by Dale Mayer
She watched as he gently stroked the pad of his thumb up and down her hand. It was tantalizingly erotic, yet soothing—though she didn’t understand how it could be both at the same time. She reached over and caught his thumb. “I think we just hole up, like an animal, and try to hide,” she said. “At least, that’s what I did. I was all about protecting myself. I was pregnant, carrying Danny, so all I could do was try to hide away from everybody so I wouldn’t be hurt, and then I could have my son in peace.”
“And the nesting instinct comes into that too,” he said.
“I read a stat one time where a very high percentage of women who were pregnant all went through house moves, as they tried to find a place that was better than where they were before the pregnancy. Part of that nesting-instinct thing.” She chuckled. “Well, this place was definitely not as classy as my last one,” she said, “but it was private, and I was alone, and, at the time, I was totally good with that.”
“But it must have been hard,” he said.
She nodded, her heart aching with remembrances. “I think it’s the loss of my future plans and dreams that hurts the most. The fact that he didn’t care and couldn’t love my son, would reject his own son and not want anything to do with him—even though I originally thought he would have made such a great father—just hurt terribly.”
Greyson looked at their joined hands and frowned.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
He looked at the little boy and said, “I have some news.”
Instantly she could feel everything inside her tensing up, and the intimacy of the situation faded away. “What news?”
“Your brother-in-law and Frank did know each other in the military,” he said. “We don’t have a very strong connection to what they did on their time off, or even if they took time off together, but they were in the same unit.”
She shook her head. “I never would have thought something like that was possible.”
“We also don’t know if one or both of them may have come home with—you know—some injuries,” he said, “or some psychological issues from their tours overseas. Realistically that could have a big effect on this matter.”
She sank back as she thought about it. “I guess. I have heard that most do come back different.”
“But different can mean a lot of things,” he said gently. “It can mean good or bad.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m just trying to figure out how any of this could be good.”
He grabbed her free hand, so that he was holding both of them together, cupped inside his own. He took a deep breath before he continued, “There’s a little bit of other news.”
She stared at him in surprise. “You’ve been busy,” she said, in a bad attempt at humor.
He nodded. “I have been. The thing is, I don’t know if this is good news or bad, but we’ll have to completely reevaluate what might have been going on here.”
“Just tell me,” she said. “I can’t deal with something if I don’t know what it is.”
“Okay. Your ex, George, is dead,” he said bluntly.
She stared at him in shock. “What?”
He nodded. “For about three months, apparently.”
“How is that even possible?”
“It’s very possible,” he said. “He had an aneurysm and collapsed at a conference. The information I have is that he died thirty-six hours later.”
She continued to stare at him. “Nobody contacted me.”
“They may not have known how to,” he reminded her. “And, if they didn’t know about Danny, George’s next of kin at that point in time would have been his brother.”
“Right,” she said, sagging back into the bed. “Jensen was close to his brother, so he would have been the one most likely called.”
“Exactly,” Greyson said, “and that could also have been the trigger for all this.”
“But the divorce papers?” she said, frowning.
“That’s something else that I’m trying to sort out,” he said. “We need to verify whether George signed them or if Jensen did.”
She continued to stare at him. “But then the divorce …” her voice trailed off.
“That’s why I’ve asked my team to see if a Last Will and Testament is on record somewhere,” he said.
“Jesus.” She tried to pull her hands from him so she could rub her forehead and eyes, but he was holding on tight. She stared down at their hands and looked up at him. “It’s a lot to get my mind wrapped around.”
“It is,” he said. “One of the things I have to consider right now is that maybe this isn’t just one man we’re dealing with. It’s possible that Frank had Jensen’s help.”
“I still don’t get it,” she said. “I don’t understand anything about it.”
“Well, there’s another ugly truth,” he said, “because it’s possible that everything in George’s will was left to you and your son. Maybe he never changed the will after you two separated. Another possibility is that everything was left to your son, and, as his guardian, you could then control whatever money your ex-husband had. Presuming he had anything.” Greyson looked at her, the question unspoken but clear on his face.
She nodded slowly. “He was well-off, though not superwealthy,” she said. “The house was paid for. When I moved in, it was his already. I moved out when we separated, so he still had the house, and his brother would have known that. George drove a sports car, a Mercedes, and I believe it was paid for as well. He was one of those who planned for early retirement, so I know he would have set aside a good chunk of money in the bank.”
“You left with nothing, I suppose.”
She nodded slowly. “I just wanted my son.”
“Well, he appears to have honored that at least,” he said, “but we’re trying to track down the lawyers involved in the divorce, and whoever may have had the most recent will for George, if there is one.”
“There was a will. Again, he was the kind of person who had it all planned out. Which is why getting pregnant pissed him off so badly. It wasn’t part of his plan.”
