Dead To Me (Cold Case Psychic Book 5) by Pandora Pine (2)

“Don’t worry, babe!” Ronan smacked a kiss against the back of Tennyson’s hand. “I’m taking it out in trade.”

“Like hell you are!” Tennyson’s dark eyes burned with fury. “If he so much as lays a finger on you, I’ll-”

Ronan snorted. “Not that kind of trade. Jeez, give me a little credit. I asked Fitzgibbon to send me some BPD swag. You know, tee-shirts, a windbreaker, and a water bottle. I asked Carson to do the same with stuff from the Magick shop.”

“Oh, you mean an actual trade?” Ten blushed. “I’m sorry Ronan. I don’t know what got into me. It’s this place and these people.”

“I know, Ten. Let’s get this over with.” Ronan took his hand and led him toward the double doors leading into the church. Ronan dropped his hand to open the doors. “Lord forbid there be any public displays of affection.”

“I want to go home, Ronan.” He knew he sounded like a tired preschooler, but he didn’t care. It was the truth.

“You are home, sweetheart. You’re with me.” Ronan kissed Ten’s forehead and opened the door.

As heartwarming as Ronan’s sentiment was, all of that good feeling was washed away a moment later when Tennyson stepped into his childhood house of worship. It all looked the same as it had on the Sunday before his high school graduation.

The hardwood floors shone, as did the honey-colored wood of the pews. The same wooden cross hung above the altar. The only thing that was different was the rose-draped coffin at the front of the main aisle.

“Oh, Tennyson, there you are.” Kaye said. “Reverend Greene, you remember my son, don’t you?”

“Yes, it’s good to see you after so many years. I was very saddened by your father’s sudden passing. He was a wonderful member of our church.”

Tennyson nodded. “Thank you, reverend. That means a lot.”

“And who is your friend?”

“This is my-”

“This is Detective Ronan O’Mara from the Boston Police Department, Reverend,” Kaye cut in.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Reverend Greene. Tennyson has told me a lot about you.” Ronan smiled warmly as he shook the reverend’s hand.

“Oh, has he? Are you a Baptist as well, Ronan?”

Ronan shook his head. “No, sir. I was raised in the Catholic Church. Went through twelve years of parochial school before I entered the police academy.”

“You’re a Catholic? A Papist?” Kaye asked. She was looking at him with more disgust than usual.

“I’m an Irishman from Boston, Kaye. What did you think I was?” Ronan asked with a cheeky grin on his face.

“I… Well, I don’t suppose it matters.” She turned around and looked toward the door. “You’ll both excuse me. The other guests are arriving.”

“Guests? Mom, this is a funeral, not a garden party,” Ten said through gritted teeth.

Kaye straightened her shoulders. “Just remember what I said about where you and Ronan are to sit.”

“Have you thought of what your answer will be when people ask you why your son and his friend sat in the back of the church during the funeral?” Tennyson raised an eyebrow.

“If anyone asks me, I’m just going to tell them that it’s because of this church’s gays-in-the-back-pews policy.” Ronan shrugged and walked toward David’s casket.

Kaye gasped audibly when Ronan knelt beside it and made the sign of the cross. Her hand fluttered to her chest.

“Keep it up, Mom and we’ll be able to get the church’s two for one special.” Not bothering to see his mother’s reaction, Ten headed toward Ronan who was getting back to his feet after paying his respects to David Grimm, who just so happened to be standing beside his own casket. “What are you doing here, Dad?”

“I thought all spirits came to their own funeral? Isn’t that what you said to Michael Frye’s mother? I want to see what kind of a turnout I get. Tell Ronan thanks for the nice prayer. I don’t even know him and he’s wishing me peace.”

“David is thanking you for the prayer. Kaye nearly had a heart attack when you genuflected.” Ten bit his lower lip to try to keep from smiling.

“Oh, good! Two for the price of one.” Ronan grinned.

“David wants to know why you’re wishing him peace when you didn’t even know him and he was such a jerk to me while he was still alive.”

“I never said I was a jerk, son.” David frowned.

“No, you didn’t say you were a jerk, Dad. I did.” Ten crossed his arms over his chest. “Go on, Ronan. Explain this theory.”

“As you can tell from your son’s sarcastic attitude, he doesn’t agree with my theory that when someone dies, their transgressions die with them. I mean, to a certain degree. I don’t hold to this theory when it comes to the murderers I arrest, but when it comes to your own misinformed notions about homosexuality and Tennyson’s gift being God-given, I think it rings true. David, as far as I’m concerned, your sins were absolved when you took your last breath. In my book anyway. It’s going to take a little time on Tennyson’s part and a little repentance on your own, for him to feel the same way.”

“And there’s just the woman who can make it all make sense.” Tennyson laughed. “Hi, Bertha.”

“Hi, Tenny! I haven’t wanted to show my face in case you were mad at me for bringing your father to you after he passed.” Bertha set her hands on Tennyson’s cheeks.

“I’m not mad, Bertha. As you can imagine, these haven’t been the easiest days of my life.”

“But they haven’t been the roughest either, right? I mean you’ve been kidnapped, sat by Ronan’s bedside after he was shot, you chased after a serial killer, and you lost your gift for nearly a month. Being back in your hometown for a week should be a cakewalk, right?” Bertha laughed.

“You chased after a serial killer?” David asked. His eyes were so wide, they were bulging out of his head.

“I chased after a serial killer twice,” Ten said, puffing out his chest.

“Damn straight he did.” Ronan grinned.

“Ronan, you just said ‘damn’ in church,” Tennyson whispered.

“Uh, I hate to break it to you, sugar plum, but so did you!” Ronan waggled his eyebrows.

“Don’t look now, Butch and Sundance, but the two of you are attracting your own little flock of paparazzi.” Bertha pointed behind Ronan and Tennyson.

Ten tried his best to surreptitiously look down the main aisle of the church without making it obvious he was looking. “Rats.”

“What’s wrong, Ten? Someone get their lollipop stolen?”

Ten shot Ronan the hairy eyeball. “No, Bertha just pointed out that we’re attracting a crowd of paparazzi and why does everyone keep calling us Butch and Sundance?”

“Seriously? Two handsome men on the run together. One blond and one brunette.” Ronan pointed back and forth between the two of them. “You don’t see the similarity?”

“I don’t care about that right now. Everyone is staring at us. What should we do?”

“This is the moment of truth, isn’t it babe? So far as I see it, we’ve got two choices. We march up to the front pew and take our seats where we belong. Or, we kowtow to your mother’s orders and we go sit in the back row like the non-entities she thinks we are.” Ronan crossed his arms over his chest.

“Don’t let her bully you into sitting in the back, son.”

“What?” Tennyson’s mouth dropped open. “I know now isn’t exactly the moment to get into this, Dad, what with your dead body lying two feet away, but you were the one who dropped me off at the Greyhound station in Barstow and made sure I got on the bus out of town. Why are you choosing this moment to stand up for me?”

