AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Everything about his life came crashing down over him. The years he’d spent alone. The times that he hurt so bad, had he a gun, he would have ended it all. The holidays were the worst. No one, not a single person to share it with. Even cooped up with all these people, no one wanted to spend it with you. Because he’d been a bastard to everyone. And still was, he supposed.
“I was a fool, honey. Such a fool. I had you come here because I was going to tell you that the will is finalized and that I was going to…then you show up here with this man, and I’m about as befuddled as I’ve ever been. I shouldn’t have sent you packing. Oh honey, will you ever—”
The bundle on his lap started to squirm, and he was fearful it was a puppy. While he liked dogs, he knew that having one of them here would have all the people here all over him for a pet or two. He’d seen it too much. But when Sebastian pulled the blanket down, he could only stare at the child laying there.
“His name is Kelly Gerald. Did Sebastian tell you that we were married? This little guy is going to be ours today, too. And I couldn’t believe it when I heard his name. Kelly Tucker. Just like your middle name and my little brother’s. Remember him?” The little guy took his finger into his hand and continued to stare at him. “We didn’t get a chance to change his clothing out for something more appropriate for visiting his great grandda for the first time. But we got him some things on the way here. Just let me get him into something nicer, Grandda.”
When she picked Kelly up off his lap, he wanted to snatch him back to him. But a low growl from Sebastian had him stopping. Toby was still talking while he watched her take off the little sleeper that Kelly had on, then put a pair of jeans and a tee shirt on him. It was all he could do not to beg her to let him touch his warm skin. To count his little toes and fingers. He looked at Sebastian when he said his name.
“His parents couldn’t raise him, so they took him to the hospital. My brother told us about him, and we went over to pick him up. It was never a question about us not taking him home with us but how quickly we could get him in our car.” Tucker nodded, his heart beating so fast and hard he was afraid to speak. “She’s worried that you called her in here to tell her you were going to die or something like that. You’re not now, are you?”
“I don’t think so.” He looked at Kelly when he was cooing and smiling at him. “Is he really my great-grandson? I mean, please tell me this isn’t a joke. I don’t think that my heart could take it.”
“He’s ours, Grandda.” Toby handed the baby to him again, and he held him so that they were eye to eye. “We have a lot to learn about being parents with a son, but I believe we can get through it. The name was the one that his parents gave him, so we decided not to change it. Only his last name. But we’re going to have one of the rooms fixed up for him tomorrow.”
“Not Little Tucker’s room.” She looked so sad for a second that he glanced at Sebastian to see if he was going to hurt him. “He needs his own space, I think. A room that he can grow into don’t you think there, Kelly? A room with a view, too. So you can see the birds and animals that come out of the woods in the evening. Oh my, that’s the ticket. A place that will be all yours in that big old house.”
“That’s an excellent idea, Tucker.” He didn’t know why, but Sebastian’s approval of the room choice made him feel like he and the young man could be friends. “You should have seen us getting him clothing to wear here. Then, on the way here, Toby was buying things online for him. I had to tell her that he’d grow out of things pretty quickly at this age.”
“Yes, they do tend to grow fast.” He looked at Toby. “You’re all grown up too, aren’t you, child? The spitting image of your grannie. My goodness, I’m going to have such tales to tell her when I join her.”
“Is that going to be soon, grandda? I don’t want to think about you leaving me, too. I’ve never wanted that. But I suppose I can understand your pain. It took me a long time to get right with my own pain.” He asked her if she was still living in the family home. “Yes. Sebastian and I are. I’ve had it redone since the murders. Dad’s office is now a library. Remember how he never wanted books in there? I took the solarium down to the basics and have been fiddling with some of Mom’s orchids. Mostly, Sebastian and I hang out on the back deck in the evening. We’ll be having to have the windows put in soon.”
“Hester, she loved that room so much.” Sebastian said that he did as well. “I bet this little fella will enjoy it too. It’s a good home, solid.”
“Are you going to come and live with us, Tucker?” He nearly told him no and snapped at him that he just wanted to die. But the look he got from the other man had him rethinking everything. Then he looked down at Kelly.
He was staring at him like he was wondering the same thing. Like, are you going to be there for me when I scrape my knees? Learn how to walk? Are you going to be there to tell me about my grandparents, uncle, and great-grannie? Tears filled his eyes as he thought about his wife and family.
“They were murdered. I know you know that, but since that day I woke up in the hospital, I’ve let myself think that I was murdered, too. That little Tucker was just too young to have been killed, much less the way that it was done to him.” He picked up Kelly and held him close to his heart, not looking at either of the adults with him. “My son, he wasn’t perfect, and his wife, well, we had our go-arounds too. But it was me that I felt the most sorry for. Like I’d been the only one that lost out on the lives that were taken just from me. It never, not once, occurred to me that there would ever be a child that would come along. It was…he wasn’t anything that I factored into my life when I was thinking about my own self. When I think back at all the years that—” He looked at Toby. “I did you the most wrong, child. Never wanting to see you or have you come around. I only just realized that I don’t know a durn thing about you. Not nary a tale that I can tell this little man that you did. I did this all to myself, and I hate myself for it.”
