Chapter Ten

Tom held his breath, counted to ten, and let it out in a long sigh. He checked his hair in the review mirror. After running his fingers through it, he reached for the handle of the car door, but hesitated when he noticed how bad his hand was shaking.

“Man, I picked a hell of a time to quit drinking again,” he whispered, wondering if he was going to be able to conceal the tremors.

He took a few more deep breaths before pushing the door open. He had been in a lot of uncomfortable situations in his life and couldn’t understand why this one was getting to him so much.

“I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.” He looked up and down the sidewalk to see if anyone was watching him.

He clenched and unclenched his fists several times in an attempt to get his shaking under control. He finally gave up and just shoved them into his pockets as he strolled up the sidewalk towards the house. His heart beat a little quicker with each step he took.

Damn it, man. This ain’t your first rodeo. Get a grip on yourself, for Christ’s sake, he chastised himself before reaching for the doorbell.

After what felt like an eternity, the door opened to reveal a tall man with broad shoulders, looking at him with the dumbest smile Tom had ever seen. Adding insult to injury, Tom had to look up to see that horrible smile. The guy was huge. A flash of recognition swept across the man’s face and he extended his hand in welcome.

“Ah, you must be Tom,” he said without letting his smile droop for a second.

“And you must be Dan,” Tom replied, shaking his hand.

“Come on in. They will be ready in a few minutes.” Dan moved out of the doorway and signaled for Tom to follow him.

Tom gritted his teeth and stepped into his very own version of hell on earth. He tried to keep the forced smile on his face, but soon feared that a fake smile would make him look more pathetic than no smile at all.

He followed Dan into the living room and flopped down in the only recliner in the room. This was no easy feat with his hands still in his pockets. He wondered, a little uneasily, if Dan could feel how bad his hand was shaking when he greeted him at the door.

Sherry popped her head out of the kitchen with a smile that did nothing to improve Tom’s mood. “Tom, that’s Dan’s chair. Do you think you could move to the sofa?”

“Oh, nonsense, honey. He is a guest; he can sit anywhere he wants to. There is no need to make this any more uncomfortable for him than it already is,” Dan said, using both hands to motion for Tom to stay put.

“Okay, whatever. I’ll be out in a sec.” She shrugged before disappearing again.

Tom seethed at Dan’s words. A guest? This used to be MY house. Who does he think he is? It isn’t his place to make me more comfortable. If anything, the fact that it is him doing it, makes me even more UNCOMFORTABLE. Why is he still wearing that dumb ass grin on his face?

Dan took a seat on the sofa across from him. “So, Sherry tells me you’re a detective. Are you one of the guys working on the murder case that’s been all over the news?”

“Yeah,” Tom affirmed without elaborating. He hoped his silence would be a clear indication that he had no desire to talk about it, or anything else for that matter.

“What’ve there been, like three of these couples found so far?”

“Yeah,” Tom repeated.

Dan didn’t catch the hint. “So, do you have any leads?”

Tom just sat there, looking at him. Wow, big AND dumb. If he doesn’t take that god-awful grin off his face, I’m going to have to do it for him.

“Honey, don’t press him about his work. He isn’t allowed to talk about cases he’s working on.” Sherry’s voice floated in from out of the kitchen.

Tom swore if he had to hear either of them say ‘honey’ one more time, he was going to puke.

“Oh, I’m sorry; I didn’t know. So, what do you do outside of work?”

“I don’t have a lot of time for much else.” Tom wasn’t sure why it was so important for this chump to make small talk, but he figured if he played along it might make the time go faster. “Sherry mentioned that you used to play for the Dallas Cowboys.”

“Sure did. Just for one year though. I was a hell of a middle-linebacker, but I blew my left knee out during our final game of the season,” he answered, clearly happy that the conversation had steered towards his achievements.

“Lucky for him the firm doesn’t need him to be able to run while he addresses a jury.” Sherry laughed as she joined the conversation, rubbing her hands on an apron.

“The firm?” Tom switched his gaze back and forth between the two of them.

Sherry took a seat on the sofa. “Yes, Dan is an attorney. Parnell and Associates just hired him a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t I mention that to you over the phone?”

He wanted to shout, Hell no, you didn’t mention anything of the sort. Besides, that would have robbed you of the joy of blind-siding me like this. He chose to shake his head instead.

“I know, you probably just thought of at least a hundred lawyer jokes all at the same time. Go ahead, let’s hear one of them,” Dan urged, his smile doing the impossible and growing even larger.

“No, that’s okay.”

“Ah, come on. You know you want to. Trust me; you won’t hurt my feelings. I’ve heard a ton of them.”

“No, really… I can’t think of any right now.” Tom had the overwhelming urge to flee the scene “Are the kids about ready?”