“Maybe because my dead body is sitting two feet away. I never had the courage to stand up for you in life, but I’m sure as hell gonna do it for you now.”

“Damn skippy!” Bertha cheered. She slapped David on the back. “If you sit in the back row, Tennyson, I won’t speak to you for a whole week and all I’ll do is ogle Ronan’s fine ass. Don’t make me do it. You know I will.”

Ten snorted. He shook his head.

“What? What am I missing?” Ronan asked.

“My father says not to let Kaye bully us into sitting in the back row and Bertha says that if we do, she won’t speak to me for a week.”

“Tell him the rest, Tenny!” Bertha crowed.

“Fine, Bertha.” Ten sighed. “Not only will Bertha not speak to me for a week, but she’ll spend her free time with her eyes glued to your ass.”

“I thought that’s what she did anyway!” Ronan smiled at Ten. “How’s it looking today, Bertha?”

“Tell Handsome I can only give it a three since it’s magnificence is covered by his suit jacket.” Bertha cackled.

Ten shook his head. He didn’t want to deliver Bertha’s verdict. “Why don’t we go sit down, Ronan.”

“Wait a second! What did Bertha say about my assets?” Ronan glanced over his shoulder as if he were trying to check them out.

“She gave you a three. Now, let’s go sit down.”

“A three as in a three?” Ronan looked scandalized.

Ten grabbed Ronan’s arm and pulled him toward the pew. “She said your jacket was covering it.”

“I can take off my coat.” Ronan started to shrug his left arm out of the coat.

“For God’s sake! We’re in the middle of a church. My father’s funeral is about to start. My mother is going to go full on Smaug when she sees where we’re sitting and you want to take your jacket off so Bertha will give your ass a higher score?” Tennyson stopped and realized how ridiculous his words sounded coming out of his mouth.

“Good! You think this entire conversation is ridiculous too. At least it got your mind off this whole seating thing for a few minutes.” Ronan guided him to a space in the front pew. “I still don’t think my ass is a three, even in a suit jacket.”

Neither did Tennyson, but with Kaye walking down the aisle with flared nostrils and fire in her eyes, now wasn’t the time to tell Ronan. Ten looked up at the cross hanging above the altar. He couldn’t help whispering a prayer to Jesus that Kaye would let everyone get through the funeral service and mercy meal to come, in peace.

Ten had no real expectations of his prayer coming true. After all, none of the other prayers he’d prayed within the walls of the church had ever been answered. Why would this one be any different?

 

 

12
Ronan

Ronan knew that funerals weren’t supposed to be fun, but David Grimm’s service was one for the ages. It was part tent revival, and part campaign rally, with some good, old-fashioned mourning thrown in for the hell of it.

He’d actually been ready to get up and walk out when Reverend Greene started preaching about the lessons to be learned from Sodom and Gomorrah. Thankfully, he’d put himself between Tennyson and Kaye on the pew, otherwise, Ronan had a feeling mother and son just might have come to blows. He had a sneaking suspicion that when Kaye went into the church ahead of them to speak with the pastor about the service, this was what she was asking him to add.

Now, all he had to do was get through the final chorus of Amazing Grace and he was home free. Ronan couldn’t help wondering if the words even registered with Kaye.

Was blind, but now I see…

Ronan had a feeling that Kaye Grimm would be walking blind in the valley of the shadow of darkness for some time to come. He sure as shit was sick and tired of trying to enlighten a mind that was closed.

“Thank Christ that’s over with.” Tennyson shut the hymnal they were sharing and set it back down on the pew next to them.

“All we’ve got to do now is round up four other men to help carry the casket out to the graveyard.” How fucking pitiful was it that at this moment in time David Grimm only had two pallbearers? What the hell were they going to do if only he and Tennyson volunteered for duty? Drag the damn coffin to the burial site? Ask Kaye in her two-inch heels and manicured nails to lend a hand? How about seventy-year-old Reverend Greene with his bigoted attitude and stooped back? Either way, Ronan was going to need a massage tonight.

What he actually needed was a drink. Fuck that… He’d be damned if he’d let this place, these people, or their attitudes put his hard-fought sobriety in jeopardy.

“That concludes the funeral service for David Grimm. The family would like to invite you to the private graveside ceremony and then to the funeral luncheon being held in the church basement. It’s being catered by the Main Street Café. Mrs. Grimm needs some volunteers to be pallbearers. Volunteers can see me.” Reverend Greene stepped away from the microphone.

What Ronan needed right now was to hug Tennyson, but he didn’t want to incite a scandal or a shouting match with his future mother-in-law.

“Uncle Ronan!” came a familiar voice in the crowd.

“Greeley?” Ronan turned around to see the teenager bobbing his way through the crowd toward them. He barreled into Ronan and hugged him tightly. “How did you get here?” He was too shocked to do anything else but hold on tight.

“We just flew in.” Fitzgibbon said. “Got here just in time for the start of the service.”

“Who are these people, Tennyson?” Kaye asked. Her superior attitude was back in full force.

“Mom, this is my and Ronan’s boss, Captain Kevin Fitzgibbon of the Boston Police Department and his son, Greeley.”

“Another Papist?” she asked with a regal tone in her voice

Fitzgibbon shot Ronan a look that asked if Kaye was for real. Ronan nodded. “It’s nice to meet you ma’am. I’m very sorry about the loss of your husband. My son and I would like to volunteer our services as pallbearers.”

Kaye’s mouth gaped open and closed like a fish out of water.

“I’ll just go talk to the priest.” Kevin patted her shoulder and moved off.

“Reverend!” Kaye called after him, finding her voice again. “Ronan, what is the meaning of this?” Kaye loud-whispered.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Ronan shrugged. “I had no idea my boss was coming out here. Greeley had his GED test yesterday and then today was supposed to be a regular work day for Kevin.” Ronan turned back to Greeley. “How did you do on the test?”

“I got a 98%, Uncle Ronan! I got tripped up on a few advanced calculus questions, but there’s time to learn about that in college, right?” Greeley was all smiles.

“I’m so proud of you, kiddo!” Ronan hugged the teenager again.

“Why did you need to take a GED test instead of graduating from high school, young man?” Kaye asked. Her shrewd eyes narrowed on the boy.

Tennyson growled at Ronan’s side. “Now’s not the time for this discussion, Mom.”

Greeley set a hand on Tennyson’s shoulder. “No, it’s okay, Uncle Ten. I was kicked out of my foster home for coming out as gay, Mrs. Grimm. Then, since I was fifteen years old and homeless, I had to sell my body to afford food. I was attacked and raped by a serial killer who almost murdered me, but luckily, I managed to escape. After that, I turned to drugs to cope with the trauma of his brutality. Then, Captain Fitzgibbon found me and asked if I would be willing to help him and Uncle Ronan find the killer so he couldn’t hurt any other boys like me ever again. I agreed, and he put me into rehab so I could get clean. The killer found me at the rehab facility and kidnapped me. He almost killed me a second time, but Ronan and your son saved me. That’s how I ended up taking the GED test instead of graduating from high school.” Greeley offered her a genuine smile.

