Page 67 of Grissom
Not. Happening.Today Grissom planned to rescue her for a change.
Tanner and Luke had decided to sleep in front of the fireplace tonight. Which meant, at least in Luke’s world, that Tanner was supposed to wait on his little brother because Luke kept insisting, “I’m still sick.” Which he wasn’t. The little guy had rebounded quick enough after having his stomach pumped. But Tanner was the empathetic nurturer, the perpetual big brother, and he seemed to enjoy running errands for his baby brother.
Grissom suspected Tanner noticed how Luke clung to him since he’d come home. He might be a three-year-old tyrant, but Luke had changed into a benevolent tyrant. Maybe because he knew how much his big brother loved him. And how big a liar his mother was.
“Why’d you leave me Christmas Day?” Grissom asked quietly, so the boys wouldn’t hear.
She’d suffered a minor case of hypothermia the day everything went to hell. The scorching burn left by the round Pam fired had carved a three-inch trail on Tuesday’s left side above her hip. As if her being ‘only grazed’ calmed Grissom’s need to kill the witch he never should’ve married.
He couldn’t even call Pamela his ex-wife. They were still legally married. Not that he wouldn’t marry her evil ass all over again. Their union had brought Tanner and Luke into his life. Too bad that marriage decree hung over Grissom like the blade of the guillotine now. A death sentence, that was Pam. Her dyingin that plane alongside Estes would’ve been the best solution to the problems facing Grissom now.
How was it possible for a murderer to get legal custody of his sons? Seriously? Grissom wasn’t sure, but the lawyer representing Pam had already served him with divorce papers that declared she wanted full custody.Damn, damn, damn her.He dreaded the day he’d be ordered to hand his boys over, couldn’t conceive of ever—ever—leaving them with her.
Was there a judge in the state dumb enough to allow it? Couldn’t the state understand that Pam would kill Tanner the first chance she got? Even sitting with Tuesday like he was, Grissom planned how and when to leave the country before that day arrived. To hell with divorce court and its tangled web of convoluted laws. Tanner and Luke mattered more than any damned law.
Tuesday cleared her throat, bringing Grissom back to his family room.
“I’m not sure why I left,” she murmured, her gaze on her clasped hands in her lap. “In the heat of everything that happened that day, it seemed like… I don’t know” —she shrugged— “I was the problem. I was in your way. You were focused on getting to Luke, and if you’d lost him, if she’d killed him because of me, I’d never forgive myself. You adore your sons and, honestly” —she was studying her fingernails, as if she’d never seen them before— “I’m cursed, Grissom. I’m a jinx. Everyone I’ve ever loved ended up dead, and I—”
“No.” His hand came up fast, a spring-loaded STOP sign in her face. “You’re not cursed, love, and you’re not a jinx. If anything, you’re my lucky star, just like the star on that locket Tanner gave you. None of what happened is your fault. You’d never hurt my boys, and you didn’t poison Luke. That’s on Pam, and you know it. As far as your parents and Mr. Lamb” —Grissom couldn’t bring himself to call that old man her husband— “bad things happen, and sometimes lightning strikes the same person twice. You know I love you, and the boys adore you. How can you not see that?”
She licked her bottom lip, and Grissom’s eyes automatically tracked the pink tip of her tongue. Wondering how she still didn’t understand what that tiny, insignificant act did to him. Until he remembered. Until he saw past the mask Tuesday had learned to show the world. Until he saw the worried little girl who’d been fighting that vicious world for far too long, behind the polished lie of what everyone else saw: a well-educated, sophisticated, beautiful woman. For all of her adult life, Tuesday had pretended to be something she wasn’t: Loved.
The silly woman. If she still had no idea how much Grissom loved her, then he hadn’t shown her yet, not in the way she needed to believe. In so many ways he had. He’d certainly said the right words. He’d told her. But Tuesday was still so much an inexperienced teenager, not yet a woman. Old enough, yes, but so much had happened in their short time together, they hadn’t had time to truly get to know each other. Not as man and wife. Not even as best friends. His brain had just revealed the true Tuesday Smart to him. Grissom needed her brain to take that same leap of faith and see the real him, to fall in love with him.
Without another word in his defense, Grissom slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her onto his lap, within the circle of his thick, man-sized arms, along with her blanket and heating pad. Once Tuesday settled against him, he buried his face in her neck and asked, “May I date you, Miss Tuesday? Would you go out with me, maybe catch a movie, when you’re up for it? Asking questions about each other won’t ease your mind, but being with me and the boys” —he cleared his throat— “I mean,our boys, for more than a couple hectic hours or days, will.”
Her head tipped softly against his shoulder. “Ourboys?” she asked without looking up at him.
“Yes, love.Our boys. Do Luke and Tanner look the least bit worried that their egg-donor isn’t here? Do you know who they prayed for while you were in the hospital? I mean after we prayed for Luke’s trucks, which, by the way, all have names. Sure wasn’t What’s-Her-Name.”
That brought a tiny uplift to the corners of Tuesday’s mouth. “Did you know he named the fire engine Kelsey gave him Spot?”
Grissom tipped his face to the ceiling and laughed. “I didn’t, but Spot sounds like a name he’d come up with.”
“You think we should explain it’d be a better name for a Dalmatian that rides with his imaginary firemen?”
“Does that mean we’re getting a Dalmatian?” At this point, Grissom would buy anything for his boys if it made Tuesday happy.
Still not looking at him, she asked, “We’ll take them with us?Ourboys. On our date?”
“Well, yeah.” Grissom hadn’t considered not taking Tanner and Luke. Leave them with a sitter? Oh, hell, no.
“Then yes, I’ll go on a date with you. Tell me when.”
“As soon as you and Luke are both able, and we’ll go anywhere you’d like. Think about it.”
“Cakes and Honey. I’d like to go back to Cakes and Honey.”
Which was oddly the same place Grissom was thinking. Cakes and Honey was where they’d first sat across from each other, like a mother and father with two sons. Like they’d all belonged together. “Good choice. The boys love eating there.”
“So do I.” He could feel Tuesday’s body relax and melt farther into his body. She was happy. But was she happy enough to stay?
She cleared her throat. “Was Tanner there that day? In the parking garage? In the ambulance?”
“No, love, but I heard you talking to him.”
“He told me he and Luke were going to take especially good care of me, and then you were there, yelling at someone. Eric, I think.”
