The Trouble With Tomboys(43)
Shoving her clammy hands into her back pockets, she waited behind Grady and forced herself to stand still. The urge to turn and flee was pretty strong though.
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The Trouble with Tomboys
As the door started to open, she held her breath.
She actually expected a maid or butler or something to answer, but when Tara Rose Rawlings herself peeked her head out the door, B.J. almost groaned.
Damn. The Rawlings were home.
“Grady,” his mother exclaimed, her eyes
brightening instantly.
“Mom,” he murmured respectfully as she
reached out to hug him.
“What a delightful surprise.” She hooked her arm with his to draw him forward. “Come in, come in.” As he moved, she finally noticed B.J. lurking behind him. “Oh! I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
When Grady stepped inside and to the left to let B.J.
in, the two women fell to a stop and studied each other cautiously.
Tara Rose’s smile froze. After blinking back a blank look, she asked, “It’s D.J., right? D.J.
Gilmore?”
“B.J.,” Grady corrected.
A hint of pink highlighted the tops of his
mother’s cheeks. Still smiling at B.J., she spoke through gritted teeth to her son. “That’s what I said.”
“You said D.J.”
His mother finally turned from B.J. to pin her oldest with an annoyed look. “No, I said B...not D.
Don’t question your mother.”
That was when the most amazing thing
happened. Grady grinned.
Both Tara Rose and B.J. gaped.
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured, all the while
smirking from ear to ear.
B.J. was still thinking he had the most
enticingly ornery look ever when Tara Rose cleared her throat. “Well, let’s not stand in the foyer all day.
Come into the parlor.”
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Said the spider to the fly.
B.J. shivered but followed mother and son into the next room, where they all three stood,
awkwardly staring at each other as if expecting someone else to break the silence. Tara Rose kept sending curious little glances B.J.’s way, and B.J.
was trying to get Grady’s attention by glaring at him, silently urging him to talk. But he seemed intent at rubbing at a scuff on his shoe with the heel of the other boot.
Finally, he glanced around. “Where’s Dad?”
“He received a call and had to check something in the south field.”
Grady grew alert. “Everything okay?”
“I’m sure it is.” Tara Rose pushed his concern aside with the sweep of her hand. “He’s always getting calls. I’m just glad it wasn’t three in the morning this time.”
She grinned B.J.’s way, probably trying to share an inside joke to make her feel included in the conversation.
But the tense smile B.J. returned had the older woman glancing away and sending her son a
questioning look that asked, What the heck is going on? It was clear she had no idea why her son would come to call, bringing the “Gilmore girl” with him.
“Anyway,” Tara Rose said, clearing her throat.
“Ah…” She glanced around the room as if she had no idea what to do with herself. “Oh! Why don’t you two have a seat? I’ll get us some refreshments.”
Looking eager to leave, she scurried toward the exit. B.J. hoped Grady would decline for the both of them. But he obeyed his mother’s suggestion and started toward a cushioned high-back chair. She would’ve called the other woman back and told her she needn’t bother with trying to entertain them, but she already knew if she tried to talk, nothing would 122
The Trouble with Tomboys
come out except a dry croak.
As soon as his mother disappeared around the corner, B.J. whirled toward Grady, who’d plopped into the chair already. She didn’t want any
“refreshments.” She wanted to drop the news like a stink bomb and get the H-E-double hockey sticks out of there before she caught a whiff of the rotten hang time.
But when she spotted the crushed look on his face, she paused.
“I didn’t realize he received so many after-hour calls,” he murmured to himself. “I never get a call from work.”
The unspoken question, Why don’t I ever get a call? , lingered in the air between them. B.J.
suddenly remembered the nasty words she’d said in Houston. You make everyone in town uncomfortable whenever you’re around because you freeze the living folks out like they should all feel sorry they’re still alive and your wife isn’t.
He lifted his eyes then, and he looked at her as if he were remembering that exact same line. She opened her mouth to apologize for being such a butt that night, for hurting him like she had. But a rough male voice spoke from behind them.