Page 43 of All The Things: The Last Thing He Needs Omnibus

Tommy fought the urge to roll his eyes as he carried the twins upstairs.

Tommy took his time getting Max and Zoe to bed. He secretly hoped Judy might get bored and leave. Then he realized she would probably clean the kitchen or put on a load of laundry instead. That’s what Bobby would do if he thought he could get away with it. Judy didn’t seem like she would care if Tommy groused around the house and told her to knock it off.

She was sitting on the couch doing something with her phone when he got back to the living room. “Bobby texted a minute ago,” she said. “He should be ready to leave in an hour or so. He’s just waiting on the doctor to sign his release forms.”

“Thank Christ,” Tommy said, running his hand through his hair as he tried to think of a polite way to say “guess you should be going now!”

“Why don’t you go on down there and pick him up?” Judy prompted.

Tommy was going to have to take a crash course in how to deal with people who liked to kill with kindness.

“I can’t,” he said as he sat down on the arm of the couch. “Colleen’s got the car and, ya know, wouldn’t wanna wake the babies anyway.”

“Nonsense,” she said, smiling up at him. “I’ll stay here with the angels. They’ll probably sleep the whole time you’re gone. You can go get Bobby, take him home and get him settled, and then come back here with my car.”

She said it like it was the most obvious solution in the world. Like people always left their defenseless babies with people they barely knew and went to run errands. It occurred to Tommy after a second that people usually did do that. He reminded himself that his boyfriend’s mother, who also happened to be a retired schoolteacher and daycare worker, was probably more qualified to look after Max and Zoe than he was. He wanted to kick something.

“Yeah, all right,” he growled. He was tempted to shake his fist and shove her out the door. It was a near thing. But Judy laughed at his reaction and passed him a set of car keys.

“It’s the PT parked out front.”

Of course it is. Tommy grabbed his wallet from the table by the door and said, “I won’t be long.”

“Take your time, dear. Make sure Bobby is settled before you come back.”

Tommy stalked out the door, muttering, “Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out.”

“Your mother is insane,” Tommy said as soon as he saw Bobby. It had taken him about five minutes to figure out how to start the damn car, and then it took him twice as long as it should have to drive to the hospital. He was scared he’d wreck it on the way.

Bobby was startled when Tommy stormed into his room. “What’d she do?”

“She showed up at the house! She had enough food to feed an army, then she railroaded me out the door to come get you. She’s got Max and Zoe hostage.”

Tommy could tell Bobby was doing his damnedest not to laugh.

“The bitch,” Bobby said sarcastically. “The nerve of the woman. Going in and bringing cake—there was cake, right?” When Tommy nodded, Bobby went on. “That is some messed-up devil-woman shit. Thinking she can slide in under your radar like that! That’s right out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Maybe she’ll try to cook them next!”

Bobby let himself laugh then. He held his left arm like it was killing him, but he couldn’t stop laughing at Tommy.

“All right, shut it, asshole.” Tommy flopped down into the chair by Bobby’s hospital bed. He leaned in and kissed Bobby, despite the fact that Bobby was still laughing at him.

After Bobby caught his breath, he asked, “Did you try just telling her no?”

“Have you met the woman?”

Bobby considered the question and looked like he agreed, but he said, “She’s not totally unreasonable, Tom.”

“What, are you kidding me? She’s you. Only it’s impossible to argue with someone that’s that nice and little and old and a woman. Especially one that’s so goddamned obsessively determined. It’s like someone threw Pollyanna, Mary Sunshine, and Mussolini into a blender and it spit your mother out.”

“You forgot Mother Teresa.”

“Yeah, her too. Thank God we don’t have leprosy.”

Bobby laughed again at that, but he reached a hand out for Tommy. “She just needs to take care of everyone. You should let her, she’s good at it.”

Tommy leaned in then, smiling begrudgingly as he said, “At least now I know where ya get it.”

Before Tommy had a chance to kiss him again, there was a small knock on the door. He pulled back as a nurse came in with a few papers. “Looks like you’re getting out of here today, Officer McAlister.”

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