Page 30 of Grissom
Judy’s pride in her husband was easy to read.
“By then, poor Kelsey was in a bad way. Harley was afraid she wouldn’t live to make it back to the Search and Rescue team. Alex had already been life-flighted to the nearest hospital, and… damn it!” Judy threw up both hands at the ceiling. “I know it was displaced affection! I know he loves me and his sons more than he loves anyone else! But just once, just once—!”
“You wish I’d shut my big mouth and leave Kelsey out of it, right?” China asked, leaning into Judy and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Judy didn’t answer. The cords in her neck were tight and her face was red. Which for a redhead, meant she was scarlet.
“But leaving out the Harley and Kelsey connection isn’t telling the whole story, sweetheart,” China murmured. “He was pretty messed up when you fell in love with him, just like Grissom is now.”
“I know. Except Grissom never did drugs like Harley did,” Judy admitted surly.
That perked up Tuesday’s ears. “Excuse me? Grissom isn’t messed up. He just went through a lot of crap, that’s all. So did his boys. And he doesn’t do drugs. They’re all getting better. But healing from abuse takes time, and his boys are happy again. He’s the best father I’ve ever known, well, except for my dad. Surely you can all see that.”
Grinning, China hip-checked Judy again. “What’d I tell you?”
Persia’s big brown eyes were now fixed on Tuesday. “Damn, you’re right. It’s about time.”
Judy just grinned.
Tuesday tossed her head, embarrassed she’d snapped at them for no reason other than they were discussing Grissom andhis boys, and that needed to stop. The McCoy men were off-limits.
China chuckled. “You’re not going to stand there and tell us you don’t care for Grissom, are you?”
Tuesday’s mouth went dry. That was exactly what she’d already done and intended to do again. “Umm…”
“I knew it!” Judy crowed. “You like him. A lot. I’m so happy. That man needs a real woman in his life for once. Talk, girlfriend. We want the deets.”
But talking about Grissom behind his back was the last thing Tuesday would do. “Of course I like him; I like everybody. This is the first day we’ve had a chance to talk since Costa Rica, and he’s been more concerned with his boys than me. As he should be, and…” She was rambling and suddenly as flustered as Judy’d been minutes ago. Judy, whose beautiful, piercing green eyes were right then looking straight through Tuesday.
A wave of prickly, warm embarrassment swept up her neck, and too soon her face would be as flushed as Judy’s. Darn it. There was no way out, so Tuesday plowed through like Freddie had taught her. Swallowing hard, she admitted, “Yes, okay. I’ve liked Grissom since I first saw him. He was so gentle with his boys, and they were so traumatized. It was hard not to fall in—”
Screech! Hold the phone. You’re not—in—love. You. Just. Met. Him.
“Stop it,” Persia said, her voice commandingly soft. “Stop interrogating Tuesday. Don’t mind us, honey. We’re just nosy old women who talk too much” —she glared at Judy when she said that— “and we’ve all stood right where you’re standing now. Just know that, no matter how things turn out between you and Grissom, you’ll always have us. I, for one, am happy to finally meet the woman who took out that bitch, Maeve Astor. Heston brags all the time about how calm you were during that encounter in Little Rock. Do you believe in destiny?”
That question came out of left field. “No,” Tuesday answered cautiously, not sure where Persia was headed. “Not after the life I’ve had. If that’s destiny, you can keep it.”
“I believe in destiny,” Judy admitted softly. “Destiny’s what brought Harley back home to me after that awful wreck nearly destroyed our lives. For a while, he didn’t know who I was. Do you have any idea how awful that felt?”
Tuesday nodded. But at least Harley had remembered. Her mom and dad and Freddie weren’t coming back. Couldn’t.
“It sure as hell was destiny that brought Maverick all the way from Virginia to my ranch in Wyoming, on what could’ve been a very, very bad day,” China said, her tone tender for the first time tonight. “I never would’ve been able to dig Star out of that landslide by myself. I had no cell service, not as high up on the hill as we were. It was steep and, once that hill let loose, it was muddy and…” It took a long moment before she added, “Yup. I believe in destiny. Star and I wouldn’t be here today if Maverick hadn’t been there to rescue us. That exact morning. On that exact hill. Jesus!” China dashed a hand at her eyes. “I owe that man in there everything.”
Tuesday had no idea what to say, so she said nothing.
“I’m just as sure it was destiny that brought Walker to my beach in Florida,” Persia whispered. “He’d just swum all the way from Cuba, alone, without back-up or a swim buddy. He was exhausted, and he could’ve chosen any strip of sand to land on, but he… he chose my beach. And I just happened to be there that day. Normally, I would’ve been in Washington, D.C. If that isn’t destiny, I don’t know what is.”
Tuesday had nothing to contribute. She didn’t know these women well enough to call them girlfriends. Sure, they were amicable enough, and their husbands were hotties, each an outstanding definition of hunk all by himself. But she could never believe in the abstract called destiny. Her life hadn’t beeneasy, and everything she’d lived through hadn’t been fair. She’d lost her parents too early in life and then Freddie. She’d been slandered by the press and hunted by the FBI, both because Astor had framed her for murders she’d committed out of her insane jealousy. If destiny was the driving force behind the horrors that were her life, Tuesday wanted nothing to do with it. Destiny was as bad as love. Not worth the risk.
Chapter Sixteen
Grissom stood half-in, half outside the kitchen door, like a stalker, listening to the wives discuss destiny. His boys were on his bedroom floor, happily playing Minecraft with Harley’s boys. Grissom had split the game into four windows on the big screen. Kyrie and Luke were teamed up, hunting frogs, pigs, and sheep, while Little A was studiously building a mancave to survive the monsters that came out at night. Tanner and Georgie were going after the Sculk Shriekers, in order to summon and fight the Warden, or die, which was what usually happened. Each kid had a plate of pizza and a bottled water—with the lids loosened, not off. Grissom had just peeked in and left a barrel of popcorn for when the pizza ran out.
Now, he’d just overheard what Tuesday said about destiny:“Not after the life I’ve had. If that’s destiny, you can keep it.”
He agreed with her. Believing in destiny was, at best, a fool’s gambit, a dangerous risk, and a dare. It was nothing more than believing in predetermination, that the gods or fates—or some other omniscient being—had set mankind on a course over which he had no say or control. Made a guy sound like a brainless marionette, stupidly dancing his heart out, at the end of someone else’s string. Not Grissom.
He made his own decisions, damn it, and to prove it, he strode into his kitchen, snagged Tuesday by her waist, dipped her over his arm, and planted his lips on hers. Not passionately or rudely, like a sloppy jerk in a bar might, but softly and sweetly, which she deserved. Tuesday’s history was as bad as his, and he refused to add to her feeling like she didn’t belong anywhere. She did belong, by hell. With him. To him. And hewanted the world to know and the TEAM wives to see. Because these women would talk to their husbands, who’d talk among themselves, and before you know it, everyone at TEAM HQ would understand where Tuesday belonged. Did that make him a caveman? Grissom didn’t care. He’d cared about the wrong shit for too long. Not anymore.
