Grissom (In the Company of Snipers #26)

Chapter Fourteen

Grissom froze where he stood at the entry to the hallway, struck dumb by the quietly spoken words that had just poured out of Tuesday. After making sure his boys were doing their chores, he’d been quietly admiring the view. Her taut ass in those skinny jeans. How they made her mile-long legs look longer. The burnished tangles tumbling down her back, tangles he wanted to wrap around his fist. But the words she’d whispered were a no-kidding prayer, and he didn’t want to intrude. ‘But God, she’s not wicked. She’s pure and innocent and… and… You know it.’

And she deserved to be wrapped up safe and sound inside the best family in the world. Maybe Mark and Libby’s. They could use a nanny with all their kids. Surely Tuesday would love working for them. Or David and Nancy Tao. They were good people and had six or seven kids, most of them boys. Surely Nancy could use an extra hand around the house. Although, now that Grissom thought of it, the Tao boys were extremely protective of their little sister, and they might not like a nanny bossing them around. Not that Tuesday was bossy. Hell, Grissom wasn’t even sure why his brain had decided she’d make a great nanny. She’d never said she wanted to be one, had she?

The loneliness pouring out of Tuesday killed. He understood every last one of those broken parts of her. The despair. The stinging sorrow for sins she hadn’t committed. Survivor’s guilt for losing people she loved. They had so damned much in common yet were still so different. She was the image of sophistication; he was a train wreck. She had brains, beauty, and friends in high places. He had a mortgage from hell, two children he treasured more than anything else, and enough debt to keep him in the poorhouse for the rest of his life. There was no way to sugarcoat it. He made good money working for Alex, but a decent life with him would still be damned near impossible.

Scrubbing a hand over his head, Grissom didn’t know how to ease the sorrow leaking out of the beauty at the sliders. Okay, so Tuesday being anyone’s nanny was a stretch. She was over-qualified. Frustrated he couldn’t easily fix her problem, he walked quietly up behind Tuesday and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He intended that hug to be nothing more than friendly.

But the moment her body stiffened at the contact, everything changed. This embrace was a mistake. He’d gotten too close, and now his nose was in her hair. She smelled like roses and Tuesday and—thank you, Lord—her lush, womanly body melted against him. Lifting her arms, she latched onto the forearms he’d crossed over her upper chest. Just her chest, not her breasts. Oh hell, no. He’d stayed clear of those luscious pillows. At least, he’d tried.

Because he was the father of two impressionable boys, damn it. Who were right then scrambling to get their chores done before game night. Single fathers had tremendous responsibilities that excluded dating, chasing women, and thinking just of themselves. Fathers didn’t do randy stuff like that. Tanner and Luke needed him to be present, to be there for them, every minute of every day. Not gadding about town, trolling for hook-ups. Not trying, in any way, to satisfy his carnal needs instead of taking care of them. No way. They deserved the best, and by hell, the best was what he’d give them. If it took forever, he’d be the father Tanner and Luke deserved. He would.

Only… The woman gathered in his arms was a lovely bouquet of delicate flowers. A heady combination of roses and fresh air and—Tuesday. Her slender fingers tightened on his arms, and he fell in love with her all over again. How could he let her go now that he knew what it was like to hold her? He was just a man, and men were weaker than shit. Everyone knew that and…

This had to end. Right now. He couldn’t let himself be trapped again. No. Just, no.

But… Caught in the rapture of simply holding her, of nearly surrounding her much smaller frame inside the study shelter of his larger body, Grissom inhaled the essence of the fragile, yet stronger-than-shit woman in his arms. The professional who’d loved his boys before she’d known them. Was that reason enough to entice her to stay? Grissom answered his own question by whispering, “How do you like your steak? Well done, medium, medium rare, or—”

“Just take me back to my car after I see Tanner’s pictures, please.”

“No,” he answered, keeping his tone neutral but his answer sure. “You’re as bad as me, Tuesday, setting boundaries that keep everyone away. But I see you. I mean, I see me in you. That might not make sense, but I can tell you’re scared. Well, I’m scared, too, but like I tell my boys, it’s okay to be scared, and it’s okay to cry, and it’s okay to…”

Jesus, where was I going with this?

“I am scared,” she admitted quietly, still not facing him. “I fell in love at first sight with your sons, but that’s why I have to leave. If I stay here any longer, I’m afraid—”

“That you might fall in love with me?” As conceited as it made him sound, Grissom had to know.

Tuesday didn’t answer. Instead, she relinquished her ten-point grip on his arms and twisted around until she was facing him, looking up at him. Her fingers were now splayed softly over his chest, and she was so beautiful. Her green eyes were red-rimmed and glistening, and he could feel her pounding heart against his. He’d never felt so alive. There he stood, heart-to-heart, with the angel who’d dashed to his sons’ rescue, instead of the manipulative, malicious troll who’d only ever seen dollar signs when she’d looked at him.

