

"You're making noise, Dad."

Graham shut it off.

He didn't want to be interrupted.

Not tonight.

"Yeah, I know."

Jake hated his father's beeper.

It always took him away just when they were having fun.

"Don't they know you're at a 'portant victory dinner?"

Graham rose to his feet.

"I'll tell them. Right now, I've got to find a phone."

"There's one in front of the doughnut shop two doors down," Caitlin

told him.

Jake applied himself to the fries as his father walked out.

He made short work of them and then snuck a couple from his father's

container.

Caitlin raised a brow.

"He counts them, you know," she said solemnly.

The fry he was about to pop into his mouth stopped in mid-descent.

"He does?"

"Yup."

She nodded, suppressing a smile.

"If there's one missing, he'll know."

Jake looked as if he wasn't sure if he believed her, but he didn't want

to take the chance.

Coming to the rescue, she switched some of her remaining fries into

Graham's container.

"Here, we'll slip him, some of mine. He'll think they're his."

Satisfied, Jake grinned.

"Thanks, Cait. You're the best."

Well, she'd won over at least one Redhawk.

"Tell that to your father."

Small brows drew together over bright brown eyes.

"Doesn't he know?"

She shook her head as she toyed with her straw.

The soda was already beginning to taste flat.