A Gift of Time (The Nine Minutes Trilogy Book 3) (7 page)

Chapter Twelve

Tommy

1999,
Fort Lauderdale

Tommy just stared
at his daughter as she left the den. Then
he looked at Ginny.

“She took
that better than I thought she would, Gin,” he said quietly. “I have to be
honest, I wasn’t sure I agreed with you that we should tell her about our early
years with the gang. I think we could’ve kept it to ourselves until she was
older. Maybe she never had to know about our past at all.”

They had just
returned from the police station, where they’d spent more time waiting to speak
to the detective than they’d spent being interviewed. Moe’s remains had been
recently unearthed, and after positively identifying her through DNA testing,
police had called in Ginny and Tommy for another discussion. It was uneventful
and lasted less than an hour. They told the detective the same thing they’d
told the authorities so many years ago when Grizz was arrested. Moe died from
an overdose.

Tommy
reluctantly agreed on the way home that maybe they should tell Mimi a little
bit about their past. They didn’t go into details about Ginny’s abduction or
her life with Grizz, just that they had been part of an unsavory crowd in their
younger days. They wanted to prepare her in the unlikely event it was brought
to the attention of the media. So far, nothing had surfaced, but Ginny felt it
was time to start filling Mimi in on some of their history. But the teenager
hadn’t seemed fazed at all by what her parents told her.

After Mimi’s
nonchalant departure from the den, Ginny sat up straighter and faced Tommy.

“Just the
fact that they found Moe’s remains has made it obvious to me that we can’t
ignore our past.” He started to say something, but she held her hand up to stop
him. “Besides, if finding Moe doesn’t bring the reporters out, Grizz’s
execution next year certainly will. And we need our children to be prepared.
She now knows we were part of it. I’m a little surprised she doesn’t seem to
care, but she’s a teenager and completely absorbed in her own life. She has
finals next week. She has her piano recital coming up. She wants to learn how
to drive, even though she’s not even old enough to have a permit yet. I don’t
know, Tommy, you heard her. She thought what little we shared about our past
was the coolest thing she’d ever heard. But that’s today. Tomorrow, it’ll be
something else. Maybe we aren’t as interesting as we thought we were. I mean,
to her, we’re boring old Mom and Dad.”

Tommy
sighed. “I guess you’re right. Usually, I’m the one telling you you’re reading
too much into her behavior. Maybe we’ve both been wrong. Maybe we’ve built it
up in our heads to be this monumental, horrible secret past, and yes, it is
horrible, but it is our past. And it’s so far removed from how we live our
lives now that it’s almost as if it never existed. And another thing—what
about Jason? With Grizz’s execution scheduled for next year, should we tell
Jason anything? Do we need to prepare him?”

Ginny had to
ponder this for a minute. She was certain the lack of interest Mimi displayed
would be the total opposite of how her son, Jason, would react. He was nine
years old and curious about everything. And heaven only knew how much he’d want
to tell his friends.

“I think I’d
like to take a chance on the press leaving this alone,” she said finally.
“Finding what was left of Moe hasn’t seemed to have drawn a lot of attention.
That gives us a year to decide if we need to tell Jason anything. And you’re
right. Grizz is scheduled for death next summer, but he’s received so many
stays, there’s no telling how long before he’s actually put to death. This
could go on for years.”

She shifted
uncomfortably on the sofa and wouldn’t meet Tommy’s eyes. She didn’t like this
subject. Never had. Never would.

She stood.
The conversation was over.

“I have to
get started on my baking for the church cakewalk tomorrow night, and I told
Carter I’d stop over later to help her exercise her horses. I was going to
bring home takeout for dinner. Do you have a yearning for anything? Chinese?
Mexican?”

Before Tommy
could answer her, she quickly added, “Why don’t you come with me? It’s Denise’s
day to get Jason after school and take him to practice with Max, and she’s
taking him along to her mother’s for dinner.” Denise was the mother of Jason’s
best friend, Max. “Lindsay is supposed to come over and do homework with Mimi.
Come to Carter’s with me. Let’s go now and I’ll make the cakes after we come
home later.”

Tommy made a
face.