“Got it,” he said. She watched as his gaze went to Danny and softened at the sight of the toddler sleeping beside her. “It’s hard to realize that somebody could not love a little guy like this,” he said.
“That was the hardest thing for me to accept after we separated,” she said. “It just seemed almost impossible that anybody wouldn’t love Danny as much as I did, but it quickly became obvious that it’s a mother’s love, and nobody else really cares.”
His gaze shot back to her again. “Nobody else really cares? That has echoes of your own mother in there.”
She felt the arrow to her heart and then nodded slowly. “How did you guess?”
“Nobody else will ever love you. You’ll be a struggling single mother forever. You’ll be alone forever. You should go back to your husband and make the best of it,” he said in a grossly overdone imitation of an old lady’s voice.
She wanted to laugh, but his words were a little too close to the truth. “She still thinks I should go back to him.” She shook her head. “Wow. He’s been dead for months. … So in other words, he’s not the one who’s been making all these phone calls either.”
“Nope, but I am getting confirmation on George’s passing because we’ve seen people fake their deaths before.”
She stared at him. “That’s just so hard to understand.” It was such a mind-bender to get her head wrapped around.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” he said. “Let those facts sink in, and we’ll get more intel as the day wears on.” He looked over to see Danny shuffling in his sleep.
“How long will he sleep?”
“I wouldn’t think much longer, especially since we got to bed earlier than usual,” she said, “but it’s been a pretty stressful couple days.”
“That’s for sure.” Just then the little tyke stretched and shifted. She rolled over and kissed him on the cheek. “Good m
orning, sunshine.” He opened his eyes and gurgled up at her. Her heart just melted with love as she wrapped him up in her arms and held him close. She watched as Greyson stood up.
“Do you mind if I have a quick shower?”
“Of course not,” she said. “Make yourself at home, please.”
He nodded, walked to the hallway closet, and looked back at her. “Okay to grab a towel?”
She nodded. “Do you even have a change of clothes here?”
“I do,” he said. “I brought a bag with me.”
She nodded and smiled. “Oh, good. Go for it,” she said. “Danny can use my bathroom, if needed.”
He nodded and headed into the hall bathroom.
When the door closed, she looked over to see Danny staring in his direction. He looked up at her, looked where Greyson had been, and pointed. “Gray Greece?”
She chuckled. “Almost, buddy. Greyson.”
He tried to imitate her several times and then appeared to be happy enough to move on.
She got up, checked his diaper, and found that he was wet, of course, but not dirty, and walked over to his bedroom, where she quickly grabbed a diaper and a change of clothes, then headed to her bathroom, where she gave him a wash and got him dressed.
When she combed his hair, he looked up at her and smiled. It was such a lovely, warm, innocent smile that her heart just melted all over again. She snatched him up in her arms and buried her face against his soft neck. “I love you so much,” she whispered.
His response? He just gurgled with laughter. Then he patted her cheek and said, “My mama.”
Showered, changed, and downstairs, his bag at the front door, not wanting to imply any intent by leaving it upstairs, Greyson sat at the kitchen table with his second cup of coffee. They had already had another bacon-and-egg breakfast, which was fine by him for every morning. It was already nine o’clock. “The day has already well and truly begun,” he said.
“Right,” she said. “It’s amazing, after such a night and an early morning wakeup, how quickly the more normal morning hours can go.”
“Do we need to go anywhere today?” he asked, looking over at Danny. “Do you need anything for Danny?”
“Since we picked up groceries yesterday,” she answered, “in theory, we’re fine for a couple days.”
“Good enough.” He tapped the table, wondering if he should ask her.
“Something is obviously on your mind,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”
He looked at her with a smile. “You know me too well if you understand that already,” he joked.
“Well, you have this pensive look on your face.”
“It’s early, and this is pushing it,” he said, “but I’ve already gotten yet another phone call from my grandfather, wondering when I was bringing you around.”
She stared at him in surprise, then laughed. “Are you an only child by any chance?”
“I am at that,” he said, with a wry look. “They’ve been after me for a long time to get married and to have a family.”
“That’s not necessarily a good thing in this circumstance,” she said, “because I have Danny.”
“But what you need to understand,” he said, “is that my parents died, and my grandparents took me in. So they would not be unhappy at all if I hook up with you and get to inherit Danny.”
“But will they accept him? Oh, my God,” she said, shaking her head. “That just feels …”
“Yes? What does it feel like?” he asked, his gaze direct.
She stared at him in surprise. “I’m caught between laughing and being horrified,” she said, “because we barely know each other.”
He reached across the table with his open hand and watched as she placed her hand in his. He smiled. “But what we do know is what matters.”
She stared at him and looked down at her hand, then tried to pull it back, as if realizing what she’d done.
But he closed his fingers around hers and held her safe. “So, I get that it’s fast,” he said, “but I don’t think fast is bad here with us.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I dated my husband for years before I married him, only to find that was a huge mistake.”
