Out of Time

  The nurse with the Boston accent piped up, “We don’t have any big enough to fit him, doctor.”

  She didn’t hear the rest. She was fading. The drugs were already in her system and working fast. Right before she closed her eyes, she looked up and met bright green ones. His eyes. Her Grizz.

  “I’m here, Kitten,” he said, smiling down at her. “I’m here, baby.”

  She slipped from consciousness and dreamed the best dream her subconscious could muster: that Grizz had been there with her for the birth of their child.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  2000

  Tommy and Ginny had a good marriage. More than just good. He could honestly say he was beyond happy.

  At least until this morning and the phone call from Leslie that unraveled everything.

  He’d been certain Grizz’s death would finally put an end to the past. He didn’t feel good about the execution. He even felt remorse. But when Grizz was pronounced dead, Tommy couldn’t help but admit to himself he felt a tremendous weight being lifted. Like he’d been holding his breath for twenty-five years and was finally, finally able to let it go and take in a good, healthy dose of air. To have a fresh start.

  His mind started to wander again as he steered the motorcycle down Sunrise Boulevard toward the ocean, Jason clinging tightly to his waist. Happy memories invaded his thoughts. He smiled as he thought about Jason’s first nickname. Ed.

  Jason was about six months old. Both he and Mimi were fast asleep and Tommy was in bed with Ginny. He had kissed his way down Ginny’s body and was enjoying the taste of her. She’d grabbed his hair and moaned wildly as he’d brought her to a quick orgasm.

  “Now, Tommy!” she panted. “I don’t think I can wait. I have to have you inside me now!”

  Tommy grinned and crawled up to kiss her. He already had a full-blown erection and was only too happy to comply. He was just ready to plunge into her when they heard it—the unmistakable start of a baby’s whimper.

  Mid-thrust, they stopped, staring at each other.

  “Oh, no.” Ginny grimaced. “He’s awake and he’s going to wake up Mimi. I’ll go check on him, see if I can get him back to sleep. He shouldn’t be hungry. Maybe he needs a change.”

  Tommy blew out a sigh and rested his full weight on her, his face in her neck, already losing his erection.

  “I’ll do it,” he said.

  She couldn’t help but smile. He sounded so deflated. It seemed like every time they were going to make love, Jason needed something.

  “You check on him,” she said in a coy voice, “and I promise to make it up to you when you get back.” She sealed her words with a string of gentle kisses on his ear.

  In a flash, he’d jumped off of her and headed to the nursery, not bothering to put on his pants.

  She smiled again as she listened to him on the baby monitor. Apparently, Jason really needed to be changed.

  “I know you can hear me, Gin. You really lucked out when you accepted my offer to check on him. He has taken a dump that would fill up a bucket. Damn, it’s everywhere! Oh, no! He’s not finished. There’s more coming out. Oh, shit!”

  Ginny giggled. She was picturing a completely naked Tommy dealing with an overloaded diaper and apparently more on the way. She knew she should go in and help, but quite honestly, she was enjoying listening to Tommy’s commentary entirely too much to move.

  “Okay, Ed, you’re all cleaned up and ready to go back to sleep. Now be a good boy and let Daddy have some quality Mommy time, okay? I don’t know why you seem to know every time Daddy wants to make love to Mommy. You’ve got some sort of built in radar, Ed.”

  Minutes later, Tommy was back in their bedroom, headed toward the bathroom. She was still smiling when she saw the look on his face. “I have to wash up, Gin. There was crap everywhere, and don’t think I don’t know you were in here enjoying that a little too much.”

  A few minutes later, he came out of the bathroom and gently straddled his wife.

  “I do believe there was a promise to make it up to me,” he said, smiling down at her.

  His face got serious then as he gently caressed her cheek. He stared into her eyes. “Ginny, I love you so much. You have made me the happiest man in the world. When I was putting him back down I couldn’t stop looking at him.” He brought his lips gently to hers. “To think that our love is what created that baby.”

