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He scuffed a gyain just as he’d done at nine years old when lying about du his sister’s makeup into the sewer system Squeak Squeak
JT pinned hie "You knew already"
Chris stuffed his hands in his pockets "Geez, Dad, and Nikki callsfat?"
"Good God, son Shh!" JT shot a quick glance at Rena to"Don’t let her hear you say the f word"
"Sorry" Shuffle Squeak "I figured it wasn’tand Mom didn’t need to be upset in her, you know, condition Guess thishome"
He intended to, but no need to raise Chris’s hopes "Yourso that sounded like a surly "About dae for a reprih tension "Son, I’m sorry to say your car’s totaled The van that hit it wiped it out"
Chris paled under the bronzed co with the head of dark curls "Totaled?"
"Afraid so Insurance will cover everything after the deductible, but it h There isn’t et the settlement" And didn’t that bite a chunk out of his pride, not being able to provide for his faood Moht back to the forefront of his memory He couldn’t let the emotions shake his focus The cops hadn’t been ive the out what the odd black-and-red eood start
Once he got his faainst the opposite side of thefraht?"
"Yeah Sure Why wouldn’t I be?"
Chris’s tone and chalky face sent parental antennae on high alert With deploy hiht he have ang froaze dead on, no shuffling, Chris answered, "I’ at school"
Slowly, JT nodded, believed "Okay, then" Still, he wasn’t talking any chances on leaving Chris alone yet "Bo’s been waiting at the house in case we didn’t find you first to tell you about yourto crash there on the sofa for the night so I can stay up here"
Chris straightened away froer snapped froacy froht on -flowing orgy while you’re gone or anything"
God forbid
"Bo will crash on the sofa," JT restated, unbending Arguing never solved anything
His son slouched back again, layers of clothes rippling over his lean body "Okay, okay, stupidanybody could have an opinion"
While he sure as hell didn’t intend to justify hier, he needed to reht go a long way for easing tension "Chris"
"Yeah, what?" He stared at his shoes
"It’s been a crappy day, son Cuthis father’s eyes
No, his son wasn’t a kid anymore
The teen years hadn’t see Nikki But there hadn’t been a e breakup in the works
Since he’d be aroundout while Rena recovered, he also needed to make use of the extra ti your mom home frohts?"
Not a bad suggestion and the only thing he could re with his old hts?" Chris shrugged "Yeah, sure Whatever"
JT fished in his flight-suit pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar bill "Here, get so to eat on the way home"
"Thanks See ya" Chris took theafter the door closed behind hiain, not that he expected to getdone, just pass tiht prefer full-out confrontations, he knew gaining ground back into their house would call for a h layers of sleepy fog, blinked until her eyes adjusted to the sparse light in the narrow room that was private only because no other patient occupied the bed beside her The antiseptic smell churned her stonancy
A pregnancy now out in the open
Her gaze skipped to JT sprawled in the corner chair, reading laripped in his broad hands She couldn’t ined it hatever military-action bestseller hit the shelves recently
JT filled her eyes as coe man shouldn’t be able to netically Until her world narrowed to dark hair,as it was to stare at his rugged handso with real-life worries, she was through repeating past er There wouldn’t be a more private tilanced up, studied her without speaking for four clicks of the second hand on the institutional black-and-white wall clock Closing his book, he righted the recliner Both boots thudded on the tile floor "I hope I didn’t disturb you with the light"
"Not at all" She’d slept beside hiht
Gulp
Where was some crushed ice and a water pitcher when a wo have I been out?"
JT flipped his wrist to check his watch, a gift fros of hts "Just an hour and forty h the night The nurse will check in, too"
Which gave them twenty more uninterrupted minutes to talk in the quiet intimacy of a bedroom that wasn’t packed with round for their discussion Might as well confront things straight up "I’ you about the baby sooner"