Just as she pulled the chicken off the heat, she heard the front door open, and familiar footsteps coming down the hall.
She quickly took the band out of her hair and let it fall around her shoulders, feeling silly about it even asshe did it. It didn’t matter how she looked. She was here to do a job.
“Hey,” Grayson said, his handsome face breaking into a smile as their eyes caught—a smile that was hers alone. “It smells good in here.”
“Thank you,” she said, pleasure swirling in her chest. “Leo is taking a nap in his bassinet. He’s had his bath already so you can mostly relax.”
“Thank you,” he said, his voice heartfelt. “That’s really nice.”
“How was your day?” she couldn’t help asking.
“It was great,” he told her, heading to the kitchen and swiping a cherry tomato out of the salad bowl in a way that reminded her of her brother. “We built the stage for the event this weekend. It’s going to be so much fun.”
“That’s great,” she told him, grabbing some salad dressing from the fridge.
“Are those biscuits?” he asked, soundingveryinterested.
“Yes,” she told him. “My grandmother’s recipe. And I pan fried two of the chicken breasts you had in the fridge. I hope that’s okay?”
“It’samazing,”he told her. “You don’t have to do all these things, you know. You can just watch Leo.”
“I like it,” she told him softly, wishing she could tell him the whole truth and say,I like taking care of both of you,but knowing it would probably make him uncomfortable.
“Hey, you put up the garland,” he said, stepping into the family room. “It looks so good with the lights and ribbons.”
She smiled proudly, glad that he was happy with the way it turned out. She liked it a lot too.
He moved to the bassinet and smiled down at his sleeping baby and hummed along to the radio, which was playing “Winter Wonderland” now.
Though all she wanted was to watch him gaze at Leo, she figured she’d better plate their dinner and bring it out to the table if they wanted to eat before he woke up.
She busied herself getting their meals together and she had both plates on the table and had gone back to pour two glasses of lemonade when she realized Grayson hadn’t joined her, and he wasn’t humming anymore.
A funny feeling went down her spine, and she turned just in time to see him rip the shadow box of medals from the wall.
“No,”he roared, his voice breaking along with the smash of the glass as he fell to his knees in the mess on the floor, howling into his hands like a wounded animal, his massive shoulders shaking.
Before she could try to understand, Leo began screaming in his bassinet.
Instinctively, she ran to the baby, pulling him into her arms while his father’s own wails filled the air.
She took the long way around the family room to avoid the broken glass and hurried upstairs with Leo, who was crying furiously.
When she reached his room, she curled up in one of the chairs and hugged the little boy to her chest, stroking his back.
He was almost rigid in her arms, and she tried to calmher own racing heart so that he would understand that he was safe.
“You’re okay,”she murmured to him. “Everything’s okay.”
She repeated her words, slowly and calmly, until he relaxed a little into her chest.
“Everything’s okay,”she whispered to him again.
But she wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince the baby, or herself.
17
GRAYSON