Tuesday wasn’t Pam. Why couldn’t he get that through his hard head? Not all women were evil. He knew that. She didn’t fit the paradigm, not at all. Looking down into her delicate features, her pert turned-up nose, and the tiny freckles scattered over it like cinnamon sprinkles, was like diving head-first off that eighty-five-foot-high cliff in Hawaii. The one his Army buddy had called the Leap of Faith.

Grissom had been an arrogant, headstrong fool that day, cowed into a dangerous, risky dive by his pride. But when his buddy, Wade Kekoa, had explained how his last name meant ‘warrior’ in native Hawaiian, well, Grissom couldn’t NOT jump. He was a warrior, too, damn it, and he’d had to prove it. His reputation came down to a few foolish seconds of dive-or-die. So he’d dived.

The rush of that headlong dive from a ragged lava ledge was still the damnedest ten-second thrill of his life. The heart-stopping sensation of falling to his death, then fighting the ruthless undertow once he’d survived that fall and resurfaced, had nearly done him in. But after the success of living through the fall, came the first gulp of fresh air and the euphoria of being a no-kidding winner. Along with that realization came a powerful surge of invincibility and confidence.

For the first time in his life, Grissom had faced death and spit in its eye, and he’d won, damn it. High on that ledge, alone in the moment, he’d conquered fear and cowardice and a slew of the other negative shit in his life. By hell, yeah, he’d jumped. He’d literally taken that Leap of Faith dive by the balls and…

Speaking of leaping…

Grissom knew he’d lose Tuesday forever if he let her push away now. Very gently, ever so carefully, he pulled her tiny body flush against his chest and his damned randy cock. The belligerent thing thought it had a chance of seeing daylight the way it was twitching for attention. Couldn’t have been more embarrassing if it screamed, ‘Here I am! Pick me, me, me, me, me!’

Shut the hell up!

“Grissom,” Tuesday whispered, her chin up and her head tipped back to maintain eye contact. “I refuse to trap you like Pam did. That’s why she called when you were deployed to Syria, wasn’t it? I can only imagine how she worded it, but that’s when she told you that you were a father, right?”

He tossed a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure his sons weren’t within range of hearing. Not that they’d understand, but kids were smarter than people gave them credit for. Thankfully, Tuesday kept her voice low too because…

Duh. She cares about your boys as much as you do.

“True,” Grissom admitted quietly. He opened his mouth to explain how he believed Pam had gotten herself pregnant, but he clapped it shut. Loose lips still sunk ships, and he didn’t want to sink the McCoy ship now that it was actually afloat again. So he nodded, then wondered if Tuesday could read his mind.

“I can’t do that to you. Yes, I care for you.” Those intelligent, alert, ever watchful, green eyes maintained contact with his. “You’ve endured unimaginable betrayal, Grissom. You’re almost as good a father as my dad was, and you say all the right things, but—”

“Forget about everything and everybody else.” Damned if he didn’t sound like his family counselor. Which was unfathomably weird. Him, imparting wisdom? Did. Not. Compute. But there he was. Willing to do anything to keep Tuesday, at least for the night. “Focus on what you feel right now, not yesterday, not even this morning. You feel it, too, the electricity buzzing between us. Don’t you?”

She blinked, and he saw it then. The young woman in his arms was afraid of him. Not that he’d hurt her, but because...

Oh, my God! Grissom nearly smacked his forehead when his messed-up brain solved the biggest riddle in his life.

Tuesday, the ballsy woman who’d taken down Maeve Astor...

Tuesday Smart, the savvy, sophisticated, world-renowned photographer…

The woman who’d captured some of the planet’s most amazing, powerful images of different peoples, animals, and the effects of changing climates across the Earth…

The barely out of high school young lady who’d made headlines when she’d married that older-than-dirt guy from New York City…

Oh, my God! Grissom should’ve known! He should’ve guessed! Or something. But at last, he was finally seeing past the very mature woman in his arms to the little girl behind that sophisticated mask, pressed against his bigger, stronger, definitely, all-male body. He got it. He finally got it.

Taking a full step back, he crouched to her eye level to see into those intelligent green depths when she answered his next question. “You’ve never been with a man, have you?”

One of her hands knifed up, shielding her face from his scrutiny. “No, I, uh…”

He knew it! He was right, and it made sense, given her messed-up history. She’d gone from being an average high school girl to an orphan, and from there, she’d been sucked into a phony marriage with that billionaire dude. Most recently, she’d worked for yet another older man, who’d sent her to the farthest, most isolated parts of the world. Where she’d had a gnat’s chance in hell of meeting a man of her caliber, much less dating anyone. Much less experiencing… that.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

“Tuesday, look at me,” Grissom urged, gently cupping her jaw and using the soft pressure of his thumbs to tilt her chin up. “Please, love. Take a chance on me. I don’t bite.”

