Page 88 of All The Things: The Last Thing He Needs Omnibus

Chapter Two

Tommy

The smell of dinner still hung in the air when Tommy and Bobby came into the living room an hour later. The kids had eaten, the twins toddled around, Davey and Collin finished their homework, and Carrie sat on the couch, braiding her hair. Mike had texted while they were on the way home, said he decided to sleep over at his friend’s house, which wasn’t really like him, and Tommy couldn’t decide if it was a good thing, that he was finally doing normal shit like every other kid his age, or if he should be worried Mike was out getting into trouble. Which would also be kind of normal, but either way, he figured he couldn’t really do anything about it, so he just texted back: Don’t be late for school tomorrow and make sure you get your homework done.

Which was stupid, honestly. Of all the kids, Mike and probably Carrie were the two he never really needed to remind about anything.

Mike’s response was quick and simple: Will do. And done. Say goodnight to everyone for me.

Judy smiled when they walked in, put a plate in the microwave. “I saved you some,” she said, then nodded to the twins. “They didn’t want to take their baths until you got home.” Any annoyance at their stubbornness was covered up by her fond expression. Tommy could identify. Yeah, babies that age were kind of a pain in the ass, but his were pretty okay.

He picked Max up as soon as he was in reach, settled at the kitchen bar with him as the microwave dinged. “Were you a good boy?” he asked, and Max nodded. Judy shot him a look, which told Tommy Max was probably an unholy terror, but he didn’t press for details. Instead, he kissed the top of Max’s head and thanked Judy when she set a plate in front of him.

“You didn’t get a haircut,” she pointed out.

“The only places open wanted fifty bucks for it. I’ll do it myself.”

Max nodded his agreement, even if he didn’t know what he was agreeing with, and reached for a potato on Tommy’s plate.

“Didn’t you get enough at dinner?” Tommy asked, cutting his food into smaller pieces and sliding some closer to Max on the plate.

“Is good,” Max said with a nod before stuffing some into his mouth.

“Yeah it is,” Tommy said with a squeeze for Max, even though he hadn’t tasted it yet.

Bobby, in a fresh hoody and thick socks, took a seat next to him, picked up Zoe when she waddled over to him. She was more polite and waited for him to offer her something from his own plate. She didn’t refuse it, though.

“Did you two get everything sorted out?” Judy asked, leaning across from them with a glass of wine.

Tommy shrugged. Did they? Not really. He was still unsettled and a little annoyed. “Nah.”

“Some,” Bobby countered. “We don’t know where we want the wedding, but we know we don’t want the courthouse. We know we don’t want to dump a bunch of money on it, but we want something nice.” He paused and took a bite, grinned at Tommy as he swallowed. “We know Tom’s favorite color.”

“Blue,” Judy said. At the look Tommy gave her, she shrugged. “You always pick blue.”

Having someone around who noticed shit like that was unnerving. But nice too. “I didn’t know I did that.”

She snorted a laugh but didn’t say anything else on the topic. After a few moments of eating in silence, Judy wiping down the counters, she said, “I don’t want to overstep—”

“Since when?” The words, along with a disbelieving laugh, were out before Tommy could stop them.

“Since now,” she said, reaching to pinch his cheek, laughing with him because, obviously, she couldn’t argue with it. “Since I got everything I wanted.” She dropped her hand back to her wine and took a small sip. “My son is in love and happy and has a partner—whom I adore. I have pseudo-grandchildren piled to the rafters; my house is full of laughter and arguments and dirty dishes and dirty clothes and life. And you did that.”

Tommy didn’t know what to say to that. Though, he nearly apologized—and why? He had no idea. For putting her out. For mooching free rent off her. For the hassle and the headaches and the work that came with all of them. But for whatever reason, she said it like it was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and you don’t apologize for that, right? The backs of his eyes burned, so he looked at his plate and only nodded in response, grateful when she went on.

“But is there a reason you don’t want to just get married here? If we wait until early summer, everything will be blooming, so you wouldn’t need a lot of decorations or flowers. There’s plenty of room. We could do an arch in the yard by the fence where the honeysuckle grows, and the roses would be budding, and… it might be nice.”

She sounded like there was a lot more to her ideas than what she said, and Tommy wondered how long she’d been thinking about it. Was it something she’d always wanted for Bobby? Get married at home, surrounded by friends and family, in the yard she worked so hard on. The place where Bobby played when he was a little boy, where he probably skinned his knees and cried in her arms, laughed and spent afternoons on the swing set, chased butterflies. Maybe where he hung out with friends when he got older, had cookouts with his parents, played catch with his father. The place where, now, Tommy had a lot of his best memories too. Watching the kids with the dog, running through the sprinkler in the summertime, ice cream on the back deck while the sun went down, sitting out at the firepit, laughing and talking together. Hours spent watching hummingbirds do their thing, bunnies hiding in the bushes that burst with pink and blue flowers as soon as the snow melted. Max and Zoe picking dandelions.

That was special, right? Hell, considering where they were not even three years ago, it was a goddamn miracle. “That sounds… pretty fuckin’ great, actually.”

Judy arched a brow at the curse but shockingly didn’t say anything.

He looked at Bobby, who hadn’t said a word. “What about you, copper? Think it sounds okay?”

Bobby cleared his throat and nodded, rested his chin on top of Zoe’s head. “I’m down for anything you want, Tom. But yeah. I can’t imagine anywhere better.” His eyes shimmered, and his cheeks pinked—hell, even his ears were red—and Tommy knew he was trying to hold it all in.

Before either of them could say anything else, though, Judy clapped and grinned at them both. “It’ll be perfect,” she said, tossing back the last of her wine. “Colleen and I have been talking about it, and we thought maybe hors d’oeuvres and desserts, nothing too intense, and we’ll borrow chairs, and I have several folding tables in the room over the garage and enough service wear for maybe fifty? How many guests were you thinking?”

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