“Me too. I like to go high. Daddy pushes me high, but I have to hold on real tight, so I won’t fly out like he did when he was little and knock out a tooth that wasn’t even loose. Show her, Daddy.”
He complied, pointing out one of his lower front teeth to Holly. For Georgia’s benefit, she inspected it solemnly. “That must have hurt.”
“It was a baby tooth,” Georgia informed her. “So one grew in its place, but you still gotta hold on tight to the ropes.”
“I’ll make sure I do.”
They let Georgia direct the conversation, and it was as flitting as a butterfly. Holly subtly nudged his elbow when their time ran out. The five minutes had passed far too quickly.
For Georgia, too. She didn’t take it well when he told her that it was time for them to leave. “Can we go get ice cream?”
“Not today, sweetheart.”
“Please. Holly can come, too. Won’t you, Holly?”
“I would love to, but I can’t today. Maybe some other time.”
Georgia was so disappointed, Crawford was afraid her whining would turn into crying, and, after today’s events, if he saw a single tear, he would never be able to let her go. Lifting her off his lap, he stood her up behind his back. “Climb on. I’ll carry you.”
Riding on his shoulders was always a treat. She gripped handfuls of his hair as he walked in an exaggerated stagger back to the parking area. She was giggling when he swung her down. Kneeling in front of her, he ran his hands over her arms as though to convince himself yet again that she was safe and sound. “Be a good girl.”
“I will.”
He couldn’t tell her when he would call, or when he would see her next, because he didn’t know when it would be. He never made her a promise he couldn’t keep. “Give me a kiss.”
She bussed him on the mouth, then he clutched her to him for as long as he dared before releasing her. “Go on now. Grandma and Grandpa are waiting.”
“You’re quiet tonight. What’s the matter?”
Grace looked across the dinner table at her husband, then got up and carried her barely touched plate to the sink. “Just thinking.”
“About that business at the park? I could tell it upset you.”
“Georgia was so unhappy when we left.”
“She was fine until she saw him. Making people unhappy is his specialty.”
Grace turned away and began loading the dishwasher. “I don’t believe Judge Spencer would have intervened on his behalf if she’d thought Georgia would suffer any ill effects.”
“I think something shifty is going on between the two of them.”
Grace paused what she was doing and looked at him over her shoulder. “Shifty?”
“She went on TV and made him out to be a hero. Hours later she recused herself from his case. I think her objectivity has been compromised, all right, but not strictly because he saved her life.”
“You think there’s an attraction?”
“I hope the judge has better sense.”
“Our daughter didn’t.”
He scowled. “Beth couldn’t see past his appearance. But he showed his true colors today. By the time the rest of you saw him at the park, he had calmed down. When he arrived, he was rabid. Completely unhinged.”
“In his place, wouldn’t you have been?” Grace asked. “If you’d been sent a photograph or video of Beth with a caption like that, wouldn’t you have been completely unhinged until you knew she was safe?”
“It’s not the same.”
“How is it different?”
“I wouldn’t have attacked the first person I saw.”
Speaking under her breath, Grace said, “That’s another thing.”
“Pardon?”
She flung down her dishcloth and turned to him. “All these years we’ve known Crawford, the dislike between you two has been there from the get-go. You’ve had arguments, running arguments that lasted for months. Not once,” she said, holding up her index finger, “has a disagreement resulted in a fistfight.”
Joe left the table and joined her at the sink. “What’s your point?”
“It seems awfully coincidental that the first time Crawford has ever raised a hand to you, it happened within hours of your filing that restraining order.”
“Which he validated by laying into me.”
“But he never had before. There was no reason for you to file that restraining order, Joe.”
“From where I’m standing, there was. Have you forgotten that he came here two nights ago—”
“And you exchanged words. Heated words, yes, but your shouting was just as loud as his. He didn’t threaten you with bodily harm.”
“I got the restraining order for Georgia’s protection, not mine.”
“That’s crap. Pure crap.”
“Where’s this language coming from?”
“Crawford would never harm that child. You know that. I know you know that.”
Unused to her having an angry outburst, he rocked back on his heels. “Do you want him to have Georgia, to take her away from us?”
Grace sighed. “It would break my heart to lose her.”