"Her father?"
"Yes. The Council wants me to find out if he might be a potential Friend of The Order."
For a few uncomfortable seconds Storm couldn't decide on how to respond. He finally gave in to impulse and laughed out loud.
Sol cocked his head. "What is so funny about that?"
Storm took a deep breath. "Waking Woden. Where do I start? Well, first, he can't come to dinner because he doesn't eat food."
Sol looked interested. "What does he eat?"
"He eats energy. Incubus demon?" Storm had his eyebrows raised like he thought Sol was missing something he should have picked up on. "The best he could do, on a good day, would be to sit at a place setting and watch you chew."
Sol's blank look was gradually replaced with understanding. "Oh."
"I will ask Litha to ask, but don't set the table. I'm telling you right now that my father-in-law is the very essence of unexpected. You cannot imagine a personality more unmanageable. He marches to the beat of his own whistle."
"You mean the beat of his own drum."
"No. That would be way too predictable for Deliverance. I will ask, but I'm not making any promises." Storm looked at his watch. "My wife is picking me up in twenty minutes. I want to go say a quick hello to Ram and Elora and see how they're treating my namesake before she gets here."
"Sure. They're on the sixth floor, east end. We had to reconfigure an apartment and an adjoining rec room, but I think it's going to work until Monq gets this thing figured out."
"Alright. Talk to you soon." They shook hands. "Congratulations about Farnsworth. Happy for you. I don't know about her."
Sol laughed. "Yeah. I hope to get a ring on her before she realizes the enormity of her mistake."
Storm and Litha checked into a suite at the Stanhope Hotel with a nice view of the park. They had a late dinner at a place that was rich in atmosphere, service, and gourmet fare. It was one of those places that showed four dollar signs in the price column of the restaurant guides. Then they returned to their suite and made love like honeymooners on crisp high count Egyptian cotton sheets. They ordered champagne, cheese and chocolate-covered strawberries for breakfast and Litha sighed with contentment. She never wanted to leave.
When Storm got around to recreating his conversation with Sol, she opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her by holding up a hand and shaking his head.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't take that job even if I'd never met you. I just have to figure out how to tell him so that it doesn't seem like an outright rejection of him or his life's work."
Litha nodded, but looked concerned.
When he reached the part about agreeing to get Litha to request her father's presence at dinner, she laughed harder than he had.
"Dinner?"
"I know," Storm smiled.
"They don't know what he 'eats'?" Litha sounded mystified.
"Sol does. Now."
She stared at Storm for a minute before saying, "Okay. I'll ask him and I almost hope he accepts." She leaned over smiling and while she pressed her lips to his, she said, "It could be fun."
"I know." Storm narrowed his eyes a little and looked thoughtful. "I think maybe you're a bad influence on me."
"Sounds sexy."
He snorted. "Everything sounds sexy to you. You're a sex demon."
"Half sex demon."
"Whatever." He started to pull her onto his lap but she lost her balance and they both ended up on the floor giggling.
***