Breaking the Habit - The Devereaux Case Files, Book 7

Chapter 6

There had been a lot of last minute prep work to do, when Ayah had discovered that Murray was only available for her dinner party that night. Luckily, when she had called Griffin and Amita, they had both professed to having no plans for the evening and had quickly agreed to come along. As usual, Amita had shown up early, to help Ayah with the preparations. So Reed took care of the kids, setting up a separate table for their dinner so that Olive and the twins could sit together, and have their own little conversations, while the adults talked at the bigger dining table.

If they were going to talk about the agency, Reed figured it was the best not to let the boys be included in that. Partly as punishment for setting the fire and not alerting anyone, and also so that they wouldn't start letting on to Murray that he had already told them stories of old operations and he'd get in trouble. As it was, Reed was looking forward to hearing what kind of questions Ayah had for his old boss. No doubt he wouldn't want to answer them, but Ayah had a way of making people comfortable and letting them talk about whatever they wanted, before slipping in innocent sounding questions. Murray didn't have a chance.

Reyes and Dicken arrived just five minutes after Amita, to find the two women buzzing around between the kitchen and the dining room, while Olive kept the twins occupied at their dinner table, helping them with their homework. Caleb had got into trouble with his teachers for not doing any of his homework over their vacation period, and Reed had to suffer hearing from Ayah that he wasn't paying attention in class either. He knew why it was, because Caleb took after him far too much.

If he wasn't interested in a subject, he blanked out altogether and he was far too free and independent to care that he would get into trouble for it. But to Ayah, who was a study genius, and Olivia, who took after her mother, it was unacceptable. So, until Reed could sit Caleb down for a chat about how important school work was, which he would have to seriously think about first, then Olive was happy to help her brother. And so it seemed was Mason, who had already finished all his homework for the week, in preparation for spending more time with Caleb, helping him.

By the time he explained this to Reyes, and admitted that it was the reason the kids hadn't eaten early and already disappeared up to their rooms to watch the TV, he could tell that something was wrong. "We wanted to keep an eye on them while they were working, to make sure it got done." Reed admitted, curious about the look Reyes had in his eyes that said trouble was on its way. "Something wrong?" He wondered, concerned about his best friend.

"Nothing." Reyes passed it off as unimportant, even though Dicken looked pale and sad.

"You guys know Amita. Griffin said he'd be here shortly and knowing Murray he'll be late or exactly on time to the minute." Reed smiled to cover up the fact that he had noticed something wrong. He didn't want Ayah to know that there was something brewing that would ruin her dinner party. She was so looking forward to grilling Murray, giving Dicken the answers he wanted, and setting up a perfect romance.

"I'll help Olive if you want?" Dicken offered, deflated to see that they were so early that it would just be general chit chat until the last two guests arrived. He decided that distracting himself with someone else's homework and talking to Caleb, who was most like him personality-wise, was probably the best idea. It wouldn't give him enough time to dwell on what had happened that day. His dad gave him an understanding nod of agreement before watching him walk off.

"He's had a bad day. I'll explain when Murray gets here." Reyes admitted shortly, relieved that it was only five minutes later that the doorbell rang. Murray and Griffin walked in together, talking happily with each other. Reed was almost surprised, except that he knew they had met before. He invited them in, offered them drinks and then watched in amusement as Ayah took hold of Griffin's arm and walked him around the room, introducing him to everyone and ending with Amita.