“I hope that answers your question, Mrs. Grimm.” Fitzgibbon said from behind her. “My son has been through hell and back to be here today to help you say goodbye to your beloved husband. I trust he’ll be given the dignity and respect that he deserves.” Without waiting for an answer, Fitzgibbon motioned to Greeley and they moved away.

“Maybe you’d like a crane to help get your foot out of your mouth, Kaye?” Ronan asked cheerfully. “Come on, Ten. Let’s go see if we can find two more pallbearers.”

“Hey, guys.” Cal Farmer waved them down. “I may be a ninety-pound weakling, but I’m here to volunteer my services. I don’t think you’re gonna need much help from me though since you brought The Incredible Hulk with you. Damn, that man is fine!” He fanned his face.

Ronan laughed. The sound of it was almost foreign to his ears. “That’s my police captain from Boston. He’s taken, so you might not want to tell him how fine he is.”

“Oh, no, Fitzgibbon will eat that right up.” Ten laughed.

“Tennyson Grimm?” a deep voice said from behind them. “I’m Sheriff Barlow Reed. I’m so sorry about your father.” The sheriff held out his hand.

“Thank you.” Ten shook the sheriff’s hand.

“I’m here to be a pallbearer and if it’s possible, I’d like a moment of your time later, Detective O’Mara.”

Ronan shot the sheriff a curious look. At this point in time, he’d take any port in the storm. “Sure thing. Grab me during the meal later. I’ll be happy to speak with you.” He couldn’t help wondering what this was all about. Did it have to do with wanting him to consult on a case? Or, was it a warning for him and Tennyson to get the hell out Union Chapel ASAP because the town didn’t want their kind here?

Sighing, Ronan found himself anxious to find out which of the two options it was.

 

 

13
Tennyson

Ten had to hand it to Cal Farmer, the meal he’d prepared for after David’s funeral was delicious. There were trays of fresh garden salad with the sweetest tomatoes Tennyson had ever tasted, followed by vegetable lasagna and trays of chicken piccata. There were also fresh dinner rolls and delicious gazpacho soup. Ten had helped himself to portions of everything. He was tempted to ask for the soup recipe. He knew Truman would go nuts for it.

“I still can’t believe you’re here, Cap,” Tennyson said in a low voice. He and Ronan were sitting at a table with Kevin, Greeley and Kaye. His mother was pushing food around on her plate. This was the saddest he’d seen her since he’d arrived in Union Chapel.

“Ronan Skyped me and Tru after you came back from the funeral home. He looked like he was in bad shape. I’d been thinking about coming out here anyway after Greeley’s test was out of the way. I have a ton of vacation time to take but seeing the defeated look in Ronan’s eyes sealed the deal. I knew if he looked like that, you were in worse shape.”

It was true. Tennyson had wanted to fly back to Boston that night. He’d been done with his mother’s attitude toward himself and Ronan. “You know, I’ve spent these last thirteen years thinking about how much I’d lost by being kicked out of my family and my home, but after being here for the last few days, I’m realizing now how much I’ve gained. The life I would have led here in Union Chapel would have beat me into the ground.”

“You’re stronger than you know, Ten. Never forget that.” Kevin squeezed his shoulder. “I’m gonna get some more of that cold soup. Can I get you some?”

Ten shook his head. He couldn’t eat another bite.

“Okay. I’ll bring you some back anyway. And a plate of those cookies too. Ronan said you know the guy who catered this shindig. See if you can get the soup recipe. It’s off the hook.” Fitzgibbon laughed.

“Cal thinks you’re hot stuff, Cap. I bet if you ask, he’ll give it to you.” Ten waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Really, he likes me?”

Ten nodded. “He called you The Incredible Hulk.”

“I have been working out.” Kevin hunched his shoulders forward, making his muscles bunch.

“Just go.” Ten rolled his eyes.

“Little Tennyson Grimm? Is that really you?” a sweet voice called out.

Tennyson turned around to see Shelly Brinkman, one of Kaye’s oldest friends, hurrying toward the table. Shelly was heading right to him. Ten stood up to meet her. “Hello, Mrs. Brinkman.”

“Don’t you ‘Mrs. Brinkman’ me. It’s Shelly. Now come here and hug me. It’s been way too long.” The tiny woman wrapped her arms around Tennyson and gave him a big hug.

Tennyson was completely overwhelmed, but held on tight. She smelled like lilacs, just like she did when Ten was a boy.

“It’s so good to see you,” Shelly whispered. “I’ve been following your career since you landed in Salem. I’m so glad you didn’t let your parents’ attitude defeat you, sweetheart.” Shelly pulled back to look Tennyson in the eye. “Love looks so good on you.” She set her hands on his cheeks. “Where’s your Ronan? I’m dying to meet him.”

His eyes were stinging with tears at Shelly’s words. He turned to Ronan who was talking quietly with Greeley. “Ronan? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.” The words felt bizarre on his tongue. He never imagined there being someone here in Kansas he’d want Ronan to meet.

Ronan excused himself from Greeley and joined Tennyson. “Hi, there.”

“Ronan, I’m Shelly Brinkman, one of Kaye’s oldest friends.”

Ten watched as Ronan dialed back his smile and his guarded look went up. His eyes narrowed.

“Please don’t hold that against me,” Shelly whispered. “I was just telling Tennyson how excited I was to meet you.”

“Excited to meet me?” Ronan practically sputtered.

“I’m sure you haven’t heard much of that since you got to Union Chapel, but I’m thrilled for you and Tennyson.” Her smile was exuberant as she reached out to hug Ronan too.

“It means a lot to hear you say that.” Ronan’s voice sounded shocked as he returned the hug.

“I see you’re still a bleeding hearted liberal, Shelly,” Kaye said from across the table.

Tennyson noticed a hush falling over the room. Heads turned to look at them. This kind of a scene was the last thing he wanted today.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Kaye. I’m sure David’s resting in peace…now.” Shelly turned back to Tennyson. “Why don’t we grab a cookie, hmm?”

Ten turned to Ronan.

“No, you go ahead. Sheriff Reed said he wanted to talk to me about something. I’m gonna go hook up with him. It was a pleasure meeting you, Shelly.”

“I’d like to have you and Tennyson out to my house for dinner before you head back to Boston. Your friends are welcome to come too. Your boss’s son is just a delightful young man. He was sitting near me at the service. So polite and well mannered. You all must be so proud of him.”

“We are.” Ronan nodded. “I’ll catch you later, Ten.”

Ten held his arm out for Shelly and led her away from the table. “Okay, dish. When did you and Mom have a falling out?”