He swallowed several times, trying to fight back the feeling of nausea that crept up in his throat. I swear to god, if she kisses him in front of me, I am going to lose it. This guy is just too much.

“They should be down any min—”

“Daddy!” Julie shouted as she ran down the stairs, followed closely by her brother.

Tom held his arms wide as his children rushed in to hug him. “Hiya, pumpkin! Hey Johnny, how have you guys been?”

“Dad, you know I like to be called John now.” He scowled at his dad’s forgetfulness.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, son. It’s going to take awhile to get used to that. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Maybe,” John replied with a grin.

“Maybe?” Tom asked in mock indignation.

“Maybe, if we can stop for some ice cream on the way to your house,” he replied sheepishly, causing his sister to clap her hands in excitement.

Tom rubbed his chin as he smiled down at both of them. “You drive a hard bargain, but I think it can be arranged.”

“Tom, before you go, I have something I need to talk to you about,” Sherry said.

“Uh… okay.” Tom’s guard instantly went up. Is she about to raise my child support or tell me that she is going to marry this clown? A million thoughts fought for dominance in his mind, all of them horrible.

“John said the last time they stayed the night with you that you took them to a crime scene. Is that true?” Her voice was cool as she leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Traitor.” He laughed nervously as he mussed up John’s hair.

“Dad,” John said indignantly as he pulled away, caressing his hair back in place.

“I asked him when I saw that there was another… you know.” She stopped to mouth the word murder. “So don’t blame him.”

“It’s not like I actually took them inside with me.” Tom wore a look of confusion on his face. “What’s the big deal?”

“You left them alone in the car?” Dan’s eyes went wide.

“I don’t really see where this concerns you, pal,” Tom said, raising one eyebrow as he glared in Dan’s direction.

“I think it concerns the hell out of…” was all he managed before Sherry put a restraining hand on his forearm.

“You don’t have to be so defensive. I just don’t think it is a good idea for them to be exposed to something like that.”

“Jesus Christ, Sherry. I couldn’t leave them at home. Besides, I had a couple of the officers entertain them while I was inside.” Tom wasn’t sure why she was making such a big deal out of the whole thing.

“You could have called me. I understand that you have to go when you get the call. I just don’t want our kids to tag along,” she replied, shaking her head slowly. “Surely, even you can appreciate that.”

“Even me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Calm down, Tom. I am just saying that since you deal with these things on a near daily basis, you are bound to be more desensitized to just how messed up your world can be. Try to think about how all of those officers and flashing lights look to a nine year old little girl.”

“My world, huh? Last time I checked, we all lived in the same city. She wouldn’t see anything worse than when she watches the news with you at dinner,” Tom said softly as he knelt down and stroked Julie’s cheek.

“Actually,” Dan started to explain. “We don’t watch—”

“Shut up!” Tom and Sherry yelled almost simultaneously.

“Look,” Sherry continued. “I didn’t want this to turn into some huge fight. I just don’t want you to take them to those types of places. If it happens again, just call me. I will let you pick them back up when you are finished, I promise.”

God damn her. Why is she taking the high road? Now she is just making me look like an ass in front of my children. Oh, and we can’t forget about Dan. Like he needs another excuse to look at me like the cat that ate the canary.

“Fine, but I don’t want to catch an ear full if it happens to be after midnight. Does that sound reasonable?” He relented, realizing he didn’t have a good argument to back his decisions.

“Yeah, I can live with that,” she agreed with a shrug that left Tom doubting he would make it through such an occurrence without at least a couple of terse words.

Rising from the sofa and heading toward the door, she turned her attention to the children with a smile. “Come on, kids. I am sure your dad is anxious to get his weekend started with you guys.”

Tom was instantly suspicious. “Weekend? I can have them both nights?” He couldn’t come up with a single reason for her to toss an act of kindness his way.

She waited for the kids to run out into the front lawn before responding. “Yeah, let’s see how you do and we might be able to make it a regular occurrence.”

Great…first, she picks a fight with me, and then she does something nice. What the hell is wrong with these people?

“You won’t regret this I promise,” he said as the kids climbed into his car.

“I know.” The look on her face was doubtful. “Just have fun and call us if you need anything.”

There it was: Us. In one fell swoop, she returned the knot to its proper place in his stomach.

*****

Later, he tried not to dwell on the conversation, but an evening full of his children asking him ‘What’s wrong?’ confirmed he was failing miserably in that regard. It shamed him to admit he was grateful when he finally tucked them in that night.

The rest of the weekend went much smoother. Just having his kids around washed away the anger he felt about his wife’s new romance. He even managed a sincere smile for the happy couple when he dropped his children off on Sunday evening. As long as it means I get to see my kids more often, I could care less what she does with her life.