Claire smiled. No, it wasn’t. Not anymore. She justwished she knew how she felt about it.
Without bothering to answer, she headed on out of theoffice.
Claire must have broken the news to the kids, because oneby one they came over to question Tony while he worked.Gina came first, beer in hand, which meant she’d also foundout that her Uncle Vince had called.
“You didn’t tell menotto tell her,” she defended herself, her voice rising close to a whine.
Tony checked his watch to find with some amazementthat it was already three o’clock. It had been a long time since he’d enjoyed a project enough to lose track of timeover it. But then, it had been a long time since he’d been the one wielding the hammer.
“Her,” he said, taking his first pull of beer. “Yourgrandmother?”
Gina sighed. “She was worried.”
Tony chucked his daughter under the chin. “I’m forty-three, honey. Don’t you think it’s a little late to worry whenI take some time off?”
Gina blushed and fidgeted. “Not when you act so weird about it.”
“You’ve met my friends. You went to The Wall with me.You know what this is all about.”
She shook her head, still uncomfortable. “No, it’s not.”
Tony considered her a moment, this almost-woman with her big heart and her quick head. So grown-up most days he forgot she still needed him to be the daddy.
“No,” he admitted, “it isn’t. I’m not really sure I can explain it, but I can promise you one thing. It doesn’t affect you and me.”
She looked up at him with those big, liquid eyes of hers, and Tony knew that he wouldn’t be the first one leaving. She would. Somehow she’d grown up on him while he wasn’t looking, and it hurt.
“You sure?” she asked, her voice briefly again a little girl’s.
Tony dropped a kiss on her forehead and wrapped her in a father’s hug. “I’m sure.”
Jess wasn’t nearly as ambivalent when she showed up a half hour later. “Cool,” she proclaimed with a bright giggle, a glass of tea her passport upstairs. “I like picnics.”
Tony didn’t bother to tell her he’d already had a beer. Thanking her, he turned away from the studs he’d been pulling down and took a long drink of the tea. “You pick the place,” he suggested. “I want to see the Shirley Plantation, maybe one other. Then let’s go someplace fun.”
“Ever been across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge?”
“Nope.”
She nodded. “Cool.”
The opposition was represented as Tony was closing up shop for the day. He’d worked late again. The heat had collected in the second-story rooms like heavy smoke until Tony was drenched with sweat. He pulled his T-shirt off and wiped his face with it. Working alone in these closed-off rooms after hours, it never occurred to him to put it back on again.
“Holy—”
Tony straightened like a shot at the sound of the stunnedvoice.
Johnny was standing about ten feet away at the top of thestairs. He brought neither bribe nor passport, and his posture threatened confrontation. His features, though, wereslack with shock.
Tony didn’t have to ask about what. “You shouldn’tsneak up on people,” he said evenly, and bent back to close up the toolbox Gina had brought him.
“I’m not the one who doesn’t belong here,” Johnny retorted. He should have sounded surly. He just sounded unsure of himself. “Is that from Nam?”
“Yep.”
“Do they... does it hurt?”
Tony straightened, faced him man to man. “Yeah,” headmitted simply. “I’m always having shrapnel working itsway out. And when you have bones involved, you end upbeing able to predict weather. It’s gonna rain like a bitch inabout forty-eight hours.”