“In that case,” he said, “maybe you should go with your instincts. Start off a little more daring with somebody you don’t really know. Yet you do know what matters.”
She settled back, looking at him.
He could see the shock and the wariness in her gaze. “It’s just meeting them,” he said, starting to grin. “If nothing else, you’ll get them off my back for a while.”
She burst out laughing. “But they’ll have expectations,” she said, “and I don’t want them to get hurt either.”
“Understood,” he said simply, “and that’s why I really like who you are as a person.”
“You hardly know me,” she reminded him.
“I know that you stayed married even though you weren’t happy. You probably married because of the biological clock ticking away at you, and, when you found out you were pregnant, you were over the moon. The minute he wasn’t happy about it, you chose to walk away from all that money and the security just so you could have your son,” he said. “Abortion was never in your plans. You are twenty-nine-years old. You never sought a degree. You’ve been working at the same job for a year, though not necessarily happily—kinda like your marriage. You’re looking for something else, but you just don’t know what yet. You’re at the point of figuring out the rest of your life after coming out of the nesting period,” he said. “You’re close to your sister, and you tolerate your mother, which most people would say you deserve a medal for.”
She burst out laughing at that and nodded.
“You tend to be a person who goes along with everything until somebody does something you can’t live with.”
“That doesn’t sound like a very nice assessment,” she said.
“You’re a wonderful mother. You adore Danny, and you would do anything to keep him safe,” he added. “You’re in a very tough position right now, but you’re holding your own. Considering what you’ve been through the last three to four weeks, I think you’re doing a wonderful job of keeping it all together.”
“You still don’t know anything about my hopes or wishes or dreams,” she challenged. “Or my history.”
“You weren’t close to your mother. You probably didn’t have very much of an association with your father at all. You were tentative about getting into the relationship with George, but you also took a long time to leave him, both because it was the first time you’d had a dominant male in your life,” he added. “You were good in school, but you weren’t the top of your class. You didn’t have any driving ambitions to get a college degree. I suspect that what you really wanted was to be a mom.”
Her shoulders sagged as she listened. “How can you even know any of that?” she asked in wonder.
“Reading your body language, added to the little bit I do know about you,” he said. “The thing is, none of that defines who you are. Inside, you’re warm, caring, honest, not money-driven in the least, and the person who matters the most to you right now in your world is your son,” he said. “I can get behind all that.”
She just stared at him for a long moment, then said, “Well, at least that bit of assessment sounded better than the first.”
His lips quirked. “You’re funny, and I like you,” he said. “I respect where you’re at in life, and, more than that, when the chips are down, you’re not one to walk away. You stand your ground, and that means a lot.”
Chapter 15
Jessica heard his assessment of her in disbelief. Because Greyson was right on. She didn’t have a clue how he knew about her father or her mother, but that was also the truth behind why she had taken so long to warm up to George. He had tried to marry her earlier, and she just wouldn’t have it. She’d been hesitant about having a male in her life because she hadn’t been raised with one. Yet she’d seen the parade of me
n that her mother had brought through the house.
She looked down at her hand, still resting in his. “A part of me says I made a big mistake with George,” she said, “and I don’t want to repeat it.”
“Of course not. That’s the thing about mistakes—we learn from them, so that we can make better decisions next time.”
When all was said and done, she was curious about his family too. “How about lunch then?” she suggested, then laughed.
“I’d say lunch, but they’ll say dinner,” he said.
“They are really pushing it, aren’t they?” But a note of humor was in her voice. She laughed again, a nervous one, and said, “Why not? It’d be nice to get out and to socialize a little bit. But you have to give them a warning that we aren’t together-together, okay?”
“Got it,” he said. He pulled out his phone, quickly dialed his grandfather, and asked Jessica, “So, how about today?”
Jessica gasped, not expecting that. She couldn’t believe how fast things were moving.
Greyson shrugged, while his grandfather crowed in delight. “Dinner,” he said, “barbecued ribs. We’ve already got them marinating. We’ll expect you at four o’clock.” And, just like that, his grandfather hung up.
Greyson laughed. “That is very much my grandparents.”
“And, from what I can see,” she said, “you’re a chip off the old block.”
He smiled and said, “We have a lot in common. And being raised by them, well—”
“Got it,” she said.
“So I guess our steaks can marinate overnight, and we’ll have them tomorrow night and if that doesn’t work out they are fine for another day too.”
“Oh, right. Or maybe you can add them to your grandparents’ barbecue tonight? Since I don’t have a grill but they do. It’s up to you.” He nodded. “I can guarantee we won’t need them there. My grandmother loves to cook and there’s always lots.”
She glanced at her watch. “So, what will we do for the rest of the day?”
“Hang low and hopefully get more intel,” he said immediately. “Speaking of which, I want to take a look outside. Stay inside—locked in, please.” With that, he disappeared.