Part 6 (1/2)

Grady's heart kick-started into raw panic asRia rushed to the boy's side.

”What's wrong, sweetheart?” she asked gently. ”Are you sick? Are you going tothrow up?”

”Already did,” Jimmy muttered, then slanted her a sideways look that was amixture of defiance and misery. ”Ikinda ruined the rug.”

”It'll wash,” she a.s.sured him as she tested his temperature with a hand tohis forehead. Grady caught the quick flash of fear in the gaze she raised tohis face.

”Fever?” Grady asked, his gut twisting.

”I'm not sure. He's a little warm, but it's a hot night.” She smoothed backher son's silky hair, only to have him jerk away. ”It's okay, sweetheart.Mommy will make it better.”

”Not my mom,” Jimmy grumbled, slanting her a sullen look. It was like acid onan open wound.

”Something wrong?” Flynn asked as he came up from behind. He took one look atJimmy's face and frowned. ”Uh-oh. Looks like we've got us a sick puppy.”

”It's probably the flu,”Ria said as she got to her feet. ”Our clinic's beenjammed with cases. But just to be on the safe side, I'd better give Kate acall.”

Grady took a breath. The knot in his belly was on fire again. ”Think weshould give him something, just in case he has a fever?”

Riaconsidered. ”Let's take his temperature first. Kate will want to know howhigh it is.”

”Right. Okay.” He stuck his hands in his back pockets, then pulled them freeagain. ”Maybe we should dunk him in water, like you used to do when he hadthose ear infections.”

Riaconsidered, then nodded. ”You run the water while I call Katie. Make surethe water's not too cold, though. No more than tepid.” She shot a glancetoward the canvas satchel by the door. ”Are those his things?”

”Yeah. I bought him the basics for the trip. I figured you'd want to take himshopping. You always got a kick out of that kind of stuff.”

Her lips curved briefly. ”He'll be more comfortable in hisjammies .” Incharge now, she glanced at Flynn. ”The thermometer's in the medicine chest inmy bathroom.”

”Which one's yours?”

”Through the bedroom at the end of the hall.”

That answered one question, Grady thought as he scooped his son into hisarms.Ria and Flynn weren't sleeping together, if he didn't even know where herbedroom was. Not yet, anyway. And if he had anything to say about it, not ever.

Grady had taken his share of punishment. More than most, he figured, moppinghis dripping face with one ofRia's fat yellow towels. And d.a.m.n near all of itdeserved. He figured he'd even skated on a few things. Most times he'd managedto tough his way through. Losing Jimmy had been a hard one to take. LosingRia had come close to breaking him.

This time G.o.d in His infinite wisdom had come up with a real lulu to testthis poor sinner's patience. Feeling a lot like those martyrs he'd learnedabout in Sunday school, he swiped the towel over the worst of the puddles onthe floor and considered the bit about reaping and sowing. That, he decided,was Jimmy. His father's son right down to the bone.

Tell him to sit, and he stood. Tell him to stop splas.h.i.+ng and he drenched thebathroom. Payback in spades.

The Big Guy in the Sky had to be laughing big-time, which Grady figured hedeserved. He was just grateful no one else was watching.

He tossed the towel aside, thought longingly of the rookie cops who jumpedwhen he even breathed in their direction, and told himself there was more tobeing a good parent than a ready willingness to die in defense of your family.

Limits, he reminded himself. Tough love.

He sighed. Suck it up, hotshot. Get it done. He narrowed his gaze at the kidglaring at him from the pale yellow tub. The kid who looked anything butsickly at the moment.

”Splash me one more time, and you'll be eating this washcloth,” he warned,putting just, enough bite in his normally quiet voice to get the kid'sattention.

The boy sneered. ”Go to h.e.l.l!”

Grady counted to ten. Then added a few seconds before grabbing the washclothagain. ”The doctor said twenty minutes in tepid water, you're d.a.m.n wellgetting twenty minutes. Now shut up and enjoy it.”

”I'm not a baby,” Jimmy complained, jerking away from the washcloth.

”Then stop acting like one,” Grady said with the last of his patience. He'dcome close to losing his temper a dozen times in the last ten minutes.

Sick or not, his son needed a reality check, and soon. He winced inwardly atthe thought of his father's reaction if he'd pulled some of the stuff Jimmytried on him. Like jabbing him in the gut with a bony elbow when he'd tried tohelp the kid out of his s.h.i.+rt.

His belly was still aching.

He checked his watch and bit off a sigh. Five more minutes.

”You used to like your bath,” he said as he reached for the shampoo on theledge surrounding the tub. The memory stabbed, reminding him of the yearsthey'd lost. All those sweet times they should have had, all the laughter andcuddles and father-son talks, gone forever.

He felt his breath catch. Someday maybe, in the far distant future, he mightfind a way to forgive himself. At the moment he simply didn't know how. So allhe could do was try to make things right from now on.

”You, uh-” He paused to clear the thickness from his throat. ”You had abasket of toys we kept under the sink. Rubber ducks and boats, stuff likethat. Your favorite, though, was a boxlike thing with all kinds of doors and b.u.t.tons and dials that attached to the side with suction cups.” He tried asmile and got a bored look.

Kid's a hard nut, he thought, squirting shampoo into his cupped palm. d.a.m.nstuff was pink and smelled like roses.

Just like that, his libido gave him a sneaky kick.

This wasRia's scent,Ria's shampoo. She used it in this tub.

Naked.

He nearly moaned at the image that shot into his mind. A ripe, lush body,suntanned thighs. Lush b.r.e.a.s.t.s tipped with dusky nipples that poked throughthe froth of suds sliding over her skin. He remembered how she'd moaned whenhe'd traced that same slow slide with his mouth, how she'd s.h.i.+vered when he'dused his, tongue on her.

His mind stuttered, his body already heavy before he was able to shut downthe memory. It was a measure of his fatigue that it took longer than usual.

Jimmy's temperature had been a little over a hundred. ”Probably atwenty-four-hour bug,” Kate had said over the phone. Just in case, however-andto appease an anxious mom,Ria suspected-she'd promised to stop by in themorning on her way to the hospital for early rounds. In the meantime she'dprescribed a half tablet of Tylenol every four hours and a diet of juice,water and Popsicles.

Riahad just carried a gla.s.s of orange juice into the den that also served asher guest room when she heard a bellow of little-boy outrage coming from themaster bathroom. After hastily depositing the gla.s.s on the nearest flatsurface, she raced down the hall.

”What's wrong?” she demanded as she jerked open the door, her racing heartall but bursting in her chest.

Two irate males glared at her from eyes that were nearly identical. Jimmy'shair stuck up in wild spikes of dripping lather. Grady's hands and arms werecovered with soapsuds, and there was a swipe of frothy white along his jaw.His s.h.i.+rt was soaking wet and plastered like a second skin to his chest. Helooked hot and frustrated-and disturbingly virile.

”It seems your son doesn't like to have his hair washed,” he declared, bitingoff his words.

”Grady, for heaven's sake, he's sick!” she exclaimed, holding on to thedoork.n.o.b while she reined in the panic still surging in her system.