“Oh, c’mon,
Tommy. I know you don’t have to go back to work for the rest of the day. Come
with me. It’ll be fun.”

“It’ll be
fun for you, maybe,” he said. “Last time I went, I got stuck shoveling the
stalls.”

“Well,
that’s because you said you didn’t want to ride last time.”

“And I said
I didn’t want to ride because the time before that when I did help exercise the
horses, I had to come home and put a bag of frozen peas on my balls.”

“You’re just
not used to riding. You have to give it some time,” she said with a smile.

“No thanks,
Gin. I’ll pass this time. I’m leaving tomorrow for Chicago, and I don’t want to
have sore balls. I need to pack, anyway.”

“Chicago? I
thought that was next week.”

“No, it’s
been on the calendar. I leave tomorrow morning. I have an eleven o’clock
flight.”

“But the
church dinner. You’re going to miss the church dinner tomorrow night. It’s our
biggest night of the year. We’re having the auction and mini-carnival. I
invited Alec and Paulina and the kids. We’re all going.”

“Ginny, I
can’t help that my biggest client set this meeting up with me six months ago.
This is a big deal, and you’ve known about it. It’s been on the calendar
forever. Don’t act so surprised. And before I forget, I need to tell you it’ll
just be Alec and the boys. Paulina has some big yoga thing she’s doing.”

“Yoga thing?
You know what, don’t even tell me. She’s even busier than me with all of her
activities.”

“Well, I
hadn’t planned on telling you because I don’t know anything other than it’s a
yoga thing.”

Ginny stood
over him and, bracing both hands on each of his shoulders, she planted a kiss
on the top of his head. He looked up at her, and she got very serious.

“I think
I’ll leave for Carter’s now, Tommy. Instead of baking. I need to…to…you know.”

She was
trying to tell him she needed to escape their earlier conversation. She needed
to be on the back of a horse, the wind in her hair, the sound and smell of
horse and leather attacking her senses and obliterating her thoughts. She may
have sounded brave and tough when she talked about not being able to bury their
past, but her insides told a different story.

Sensing his
wife’s delayed reaction to the conversation about Grizz, Tommy stood up and
hugged her.

“I’ll come
with you. I’m not getting on that beast Carter calls Comanche, but maybe I can
play with the dogs or something.”

She looked
up at him with a grateful expression. “Thank you, Tommy. Thank you for coming
with me.”

**********

Later that night, after
watching him for a few minutes, Ginny poked her head in Tommy’s office. He was
sitting at his desk and hadn’t realized she was there.

“When are
you coming to bed?” she asked, yawning. “It’s after midnight.”

He looked
up. “Oh, hey, Gin. I just have a few more things, and then I still have to
pack. Go to bed. I’ll try not to be too loud when I come up.”

“I know
you’re sitting here now because you came to Carter’s with me. You didn’t tell
me you had to do some work for your trip.”

“It’s not
your fault. The unexpected visit to the police this morning to talk about Moe
threw me off schedule.”

She leaned
against the doorjamb and cocked her head. “But you’d be finished if you hadn’t
come to Carter’s with me. Why didn’t you just tell me you had more work?”

He stood up
from his desk then and walked toward her, pulling her close and resting his
chin on top of her head.

“Because I
knew you were trying to be strong and that talking about what’s supposed to
happen next summer was weighing on you. I just wanted to be with you, Ginny.
It’s all I’ve ever wanted. To be with you. No matter where you are or what
you’re doing. I love you, Gin.”

“I love you
too, Tommy.”

She looked
up at him then, and he kissed her gently on the mouth.

What started
out as a small gesture of affection quickly turned into something more. It
wasn’t obvious which one of them deepened the kiss first, but before either one
of them knew what was happening, they found themselves naked. Ginny was bent
over the leather sofa as Tommy thrust himself inside of her from behind.

He reached
around and found the spot that caused a loud moan to escape her lips. He
brought her to a quick and powerful orgasm.

The moment
he felt her softness clenching him in spasm, he found his own release.

“Oh fuck,
Gin. I didn’t expect you to come that quickly. It felt like you had me in a
vice.”

“You’re not
complaining, are you?” she asked him breathlessly as she started to put her
nightshirt back on.