He started crying, and when Toby took Kelly from him, it was the arms of the other man that he fell into. Deep sobs, tearing his heart open for all the stupidity that he’d done. The years and years that he lost and would never be able to get back. Just sitting here while life, that of his only living relative, went on, and he’d stayed in the hate that he’d had when that young man had pulled out an axe and chopped his family up, leaving him and Toby to live.
“You can make up for it by being around Kelly, Grandda.” He looked at Sebastian while Toby continued. “I have lots of things that I can tell you about my life. I’ve been taking care of a lot of things since I was released from—”
“You’re a good man, aren’t you, son?” Sebastian told him that he thought that he was. Then he told him that he’d lost his wife and child too, a very long time ago. “I’m powerful sorry about that. I truly am. If you’d not mind any, and I’m asking this of you and only you, if you’d allow me to live out the rest of my years with the three of you. You…Toby is a good girl, but she’d tell me yes because she feels like she owes me because I’m her grandda. But you, you, I think, would tell me right off if I wasn’t welcome, wouldn’t you?”
“I would. I’d like to think that I’d give you a chance first. However, I will say that if you hurt either of my families, this one or my brother’s, I will have no trouble dropping you right back here so that you can rot in hell.” It was blunt but no less than he deserved after all this time. “You come home with us, Tucker. And I promise you that you’ll be a damned sight happier than you are now. Or not. I’m not going to put up with your shenanigans. I have a wife and a son now, and they’re going to be my priority from now on. As well as any more children that Toby and I have. Understand?”
“I do. Thank you.” He looked at Toby, who was glaring at Sebastian. “I’d have it no other way than the way that he told me, Toby. He’s right. If you’d been here before him, I would have snapped your head right off, too. And I did that to him. For no more reason than that I’ve turned into a bitter old man who is a rude bastard that needs a second chance in his life. And I believe Sebastian and I can be good friends. We might even be best of friends before I pass on. A while from now, I hope.”
Toby was a little upset, but she got over it when they had to get the paperwork taken care of. There was a good deal more of it than he’d of thought, too, for him being able to just go home as he wanted. By dinnertime, not only was he worn out, but little Kelly was as well. They were both pretty cranky by the time they were home with his momma and daddy.
While Sebastian fixed up some dinner for the three of them, Toby fed Kelly his bottle. It was strange, after all this time, to see his only grandchild feeding his only great-grandson. It was a memory that he knew that he’d have with him for the rest of his life, too. Just watching the two of them lulled him to sleep in just a few minutes.
~*~
Sebastian half listened to the man speaking to him and Toby. He should have been paying more attention from the beginning, he supposed, but it was too late for him to catch up now. So he figured when they got home, he’d let Toby talk to him, and he would get a better understanding anyway.
When the man left them in the conference room, Toby looked at him. “You didn’t hear a word that he said to you, did you? Thinking about Kelly or the fact that we’re not doing anything fun?” He said both. “I thought so. It appears that your mother isn’t cooperating with the police on a few things that we were able to find. Not to mention, Conner and Roger are also causing a lot of trouble as well. Not that anyone is the least bit surprised by it. They’re saying that you duped them into thinking that there wasn’t any money left when their mother died, and it’s all your fault that the will was made out the way that it was. I don’t have any idea how they came up with that story, but there you have it. The next step in this is going to be up to you. What do you want to do with the three of them? At this point, I’m game. Also, when he comes back, he’s going to have information on the Roman family. There has been a shake-up since the brother was killed, and things are starting to come to a head. Strangely, nothing about you so far. Since I don’t know all that much about them in the first place, I can only assume that you might know a bit of what he’s talking about.”
“I read it in the paper last night. The head boss, Parker, has cancer, and he’s having trouble with his sons as to who is going to take his place running the operation. It’s not as large as it was when he wanted me to work for him, downsizing, I guess. The police seem to think that he’s all for closing up shop, so to speak, but there isn’t much to go on. The sons, three of them left, are wanting to go after the hospital that diagnosed his cancer in the first place. Mistakes were made, they’re saying. There is no way that cancer would take their very wealthy father from them.” She rolled her eyes, and he laughed. “Yes, well, when you think that you run it all, then you can figure you can kill the messenger when you don’t like the news he’s giving you and pretend like nothing happened.”
“So what does he think is going to happen if he is indeed planning to close down his organization? I mean, can’t his sons just do it after he’s dead?” He told her what he thought. “Okay, blood promise. I’ve never heard of that, but I’m sure that it’s something that they’d do. And since he’d make them promise on this bloodletting not to reorganize and open again, they’ll do it. I don’t know if that’s wonderful logic or just stupidity on his part for thinking that they’ll do what he made them promise to do. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I don’t have a great deal of trust with people.”
“I have noticed that about you. And yes. It’s the way they run things.” She seemed to be thinking about things, so he told her what else he knew. “When you killed his brother, at first, he was pissed enough to come for you. Then he heard how you’d warned him not to touch you and to unhand you. I guess he has a daughter who read it in the newspaper about what had happened. He was, I guess, pissed off, and she blasted him for thinking that you were the issue. She also heard from the grapevine that I have, got on his ass about coming after me when I didn’t want to work for him. Then I guess she found out that he murdered my first family.”
“How the hell are you getting this? Do you have spies or something?” He told her that Parker’s daughter and he had gone to school together. And up until then, she’d not known about the deaths. “I see. So, are you off the hook?”
