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Jordan stiffened, gazing at the doorway she had left open He wrapped an arm around her while she kissed his cheek "Who’s we? Who are you here with?" he snapped

She took a breath and stepped back, frowning "Well, hello to you too, big bro I’ to be here" She flicked a curious glance my way before Jordan turned on his heel and stor at each other for a long, aard moment before I stood and walked around the table "Hi, I’m April Weiss I’azed at the closed kitchen door where Jordan’s raised voice could be easily heard Poor grandpa

"I’m Hannah Fawkes Little sister to the randpa didn’t know you were co or he would never have tried to pull this off"

I opened h the open front door I recognized them from the family photo on his desk as Jordan’s parents His ht, with red hair that was cut short Jordan’s dad looked like hiuished thing going for hi faenerations of Fawkesat Jordan twenty-five years into the future and beyond

Hannah waved toward them "These are my parents," she said Then she turned to her dad "Jordan’s here"

Themachine in the driveway," he muttered

Jordan had reentered on the tail end of that and tossed a glance at his dad before snapping up his keys "Nice to see you, too" Then he turned to "

I stood rooted to ht in the middle of the family dra his father Hishis ared frolass cake stand and set it in the middle of the table

"You want to explain this little stunt to randfather

"Simmer down and have a seat," the Reverend replied affably "All of you sit down Maybe Carol can coax Jordan back to the table"

My eyes flehere Jordan and hisin tense voices near the front door Jordan’s body language was rigid, his hands in his pockets Histo erandfather had colluded to get father and son together in the sa

And here I was, smack dab in the middle of a dysfunctional fah faathered up the dirty lunch dishes and utensils from the table and took the a stack of dessert plates and forks I grabbed them and carried them to the table

The sooner the cake was cut and served, the sooner we could excuse ourselves, if necessary Or maybe Jordan and his dad would be able to talk to each other Maybe

Most of the people were seated and now Jordan was slowly, reluctantly co back to the table with a dark look on his face The Reverend cut the cake as if nothing unusual had happened Likely he was going through the motions to establish some semblance of normalcy A family rift like this was painful for more than merely the two involved It tore apart an entire farandfather, the man had risked a lot--and had likely lost

We ate our cake in strained silence for a few er tolerate the tension, they started on a safe subject-- at Draco?" the Reverend began

"Oh, well I spent sixas Jordan’s assistant for ainternship Are you there for the work experience or are you trying to get a job with the company?"

I s that, I’m really interested in theoretic economics"

Jordan’s father--who I learned was named Grant Fawkes--snorted "The world doesn’t needtheory and writing papers about it that no one will read"