Page 16 of Grissom
Damned if the soft-spoken, counseled and healing part of his brain didn’t whisper patiently,‘For now, Grissom. Forget her, but just for now…’
He shook off the echo of his mother’s nagging voice. Counseling had taught him to focus on the here and now, not the condemnation of Christmases past, nor the wishful thinking of Christmases future. Both were partially right, yet equally detrimental to healing and moving forward. One haunted a past he couldn’t do anything about. The other taunted a future that might never exist. He now knew that he was prone to use what had happened in his past life to beat himself up. Once he’d realized he was in charge of either sabotaging or helping, he’d become a determined son of a bitch, intent on moving forward and giving his boys the best lives he could.
Tuning out the lady in question, he zeroed in on the lesson Tanner needed to remember. “Remember how some of us guys develop later in life?” he asked in a calm, reasonable, and, most of all, fatherly voice.
That brought Tanner’s brown-eyed gaze up to his. “Oh, yeah. I… I do, Dad. Sorry. I forgot but I remember now, yeah, and I can be a nicer big brother,” he replied quickly. Then, turning to Luke, he said, “I’m sorry. I love you and you’re a good boy. Don’t let anyone tell you different.”
Wow.If that didn’t put tears in Grissom’s eyes, nothing could. He brushed a hand over his face before anyone saw. Kids. They did say the damnedest things. Before he could praise Tanner for using his exact words, Tanner asked Tuesday, “Wanna go to Cakes and Honey with us?”
Oh, shit.She looked to Grissom as if he were the decision-maker. The simple understanding he read in her eyes, the acknowledgement that she was the stranger and had eagerly deferred to him, took her up a couple more notches in his esteem. She respected him. That was new.
Like the lovesick idiot he’d turned into, Grissom explained. “Cakes and Honey’s a local diner that serves breakfast all day. They’re famous for their pancakes, but you can get lunch ordinner there, too. Everything they serve is homemade and it’s all good. Us guys go there after we’re done playing cowboy.” He reached for her. “Need a hand up?”
Tanner and Luke bounced quickly to their feet, but the moment Grissom wrapped his fingers around Tuesday’s much smaller, more slender, very feminine hand, his heart stuttered. Touching her felt as if he’d grabbed a live wire. She must’ve felt the shock too, the way her shoulder jerked. But he wasn’t ready to let her go. His fingers tightened instinctively, as if losing this connection would hurt him worse than hanging on would. Most likely, whatever might happen between Tuesday and him would kill him. He was the weak link in this—whatever it was. First date? Only date? Not a date? He had no idea.
“Sounds good,” she replied, relaxing her grip into a‘maybe,’instead of the‘hell no!’he thought he’d felt seconds ago.
Every last one of his misgivings evaporated in the light of her willing acceptance.
With a gentle tug, Grissom pulled Tuesday up off the ground. He didn’t tug her into his arms and against him like he wanted, though. The urge was surely there. It was almost irresistible and he would have, until smarty pants Tanner announced, “There’s no shit on her bum, Dad.”
Which made Tuesday laugh even as she twisted to look at her backside.
“Geez, Tanner, thanks for telling the whole world,” Grissom teased. “Ladies don’t want everyone looking at their, umm…”Butts.Yet there he was, looking at said ass and appreciating the skinny jeans covering it and her long legs, like a coat of denim blue paint he wanted to scrape off with his teeth. Naturally, her gaze darted to his face at the same time his stupid male tongue ran a hungry lap around his lips. Both of them. Man, he was pathetic.
The only thing that dragged his mind out of the gutter where it had run—not wandered, not even strolled, the damned horny thing—was when Tuesday stuck her tongue out at him. The laughter dancing in those pretty eyes was rain falling in a desert that hadn’t seen water in years. And he was that bone-dry desert. She wasn’t mad or offended, wasn’t the tiniest bit perturbed. Damned if she didn’t turn to Luke and tell him, “You’ve got better eyes than me, little guy. Make sure I don’t have a speck of horse shit on me, okay?”
Like the innocent child he was, Luke puckered his lips in all seriousness and looked her backside over before announcing, “I don’t see no poop on your bum. Let’s go! I hungry!”
“You’re always hungry,” Grissom said, as he hefted a boy into each arm.
“Uh-uh, you don’t get them both,” Tuesday protested. “Who do I get to carry?”
Immediately, both boys reached for her, and the fight was on.
“Me!” Tanner yelled. “Carry me! Ple-e-e-e-ease? I’m bigger than Luke, but I don’t weigh much, and I promise I won’t wiggle like he always does.”
“No, me!” Luke yelled louder. “I smaller. Me, me, me!”
Grissom tipped back on his heels to keep from falling into Tuesday. “Hold on, guys!” He laughed, and wasn’t that the oddest sound? Him? Laughing? He hadn’t laughed in a long damned time, but there he was, happier than he could remember being—ever.
To end the argument, he tossed Tanner over his shoulder, then made sure Tuesday had a good grip on Luke before he let go of his youngest.
Tanner twisted around and complained, “Aw, Dad, that’s not fair. He always gets his way.”
And like the two-foot bully Luke could be, he crowed, “I winned! I winned! I a winner! Tanner’s a loser!”
Instantly Grissom shifted into protective mode. Tanner wasn’t a loser and those were Pam’s mean words. He opened his mouth to correct the cute little bully, but by then, Tuesday had tossed him over her shoulder and a teasing grin spread over her face. “You think Cakes and Honey can use a couple more bags of potatoes, Grissom?”
Man, he loved hearing his name coming out of her mouth. And Luke was just a baby parrot at heart. He hadn’t meant anything cruel. Grissom landed a gentle smack on Tanner’s denim-padded backside. “One way to find out, ma’am.”
Tuesday turned toward TEAM HQ with a bright, “I’ll drive. My car’s parked right over there.”
“Nah, I’ll drive. My truck’s closer. It’s in the barn. That way we can toss these bags of spuds in the back and be done with them.”
“Yeah! Throw us! Throw us!” both boys yelled at the same time.
Grissom’s cheeks were beginning to hurt. He hadn’t smiled this much in years. And never, not once in his life, had he been drawn to a woman like he was to Tuesday. Was she for real or was she hiding an evil personality beneath the glam? Was he under a spell, like he had to have been under that one night with Pamela? Was Tuesday just another hard-earned lesson lurking in his future? God, he hoped not. Most of the guys on The TEAM were happily married. Happinesswaspossible. He’d seen it with his own eyes.