It took a few seconds before she blew out a soft breath and summoned the strength to do what he asked. By then, she was a leaf fluttering in the wind, her mask gone and tears on the verge of streaming down her cheeks. She knew that he knew her deepest, darkest secret. The sweet knowledge of who and what he had in his arms was inexplicably, magnificently, all Grissom had ever wanted. He could barely make out the details of her pretty face through the blur brimming his own eyes. God, he was a sap, crying like a two-year-old in front of this woman. But the idea that, here stood the most remarkable person he’d ever met, and that she was untouched and pure, floored the hell out of him. He should have run the other way and never looked back. He was still who he was, and Tuesday Smart deserved so much better.

But there he stood, once again looking over the edge of the biggest drop-off of his life, facing another Leap of Faith. Was he brave enough to take the jump and encourage Tuesday to jump with him? To stay with him, maybe forever? Oh, hell, yes. If a simple, frightening plunge off some cliff in Hawaii could fill him with euphoria like it had, he could only imagine what falling in love with Tuesday would bring.

He’d already fallen several times today. Now, he just needed her to fall with him.

Cautiously, trying his damnedest not to frighten her, Grissom pulled Tuesday under his chin and wrapped his arms around the sweetest woman he’d ever met. “Don’t cry, love. I’ve got no resistance, and my boys will think you hurt me, if they see me bawling like a little baby, and—”

“They adore you, Grissom.”

“I think they actually adore you more. Me, they just endure because I feed them,” he murmured into the top of her head. “You wouldn’t mind hanging around a little longer to find out what this feeling between us is, would you?” He felt like his boys when they begged, ‘Please, oh please.’

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispered into his neck, her breath a warm balm that threatened to unman Grissom. “It’ll give Tanner and Luke the wrong impression, and they’ve been through enough. They deserve better than us leading them on.”

He played the only card he had left, simply lowered his head and placed a whisper of a kiss on her forehead. Keeping his mouth there, he begged, “Stay with us, Tuesday. Just for one night. Please. I’ve got extra beds. You’ll be safe and sound. I’ll stay in my room, or better yet, you can sleep in there. The bed’s bigger and my boys will love sleeping with you. We’ll tell them it’s too late for you to leave so we’re having a sleepover. It’ll be a good way to end their day. What have you got to lose?”

Tuesday looked up at him then, blinking hard, trying to keep her tears from falling. “My heart,” she whispered in a soft, tired voice. “I’ve only ever given it to my dad. What if…?”

And Grissom melted. Tipping into her, he pressed his lips to her forehead again and asked, “You didn’t love that older guy you married, did you?”

“Not like that, no. He was good to me, but Freddie was more like a grandfather. He spoiled me and he took care of me. He paid for me to attend the best university and he… he kept me safe.”

Thank God. “I’m not asking for forever, love. Just one night. After Walker and Persia go home, and once the boys fall asleep, we’ll talk. Just talk. I think once we get a few things out in the open, you’ll feel better, at least, more at ease. Okay? Give me a chance to prove I’m not always the idiot I was earlier.”

Her chest heaved with a silent chuckle. “I never thought you were an idiot.”

“Well, I am,” he declared. “What do you think? Stay a little longer? It’d sure make Tanner and Luke happy. Err, damn it. I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to use them to get you to stay, but I just did that. Shit.” He raked his fingers over his head.

“Shush,” she soothed, her fingers intertwined with his, in his hair, massaging the scalp he’d just scraped.

“Fu-u-u-u-ck…” whispered out of his mouth. “Don’t stop.” Please, for the love of God, don’t stop.

With one touch of Tuesday’s gentle fingers, Grissom’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he became the ugly dog that hadn’t been petted in years. Maybe never, sure not the way she was touching him. And just that fast, he knew why dogs’ rear legs thumped when someone finally stooped down to talk to them and pet them. To reach out, take a chance, and touch them. His inner dog’s leg wasn’t the only thing twitching.

“You like that?” she asked, her breath warm and moist on his chin.

“Not as much as I like this,” he replied huskily, his mouth hovering over hers, not quite touching, but giving her the chance to decide for herself. When her chin tipped up, Grissom lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her as chastely as she deserved. Thoroughly, yet gently. Not a hint of tongue against her tightly-sealed lips. Could this be her first kiss? How was that possible? But a man could hope.

“They’re here!” Luke announced at the top of his lungs, damn it, breaking what for Grissom, had been a life-changing moment.