“Oh, well, you know Kaye and I have never seen eye to eye on certain things.” Shelly shrugged. “It was a few years back when Cal Farmer opened the Main Street Café and finally came out. I had suspected he was gay for years, but wasn’t going to say anything to him until he decided it was time to share his secret with me. When he came out, I was as openly supportive of him as he was open with his personal truth. Your mother didn’t like that and her own opinion led to a bit of personal revelation on her part.”

“Personal revelation?” What on earth was Shelly talking about?

Shelly looked around the room, obviously not wanting anyone to overhear what she was about to tell Ten. “She told me about you.  I mean, I had thought you were gay, but again, it wasn’t my business to speculate or take a poll around town.”

“It was my mother telling you I was gay that broke up your friendship?” Ten couldn’t believe his ears. Kaye and Shelly had been friends for as long as he could remember. 

“No, sweetheart. It wasn’t the knowledge that drove the wedge between us, it was what she said next.”

Ten sighed. He had a feeling he knew what Shelly was driving toward. “She told you the real reason I left Union Chapel, didn’t she?”

Shelly nodded. There was a look of profound sadness in her eyes. “I mourned for you, Tennyson. A man like you could have been such an asset to our community, but instead, your family deported you as if you were something to be ashamed of.” Kaye shook her head.

Tennyson could tell she was fighting back her emotions. He was touched by her feelings on his behalf.

“I was never blessed with children of my own. That’s why Roy and I were foster parents instead. It would have been my greatest joy to have been a mother to a son like you. To see the way she threw you away like a shirt with a mustard stain on it…” Shelly’s hands were balled into fists at her sides.

Tears were stinging the back of Ten’s eyes. He wished he’d known he had this kind of ally when he was seventeen years old. It would have saved him so much heartache and suffering. On the one hand, it was that pain that made him the man he was today. “It’s okay, Shelly. Having to make my own way in the world made me stronger. Being on this path led me to Ronan. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t put any of this on yourself.” Ten scanned the room looking for Ronan. He found him over in the corner near the coffee dispensers speaking quietly with Sheriff Reed. “You saw that man. You saw the way he looks at me. If I could go back and change anything. I wouldn’t. My life with Ronan was worth getting on that Greyhound bus.”

Shelly rummaged around inside her purse, finally pulling out a linen square. She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with it. “You’re right. You never would have found your Ronan if you hadn’t gotten on the bus. I never would have had the strength to turn my back on everything I’d known and loved like you did. You’re so brave, Tennyson.”

“My spirit guides told me it would all work out, so I had a bit of an advantage.” Tennyson laughed. “Sometimes the only choice we have in life is to take a leap of faith. Sometimes we fall flat on our faces; other times we soar.”

As far as Tennyson had been concerned, soaring had been his only option.

 

 

14
Ronan

Ronan knew he was wearing a goofy smile on his face when Tennyson walked off with Shelly. He didn’t care one whit. It was the first time in the few days they’d been here that Tennyson had been genuinely happy to see someone. Another bonus was the sour look on Kaye’s face when the two of them walked off arm in arm.

“I like her,” Fitzgibbon said. He was carrying two bowls of the gazpacho and was wearing a shit-eating grin.

“Let me guess, you got the recipe?”

“For the soup and the piccata. We’ll have to make this meal for Truman and Carson when we get back home. They’re doing us a real solid by watching Dixie and Lola.”

“Oh shit! I didn’t even ask how Greeley responded when you gave him the puppy.”

“He burst into tears. I had Truman videotaping the whole thing. When Greeley showed me the test results, I had him shut his eyes because I had a surprise for him. When he opened them and saw the puppy, he completely lost his mind. I’ll show you the video tonight when we’re back at the B&B.”

“The B&B?” Ronan felt like a complete asshole. He’d been so upset at the way Kaye had been acting all day that he hadn’t given a thought to where Fitzgibbon and Greeley would be staying tonight.

Fitzgibbon grinned. “Greeley loved the place that you and Ten are staying at, so I called them and they had a room for us. The kid at the desk even gave us the same discounts you’re getting.”

“You must have spoken to Aaron. He was a fan of the reality show.” Ronan waggled his eyebrows. “I’m looking forward to getting back there tonight and unwinding. Tennyson really enjoyed the hot stone massage the spa offers. I might get one myself.”

“You might not be able to relax just yet. The sheriff keeps staring at you and I don’t think it’s because of your dreamy blue eyes.”

“You think I have dreamy blue eyes?” Ronan laughed while turning his back to Sheriff Reed. “He came up to me after the church service and said he wanted to talk to me.”

“About what?” Fitzgibbon’s demeanor grew serious.

“He didn’t say. I figure he either wants me to consult on a case or he wants to tell me and Ten that we need to get the hell out of Dodge. There’s a lot of hate in this town, Kevin.”

The captain looked around the room. Most of the people who were still there were chatting amiably over dessert. “I’ve never understood how religion and hate went hand in hand.”

“Ditto, brother.” Ronan clapped a hand on Fitzgibbon’s shoulder. “I’m gonna go talk to the sheriff before he bores a hole though me with his eyes.”

“I’ll keep an eye on you and I’ll stick my nose in if I sense trouble.”

Ronan nodded and headed toward the table where Sheriff Barlow Reed was sitting with other members of the Union Chapel Sheriff’s Office. The four men and one women were dressed in funeral attire, but Ronan could spot a cop a mile away. Their posture was ramrod straight and their eyes roamed the room unceasingly. “Sheriff Reed,” Ronan greeted. He was ready for anything.

“Detective O’Mara. It’s good to see you. Let me introduce you to some of my best people. Janowitz, Lazaro, Boone, and Walsh.”

Ronan shook hands with Janowitz, an all-American blue-eyed blond. “Good to meet you.” He moved on to Lazaro, a pleasant looking Hispanic officer with dark eyes and close-cropped hair. His grip was hard enough to turn the bones of Ronan’s hand to dust. Boone, the lone female of the group was a tall woman with her brunette hair done in a neat bun. She gave him a cool, assessing look before shaking his hand. Walsh, openly scowled at him and refused his hand.

At least Ronan knew where he stood with Walsh.

“Step over here with me, if you would, detective,” Reed said, leading him away from the other sheriff’s deputies.

“Please call me Ronan.” He figured if he put the conversation on a first name basis, it might make things a bit more friendly.

“I don’t know how much longer you and Tennyson Grimm plan on being in town for,” the sheriff began.

Well, shit… Ronan thought that since the sheriff had introduced his people, that they weren’t going to have this conversation about getting the hell out of town by sunrise, but maybe he was wrong. “We plan to be here for a few more days at the very least.”

Reed nodded. “Look, I know you’re both here to mourn the loss of David Grimm, but if you both could spare some time to look at a case file for me, I’d appreciate it.”

