Grand Avenue Read Online Free Page A

scared.”
    “But …” Chris stopped. Wasn’t Tony always complaining she didn’t know when to leave well enough alone? “When did this happen?”
    “Friday morning.”
    “Friday! Why didn’t you tell me?”
    Tears filled Tony’s eyes. He turned away. “I tried to tell you last night.”
    Chris took a deep breath, tried to recall the sequence of events of the night before, the precise order of everything that was said before things began spiraling out of control. But she’d worked so hard to suppress the angry words that they now refused to come forward, and she was left with snarled snatches of indistinct utterances, potentially potent images shooting toward her only to blur into passivity, like snow hitting a car windshield during a winter storm. Tony was always accusing her of not listening to him. My God, was he right?
    “I’m so sorry,” she told him now, taking his head in her hands, cradling it against the towel at her breasts.
    “We’ll be fine,” he was quick to assure her. “It’s not like I can’t find another job.”
    “Of course you’ll find another job.”
    “I don’t want you to worry.”
    “I’m not worried. I just wish I’d known. Maybe last night wouldn’t have.…”
    “I’m not trying to make excuses for my behavior last night.”
    “I know you’re not.”
    “I was way out of line.”
    “You were upset about losing your job.”
    “That doesn’t give me the right to take it out on you.”
    “It was my fault as much as yours. Tony, I’m so sorry …”
    “I love you, Chris. I love you so much. I don’t careabout the damn job. I can lose a million jobs. I can’t lose you.”
    “You won’t lose me. You won’t. You won’t.”
    And then they were in each other’s arms, and he was kissing her the way he’d kissed her when she was nineteen years old and he was trying to convince her to run away with him, the way he’d kissed her the first time they’d made love, the way he always kissed her when they were making up after a fight, short, tender kisses that barely flirted with the outlines of her lips, that seemed almost afraid to overstay their welcome. And then suddenly she felt him releasing the towel around her head, felt it collapse and drop around her bare shoulders. Damp hair fell about her face in careless waves. Automatically Chris reached up to tuck the hair behind her ears, but Tony’s hands were already pulling at the towel at her breast, throwing it open as he pushed her down on the bed.
    “Mommy!” came the sudden cry from outside the closed bedroom door.
    Immediately Chris felt Tony’s body tense, and she held her breath, waiting for his reaction. But Tony only laughed, and in that unexpected, full-throated sound Chris heard all the reasons why she’d agreed to run off with him so many years ago. The sound promised both safety and permanence, qualities missing from her childhood.
    “Mommy’s a little busy right now, Montana,” Tony called out, his hand on the zipper of his jeans.
    “I want Mommy,” the child persisted, jiggling the handle of the door.
    “I’ll be there in a minute, pumpkin,” Chris told her,trying to sit up, feeling Tony’s unexpectedly firm grip on her shoulder as Montana continued pushing at the bedroom door. Why had Tony locked it?
    “Mommy! Mommy!” Wyatt’s small voice joined his sister’s in the hall.
    “Remember what we talked about at breakfast, kids?” Tony asked, his noticeable erection pushing at the front of his jeans. “How Mommy wasn’t feeling too well, and you were going to let her sleep real late? Remember that?”
    “But she’s up now,” Montana persisted. “I heard you guys talking.”
    “Yeah, but she’s still not feeling very well.”
    “What’s
wrong
with her?” Montana’s voice carried more accusation than concern.
    “Mommy! Mommy!” Wyatt cried.
    “Tony,” Chris whispered, kissing his chin. “We can do this later.”
    Tony’s grip on her shoulder tightened. “Go back to