  He paused as she started to get tears in her eyes. “You’re my soul mate, Ginny. You know I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you. Do you know that?”

  She smiled through the tears. “Yes, Tommy, I know. You tell me all the time and I never get tired of hearing it.”

  He started kissing her in earnest then, and their lovemaking went from tender and sweet to passionate.

  Later, wrapped in each other’s arms and catching their breath, she leaned up on one elbow, looking down at him.

  “I heard you in there before. When you were changing Jason. Why were you calling him Ed?” Her hand was on his chest, caressing it softly .

  “That’s his new nickname.” He grinned, eyes still closed.

  “His new nickname? Ed? How’d you come up with that?

  “I think he has some kind of built in sensor or something.” He cracked an eye. “Every time we want to make love and I get a boner, he screams.”

  She started laughing then. “You’re right, it does seem like that. But why Ed? What does Ed have to do with it?”

  “Ed. You know, E.D. It stands for Erection Detector.”

  They laughed until they made love again and then slept in each other’s arms.

  Tommy was brought back to the present as Jason tapped him on his shoulder and pointed. Tommy looked in the direction his son was pointing and nodded. Jason’s favorite fast food restaurant. They had to eat; might as well make it there.

  He made a quick right into the parking lot and stopped the motorcycle.

  “Can you take me to Aunt Carter’s house tomorrow, dad?” Jason asked when they’d sat down with their food.

  “Why do you need to go to Carter’s?” Tommy asked, taking a big bite of cheeseburger.

  “Because you’ll be at work and Mimi’s never home.” Jason shrugged and snagged a French fry. “I don’t want to stay by myself.”

  Tommy hadn’t thought of that. Ginny was a stay-at-home mother during the summers. She did some bookkeeping for a few small businesses, but she was always able to do it from home. What would Jason do all summer, or until Ginny came back? If she came back. Tommy frowned a moment, thinking.

  “Your sister will just have to stay home with you when she’s not working,” Tommy finally said.

  Mimi had a part time job at a local floral shop. Even though they didn’t need the money, her parents insisted she work a few hours a week. They wanted her to have a taste of real life. A normal education. A part-time job. Regular friends. The kind of life that neither one of them had actually experienced when they were her age.

  “She’s gonna be mad.” Jason’s face darkened. “She likes to go to her friend’s houses or the beach or something if she’s not at work.”

  “Then she’ll have to be mad,” Tommy said, trying to keep the aggravated tone out of his voice.

  As it was, it was going to be hard enough for him to go into work tomorrow given everything that had happened. He should’ve taken the week off and he wished he had. What was the matter with him? Did he honestly think he could sit there with Ginny and watch Grizz die on a Friday and go back to work on Monday? What was he thinking?

  Or more importantly, why wasn’t he thinking?

  Maybe he’d call one of his partners when he got home, tell them he needed some time off. He could even do some of his work from home. It wouldn’t be a problem.

  His thoughts were interrupted when Jason blurted, “Hey, the girl who just went by on the motorcycle looks just like Mimi!”

  Tommy looked where Jason was pointing out the window, but he didn’t see a motorcycle. Just a lon
g line of cars on a sunny afternoon at the beach.

  “You didn’t look quick enough,” Jason said as he slurped his drink. “She’s gone.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  2000

  Ginny spent the next day at Carter’s helping feed and care for Carter’s menagerie of animals. She should have been tired; they’d stayed up all night talking. But for some reason, she wasn’t. Her mind was racing with a million thoughts.

  Tommy had called earlier, told her he was taking a week off from work to take care of Jason and hoped she wouldn’t be gone that long, that he missed her. She told him she was sorry she hadn’t thought about Jason. She had a stab of guilt but quickly reminded herself she subconsciously knew Tommy would somehow handle it. And, of course, he had. In typical Tommy fashion, he’d told her not to worry. He was taking care of it, but she needed to give him some time soon so they could talk. She promised she would.

