Love and Only Love

Chapter 26

Even though Meryl drifted off briefly the night before, neither she or Don slept that much. They both tossed and turned all night. Meryl and Don were both worried about Grace. They both wanted to protect their daughter, but they knew it was out of their control. They eventually got up; and while Don was getting the girls up, Meryl was in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

***

Meryl couldn't get the picture of Mann's face out of her head. She kept seeing him going after Grace and she squinted her eyes as if to erase the picture. She hated her babies were already as exposed to the situation as they were; especially Grace who had been through more than any of them since Mann had sent her that letter.

As Don walked in the kitchen he noticed that Meryl seemed deep in thought, and went up behind her rubbing her shoulders. "You're tense, Darl." He said with a kiss to her cheek. "But I can't blame you."

"That's helping." Meryl sighed happily as he kept rubbing her shoulders. "We can't let him get to our baby, Don."

"We won't, sweetheart, he won't even be in the same room as her." Don pointed out as he began to message on both sides of her spine.

"Mmmmm....that feels good." She sighed. "But Don, his lawyer will be asking her questions."

Don began to kiss her neck. "I know, and I fucking hate it. I wish I could stop it, but I can't. I hate there's nothing I can do."

"Baby, it's not your fault. You can't fix everything." Meryl pointed out.

"I'm just glad we have Larry, he'll turn it around." Don said with another kiss to her cheek. "How does that feel?"

Meryl turned around and slowly kissed his lips. "Much better, thank you."

"Baby, we just need to stay strong today, we need to do it for Grace. She needs us now more than ever." Don pointed out.

Louisa came running into the kitchen. "What's wrong with Grace? And why are the eggs smoking?"

"SHIT!" Meryl gasped as she turned off the burner and ran the skillet under hot water.

"UH OH! Mama, you said a bad word." Louisa gasped as Don helped her onto the breakfast bar stool.

Don couldn't help but laugh. "How about some toast and cereal?"

"Fine. You didn't answer my question." Louisa pointed out.

"Babe, can you get her breakfast?" Meryl asked Don as he nodded. "Sweetie, we need to talk to you."

Louisa looked at her mother and father who just looked at her. "What's going on?"

"Lou, you know Mom and I were trying to trap that mean man coming after us, right?" Don asked as he poured cereal and milk into a bowl, placing it front of her on the placemat.

"Yeah, that's how Mom got hurt. But you promised me you would be okay." Louisa said turning big eyes to her mother; it had certainly been an uncertain and scary time for their family.

"I am sweetheart, I am so much better." Meryl said playing with Louisa's ponytail and kissed her cheek.

"Mommy is going to be just fine. We're going to make sure no one else gets hurt., we promise Lou." Don added as he put toast in the toaster then turned towards his wife. "Milk?"

Meryl nodded at her husband, knowing Louisa needed her milk. "His trial starts today. That is when Uncle Larry will present facts to a judge so the mean man won't hurt anyone ever again."

"It's going to last several weeks, Lou, and Mom and I will be there everyday." Don said giving Louisa milk.

"I thought he was in jail." Louisa said eating her cereal.