aisling grimlock 03 - grim discovery (14 page)

“I can deal with that,” Griffin said, nuzzling his face into the hollow between my neck and shoulder.

We lapsed into comfortable silence for a few moments.

“Aisling?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m not joking about being more careful,” Griffin said. “I need you to not leave me.”

His words tore at my heart. “I won’t leave you,” I said, fighting off tears. “You’re too hot for me to let you go.”

Griffin’s chest rumbled with laughter. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I’ll teach you the loser dance in a couple of days,” I offered. “Then we can do it together.”

“I’ll only learn it if you wear those softball pants when you teach me.”

“Deal.”

Thirteen

“What are you doing today, gimpy?” Aidan asked the next morning as Griffin and I shuffled into the kitchen for breakfast. “I can’t believe you closed the door on your hip. You’re such a klutz.”

Griffin and I exchanged a brief look. “Don’t worry. Griffin has already teased me about it. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“When are you paying attention?”

It’s bad enough that my brothers get off on making fun of me for things I actually do. Being teased for something I didn’t do was almost unbearable – especially when I looked like an idiot because of the imaginary deed.

“Leave her alone,” Griffin instructed, helping me to the table and pulling a chair out for me. “She feels bad enough without you heaping more crap on her.”

“Hey, you’re the one dating her,” Aidan said. “Shouldn’t you be trying to make it so she’s not a constant embarrassment?”

“Hey!”

“She’s not a constant embarrassment,” Griffin said, patting my hand.

“Thank you.” He’s handsome and charming. In fact, he’s practically perfect.

“She’s only an embarrassment fifty percent of the time.”

My face fell as Griffin poked me in my good side to let me know he wasn’t serious. I was still annoyed. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Omelets,” Jerry said from his spot at the stove. “We’ve got ham, mushrooms, tomatoes and onions. I wasn’t going to put onions in yours, Bug, but I figure you two are so horny lately that they won’t slow you down.”

My cheeks burned as I glanced down at the table. “I … what?”

“You two are in heat or something,” Aidan said, leaning back in his chair. “All you do is hole up in your room and … well … I don’t want to think what you do in there. You guys actually ate dinner in there last night. If you do gross things with food, don’t ever tell me about it.”

“We’re not doing gross things with food,” I snapped.

“Your sister is injured,” Griffin reminded Aidan. “All we did was watch television and eat Lebanese food. Why is your mind always in the gutter?”

“Maybe because I’ve been sharing a very thin wall with the two of you for the past month,” Aidan suggested. “Seriously, maybe you two should come up for air. Jerry is starting to feel neglected.”

I stilled, surprised by Aidan’s words. I shifted my eyes to Jerry, who seemed awfully focused on his omelets. “Jerry, are you upset?”

“Of course not.”

He refused to turn around. I forced myself to my feet, my hip screaming as I moved across the kitchen. Griffin looked as if he would follow so I shook my head. I knew I had been neglecting Jerry for the past week and a half. I hoped he’d fail to notice.

I placed my hand on his back and leaned in closer. “Are you angry with me?”

“Of course not, Bug,” Jerry said, his tone breezy. “Why would I possibly be mad at you?”

“I … .” I broke off, pursing my lips. Jerry’s moods were hard to read. He was clearly upset. Now I had to ascertain just how upset. “I’m sorry if I haven’t been paying enough attention to you. I’ve just been kind of … busy.

“Between getting off probation and dealing with all of the Fontaine stuff I’ve been … caught up in my own head,” I continued. “I didn’t mean to shut you out.”

“Do you think that’s why I’m angry?”

“I … why else would you be angry?” I couldn’t help but be confused.

Jerry swiveled, a spatula gripped tightly in his hand. “Why else would I be angry? Why else would I be angry? Are you kidding me?” Jerry’s voice borders on shrill on a normal day. He was way above that octave now.

“Put the spatula down,” Griffin ordered. He sat at the table, his eyes focused on the newspaper, but his voice was grim. “If you hit her with that spatula I’m going to be totally ticked off.”

“Mind your own business,” Jerry snapped.

Uh-oh. This was serious. Jerry never yelled at Griffin. He thought Griffin was my last shot at snagging a man. He usually doted on him. “Jerry … .”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Griffin retorted. “I don’t know what bug crawled up your butt, but there’s no reason to yell at her. She’s injured.”