  Carter and Casey had offered to let Jason stay there with them, telling her she could go home and have as much time with Tommy as she needed. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to even see Tommy right now, let alone be under the same roof together. It was all still too raw.

  Mimi was a different matter. She was fifteen and would definitely require an explanation. In spite of the fact that Mimi was spending most of her free time with her friends, she was an intelligent and observant teenager. She would notice that her mother was gone. Ginny would have to talk to Tommy about what to tell Mimi.

  Ginny was grateful there was so much to do at Carter’s. Keeping busy was exactly what she needed. She spent the afternoon hauling food bags and brushing dogs, and was pleasantly sore by the time the afternoon wore away.

  That evening, the three friends worked in companionable silence making shrimp stir-fry. They were exhausted so tonight’s agenda was simple. Dinner, clean up, and bed.

  Casey’s voice broke the silence. “So, Gin, did Tommy ever tell you the details about your prom date?”

  Ginny stopped cutting vegetables and looked over at Casey. “The prom date? You mean the prom date Grizz took me on?”

  Carter and Casey glanced at each other, then at Ginny. She didn’t know.

  “When they took you in for your emergency C-section with Mimi, we spent our time in the waiting room trying to keep Tommy’s mind off of you,” Carter chimed in. “They didn’t let him in there with you. He practically wore a hole in the carpet with all of his pacing. We just kept talking to him to try to distract him. I don’t remember how it came up. Maybe Sarah Jo said something. I mean, she was in on it.”

  “I know Sarah Jo was in on it.” Ginny shrugged, starting to slice into an onion. “She helped Grizz set it up.”

  “No, Ginny.” Casey took a breath. “It wasn’t Grizz who asked Sarah Jo to set it up.”

  Ginny stopped what she was doing and turned around to look at her friends. With her back against the counter, she cocked her head. “Who had Sarah Jo set it up?”

  In unison they both answered her: “Tommy.”

  “Tommy and Sarah Jo told us everything in the hospital waiting room,” Carter told her.

  “Yeah, it sounded like he planned it down to the last detail,” Casey added.

  Ginny stared at her friends as they took turns filling in the details about her prom night.

  **********

  “So how did you convince Grizz to let you do this?” Sarah Jo asked Grunt as they sat across from each other at the restaurant.

  “I just told him that it was an important part of every girl’s high school years and since Kit wouldn’t have that experience, maybe you and I could do something to make up for it.” Grunt shrugged. “Of course, I told him it was your idea. Besides, he trusts me now. I have a girlfriend.”

  Sarah Jo took a sip of her water and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know you have a girlfriend.”

  “No, really, it’s perfect. Between school and work, I rarely get to see Kit. Now that I’m living with Cindy, Grizz doesn’t seem to mind when I spend time with her.” He looked directly at Jo. “Let’s talk about more important things. You’re all set for tomorrow, right? You know what to do?”

  “Of course I know what to do.” Jo stuck her tongue out at him. “Kit already said she’d go with me to pick out a dress. I’ll tell her I don’t want to try on gowns by myself and I’d feel better if she tried some on, too. She’ll do it. She’s a girly girl.”

  “And?”

  “And,” Sarah Jo rolled her eyes again, “when she tries on one that she really loves, I’ll make sure someone puts it away. I’ll tell them that you’ll be in to pay for it later.”

  “Perfect.” Grunt folded his hands. “And?”

  “And I’ll make sure she spends the actual prom day with me getting my makeup, nails and hair done. I’ll insist that I don’t feel right getting all gussied up for prom if she’s not. I’ll tell her I’m treating her as a thank you for spending the day with me.” Sarah Jo picked up her sandwich. “Now how about you? It’s less than a month away. Are you all set?”

  “Everything’s a go. Martin never uses the house and it’s perfect.”

  “What’s it like?”

  “It’s right on the beach. He has a gazebo with stereo speakers and everything. Moe’s going to spend the day helping me set up.”

  “You know, Grunt, I’m not really sure you should be doing this. You might be sending the wrong message. You might confuse her.”

