Page 119 of Pride and Protest

Dorsey’s cool voice made everyone at the table turn. “Are you happy, Beverly?”

“That’s First Lady Beverly Bennett Jones now.” She smiled.

“I think your mother would have been very proud of you.” The table stilled. Everybody loved their grandmother, but Liza hadreallyloved her grandmother and had taken her death hard.

“Thank you, Dorsey,” Bev said.

Never one to sit too long in sadness, she clapped her hands briskly. “And my first job as First Lady is to get this basementclean before Bible study tonight. Up! Up, all of you. Maurice, you take those chairs! Liza, you fold these tables!”

Dorsey came behind Liza. “Whoa, whoa. What do you think you’re doing?”

“It’s not going to hurt me to fold some tables.”

“What if one of these tables fell over and crushed you?”

Maurice sidled up and pointed to his sister’s stomach. “You sure you want to be handling those tables, big sis?” Maurice was astute. She had never given him his due.

“How did you know?” Liza asked.

“You’ve just been unconsciously touching your stomach a lot. Kind of protective. And Mom had to let out the dress she made for you just three months ago.”

Dorsey raised an eyebrow. “I see those private investigator courses have paid off.”

“Yeah, I’m saving up money to open a storefront in PG County. I’m going to call it Ear to the Street Detective Agency, or E2S—‘When you don’t trust the cops but you got to get answers.’ ” He said the last part wistfully. Dorsey nodded approvingly and Liza clapped him on the shoulders.

“You’re going to do well, bro.”

Dorsey pulled her away from the tables toward the pews on the perimeter of the room. Sitting her on his lap, he wrapped his arm around her, closing his warm hand over her gently rounding belly. Liza’s heart quickened at the feel of his hands.Will I ever be immune to his touch?She had traveled the world with him. She’d seen him build a women’s hospital in Malaysia, lay bricks in the Congo, and crash on a motorbike in Vietnam. He’d seen her haggle with a cloth maker in Lagos, sob into the night when a mother she had helped almost died in childbirth in Brazil, andorder soap,jabón, instead of ham,jamón, in Ecuador. Liza thought they had seen every aspect of each other.

But now they would get to know each other as mother and father.

Liza interlaced their fingers. “What do you think of Datu for a boy?”

Dorsey grunted noncommittally. “It’s a last name. What do you think of Evie for a girl?”

Evelyn had been her granny’s name. Liza fanned her eyes and felt a lump rise in her throat. Her granny would have loved to see her pregnant.

Janae swept her feet playfully. “Liza’s avoiding cleaning, as always.”

Liza looked around the dimly lit basement. She had started this journey with Dorsey on her way to being jaded. Janae had been in a downward spiral of depression. Deya had been lost in attention seeking, and Maurice had been struggling with his identity. But they would be okay. Liza felt ready to focus on hernewgrowing family. Her hand moved over Dorsey’s on her belly and she leaned into him, letting out a contented sigh. The Bennetts would beokay.