Baby Gold

Six

The Party

The front door bell rang, and Belle, dressed in a blue cashmere maternity sweater dress and soft brown moccasins, opened the door. "Father," she happily greeted the tall man. "Please come in." She stood back, allowing the nervous man to enter. "You, too, Henry, thank you for helping to convince him to come." She hugged the boy. "This is our party," she told him, "yours and mine. Will you help me greet our guests?"

Henry grinned enormously. "You bet, I will," he agreed. "I'll greet everyone and usher them into the living room with you and Grandpa Gold." Taking his job very seriously, Henry turned to Moe French. "May I take your coat and hat, Mr. French?"

The boy's jovial earnestness helped ease French's misgivings about tonight's party as much as seeing the smile on his daughter's face. "Of course, you can, Henry," he grinned back at the youngster.

"Where should I put the coats, Grand-mere?" Henry asked. There was a question in his eyes as well. Would she appreciate the new title he had given her?

Belle squeezed his shoulder, accepting her new place in his life. "You can put them in the music room, across the hall," she told him tenderly. She held a tight rein on her feelings until Henry had left the foyer. Then, as her pregnancy hormones played merry hell with her emotions, she burst into tears.

From the top of the stairs, Mr. Gold only saw Moe French with his back turned to Belle as she sobbed. "What the hell have you done to her?" he growled. With a sudden burst of purple smoke he vanished and reappeared beside Belle. "Darling," his voice was gentle, "what has he done to hurt you?"

Normally, Moe French despised the imp, but having been through fatherhood himself, he had a burst of sympathy for the creature. Jamming his hands deep into his pockets, he walked into the sitting room and stood before the fire. For the life of him, he couldn't fathom why, but Belle loved that demon. And, more amazingly, the beast returned that love. He shook his head in bewilderment.

With apprehension drawn all over his face, Gold ushered Belle into the room and seated her in an armchair besides the fire. Young Henry pulled over an ottoman and helped him raise her feet. Worry changed to a scowl as he lifted his eyes to his father-in-law. He cleared his throat. "I regret that I may have misread the situation earlier," he said stiffly.

Moe French stared at the man-imp-creature before him and grunted with an unspecified masculine noise. "Sure." If the mighty Dark One loved his daughter enough to apologize, then he supposed he could forgive him. And it was True Love; of that, there was no doubt, for he had seen with his own eyes how solicitous he was of her well-being.

And, he'd also noted the un-Gold-like ensemble the Dark One was wearing. Gold's trademark suit, impeccable and expensive, was gone. In its place was a tight fitting pair of Levi's jeans and cowboy boots. Although gravely out-of-place, the jeans and boots were not the problem. The eye catching monstrosity was the hideous green sweater featuring 'cute' little gingerbread people waltzing around. He grinned enormously. "Nice outfit," he told his son-in-law. He just couldn't help teasing the older man, and he was greatly rewarded when Gold's narrowed eyes pierced him.

"See, Rumple," Belle added from her chair. "I told you. You look so handsome."

While Moe grinned at him like a jackass eating briars, young Henry snickered, covering up the sound with a fake cough. Rumple's lip twitched as he pulled it up into the closest thing to a smile he could manage. He looked like the Grinch.

"Thank you, dear," he muttered. Then more loudly, he added, "I need a drink. Have a whiskey, Moe?"

The doorbell rang again, and Henry hopped up to answer it. "Moms!" he cried and hugged them both at once. "Wow! You guys both look so pretty," he exclaimed. Taking their coats, he told them, "Go on into the sitting room," he pointed out the way. "I'll put away your coats."