Page 22 of Her Devoted HERO

“Look who I found on your door step. You didn’t tell me you were meeting a handsome man for breakfast.” Penny Hartford said.

“I’m not,” Kenna told her mother.

Dex let out a laugh. Austin and Penny joined him.

“Smooth Mom,” Austin spoke at the same time her mother.

“Maybe you need your eyes checked, Kenna Leigh. He’s handsome.”

Kenna flushed. “We’re not having breakfast,” she mumbled.

“Dex, I’d like you to meet my son Austin, and my mother, Penny. Family, meet the handsome man, Dex Evans. We are not having breakfast. We are going to visit homeless shelters today. It’s a new assignment for Rosalie.”

“Actually, I was hoping we could pick up coffee and a scone. I told Reverend Langley we’d be there at nine,” Dex smiled.

Austin gave her a sideways smirk. What was up with that? Shouldn’t he be all upset that a strange man was trying to have coffee with her? She understood her mother’s glee, but her son’s?

“Dex, I thought I asked you to wait in the car for me this morning,” she said pointedly.

“My grandfather would hand me my ass if I didn’t go to a lady’s door.”

“You were raised right.” Penny nodded firmly. “Did your grandfather raise you?”

“He had a large hand in it. I came out to San Diego most summers to spend them with my grandparents,” Dex explained.

There was a story there.

“I can tell I like him,” Penny said.

“Are you here to watch Austin while Kenna and I go do our thing?”

“Yep, that’s my thing on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Let’s me catch up with the light of my life. But today is a little more interesting.”

“No. No, it isn’t. It is just one of Rosalie’s projects. Nothing interesting at all,” Kenna said quickly.

The last thing she needed was her mother getting ideas.

“As a matter of fact, this is a big project that will take months. Rosalie has taken Kenna off all of her other duties to focus on this. I’ll be spending pretty much all my free time coordinating with her. I’m really looking forward to it.”

“In that case, you should come to dinner, shouldn’t he Austin? I always cook on Saturdays since Kenna has to work.”

Come on Baby Boy, do Mama a solid and say no.

Austin looked at her, then looked at Dex, then looked back at her. “Sounds good, Gram.” He had a shit-eating grin on his face.

Traitor.

“Austin, I forgot to talk to you about some chores you need to get done today. Can you come with me?”

Kenna jerked her head towards the kitchen. He trailed her into the other room.

“What are you thinking?” she demanded. She had to stare up at him because he was three inches taller than her, but he was still her little boy.

“I’m thinking this is a way for Gram and me to see if he is make-up worthy.”

“What?”

“You like him. It explains why you’re wearing your hair down. I can cope. But this way I can see if he’s a good guy. It’s cool he didn’t listen to you and came to the door. And Rosalie likes him. But then she likes everyone, so Gram and I need to vet him at dinner tonight.”