35
Election Day…
DONATELLA
“Belladonna tells us you’re dating a Creed? The soldier?” her dad asked from across the dinner table.
Donna looked over at her bigmouthed sister with a scowl. She raised a hand in her defense.
“What? You are,” Bella squealed through laughter.
Donna rolled her eyes and stabbed a chunk of meat from the delicious Hunter’s Stew she’d begged her mom to cook. “Do you ever get tired of talking about me?” she muttered.
“Nope,” Bella quipped.
“He’s so handsome,” her mom commented as she walked into the room. She placed a plate of sliced cornbread on the table and took her seat next to her dad. “Although, I am concerned about you getting serious with a soldier.”
Donna and Bella both looked at her mom. Surely, with two daughters who were cops in the most dangerous city in America, she couldn’t have been serious.
“I’m just saying. Well, you two don’t know what it’s like to have to worry about someone every time they go to work.”
Donna shrugged with a chuckle when Bella looked at her with a wrinkled brow of confusion. “So, Mom, you don’t think I worry about Donna when she goes to work? And you don’t think she fears for my safety too?”
Their mom rubbed her chin. She seemed to be thinking of the possibility for the first time.
“Hmm, I guess you have a point. I honestly never thought of things like that. I just assumed you girls were fearless.”
“Well, she is. I’m not,” Bella pointed out. “She gets some kind of rush from working undercover.”
“And you’re surrounded by death,” Donna rebutted.
“Whatever! Anyway…how do you and Linc do it? You have to leave, he’s gotta leave. How do you spend time with each other?”
“We manage,” Donna muttered, tired of talking about her relationship.
Bella exhaled a frustrated breath. “Why are you always so secretive when it comes to your dating life?”
“Leave your sister be,” their dad interjected. “She ain’t gotta tell y’all her business.”
“You’re right, honey. We’re just glad to have you both for dinner at the same time.”
“That’s right, baby. And dinner is delicious.”
“Thank you. Besides…I’m just glad she’s with a man,” her mom muttered under her breath. “For a while, I thought she was lesbian.”
Donna glared at her mother, Bella erupted into laughter, and her dad dropped his head and shoved a potato in his mouth.
* * *
Even with Bellaand her mom’s lighthearted teasing, Donna was really enjoying the time she was spending with her family. She missed them when she was away, and she was away so much. In fact, she’d just been assigned to a new undercover investigation. She had no way of knowing when she’d see them again. Or Lincoln, either for that matter. For months, they’d been in a long-distance relationship. And surprisingly, it was working for them. They talked on the phone when they could. He visited Chicago. She visited Fort Benning. They were even able to take a quick vacation to Cancun.
“You sure you guys don’t wanna come to the Four Seasons with us?” Donna asked.
Victor, Taylor, and the rest of the Creeds were holed up at the fancy hotel where they’d be waiting for the election results.
“We’re sure,” her mom confirmed cuddling closer to her dad. The look she gave him was a look Donna had seen many times.
“Oh, God,” Bella gasped. “Can’t y’all wait for us to get out of the house?”