Ronan blinked hard, shaking his head. “You want Ten and I to consult on a case?”

“What, did you think I was going to kick the two of you out of my town?” Reed frowned. “I might not swing on the same vine as you and Tennyson, but that doesn’t mean I think the tree should be cut down either. If you catch my drift?”

Ronan snorted. “Loud and clear. Is this a fresh case?”

Barlow shook his head. “Nope. This is a case that’s ten years cold. I’m not going to say any more than that. Since you and Tennyson weren’t here when the crime was committed. I don’t want to prejudice either one of you or give you enough information to look the case up online. I want you both to be impartial third parties.”

“How is that possible since Tennyson spent the first seventeen years of his life here? Won’t he know the victim’s family?”

“No. That’s the beauty of this situation. The family involved moved to Union Chapel in the years after Tennyson moved to Massachusetts.”

“I am more than willing to take a look at the case, Barlow, but I can’t speak for Ten. I’ll talk to him about it tonight and get back to you in the morning. I know you met Kevin Fitzgibbon earlier. He’s my captain from the Cold Case Unit back in Boston. If you like, I can ask if he’s interested in having a peek as well.”

The sheriff looked past Ronan to where Fitzgibbon and Greeley were sitting together. “You’re obviously close if he flew out here this morning to be here for you and Tennyson.”

“He’s a good friend, but an even better cop.”

“I’d be glad for any help you can provide. We’ve had this case on our books for a long time and I’d like to be able to give the family some closure.”

Ronan could certainly understand where the sheriff was coming from. After meeting and spending time with Michael Frye’s parents, he knew how hard it could be to wait for closure which seemed like it would never come. “There’s one last thing. You do know that Ten isn’t a cop, right? He’s a consultant with the Boston Police Department because of his psychic gifts. If he agrees to work on this case, he would be using those talents to gather evidence.”

“I’d heard about that through the Union Chapel grapevine. Some people say what Tennyson does is all bullshit. Others say he’s a genuine talent.  All I care about right now is getting this case solved.”

“I’ll talk to him and let you know. How can I reach you?” Ronan was impressed by the fact that Reed was willing to allow Tennyson to use his gifts, just like Fitzgibbon had done.

Barlow dug into his suit jacket and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out a business card and handed it to Ronan. “I’ll be waiting to hear from you. I’m usually in the office by 5am. McDonald’s is the only place in town open for breakfast that early in the morning.”

“Got it.” Ronan shook his head as he walked away from the sheriff. He couldn’t help noticing the dirty looks the entire table of deputy sheriffs were shooting him as he walked past. Whether Tennyson got on board with this case or not, this was going to be fun.

 

 

15
Tennyson

Tennyson was deep inside his head while Ronan drove to Kaye’s house. Ronan and Kaye were silent too. It had been an exhausting day overall. He had a lot he wanted to tell Ronan about his chat with Shelly Brinkman and he could tell there was a lot Ronan wanted to tell him in return about his talk with Union Chapel’s sheriff.

“Here we are, Kaye.” Ronan parked the rented Ford in her driveway and opened his door.

“You don’t need to see me to the door like you’re my date, Ronan. I can do it myself.” There was no heat in Kaye’s words.

Ten rolled his eyes and got out of the truck too. Even worn to the bone she couldn’t shut her ungrateful mouth and just accept their kind gesture.

Both men walked behind her as she made her way to the front door, rummaging through her purse as she went, presumably for her house key.

She yanked it out and was quick to unlock the door. “See, I unlocked it all by myself.” Kaye shot them each a dirty look.

“We’re coming in, Mom.” Tennyson’s voice sounded tired, but he meant business. He hadn’t been in the house in a few days and he wasn’t leaving until he was sure she had enough food to get through the day tomorrow. They had lot of family business to deal with and he didn’t want his mother starving to death before they could get David’s will and her driving status sorted out.

Kaye rolled her eyes, but waved them both in.

“Do you have stuff for breakfast?” Ten asked mildly.

“Someone dropped off a breakfast casserole and I think I have some coffee left.”

Ten left Kaye in the living room and went to the fridge. He saw a tinfoil wrapped casserole dish. When he pulled up the wrap, he could see an egg and sausage bake. It actually looked pretty good. He thought he could smell thyme mixed in with fragrant sausage. There was also half and half for coffee and half a gallon of milk. He did a quick check of the cabinets and saw there was a box of Cheerios in case his mother wanted cereal.

When he walked back into the living room, Kaye was holding a framed picture of David. Ten thought there were tears shimmering in her eyes. “Are you okay?” Ten could feel that she wasn’t.

“I buried my husband of thirty-four years today, Tennyson. How do you think I am?” Kaye’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Rather than answering that question out loud, Tennyson read her emotions instead. His mother was heartsick. She was worried about her future, not only from a financial standpoint, but also from the standpoint of who she’d grow old with now that David was gone. Last, but certainly not least, Kaye was upset that Tennyson and Ronan were in Union Chapel.

He looked over her shoulder at the picture. It was one he’d never seen before. David was standing next to Kaye in front of a large tree. They were both dressed to the nines. “Wow, I look so much like him.” He turned around to see Ronan hanging back near the sliding glass door in the dining room. “Ronan, come see this picture of my father.”

Ronan walked over and stood on the other side of Kaye. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought the young man was you, Ten. Why are you both posing in front of that giant tree?”

Kaye shrugged. “This was the night of the Homecoming dance our senior year of high school. It was tradition for couples to have their pictures taken in front of the giant elm tree before going off to the big dance. That was the night David kissed me for the first time. I knew then and there that I was going to marry him.” Kaye sniffled.

“I don’t ever remember seeing a tree like this in Union Chapel. Where is it?” Tennyson asked, ignoring his mother’s emotional journey down memory lane.

“It got struck by lightning during a storm the year before you were born. Your dad and a bunch of the men from the church had to go out and cut it down the next day. Broke their hearts to have to do it.” Kaye shrugged. “Someone brought a sapling to plant in its place, but it was never the same.”

Tennyson reached out to pat his mother’s hand. Kaye allowed it for a minute before she pulled away and set the photograph back on the table.

“You about ready to head back to the hotel, babe? I’m exhausted.” Ronan reached for Tennyson’s hand and brushed a kiss across the back of it.

“Do the two of you have to do that in my house?” Kaye’s voice was suddenly white-hot with anger.

“Do what, Mom? Express affection for each other? Touch each other? What exactly is it that we’re doing that you find so upsetting? Ronan and I aren’t doing anything that I didn’t see you and Dad do a thousand times over in this very room.” Tennyson could feel his own anger starting to boil over at Kaye’s attitude.

“David and I showing affection for each other is part of the natural order. You and Ronan doing it is just…” Kaye trailed off. “Just… Unnatural,” she finished with a funny look on her face as if the word tasted bad in her mouth.

