The streets were wet when she got back to Divine and the scent of fresh rain on hot asphalt filled the air. When she got home, she locked up her truck and the toolbox in the back and carried the book inside, cradling its innocuous weight.
Tristan was in the bathroom brushing his teeth when she came inside, dressed in his pajamas and ready for bed. With his mouth slightly foamy, he grinned and waved at her as she passed the bathroom.
Around a mouthful of toothpaste, he hollered, “You got home late! Whatcha got there, sis?” His voice, although tempered with deeper tones, was as always filled with child-like curiosity and good humor. Externally he might be a teenager of fifteen, but in his mind, he hovered closer to the mental capability of a third-grader.
“Sorry, sweetie. I had to work late, and then I ate supper with a friend.”
“A boyfriend?”
“No,” she said with a mild shake of her head as she laid the book on her nightstand.
“Grinnie said you were eating with a man. A man friend?”
Not wanting to debate the finer points of boys and men, Bunny nodded. “A friend who happens to be a man.”
“You getting married, Bunny?” he asked, looking worried.
She walked over to him and patted his arm to reassure him. “No, Tristan, I’m not getting married. Why aren’t you in bed yet, mister?”
“Grinnie let me watch TV with her. I’m going now. Is that a book? Can you read it to me?”
“Yes, but why don’t we get one of your books instead, huh?” she replied and then kissed Grinnie’s cheek when she came down the hallway from the den. “Go find our book, and I’ll read with you for a while.”
She went into her room and unlaced her work boots and groaned as she rubbed the balls of her feet. Climbing made them tender, and then she’d been running all over the mansion all day. She could just picture Joseph’s reaction if she brought her roller blades the next day.
“You okay, Bunny-girl?” Grinnie asked, standing in her bedroom doorway in her housecoat. “You look worn out. I can read to him if you want.”
“Nah, that’s okay,” Bunny said easily, the beautiful simplicity of her life settling around her once again. “I know your show is coming on soon, and I was looking forward to reading another chapter of The Hobbit with Tristan.”
“Mmmhmm,” Grinnie murmured, pursing her lips and trying to hide her smile. “And how was your dinner date?”
“Fine,” she replied, paying close attention to her feet as she rubbed them.
“‘Fine’? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
“For now. He’s—it’s complicated, Grinnie. He’s a businessman with a fancy house, and I’m just…”
“Someone really special, if he has any brains in his head. You know, you have a right to a social life, honey. As long as he respects you and treats you the way you deserve.”
Bunny bit her lip, wondering how Joseph would answer if Grinnie ever made that statement to his face. She had to reconcile what she’d learn in that book with what she already had seen taking place at his mansion. Was respect really a part of that dynamic? She had a hard time imagining it wasn’t, based on all her encounters with him. Was he bossy? Undoubtedly. Was he disrespectful? Judging by what she’d seen so far, the answer to that question was a resounding no.
Tristan filled Bunny in on the intricacies of his day, time spent online, receiving instruction from his tutor, and then grocery shopping with Grinnie afterward. He asked about going to the skateboard park in Morehead sometime and then inquired about her adventures. Only today, she had to hold parts back. How to explain Joseph Hazelle to the brother who needed her, would likely always need her?
Joseph could complicate her life, in a major way. If she read that book, what would she find?
The dogs began to bark in the neighbor’s backyard, probably at someone walking on the sidewalk out front or perhaps in the alley. After reading to Tristan for a while, she turned on his sound machine to filter some of the noise from traffic on the street and the dogs barking. The three of them lived in an older, slightly more dilapidated section of Divine, right off of downtown, near the Sheriff’s Department offices.
One of her goals was setting aside enough savings and growing her home theater and Internet client base so she could afford to move Tristan and Grinnie to a quieter house on the outskirts of town. Her grandparents had bought the house decades before, but even Grinnie was easy to convince—
Shots fired outside had her hitting her knees and scrabbling for Tristan’s door. Right as she grasped the knob, the door flew open, and he bolted out.