Page 4 of Wed
They were seated in a booth toward the back of the restaurant. Both sat silent for several minutes as they looked over the menu. "I shouldn't eat too much if I'm going to the spa."
"I need to be careful I don't overeat so I won't fit into my dress tomorrow night." Becca laughed.
Faith rolled her eyes. "It's going to take more than one meal to make that happen. Besides, you'll work all the calories off after the wedding." She waggled her eyebrows.
Becca blushed. "You're probably right."
"Have you two thought about kids?" Faith asked.
Becca shook her head. "We decided not to have any. We have enough nieces and nephews around now that we're happy to go visit Beau or Kasey. I never really felt the pull to have them, and Bryon was always so focused on work. I figure someday you'll have kids, and I can visit."
Faith laughed. "I'd love to have several someday."
"Are you still dating that guy you mentioned?" Becca hated she couldn't remember the guy's name.
"Yeah, I'm still seeing Mich. We both work at the clinic in the evenings, so we don't go out very often, but it's good. Slow works best for me." Faith paused as the waiter came to take their order. Once he was gone, she smiled at Becca. "I told him about my past the other night. I pulled up the news reports and told him everything. Well, everything but about who saved me. I didn't mention the team at all, but he knows everything else. I was worried it would freak him out and make him change his mind about dating me, but he just hugged me and told me how strong I was. Told me he was there if I needed to talk about it and then took me out for ice cream. It was kind of perfect. I didn't want him to make a big deal of it. I needed him to know about it, but it's in my past for the most part. I still have nightmares sometimes, and I needed him to understand why I insist on taking things slower than other women might. What I didn't want was him to feel sorry for me and make a big thing out of it. He handled it perfectly, which just makes me like him that much more."
"Good. I'm glad he understood and was exactly what you needed him to be. What happens once you graduate and have to do your internship somewhere?"
"I'm going to try and stay in that area, but we'll see what happens. There's time for that. He just joined a small practice there and we're both trying to figure out our futures. It's still new. The big test will be when he meets my dads. If he can handle them, then he'll be a keeper. I haven't even told Dad I'm dating yet. I'm not sure how they'll take it. I fear Xander might show up at his door for a man-to-man talk or something."
Becca laughed. "They are a bit protective."
They joked about men and how they both were surrounded by men who were overprotective. It was something Becca had gotten used to years ago. Anytime she went out with Bryon, he was on alert, watching everything and everyone around them, looking for danger. She imagined it was even worse for Faith.
When the food came, they both quieted and focused on eating. Becca glanced around the restaurant as she enjoyed her shrimp salad, wondering where everyone was from since most here would probably be tourists. Her gaze fell on a table not too far from them where a young girl sat with two men. The little girl looked scared to death. She couldn't be more than ten or eleven years old. It was probably nothing more than years of working on the team making her paranoid, but her gut told her something wasn't right. She stared at the young girl, watching how she kept her gaze lowered as if she was afraid to look at anyone.
"What is it?" Faith asked.
Becca shook her head. "Maybe nothing. I might be assuming things, but don't make it obvious you're looking. There's a little girl at that table, second from the door to the kitchen. She looks scared to death." The girl wasn't eating, despite there being a plate in front of her. She was thinner than was probably healthy, but Becca didn't see any signs of abuse. "Maybe I'm looking for something that isn't there."
Faith glanced over casually, then looked back. "I don't know. She does look terrified."
Becca sighed. "I hate that I'm always expecting the worst. Maybe she just didn't get what she wanted to eat or got in trouble with her dad?" She continued to watch the little girl, noticing how the two men ignored her as they talked.
"She doesn't look like either of the men. One's blonde, the other has red hair. She's got brown hair and darker skin. It's not impossible she belongs to one of them, but I'm with you, something isn't right." Faith turned so she was sitting sideways in the booth so she could see better, making it look like she was just getting comfortable while she visited.
"What do we do?" Becca asked.
"What can we do? We have no proof anything is wrong. We could go ask the little girl if she needs help. Draw attention to her and call the police to verify she's really his kid, but what if we're wrong?" Faith asked.
"What if we aren't?" Becca met Faith's gaze.
"Better to look like idiots than have something be wrong and do nothing." Faith sighed. "What do you want to do?"
"I don't know." Becca knotted her napkin in her hand, trying to think of a way to approach the girl without causing a scene. She could hardly justify a gut feeling having her call the police. But she'd seen too many court cases where children were the victims not to know what an abused child acted like. This little girl had seen things she didn't want to imagine. No child was this closed off and scared by just getting into trouble with her parents.
For a brief second, the little girl turned her head and glanced at Becca. Her eyes were filled with fear and tears looked ready to fall. Becca's heart broke, but she kept calm and mouthed, "do you need help?"
The girl looked away, but there was a brief nod. At least Becca was going to take it as a nod. Again, maybe it was her brain making her see what she assumed she should see, but she couldn't ignore this. She got into her purse and handed Faith her credit card. "Go see if we can pay our bill now. We might have to get out of here quickly and I don't need them coming after us for skipping out on the bill."
Faith took the card, her eyes widening. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm not sure yet, but whatever it is, I might have to act fast. We'll meet at the room if we get separated."
"I'm not leaving your side."
"Then go pay the bill so we can do this together." Becca's heart raced with nervousness. She was used to being the information gatherer. She didn't take part in any of the actual rescuing of kids. She didn't have a clue how to handle this. She tried to think what the guys would do, but imagined Xander would just walk over and straight up ask the girl if she was in trouble and wait for the men to react so he could beat them to a pulp.