What Kaye was saying was certainly not anything he hadn’t heard before. “Unnatural is a mother turning her back on her child because of a function of biology, Mom! You’re so upset over the way I act with Ronan, are you even upset that Dad is dead?” Tennyson’s voice boomed. He hadn’t intended to yell, but he had reached his breaking point.

“Of course I am! He was fine a few days ago and now he’s gone. I woke up the next morning and he was cold. My husband is dead and now I have to deal with the two of you.”

“You have to deal with the two of us?” Ten’s stomach ached with the pain her words were causing him. It was bad enough that her words were flaying him alive, the last thing he wanted was for Ronan to feel the sting of her words too. “So far as I see things, Ronan and I are all you’ve got. Yeah, some old blue stockings have dropped by some casseroles, but that’s it. You spent fifty-five years in this town and when your husband dies all you’ve got for support are a couple of lousy meals? Where are all of your friends? Where are all of Dad’s friends? Seems to me like the only people who are here for you are your family.”

“Family? My gay son and his lover. That’s your definition of family?” Kaye wrinkled her nose.

“Families come in all shapes and sizes, Kaye.” Ronan took a deep breath. “Some are born in blood, others are forged by deeper ties, friendship, love and devotion. I know you know about those things. I hear them in your voice when you talk about David. All those emotions you felt for your husband are exactly how I feel about your son. All you can see right now is the fact that we’re two men in love with each other and building a life together. You find that distasteful because some book tells you to! Jesus Christ, open your eyes! You let some words on a page cost you the last thirteen years with your son. Are you going to let them cost you the next thirteen?” Ronan’s hands were balled into fists at his side.

“Do not come into my home and take the name of the Lord in vain, Ronan,” Kaye said sourly.

“That’s all you have to say to me after I poured my heart out to you? Don’t take the name of the Lord in vain? Not that you’re happy your son has found someone who loves him? Or, that you’ll think about your stance on our relationship?” Ronan shut his eyes and took a deep breath, his hands slowly un-fisted. “I’m out, Ten. I’ll be waiting for you in the truck.”

“I’d like an answer to Ronan’s question, Mom. Is that all you have to say?” Ronan had certainly said all of the words that had been floating around in his head, only with more eloquence and grace than he’d been intending to use.

“Leave me alone, Tennyson. Can’t you see I’m in shock over losing your father?” Kaye sounded like she had no more fight left in her.

“Yeah, we’ll leave you alone, Kaye.” Tennyson looked up at Ronan and headed for the front door. David wasn’t the only Grimm she was going to lose permanently if this attitude kept up.

 

 

16
Ronan

The only possible thing that could make Ronan smile tonight were the home movies Greeley had shot of Dixie and Lola’s joyful reunion. The sisters had yipped and spent time chasing each other around their living room before settling down to take a well-deserved nap together in Dixie’s pink princess dog bed.

Ronan missed their little dog so much. He really could use a good cuddle and a face licking right now. He hated Kansas. Hated the fact that he’d been the one who’d pushed Tennyson so hard to come out here and do the right thing by helping to lay his father to rest. Right now, he felt like he’d given Tennyson the worst advice ever.

“No, you didn’t,” Ten said, joining Ronan at the table in the garden.

“No, I didn’t what?” Ronan asked. “Are you reading my mind, Nostradamus?”

“Of course I am.” Ten picked up his hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “Remorse is pouring off you like smoke off dry ice, babe.”

Ronan laughed at the visual. Is that really how Tennyson saw things with his gift? “What would have happened if I had shut my mouth about coming out here?”

Ten shrugged. “My own guilt probably would have eaten away at me until I bought plane tickets. Bertha was nudging me along; so were Carson and Truman. I knew coming out here was the right thing to do, Ronan. Being an adult is doing the things we don’t want to do because they’re the right things to do.”

“It would have been easy to stay back in Salem in our comfortable home living our comfortable lives,” Ronan added. He had selfishly wanted to come out here and show Kaye and all of Union Chapel what they’d missed out on by shunning Tennyson and his gifts. All they’d managed to do so far was just hurt Ten more. Regardless of what he’d said to Barlow Reed, he just wanted to go home.

“I want to go home too, Ronan, but tell me about your chat with the sheriff.” Tennyson waggled his eyebrows at his fiancé.

Ronan sat forward in his seat, ready to go to work. “Do you know him?”

Ten shook his head no. “He isn’t a Union Chapel boy. I didn’t read him at the funeral. I wanted to hear your impressions of him before I did my voodoo.”

That made Ronan crack a smile. “He wants us to consult on a ten-year-old cold case. Barlow likes the idea of us looking at it because we know nothing about it and you don’t know the family involved. They moved to town after you left.”

“What’s it all about?” Ten’s voice sounded tired.

“It’s a mystery. The sheriff didn’t want us to be able to look it up online and develop any theories on our own. I also suspect he didn’t want you speaking with folks on the other side.” Ronan didn’t like how tired Ten looked or sounded. He also suspected he looked and sounded the same way to Tennyson. Even though he’d been medically cleared to go back to work, he still wasn’t one hundred percent back to the way he felt before he’d been shot. Not that he planned on telling anyone that.

“Did you commit us to helping him out?”

“No, babe. I told him I needed to speak with you about it. I also asked him if he knew that you weren’t a cop.”

Ten rolled his eyes. “What did he say to that? Did he break out the holy water?”

“He said he’d heard about your gift through the grapevine, but didn’t seem to have his own opinion about it one way or the other. I assume he did his research on us. He probably read the Boston papers. He’s also willing to utilize Fitzgibbon since he’s here. The overall impression that I got about him is that he’s desperate to solve this case.”

“And we’re his port in the storm.”

“It seems that way,” Ronan agreed.

“Knock, knock!” Kevin’s voice came over the gate door.

Ronan found his first real smile since he’d watched the videos of Lola and Dixie. “Come on in, guys.”

Fitzgibbon opened the gate and strolled inside. Greeley was right behind him. “We brought dinner. It feels like it’s been ages since lunch.” Kevin set a giant bag down on the table, while Greeley set a smaller bag down beside it.

“We grabbed fried chicken from some place out on Route 20. There was a huge line, so we figured that must mean it was good. It came with mashed potatoes and cornbread. Dad grabbed drinks for everyone too.” Greeley started unpacking the bags while Fitzgibbon passed out paper plates and plastic cutlery.

“What did the sheriff want, Ronan?” Fitzgibbon grabbed some chicken and passed the bucket to Tennyson.

“He’s got a case he wants me and Ten to look at. You’re welcome in on it too, Cap.” Ronan slapped a pile of potatoes on his plate and handed the container to Greeley.

“Me too! I want in on the case too, Dad.” Greeley had a pleading look in his green eyes.

Fitzgibbon raised an eye at his seventeen-year-old son.