Most guys would’ve panicked and jerked away from Tuesday, distancing themselves to protect their manly image at the cost of hers. Grissom stayed where he was, facing her with his arms around her. One glance at his boys told him all he needed to know. Luke was focused on getting to the front door before his brother did, but Tanner’s eyes were wide with surprise. He’d seen his dad kissing Tuesday, and the kid was grinning like a lunatic. Precisely what Grissom needed—encouragement from the six-year-old little man in his life.

He pressed a more casual kiss to Tuesday’s temple and whispered, “Looks like we just got caught, love. Do you mind?”

She gave her head a slight shake and whispered back, “Not at all. I love your boys with all my heart, Grissom. I think they saved me at the same time I saved them.”

He had to agree. “Funny how love works. They’ve been saving me for years.”

Luke was at the door by then, not quite able to reach the knob and half turned around to make sure he beat Tanner. Reluctantly, Grissom released the miracle in his arms and told his youngest son, “You know the rule, Short Stack. I answer doors.”

“Yeah, only Dad,” Tanner taunted in his know-it-all, big brother voice.

“But I wanna see Uncle Walker first!” Luke squealed, bouncing at the still-closed door. “I know it’s him! I already seen Aunt Persia! I don’t hafta look out that teeny hole like Daddy does. I seen them out the window, and they wanna come in and play with me!”

Grissom made short work of that argument, swinging Luke off the floor and onto his shoulder. “What’s the rule?”

Luke growled. “You hafta look out that stupid, tiny little old hole before anyone kin even open the door and come in, even when I already seen who’s out there.”

“And why do we follow rules in this house?”

Another grumpy growl percolated out of Luke. “So nobody can never steal me or Tanner again. Not never.”

“Very good,” Grissom praised his youngest troublemaker. “Hey, since you’re sitting high enough to see, why don’t you look through the peephole and tell me if Walker and Persia are still there. Look carefully. We don’t want to let any trolls inside.”

Luke and Tanner both giggled, but Luke tipped obediently forward, slapped both hands beside the peephole, stuck his nose to the door, and grumbled, “I don’t see nothing. Oh, wait! Yeah, I kin see Uncle Walker, but not Aunt Persia now, and—Oh, Daddy! Uncle Harley’s hairy eyeball’s staring at me. He’s here, too. Let me down! I wanna get down!”

Swinging his excited youngest over the top of his head but then tucking him under his arm before Luke could wiggle away, Grissom entered the security code into the panel behind the door and opened his home to his friends. Sure enough, not only Uncle Walker and Aunt Persia were there, but Uncle Harley, Aunt Judy, cousins Alex and Georgie, as well as Uncle Maverick, Aunt China, and cousin Kyrie. All TEAM members were called aunts or uncles, and Grissom made sure his boys addressed them respectfully.

“Come on in,” he told his visitors. “Got someone I want you to meet.”

As soon as he cleared the door, Maverick spied Tuesday standing back from the now-crowded entry. Off came his Stetson, he nodded politely and said, “Sure good seeing you here, ma’am.”

She shrugged almost apologetically. But when Maverik headed toward her, Grissom made short work of the distance between that tall, lanky cowboy and his woman. His woman , damn it. “Folks, meet Tuesday Smart,” he said, marching to her side and snagging her by her waist. “Tuesday, you already met Maverick, and—”

“And I’m China, his wife, and this is Kyrie, our daughter.” China was dressed in her usual, western shirt over jeans and cowboy boots. Kyrie sported jeans, boots, and a t-shirt advertising her kitten sanctuary. They both had the same long hair trailing like ebony ribbons down their backs.

The lanky guy with the Texas twang followed the Carsons with, “Harley, ma’am.” He tipped two fingertips to his forehead in respect. “This pretty lady here’s my better half, Judy, and those two monsters are Little A and Georgie. Boys, hats off, and remember to use your inside voices, understood?”

Both boys doffed their cowboy hats and answered, “Yes, Dad.”

Oh, yeah. Little A. That was Harley’s son’s nickname, not just Alex. That’d be too confusing, and Grissom didn’t need to be more confused than he was. Little A was the quieter twin who’d answered politely. Georgie was the opposite, prone to cause trouble, just as prone to roughhouse no matter where he was. He’d said the right words, but his answer carried a ton of mischievous sarcasm.

Judy’s dark red hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense bun at the nape of her neck. Of the four Mortimers, she was the boss and Harley knew it. Within seconds of his introductions, Tuesday found herself surrounded by Persia, China, and Judy, all jabbering at once, like women do. Made Grissom’s heart swell seeing how quickly these wives accepted her.

She might not realize it yet, but she’d just been adopted into the highest order of sisterhood. TEAM sisterhood. Nothing stronger in the world.