Part 14 (1/2)
It was then that David realized the ”seals” he'd dreamed of were instead his middle children, Duncan and Oliver. At some point during his doze, he'd turned over. One of his little guys was plastered against his right, the other his left. The knee to his nuts had to have come via Oliver, who'd been a restless sleeper since the womb.
Tess had despaired during the pregnancy that he was going to be one of those kids who could never sit still. But while Oliver was all boy and as fidgety as the rest of his gender, he became even more active in sleep. When off in the Land of Nod, he twisted and turned and flipped and flopped. His rowdy nocturnal gymnastics were what she'd experienced while he'd grown in her belly.
When Oliver crawled into bed with his parents following a nightmare, they'd learned to stuff pillows around him. David didn't have any such protection now.
”How come they're here?” he whispered to Griffin, even as he tightened the arms he'd placed around his sons while dreaming.
”Tess and your daughter are at a movie. Jane-” the way Griffin said the word held a wealth more information than four letters should allow ”-said we would watch your boys. Russ is snoozing back at the house with her, but these dudes were still squirrelly. We went for a walk, saw the tent, and while I thought you might be a vagrant, they recognized the sleeping bags.”
”Ah.” David hesitated. ”You're probably wondering what's going on.”
”Actually,” Griffin answered, ”I'd rather not know. Keep it your business.”
His avowed disinterest surprised David. Maybe his brother-in-law had his own surfeit of problems. ”This Jane...”
The ensuing quiet spoke yet another volume. Finally, Griffin broke the silence. ”She's worried about Rebecca.”
”*She'? Your Jane-”
”Not my Jane.”
”But she's worried about my daughter.” David drew his boys a bit closer. ”Why?”
”Jane says girls of Rebecca's age are p.r.o.ne to rebellion. Your teenager is threatening to get pregnant out of boredom.”
It surprised a laugh out of him. ”Tess wouldn't let that happen.”
”You sure?”
Of course there were no absolute guarantees, but his wife had her reasons to be on the watch for unexpected babies. And as for his daughter... ”Girls of Rebecca's age are p.r.o.ne to dramatic statements too.”
Griffin made a sound of a.s.sent. ”Christ, they grow up too fast.”
”Yeah.” David felt that familiar claw tearing at his insides. His little girl was a teenager! They were talking about college, and she was talking about pregnancy, and if he blinked a time or two more, both would be real. He was on the verge of losing one of the precious jewels in his life, and finding a way to survive the idea of that kind of loss was why he'd taken to staying late at the office and racking up marathons on his bike in spin cla.s.s.
”It seems like a second ago that she was as small as Russ,” Griffin said.
Russ. So small and so dependent. David squeezed his eyes at the raking pain in his gut.
”Dad.” A sleepy Duncan squirmed in his hold. ”You're hurting.”
”Yeah, buddy,” he murmured.
”You're hurting me.” He wriggled again.
David loosened the arm that was clutching his oldest son. ”Sorry.”
”Watcha doing out here?” He b.u.t.ted his head against David's ribs.
”I wanted some fresh air,” he said. ”Can we keep that our secret? Not tell Mom?”
”Sure.” Duncan's voice slowed. ”Have a secret too, with Unc' Griff.”
David didn't think he was awake enough to share what it was. ”Okay, son,” he said.
”We been peeing in the ocean.” Oliver popped up.
”You're awake too?” David said, glancing down at his second boy.
”Nope. Jus' wanted to tell you our secret. Our man secret.” As he settled back down, Oliver kicked David in the s.h.i.+ns.
Wincing, he said, ”Is that right?”
”Unc' Griff says there's stuff we don't tell girls.”
”Peeing in the ocean seems to qualify,” David agreed aloud, though from Oliver's sudden bonelessness, he figured the boy had drifted back to dreamland.
”For the record, there's also been some burping and armpit farting,” Griffin confessed. ”We had a contest.”
”Sure you did,” David said, unsurprised. ”You and Gage never do anything without making it a compet.i.tion.”
”Yeah.” Griffin sounded unhappy about it.
”Hey. I'm sorry. I didn't mean-”
”No apology necessary.” Griffin stirred. ”You want me to leave them with you?”
”I wish you wouldn't,” David said. ”And I also wish...”
”Another man secret, I get it. I won't tell your wife where you were tonight.”
”It doesn't matter,” Tess's voice said. In the moonlight he could see her bare, elegant feet. She was standing just beyond Griffin. ”Because your wife already knows.”
TESS SAT ON THE sand outside David's tent as Griffin carried Duncan and Oliver to No. 8. He'd promised to tuck them in and tell Rebecca she was in charge until Tess returned to the house. Why David was camping on her doorstep she didn't yet know, but she was going to get to the bottom of it. Her avoidance of speaking with him about any serious subjects had merely postponed the inevitable. Tonight she was going to strip every pretense away.
The half-moon cast cool light on the beach, but her husband was little more than a dark shadow inside the confines of the small tent. She nodded at it. ”Where'd you get that thing?”
”Borrowed it from the Kearneys across the street,” he said. Then he started crawling toward the open flap. ”I should take it back to them.”
”We should talk first.” Tess s.h.i.+fted closer so that he'd have to push her out of the way in order to get out. He froze, as she expected he would. He'd been avoiding touching her for weeks.
”Fine.” His sigh was audible. Then he started speaking in a conversational tone. ”What did you and Rebecca see at the movies tonight?”
”I don't know. My mind was elsewhere.”
”While I ate dinner, I watched an interesting program on the Nature Channel.”
”Really?” She stared at him. Married for thirteen years, separated for several days, and he wanted to engage in small talk?