Greeley gave the eye right back to his father. “I’m perceptive and smart. I can be a gopher for Uncle Tennyson. I can read the case notes from the other detectives. Aren’t you and Uncle Ronan always talking about wanting fresh eyes to look at evidence? Whose eyes would be fresher than a rookie consultant?”

Ronan snorted. “Rookie consultant?”

“Isn’t that what Sherlock Holmes was?” Tennyson asked.

“Consulting detective, actually.” Greeley said with a wicked grin. “See, you’d be getting the best of both worlds. Plus, hanging out with the three of you would keep me out of trouble.”

“Oh, would it now?” Fitzgibbon deadpanned.

“Mmm,” Greeley hummed through a mouthful of chicken. “Aaron, the wicked cute front desk guy, was giving me the eye when we checked in. He’s got a nice ass. Maybe I should stay here and hang out at the pool in my bathing suit. You know, work on my tan?”

Ronan started to laugh. “Welcome to the team, kid. Do what we tell you and try to stay away from the crime scene pics, okay?”

Greeley howled with glee and gave Tennyson a high-five.

“What’s so damn funny?” Fitzgibbon practically growled.

“Kid’s good. He knew just how to play you.”

“Yeah, well, who’s to say I didn’t want him with us anyway?” Kevin pouted.

Ronan shot his boss an, are-you-kidding-me look. “Yeah, Kevin, every father I know wants their teenage sons investigating cold case murders in their free time.”

Kevin frowned. “You think that’s what we’re looking at here?”

“Has to be. I can’t imagine Sheriff Reed wanting us to look into some petty theft or a domestic violence case, can you?”

Fitzgibbon shook his head. “How’d things go when you took your mother home, Ten?”

“I’d rather talk about this potential murder case. How’s that for an answer?” Tennyson bit into a chicken leg with more force than was necessary.

“Your mother is masking,” Greeley said.

“Masking?” Ten asked. “What’s that.”

“She’s hiding one emotion with another. We learned all about it in rehab. She’s using her anger and all the old feelings she’s got about you being gay and psychic to mask what she’d really feeling about your dad. If she’s angry at you and Uncle Ronan, she’s too upset to mourn your father.” Greeley sounded far older than his years.

It sounded right to Ronan. “So, if she’s doing that, I assume that means she’s not really dealing with either situation, right?”

Greeley nodded. “It’s one of the things that keeps people in the cycle of addiction. Like if I didn’t get over what Rod Jacobson did to me that first time he attacked me, it would have been a reason for me to go back to drugs. I knew I never wanted to go back down that road again, so, I dealt with my shit, got out all of my feelings and now that I’ve dealt with them in therapy I’m okay. I don’t like what he did or even how I responded, but I know how to cope with all of those things so that time in my life will never be a crutch for bad behavior again.”

“Greeley, why do you think Ten’s mother is still holding on to her feelings about Ten being gay and psychic after all these years?” Ronan was curious to hear the boy’s thoughts. He thought Tennyson could also benefit from the point of view of a child who was the same age Ten was when he left Union Chapel.

Greeley wore a contemplative look on his face. His right index finger tapped slowly on the table. “Rules are hard things to break, Uncle Ronan. We were all taught right and wrong from a young age. Part of Mrs. Grimm’s teachings was that being gay was wrong and having psychic powers were a sign of the devil. She believes in those things the same way you believe that killing people is wrong.”

Ronan nodded along. The kid had a point.

“Imagine if the president came out with an Executive Order making murder legal in the United States. Now something that you were always taught was wrong, is suddenly right. That’s sort of the battle going on with Uncle Ten’s mom. It’s always been wrong to be gay in her mind, but now, some of her friends and neighbors are saying it’s okay. Some religious organizations are saying it’s okay. Heck, even the United States Supreme Court said that marriage equality is a protected right.”

“Shouldn’t family and a parent’s love trump what was taught in a book?” Ten asked gently.

Greeley nodded. “I think it should, Uncle Ten. In our family it does. Your mother is standing at a crossroads here. Either she gets over her own misguided education and embraces us as her family or she’s Kaye Grimm, party of one. We all know that she would be welcomed into this family with open arms. She’d be a Nana to Carson and Truman’s babies, not to mention to her own bio grandkids someday soon.” Greeley shook his head. His eyes were misty. “I’ve never had a grandparent. I know Bertha loves me like one of her own, but I want hugs and fuzzy mints from the bottom of her purse. I want her to lick her finger to wipe something off my dirty face.”

Tennyson licked his finger and moved it toward Greeley.

“Not you, Uncle Ten!” Greeley giggled.

Fitzgibbon reached out and squeezed his son’s shoulder. “Good answer, son. My parents would have loved the hell out of you.”

“I want to meet them someday. When we’re back home and get our own house. I want Uncle Ten to introduce us.”

Kevin cleared his throat and reached for the nearly empty bucket of chicken. “Why don’t you FaceTime Carson and Truman? I want to see what’s going on with our Lola-girl.”

Ronan reached a hand out to Tennyson’s knee and pressed a kiss to the side of his face. “I’m just glad we’re O’Mara-Grimm, party of two.”

Tennyson laughed. “Three if you count Dixie. I’m not sure we should be thinking about real babies if you’re forgetting our precious fur baby.”

“Are we thinking about real babies, Ten?” Ronan held his breath waiting to hear Tennyson’s answer.

“I am. Aren’t you?” Ten’s dark eyes sparkled.

“Constantly, babe.” Ronan whispered.

“What?” Carson screeched. “What did he say, Fitz? Turn up the volume on your phone, damn it!”

Ronan burst out laughing. “I said, ‘constantly,’ you nosy bastard.”

“Well, then you two need to get busy!” Truman half-shouted.

“I’m not having babies out of wedlock!” Ten declared. “Ronan needs to put a ring on it first.”

“Speaking of putting a ring on it,” Truman said. “I’ve got some wedding venues to go over with you guys.” He held up a red notebook.

“Can’t we just get married at City Hall?” Ten’s smile turned upside down.

“What? No!” Ronan was horrified by the idea that Ten would want to stand in front of some Justice of the Peace in a run-down city office. “Email me what you’ve got, Tru. Ten and I are going to take this part of the conversation offline. Now, where is my pixie-girl? Daddy needs some loving.”

Ronan plastered a smile on his face as Truman turned the camera around to show Dixie and Lola sitting together in front of the babies’ high chairs. Brian, Stephanie, and Bertha were eating Cheerios on their trays and the dogs were on the alert for when one of the treats would get thrown over the side.

He could only guess why Tennyson was shelving their plans for the wedding of his dreams. Ronan wouldn’t be surprised at all if Mommy Dearest was the reason for his sudden change of mind. He was going to get to the bottom of this if it took rug burned knees to get there.

 

 

17
Tennyson

Ten was so tired and worn out from the day, he didn’t bother booking a massage or hopping in the jacuzzi. He took a regular shower and threw on his rattiest pair of sleep pants. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get close to Ronan, it was that he was just too tired and too sad to get down.

