"I can go? Really?" Tory asked in excitement. "Oh Daddy! You are the best!"
"Alexandru," Charles said, wrapping his arms around Tory as she threw hers around his neck. "I expect you to protect her."
Alexandru Vuia Carson grinned at his father's stern face. He had arrived a couple hours earlier, just as everyone was sitting down to dinner. He didn't know why he thought he could surprise his parents and grandparents. Nonny had met him at the door just as he was about to knock.
"You're late," she had said with a frown. "You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago."
"I stopped in town to talk to Theo," Alexandru had explained with a raised eyebrow. "Are the Fates here?"
"No, they're in Vegas," Nonny had grinned. "But, they said you'd be here by eight."
After a long, leisurely dinner
