“Sure you did, and I deserved it.” He pressed his lips to hers, drawing all the blood in her veins to her heart. “I’m sorry, Tooz. I didn’t mean to pop off and leave without a word.”
“I’m sorry too, and I’m so glad you’re home.” She brushed aside his dark bangs and searched his blue eyes. Too handsome for anyone’s good, she’d fallen in love with him the moment he asked her to skate.
He’d just returned from the war, and her friends whispered,“He’s trouble.”But Tuesday Morrow didnotcare. If he was trouble, let her sink in deep. Beneath his cotton shirt beat the heart of a warrior.
“The boys and I took a run near here.” He released her as he gazed toward the stove and tossed his hat onto the table. “I thought I’d pop in to see my favorite gal. My beautiful wife.”
“Well, myboysand I were about to go skating.” She took a step back. She hated that he referred to his crew as “the boys.”LJ and Dupree were his boys. The others were junior thugs of some sort.
“Don’t start, Tooz.” He opened the icebox. “Can you heat up some supper?”
“Why don’t you come with us and buy a hot dog?”
He frowned. “All I ever eat is diner fare. I’d like some home cooking.”
“Home cooking? You think I made pot roast and potatoes, with an apple pie for dessert? We live on beans, corn bread, sourdough bread, eggs, cereal, and milk, Lee. If you want a bowl of beans, stir up the stove and grab a pot. And if you’re tired of diner fare, well, that’s all on you.” Tuesday braced for his reply, but the boys—theirboys—clambered down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“Pa!” LJ dropped his skates and fell against him. Dup clung to Lee’s arm. “You’re home. Golly gumdrops. Can you skate with us?”
LJ poised for a dash upstairs to retrieve Lee’s Richardson skates, the ones he’d worn only once in the last six months.
“Um, well, I suppose.” He glanced at Tuesday, longing in his eyes for something besides dinner, which made her burn through and through, wanting him more than the Starlight. At least for now. He tipped his head toward the ceiling.Can’t we...?
“Get your father’s skates, LJ,” Tuesday said. Lee would just have to wait. “We’ll have a much-needed family outing.”
LJ retrieved his pa’s skates, then shot out the door after Dupree and raced down the drive to Sea Blue Way and the Starlight.
Tuesday was about to follow when Leroy spun her around for a kiss, moving his warm lips from hers down to her collarbone.
She refused to surrender, no matter how much she wanted to take his hand and head up the stairs. “The boys will expect us.”
“Tooz, don’t punish me.”
“Punish you? Why would I when it means punishing myself? But your boys—yoursons—need time with you. Now let’s go so’s you can put your skating talent on display.”
He sighed and searched her eyes. “Look, I don’t want to open the can of worms again, but I want you to know this is not the life I dreamed for us.”
“Well, we have that in common.” Tuesday clung to her skates. The stove fire had died, but the kitchen seemed warmer than ever. “Just what did you dream for us? And why aren’t you doing it?”
“I sort of am, I reckon. Don’t you see? I’m setting us up, giving LJ and Dupree a better future. You think I can buy you nice things, like those skates you’re holding onto for dear life, or send the boys to college by working on a fishing vessel? Or breaking my back logging? I was a soldier, Tooz. A fighter. I earned medals. Do you see me clerking at the bank or stocking shelves for Biggs?” He pointed to water stains on the ceiling and the tired wallpaper curling away from the corners. “This place ... it’s a dump and I aim to find a way to change our station.”
“How? By doing what? Where does a soldier go for a job? Don’t tell me you’re back in the army.”
“I tried the army,” he said softly. “They thanked me for my service but didn’t have anything for a man my age.”
“Lee, I’m sorry.” Tuesday pressed her hand on his. “Just so you know, I love this house. I gave birth to our sons in this house.”
“Never mind the army. You wouldn’t have wanted the army life anyway, Tooz. Can you see yourself leaving Sea Blue Beach or the Starlight?” Lee leaned out the door and gazed toward the changing horizon. “Don’t you want to move across the street to one of the new cottages they’re building on the beach? Three bedrooms, two baths, a sunroom, solid wood floors, and a roof that don’t let in the rain. How about new furniture and a bed that don’t creak when we...” Her man blushed. Sure enough.
“Not if it means you leaving every week to do God only knows what. Lee, I don’t want much in life. I’m the unwanted child of an unmarried sixteen-year-old girl who was so delirious with pain that she named me Tuesday ’cause she thought the midwife asked what day it was.”
“I still want to know why a midwife would ask a laboring mama to tell her the day of the week.”
“I’d love to ask more than that, but since I’ve never even met her....” Every now and then, if she spoke of her mama, the tears bubbled up. And she resented it. Margie Lou was a rebel who wanted nothing to do with her family or her newborn daughter. “Then Mamaw and Gramps raised me as a cousin, though everyone knew I was Margie Lou’s daughter. I looked just like her. Then Gramps died, and Mamaw sold up and moved to Tampa with Aunt Marcy, leaving me here all by myself at fifteen.” She gripped his shirt. “But you know all of this. You know this town and our family are everything to me. I want our boys to come home to a loving motherandfather every night. But lately, they only have me.”
“I want everything you want and more.” He hooked a strong arm around her. “Iamyour family, Tooz, and I’m doing my job to provide and make a better life. Dream a little with me, will you?”
“You know what I’m dreaming, Lee?”