He watched
as she retrieved her panties and started to slip into them. If he wasn’t
mistaken, she was avoiding eye contact.

“Ginny, look
at me.”

“What?
What’s wrong?”

He smiled at
her. “Honey, I think you’re blushing.”

“I am not
blushing, Tommy. For goodness’ sake, we’ve done that a million times. Why would
I be blushing?”

“I don’t
know, but your face is all red,” he said grinning even more.

“Well, maybe
all the blood went to it because of how I was hanging over the back of your
couch with my butt up in the air.”

He started
laughing then and told her she’d just drained him of his last ounce of energy.

“I’m almost
finished here. I’ll be up soon, and I’ll just pack in the morning.”

“You don’t
have to get up early. I already packed for you. Goodnight, Tommy.”

**********

The next morning, he was
awakened by the sound of stomping in the hallway. The bedroom door flung open,
and Jason and Mimi stood there looking at him in bed.

“Mom told us
to make sure you were awake before we left for the bus stop,” Mimi told him
from the doorway.

Jason had
moved past his sister and ran to the edge of the bed where Tommy had started to
sit up.

“Where’s
your mother?”

Jason
wrapped his arms around his father. “Dexter had another seizure and Mrs. Winkle
was too upset to drive him to the vet, so Mom drove them.”

Dexter was
their neighbor’s dog. Mrs. Winkle was an elderly widow who lived across the
street. She’d lost her husband in the Korean War and never had children or remarried.
She was completely alone except for her dog, Dexter. This wasn’t the first time
Ginny had driven Mrs. Winkle and Dexter to the vet.

Tommy nodded
in understanding.

“Have a nice
trip, Dad,” Jason said. “Will you be back in time for my game Sunday night?”

“Sorry,
buddy, my flight doesn’t get in until Monday afternoon, but you call me as soon
as it’s over. I’ll want to know all about it.”

He ruffled
Jason’s hair and looked up to say goodbye to Mimi, but she’d already left.

“Mom said to
tell you the coffee is fresh, and there are some buns or something in the
warming oven,” Jason called over his shoulder as he chased his sister down the
stairs.

Tommy looked
at the clock on the nightstand and realized it was only 6:55 a.m. He had plenty
of time before he had to leave for the airport.

Soon he
found himself sitting at the kitchen table sipping on his coffee and reading
the newspaper. There was nothing about Moe in the local newspaper. Good.

The recent
unearthing of Moe’s remains and the technology used to positively identify her
had been on his mind. He thought about his past and what he’d found out after
Grizz’s trial—and all the research he’d done on the woman he suspected
was his mother, Candy. Everything pointed to him being Grizz’s son, but he’d never
confirmed it with DNA testing.

He took a
big sip of coffee and remembered how he’d tried a long time ago to see if he
was related to Grizz. It was back when they all still lived at the motel, years
before Grizz’s arrest and trial. Long before Tommy had even heard the name
Candy. At that time, Tommy had suspected Grizz was his older brother, not Blue.
Grizz had come home with a gunshot wound, and Tommy used the opportunity to
sneak a blood-soaked bandage to a friend at the school’s science lab. The test
confirmed he and Grizz shared a rare blood type.

It wasn’t a
DNA test, but it was the closest you could get back then. That had been back in
the late seventies when tests could only determine blood type since DNA
profiling was still years away. He’d confirmed in his mind that Grizz was
indeed his older brother, not Blue. But now, he wondered whether it was
possible to get a DNA sample from Grizz to compare to his own. He supposed he
could just visit Grizz in prison and ask him for one, but he wouldn’t do that.
Grizz didn’t know Tommy had found his original birth certificate listing Jason
William Talbot as his father. As far as Grizz was concerned, Tommy was still
living under the ruse that he was Blue’s younger brother.

Then it
occurred to him. Mimi was his half-sister. There was no doubt in Tommy’s mind
that Mimi was Grizz’s biological daughter. If Tommy was Grizz’s biological son,
then he and Mimi would share similar DNA patterns.

He stared at
the sticky bun that sat untouched on the plate in front of him. He downed the
rest of his coffee in one healthy swig. He looked at the clock on the stove. He
still had time before his flight.