“That bug! That one!” Jerry waved the spatula in my face. “She’s the one that crawled up my butt!”

I didn’t like the way that sounded. “Jerry, why don’t you hand me the spatula and tell me why you’re so upset,” I suggested. “I can’t make it up to you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“You’re supposed to know what’s wrong,” Jerry wailed, slapping the spatula against the counter.

“All right, that’s enough of that,” Griffin said, moving to climb out of his chair.

Aidan stopped him with a hand on his wrist and a shake of his head. “Let them get this out of their system. If you intervene now, the next meltdown will be even worse. Trust me.”

Griffin arched a challenging eyebrow. “It gets worse than this?”

“You have no idea.”

I dragged my attention from Griffin and Aidan to focus on Jerry. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“That’s the problem, Bug. You have no idea what is wrong.”

“I … I don’t know what you want me to say,” I admitted. “Do you want me to beg you for forgiveness?” It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“I want you to tell me why I’m upset,” Jerry said.

Oh, well, this was fun. “I … forgot to go to a special event at Get Baked.” Jerry hosts party nights once a month at his bakery. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember when the last one was held.

“That’s not until next week,” Jerry seethed.

“Oh, well … .” I tilted my head to the side and glanced at Aidan, hoping he could subtly give me a clue.

Aidan extended his fingers and popped them up and down next to his head … miming wearing a crown. Crap. I knew exactly what he was indicating. I’d seen the ads on television the previous weekend and made a mental note to schedule television time with Jerry – which was exactly what I’d forgotten to do.

“The Miss America Pageant was last night, wasn’t it?”

“Ding, ding, ding!” Jerry screeched, causing me to involuntarily step back from him, grimacing when my hip brushed against the cabinet.

“Why do we care about the Miss America Pageant?” Griffin asked.

“We don’t,” Aidan replied. “They do.”

“Why do they care about it?”

“Because … um … I’m not exactly sure,” Aidan admitted. “They’ve watched it every year together for as long as I can remember. They usually get drunk and reenact portions of it. I never paid that much attention … until last night, when I had to watch part of it. The good news is I only had to watch a few minutes before Jerry got disgusted and pouted in the bedroom the rest of the night. Then I got to watch
Sports Center
.”

“I’m so sorry, Jerry,” I said, meaning every word. “I didn’t mean to forget. I was in pain … and I was hungry … and I felt like an idiot for hurting myself.”

“And you think that’s an excuse?”

I couldn’t remember the last time Jerry was this angry with me. “I … I’m sorry. I don’t know what else you want me to say. Why didn’t you remind me?”

“I shouldn’t have to remind you!”

Ugh. I was starting to get a headache. “I’m sorry I forgot about the pageant.”

“Explain to me why this pageant is so important,” Griffin suggested.

“We like to watch it and make fun of it every year,” I explained. “We used to watch it with my mom … and then we kept watching it ourselves. We like being snarky and making fun of the talent … and the interview … and the ball gowns.”

“We especially like it when people fall,” Jerry said, his voice tinny.

“Jerry, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to forget. I got distracted.”

“You like to watch it to be mean about people?” Griffin was baffled. “If you want to be mean to people go sit on a bench in Royal Oak and people watch for an afternoon. There are thousands of people down there just begging to be made fun of.”

“No one’s talking to you,” Jerry spat. “You’re the reason my best friend forgot me.”

“I didn’t forget you, Jerry,” I countered. “I could never forget you. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. No one can take your place. You know that. I just … forgot about the pageant. I was distracted.”

“What could possibly be so distracting you forgot about our yearly date?”

Well, that was a loaded question. I couldn’t tell him about my mom coming back from the dead. “I … do you want to know the truth?”

Griffin straightened and I could tell he was worried I was about to drop a truth bomb that would shake my entire family.

“No, I want you to lie to me.” Jerry was all sarcasm and snarl right now.

“The truth is I didn’t slam my car door into my hip yesterday and I didn’t want anyone to know – and by anyone I mean Aidan,” I said, deciding a small dose of truth to make Jerry feel better was worth the misery bound to come my way.

“What really happened?” Jerry asked, curious despite his rage.

