Sing for Their Supper - 58

 

 

Vin leaned close to ask Roma quietly, "Are you all right?"

 

"Sure. Why?"

 

"You look unhappy."

 

Roma smiled. "I'm not, not really. I was remembering all the times when I would have given anything to be part of a group like this. I never thought it would happen."

 

"I get that. We, all of us—" Vin looked at the teens "—lived very lonely lives until Tuck came along. Now, maybe, that's changed."

 

"You don't think it will last?"

 

"I pray it does, but—" He was interrupted when the waitress asked for his order.

 

"It will," Roma told him when the woman left. "We're family now."

 

Vin smiled, lifted his glass of water and said "To our new family!"

 

*****

 

"To family," Sam replied, clicking his glass with Vin's just as a well-dressed couple approached their table.

 

The man walked over to Evie, saying sharply, "Evangeline."

 

Evie's eyes widened in shock. "What are you doing here?"

 

"Taking you home where you belong, young lady," the man replied. "When we decided to see if a new theater we saw an advertisement for was any good, we did not expect to find our daughter flaunting herself on its stage."

 

"I was not flaunting," Evie spat out. "I was acting, not that you give a damn, but doing that makes me happy."

 

Her father scowled. "Watch your language, young lady."

 

"Sir," DJ said, getting to his feet. "Please leave. You're spoiling our celebration."

 

"Not without my daughter."

 

"Evie is old enough—and smart enough—to make her own decisions. If she wants to stay, she will."

 

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?"

 

Stretching to his full five-foot-six, DJ replied, "Her boyfriend and—" he looked at Evie and smiled, "—maybe more sometime in the future."

 

"Over my dead body," Evie's father said. "No daughter of mine is going to be involved with some kid who lived on the streets."

 

"I lived on the streets, too," Evie retorted tightly, "to get away from you and…and everything you did to me."

 

Her father sputtered, avoiding his wife's look of dismay. "I never did anything to you, Evangeline."

 

Tuck was on his feet by then. "Sir, I suggest you leave. Now." He put his hand on Evie's shoulder. "She is staying here, where she's safe."

 

"Or what?" Evie's father said.

 

"Or we call the police and Evie can explain to them why she left home."

 

"Thomas," Evie's mother said, gripping his arm, "don't cause a scene."

 

Evie's father looked as if he was going to anyway, then obviously thought better of it. He turned, stalking out of the restaurant with his wife trailing behind him.