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she took a tour of her apartment and made a pot of coffee.
    She checked on his progress and was not surprised to see his fingers flying over one of the keyboards. His cell phone was at his ear, and he was talking to someone who was too dumb to realize who he was talking to. Jackson was not a chatter. Until now Lily couldn’t understand the attraction that her mother felt for the quiet man. When he finally got cranky with the fool on the other end of the conversation, she smiled behind the door. “I said put Demetrious Miller on the line. No, do not put me on hold. Boy, if I have to take a plane to Washington to talk with him, your ass will be in the mail room. What is your name? Okay, Dillon, you have one minute before I call another number and good luck to you.” Jackson did not bother to wait the minute. He hung up the phone. Then he cranked his neck sideways to crack it and then to the other side to do the same thing. He took a deep breath and hit one button on the phone and waited.
    “Good afternoon, sir, this is Jackson…Yes, I am sure you remember me. I did not expect you to have my number still on your phone. Yes, sir, it is good to hear your voice, too.” Jackson listened and shared a laugh with the person on the other end of the phone. “Well, sir, I have stumbled over some information that is important to our national security. No, sir, actually the information was innocently gathered, and the woman that found it called me. Yes, sir, she is very trustworthy. She is actually my daughter. She is a computer-geek type and is doing some forensics for another company when she fell into the rabbit hole of information.”
    “The problem is that since I have retired Demetrious has changed his staff again, and the pit bull he has guarding his office and phone calls refuses to put him on the line. Since I am in Northern Illinois, and this looks important, I wanted to get the information to the proper authorities ASAP. Yes, sir. I would stake my life on the girl. Yes, sir, thank you, sir. Good to hear your voice, too.”
    Lily was choked up. Jackson had never told her that he felt that way about her. Jackson’s phone began to ring, but he didn’t answer it. Lily wiped her eyes and ran to the kitchen to get mugs of coffee for them then walked slowly with the hot cups back to her office.
    He looked up and smiled at her when she sat the mug next to his left hand. Then he went back to reading the monitor. When his phone rang again, he glanced at the caller ID and then turned to her. “I know you heard me, and it occurs to me that I have never told you that I am proud of you. I never had kids of my own, you know that, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect child than you were and are, Lily.” He cleared his throat and looked away for a few seconds. Lily didn’t need to know the entire story of his love for her mother, so he told her the story that her mother had asked him to recite. “When I met your mother the first time, you had not been born yet. Tina was eight months pregnant with you, and I was part of the detail that had to tell her that her husband had been killed in a helicopter crash.
    “You have no idea how it felt for me to finally meet the woman I had waited for and she was freshly widowed with a baby on the way. Then I was transferred to the West Coast to deal with a few problems, and the next time I saw Tina you were three years old and the sweetest little girl on this earth. As you know, we didn’t marry for a long time, and then I finally talked her into marrying me the Christmas before you turned five.”
    His phone sounded off again, and he picked it up this time and answered it. “Ah, Demetrious, nice of you to call.” He listened for a few minutes, grinning and lying back in the chair. He winked at Lily. “What did you expect me to do, my friend? Your secretary or whatever the dumbass is refused to put me through, of course I told him who I am.” Jackson set the phone down and put it on