“I didn’t check my file close enough yesterday and the woman I was there for was stabbed twenty times by her husband,” I explained. “He was still in the house, and I tried to escape through a window and I got hurt by a nail. I ripped a big hole in my hip.

“I didn’t forget you,” I continued. “I just … fell asleep because of the pain medication.”

“I’m telling Dad,” Aidan said. “I knew you weren’t clumsy enough to hurt your hip that way. Even you’re not that uncoordinated.”

“You’re not telling your father anything,” Griffin warned, wagging a finger in Aidan’s face. “She feels bad enough. Leave it alone.”

“You knew about this?” Aidan was incensed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I don’t think she needs you and the other brothers Grim laying into her right now,” Griffin replied. “She knows she made a mistake. She learned her lesson. It won’t happen again.”

“You’re being awfully calm,” Aidan pointed out. “You usually fly off the handle when she does stuff like this.”

“We had a talk about it yesterday and there’s no reason to keep harping on it,” Griffin shot back. “Leave her alone.”

“What is with you two?” Aidan asked. “You’re constantly huddling together and shutting everyone else out. I’m starting to think Jerry’s theory about Aisling being pregnant is right. What else would you two be hiding?”

“I’m not pregnant!” I glared at Jerry. “I don’t care how angry you are, you need to stop telling people I’m pregnant. If my dad thinks that’s true … he really will ground me for the rest of my life.”

“Whatever,” Jerry said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I want to know what you’re going to do about the pageant.”

“There’s nothing I can do. I can’t go back in time and watch it with you.”

“I recorded it on the DVR.”

Well, crap. There was no way out of this. “Then we’ll watch it tonight,” I said, forcing a bright smile.

“Ha, ha,” Aidan snickered. “Have fun with that.”

“And since we’re a foursome instead of a twosome now, I think Griffin and Aidan should watch it with us,” I added. “They can be our pseudo judges.”

Jerry brightened considerably. “That’s a great idea!”

“It is.” I stuck my tongue out at Aidan.

“I’m telling Dad you’re pregnant,” he muttered.

“I think I’m going to be sick tonight,” Griffin added.

“Speaking of your injury, I promise not to tell Dad how you really got hurt, but you have to let me go with you on your jobs today,” Aidan said. “We haven’t seen a wraith in almost two weeks, but if one attacks while you’re limping around like this, you’re toast.”

Aidan may not have seen a wraith in two weeks. I had. I couldn’t tell him, though. “I have two jobs at the retirement center over on Eight Mile today. No one is going to attack me at a senior living center.”

“I found out the truth about you because a wraith attacked you at a senior living center,” Griffin reminded me.

“Thank you for that.”

“I think you two should go together,” Griffin said, holding up his hand to quiet me before I could start arguing. “If you go together I’ll feel better about you going to work today. Not only that, I’ll buy the pizza for the Miss America Pageant tonight and not complain about having to watch it.”

Well, that sounded mildly interesting. “Will you dress up?”

“No.”

“Will you rub my back?”

“Yes.”

“Sold,” I said, turning to Jerry expectantly. “Will you please forgive me?”

“I guess,” Jerry said, sighing dramatically. “I expect you to be really snarky tonight, though.”

“I’m really snarky every night.”

“Yes, but you’ve tried to rein in the snark since you started dating Detective Delicious there,” Jerry said. Obviously his dislike of Griffin evaporated when the truth about my injury became known. “You don’t want him to think you’re mean.”

“Oh, I know she’s mean,” Griffin said. “That’s one of the things I like about her.”

“You two are an odd couple,” Aidan muttered.

“Look who’s talking.”

“I feel so much better,” Jerry said, turning back to the stove. “We’re going to have the best time tonight.”

“We are,” I promised. “I … I’m really sorry, Jerry. You know no one can ever replace you, right? It’s you and me forever.”

“I know,” Jerry said, not sounding entirely convinced. “You’ll always love me and I’ll always love you.”

He meant it. I knew he did. Still, there was something morose about the way he said it. I glanced at Aidan. He also knew Jerry wasn’t completely over it. He wisely kept his mouth shut, though.

“I’ll pick up ice cream on the way home,” I offered. “I’ll pick up crowns, too.”