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When we’d all been served, I discovered it was finally ated by Gloria She fixed ine, Owen has told us next to nothing about you other than that you work together and that you’re from out of town Where were you before you came to New York?"

"I’m from a small town in Texas I’d lived there all my life, except when I was off at school"

"And what did you do there?" Her tone wasn’t nearly as sharp with me as it had been with Owen, but I still felt like I’d been hooked to a polygraph ht be able to clear my name and avoid life in prison

"My family owns a farm supply store there, and I worked in the store I pretty h school"

"Are you planning to stay in New York long?"

"I haven’t been considering it a te there" She nodded like she was happy with the answer, and then I caught her glancing toward Owen I knew then exactly as going on She was a lioness with a cub Coddling hih with hi and self-sufficient Meanwhile, she’d defend hi me It was funny that, as brilliant as Oas about so ot thatattention

She eased off on the questioning at that point, and I hoped thatit would be awhile before she decided to go so far as to actually approve of ured I was doing okay with her

When we’d finished with dessert, Gloria said, "We’re attending the early church service this year We don’t like to stay out too late these days We’ll have to leave by four-thirty if ant to get a good seat That leaves us just enough tie clothes"

It sounded estion, so we trooped upstairs obediently Owen looked like he needed so and went to prop ainst the radiator in ed into , Gemma’s cream-colored cashured I’d better head downstairs I got the feeling punctuality was essential in this household I took ifts with me to put under the Christmas tree that stood in the front en’s door was still closed as I passed it, and I carefully stepped over the squeaky spot in the hallway so I wouldn’t disturb his on the gifts under the Christifts I couldn’t help but notice that there were two gifts there with my name on them Then I sat and communed with Arahile I waited for the others James joined me first, and we made stiff small talk until Gloria and Owen came downstairs Gloria then hustled us outside to the car Owen drove, and Gloria insisted I sit in the front with him while she and James took the backseat

The church in the heart of the village looked like so you’d see on the front of a Christmas card It was built of stone with a snow-dusted slate roof and red-bowed evergreen wreaths on the arched front doors The congregation, however, was like nothing I’d seen before It was a ical person I’d encountered There was a special raised seating area near the front for the gnooyles perched on the backs of pews I wasn’t sure if they were local or if they were part of the MSI security detail The sense of power inside the church was so strong it felt like ing carols, I learned that Owen had a very nice singing voice It made me self-conscious about the fact that I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket I fought off the feelings of inadequacy that always seeood at aline hi interested in me But he was interested and had made that clear, and he wasn’t entirely perfect now that I knew hi, he was kind of an e increasingly obvious

But that little vulnerability onlyto me What woman could resist a handsome, wealthy, powerful, nice man as also just a tiny bit broken inside? It , there was soht have been ultrapowerful, but I couldn’t help wanting to protect him