I lean my head down and kiss her on my spot. “Morning, babe.”
“Morning. That had to be the crappiest night of sleep I’ve had since we had infants in the house.”
“Yup,” I reply, no further explanation needed.
“Thanks for starting the coffee, honey.”
“Any time. I have a feeling we’re gonna need it today,” I reply.
Just then the door to the basement opens up, and not only Grady appears, but his older brother Cole as well. Not surprised. He probably headed out at the crack of dawn, getting here as soon as he could for Grady. And us, too. He’s such a good kid, and I have no clue how that happened.
“Cole!” Tess excitedly runs over to her firstborn. He lifts her up slightly and hugs her close. He’s my height now and seeing her around her two boys, she looks so tiny.
Cole’s dark hair is a little longer than normal, and he’s grown an impressive amount of facial hair, sporting a full beard. He has on a plain, dark blue T-shirt, but what I keep focusing on are the many tattoos that are trailing down his arms. He’s been busy, it seems, adding several more since he’s been back in school. He’ll be the scruffiest looking doctor.
I glance over at Grady to see him leaning against the doorway watching the two of them. The weight of the evening before is obviously heavy on all our hearts. The nervousness comes off of Grady in waves as he shifts side to side on his feet, crossing and uncrossing his arms.
“Hey, Mom,” Cole says as he clings tightly to her. He murmurs something to her, more than likely telling her to go easy on Grady, before releasing her back to the ground. She beams up at him, and I know her well enough to know that even with the reason he’s here, she’s still so happy to have him home.
The second Tess is on her feet she steps over to Grady, takes his face in her hands, and reaches up on her toes before kissing him on the cheek. “How are you, baby?”
“I’m good, Mom,” he says, a slight smile to his face.
“Explain,” she replies simply.
“I talked to Bri. She’s good, she’s not mad at me… just hearing her voice last night helped me relax. I know she’s still upset about what Dawson did.” He clenches his jaw, and I can see the anger boiling up inside once again. He shakes his head slightly and continues on. “I texted Coach last night already so he will see it first thing this morning. He texted back already. He’s coming over here later to talk it all through. He’ll get on the phone with the recruiters who have been calling, too. We’ll get a plan together, but I wanted him to find out from me rather than through the chain of gossip that will be sure to fly around.”
The pride I feel over the maturity my son has shown in the situation swells in my chest. I know this situation isn’t good or ideal, but I’m glad to see he’s thinking with his head. Unfortunately, I also need to be bad cop here. He needs to understand that fighting is never the right.
“Grady, have a seat, son. We need the details on last night. As happy as it makes me to hear that you’ve talked to Coach Mac already, there’s more important things we need to worry about.”
“I know, Dad,” he says with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
“Do you? Do you understand what you did? You could have ruined your entire future by acting before thinking. Why couldn’t you have just left well enough alone?”
“You mean if someone had assaulted Mom at a party, and when you got to her she had a red mark on her face from him hitting her and was crying, that you’d ‘just leave well enough alone’ and walk away? Screw that. That’s such bullshit, Dad, and you know it!”
“Hey, watch your mouth. And no, that’s not what I mean. I wouldn’t just walk away, but beating him to a pulp isn’t the answer either. You could have pulled Bri away from the situation, away from Dawson…”
“Right. Just pulled her away from that prick and never said a word. Never even defended her? Do you realize what he could have done to her if I hadn’t stepped in? What it looked like he planned to do?” His voice is pained, and I wish I could take away what he clearly keeps seeing in his eyes, his memories not fading away in the slightest.
“Grady, sweetie, what your dad is trying to say is there’s always another option. Fighting isn’t the be-all-end-all. I get that you were upset,” she says but is interrupted by Grady’s scoff, indicating he is a little more than upset. “But…” she says and gives him the eye, “…the main focus needed to be getting Bri away from Dawson.”
“Yeah, I did that. I made sure she was safe. I put her in my car and had her girlfriends with her. I tried to get Brandon to stay with her, too, but he wasn’t having it. He saw the whole thing go down, too, Mom. The prick got what was coming to him. I’m sorry you guys feel that I should have just walked away, but you have no idea what it was like there. No. Idea. He hurt her. He hurt my Bri. And yeah, I know exactly how that sounds, but screw it. I’m tired of not being honest about my feelings for her and, on that note, I’m not sorry that I hit him. There’s not a chance in hell I’m going to apologize to the douche nozzle after what he did,” he says with absolute certainty. He stands up, angrily shoves his chair back into the table, and storms off down to the basement.
We sit in silence, trying to fully understand what just happened. Grady seemed calm and relaxed and suddenly he stormed off. Damn teenagers and their hormonal ways.
Chapter Eleven
Tess
The rest of the day is just as crappy as it began. Between the constant slamming doors by Grady, being graced with Eric, Dawson’s horrible father’s presence, the visit from Coach, and Bri not answering Grady’s phone calls for some reason, we’ve had all the fun we can handle. Cole tried his best to be Switzerland. If he wasn’t trying to stand up for Grady, he was trying to get him to understand our point of view.
The day goes back and forth from wonderful to crap and back to wonderful again.
Dawson’s dad hadn’t been told the entire story, no shocker there. When we politely informed him of the truth, he was less than impressed with his son’s actions. Of course, he didn’t believe us at first, but after a few phone calls, he got the picture, especially when he saw a picture of Bri and what his son had a hand in.
I should be used to the love I have for my husband, but seeing him stand toe to toe with that horrible man, standing up for our son — and for Bri — not backing down an inch, only made him even sexier, and I fell for him all over again. Something about my man going to bat for our children… it’s just hot: his shoulders broad and strong, his square chiseled jaw clenched, those bright hazel eyes dark and stormy. My goodness, if the situation wasn’t so serious, I would knock him down and straddle him right then.
When Maggie and Harper came home after their sleepovers, they were beyond excited to see Cole home. Harper jumped into his arms and has been clinging to him like a spider monkey since. Maggie hasn’t left his side either, which means that all four of our kids have been stuck like glue to one another all day long, since Cole hasn’t separated from Grady since they woke up this morning.