Page 38 of Grissom
“It might be best if you start at the beginning,” she murmured.
So he did. He told Tuesday how badly his mother had always treated his dad, how she’d slap, punch, and kick him, then laugh it off like it was fun and games. “She had no problem cuffing Dad in public, and whatever she dished out, he always took. Oh, he’d flinch because Mom knew where and how to hurt him, but, yeah…” Grissom’s cheeks puffed with the years’ worth of pent-up abuses he’d witnessed at home. “Growing up, I thought all mothers treated their husbands and kids like crap. I thought it was normal.”
“Sure you’d think that. That was all you knew. You had nothing to compare her with. Assuming you had no grandparents.”
Grissom shook his head. “She hated Dad’s family, so no, we never visited them, and they weren’t allowed to visit us.Her mom was tougher and meaner than Mom, though. It took me getting Tanner back home to realize I’m the product of generations of spousal abuse.” He held a hand up to silence whatever Tuesday might say next. “But also, to decide, once and for all, that shit ends here and now with me.”
“Sounds like your wife and Maeve Astor were wicked twin sisters.”
“Wicked’s a good word for them. Tanner finally told me how Pam slapped him behind my back or when I was gone. She made sure he knew she liked Luke, but she hated him. She threatened that if he ever told me what she said or did, she’d kill Luke and make him watch. I’m glad she’s gone. Only wish I’d pulled my head out of my ass sooner and—”
“Shhhhh, don’t say that,” Tuesday whispered, gathering his fisted hand into her lap. Carefully, she straightened his fingers and interlaced them with hers. “We don’t want to wake your boys, and honestly, we only know what we know, when we know it. You’re not responsible for what your mother did to you or to your dad. That’s on her and, in the end, she’ll pay for it, just like Pam did. Your mother’s abuse triggered your survival instincts, that’s all. Even a tiny baby will turn away from pain, and you had to learn very early how to live around everything she dished out. How could you have known otherwise? Unfortunately, early role models establish our benchmark for normalcy, and those hard lessons become the lenses we view the world through from then on.”
“Yeah, well…” Grissom lifted their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “If it takes the rest of my life, I’ll make it up to my boys. They’re everything to me.”
“As they should be. But Grissom—?” Tuesday’s delicate frame froze, a sign he was beginning to realize meant she was worried, frightened, or thinking too hard.
“What? Ask me anything.” Using his softest voice, he continued with, “Honest, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m an open book, and if we have the slightest chance of staying together after the mess I made of tonight, we need to communicate. True?”
She took a deep breath. “True, but this is happening awfully fast. Do you want me to stay?”
He pulled her closer. “Yes. Unless I’ve scared you and you’d rather not. You came into my boys’ lives like an angel, and I’m not willing to let you go back to heaven yet. Not just because of my boys, but because… Honestly? I’m a selfish bastard. I want to keep you.”
With the softest sigh, she leaned into his side and whispered, “Grissom.”
That was all—just his name—and tears sprang to his damned eyes. Striving for control and unable to speak, he pressed his lips to her temple and simply breathed in the sweet feminine essence that was Tuesday. Tanner’s birth had been the first ray of sunshine in his life, Luke, the second, and now, this incredible woman. She didn’t have to say she loved him, just speaking his name was enough for now.
“I’m not leaving,” she whispered, “not tonight. I had misgivings earlier. I didn’t want to do or say anything that might remind you of your wife. I didn’t know what to do with you. Sometimes you say all the right words, but then you clam up and shut me out.”
“I did do that,” he admitted without hesitation. “It’s a defense mechanism. I throw up walls and set boundaries when I panic, at least, that’s what my counselor says I’m doing.”
“Because you refuse to get hurt again.”
“Well, yeah, that and because my sons—”
“Becauseyour sons, the same boysI rescued, are the best things in your life. Well, news flash. Tanner and Luke are the best things in my life, too.”
And there it was. Truth and confirmation laid out in perfect simplicity, by the woman who loved his sons, maybe as much as he did. The harsh, nasty hiss of his mother’s whispers in Grissom’s head vanished at the absolute purity in Tuesday’s words. “I can change,” he declared, meaning it with every beat of his heart.
“I don’t want you to change. I just want you to believe that I’ll never hurt you or your boys. Not even Pixie, who I still haven’t met.”
“I know,” he whispered, so damned hard in love with this woman he didn’t want to breathe without her. “I’ll give you a tour of the house tomorrow. You’ll see the cat then, but I am getting better. And I promise, I can change.”
“I like you the way you are,” she murmured against his lips. “You’re already perfect. But…”
He slid a hand beneath her hair to the nape of her neck. “But what? Spit it out. What are you afraid of?”
“Are your mom and dad still together?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, I was wondering if…”
Cocking his head, he rubbed tiny circles on the back of her neck to let her know there was nothing she could say or do that would change his feelings for her.
Tuesday’s throat muscles worked as she swallowed hard. Poor thing was still so nervous. “If your dad needs rescuing, too.”
Not what Grissom expected. “You mean… a way to get away from my mom?”