  “Jo, I’m doing what you suggested three years ago. I’m waiting. And don’t think it hasn’t been hell on me not seeing her as much as I’ve wanted to.” He clenched his jaw. “Grizz will screw up soon enough and I’ll be there, but in the meantime, it’s really important to me that she doesn’t miss out on certain things.”

  “Like going to the prom,” Sarah Jo said quietly.

  “Yeah, like going to the prom. She can’t go to a real prom. You know that. This is the only thing I could think of.”

  Sarah Jo smiled at her childhood friend. “It’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “So are you getting excited? It’s your senior year. It’ll be the last prom for you and Stephen.”

  “Yeah, I’m excited, but worried.”

  “What are you worried about?” Grunt signaled for the check.

  “That new girl, April. I think Stephen might actually like her.”

  **********

  “It was Tommy?” Ginny asked. Slowly she walked to one of the kitchen chairs, sitting down heavily.

  Carter took the one next to her, her voice quiet. “Yes, it was all Tommy’s doing. I can’t believe he never told you. He probably wouldn’t let Sarah Jo tell you either. You believed it was Grizz’s idea, and Tommy didn’t want to hurt you by telling you it wasn’t. Yes, Grizz allowed it, but he didn’t come up with it. Tommy did.”

  Ginny remembered that night. She’d spent the entire day with Sarah Jo getting their makeup, hair, and nails done. She’d watched as her friend posed for pictures with Stephen and waved goodbye to them as they left in Stephen’s father’s fancy car. Fess had asked her to stay to help him with some bank statements or something. She couldn’t remember what she helped him with, but it didn’t matter. The whole thing had been a ruse.

  After about thirty minutes, the phone had rung. It was Sarah Jo, frantic. Said she forgot her little purse with all her makeup. Would Kit mind driving it to her friend’s house on the beach? There was a pre-prom party there. Kit got the directions from her and headed that way.

  She remembered being surprised when she arrived at the impressive house and saw one of Grizz’s motorcycles in the driveway. It was Grizz’s, wasn’t it? And where were all the cars? She thought there was supposed to be a party here.

  She went to the front door and noticed a note taped to it. It said to come around the right side of the house. She let herself through an unlocked gate and made her way along the path. When she got to the back yard, she stopped short.

  Before her eyes was a gigantic pool with a gazebo on the
other side. The gazebo was decorated with white twinkling lights. As she approached, she could hear the ocean, and its salty aroma filled her nostrils. She heard Van Morrison singing “Into the Mystic” but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

  That’s when she saw him. Grizz.

  He came out of the shadows and walked down the gazebo steps. He was wearing his usual outfit: Jeans, a T-shirt, and boots, his long hair held back in a ponytail. He had recently started growing a beard, something she wasn’t exactly sure she liked, but she had to admit that it suited him. She watched him approach, her heart beginning to pound in anticipation. What was going on?

  He took her hand and led her back up the stairs. She noticed a coral-colored gown hanging from one of the low beams. She stared at it in amazement. Wasn’t that the gown she had tried on a few weeks ago when she was shopping with Sarah Jo? It wasn’t as elegant as the one Jo picked out—understated and very simple. Her high-heeled sandals rested on a bench next to the dress, along with a beautiful wrist corsage made of tiny white roses and baby’s breath.

  She looked down at her fingernails and toes, smiling now as it all sank in. Sarah Jo had insisted on the color. Now she knew why. They matched her dress.

  “Grizz?” She said, waiting for the explanation.

  Grizz suddenly looked shy. “Thought you might like a romantic night with me on the beach. I know Jo has her dance tonight. I—I didn’t want you to feel left out.”

  He didn’t look away from her as he took the dress down from the beam, handing it to her. “I would really love to see you in this, Kitten,” he murmured, pulling her into his arms.

  They’d spent the night slow dancing, making love on the beach and just talking. The house belonged to a friend of his, Martin. She remembered fantasizing that it was their home. They even got to sleep there. It was one of the most romantic nights she’d ever had.