He could hear Ronan moving around in the living room, shutting off the television and checking on the hotel room door to make sure it was locked. A second later, he heard his lover’s light steps walk up to their bed and then the mattress dip when Ronan got into bed. He cuddled up behind Ten and sighed. “God, I hate these damn pants. They’re like a giant neon sign blinking ‘Not tonight!’”

“I don’t feel very pretty, Ronan. These trying days are really starting to take a toll on me. I don’t want to get out of bed and I just got into it.” Ten felt like he could sleep for a week. He knew he was on a downward spiral. This wasn’t good for him. He knew if this mood kept up, he’d pull Ronan down with him.

“I don’t feel very pretty either.” Ronan pulled Tennyson tighter against him. “We all have days when we feel ugly. The trick is keeping the ugly from spilling out toward other people.”

“My mother hasn’t learned that skill, obviously. I hate who I am when I’m around her. That’s not who I am.” Ten barely recognized the man he’d turned into over the last few days. He knew that was partly what was fueling this burgeoning depression.

“I get it. I know you have resentment toward her. All these years she had to work out her own issues and all Kaye’s done is let those feelings fester.”

“The only person my feelings of resentment are hurting now is me. I need to find a way to let them all go.” Ten snuggled back against Ronan’s body, loving the way his body heat seemed to envelop him.

“I agree, babe. She’s a bitter old woman who’s lost her husband. You don’t want to end up like that someday because you can’t let these feelings go now. If she came to you for a reading as a total stranger, would you cut her some slack with her attitude? Or, would you treat her the same way you’re treating your mother? Think about that.”

Ten sighed. Ronan was making sense. “You think Greeley had a point tonight about Kaye feeling the way she does because it’s how she was raised?”

“I do,” Ronan agreed, “but that argument can only carry her so far.”

“What do you mean?” Ten settled back further against the heat of Ronan’s chest.

“You get to a point in your life where you get to question how you were raised. It’s how the world changes. Think of all the racism that was stamped out because the next generation said no. It’s the same with homophobia. All it takes are open-minded people refusing to think how their parents think. Who’s better at questioning everything than teenagers?”

“I guess that kind of thing doesn’t work so well with fifty-somethings, does it?” There was no way Kaye was going to change her way of thinking. She was too set in her ways.

“If she doesn’t then she gets left behind to rust here all alone. I’m sorry, Ten, but after this trip is over, I’m done with her. Unless of course she comes to us with an apology on her own. At this point, the only thing I can see changing her mind about us is a grandchild, but I’m sure as fuck not letting her near our baby if she hates the two of us.”

Tennyson started to laugh. “Fuck off and die, but give me my grandbaby.”

Ronan laughed along with him. “Yeah, we’re not living like that, with my stomach in knots every time Nana Kaye is coming to town.”

“Do you think she hates me, Ronan?” Ten asked in a small voice. He hated giving his worst fear a voice, but after all these years, he had to ask the question. He knew he could trust Ronan to give him an honest answer.

“I actually think you making something of your life and not having to come crawling back to them on your knees is killing her.”

Tennyson thought for a minute about what Ronan said. “What you said has merit, but you didn’t answer my question.” He held his breath waiting for Ronan’s answer.

Ronan sighed. He pressed a kiss to the back of Tennyson’s neck. “I see the way Cole and Cassie are with Laurel and the way Truman and Carson are with their babies. Then there’s the Cap and Greeley and that boy isn’t even his biological son. There’s so much love and parental instinct there to protect at all costs, Ten. I don’t see those things with Kaye, but I don’t think there’s hate in her heart for you either.”

“If there isn’t love doesn’t there have to be hate?” Yin and yang, Ten couldn’t help thinking.

“No, sweetheart. Remember when we were working the Justin Wilson case and his parents thought being gay was just a phase he was going through?”

Ten nodded. He remembered how his gut had burned with anger at the dead teenager’s parents. That attitude had cost their son his life.

“They blamed themselves for Justin being gay. Maybe Kaye feels the same way?”

“Maybe. I’m just tired of fighting this battle, Ronan.”

“Let’s throw in the towel for the night, hmm?” Ronan pressed another kiss to the back of Tennyson’s neck. “Turn around, babe. I need me some cuddles.”

Ten snorted. “When did you turn into such a cuddle monster?”

“I might be tough on the outside, but inside I’m a big snuggly marshmallow of love.”

“Can I quote you on that?”

“Not if you want to live to walk down the aisle, Nostradamus.” Ronan giggled. “Speaking of walking down the aisle…”

Tennyson didn’t have to be psychic to know Ronan was going to ask about his sudden change of heart about the wedding. “This place is bumming me out, Ronan. I guess I let that carry forward to our wedding.”

“What would you think if I took over the planning?”

“You would do that?”

“I would. Just tell me one thing, indoor or outdoor?”

Ten rested his head on Ronan’s shoulder, where he felt the most comfortable. He shut his eyes and listened to the steady beat of his heart. It wasn’t too long ago when it wasn’t at all a given that Ten would ever hear this sound again.

Once he heard the steady rhythm, he turned his mind to Ronan’s question. New England. November 1st. He knew the weather could be sunny and seventy degrees or it could snow. Either way, Ronan would be standing at his side and pledging to spend the rest of his life honoring and cherishing him. “Indoor.”

“You got it, babe. Now let’s get some sleep. Promise me you’ll dream about chubby, curly-haired babies.”

Ten shook his head, pressing a kiss against Ronan’s heart. “No way. I’m gonna dream about chubby, redheaded, blue-eyed babies with Irish names.” That wasn’t so much a promise as it was a premonition, but Ronan didn’t need to know about that just yet.

 

 

18
Ronan

Thankfully, when Ronan woke up the next morning, the skies had cleared and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. He hoped the rosy sunrise would also buoy Tennyson’s spirits.

He remembered what the sheriff had said about McDonald’s being the only breakfast option at this early hour and he’d be damned if he put Tennyson through another walk down Union Chapel memory lane. Ronan couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Tennyson working shift after shift, slinging burgers, picking up extra hours and extra shifts, just so he’d have enough cash to get to Massachusetts and start his new life.

Hustling down the hall from their room to the dining room, Ronan hoped he was able to pick up breakfast for everyone before Tennyson even realized he was gone. He saw that the breakfast buffet was laid out and went to work grabbing muffins and making coffees.

Before he’d left the room, he’d checked his email on his phone and had seen the places Truman had had sent over for him to consider for the wedding. Ronan would never really have thought of himself a romantic man in the past, but the idea now of planning a surprise wedding, of sorts, for Tennyson was exciting.

“Christ, did you leave any muffins for the rest of us?” Fitzgibbon barked from behind him.

“These are for us.” Ronan rolled his eyes. “I grabbed blueberry for you and chocolate chip for Greeley. Two of each.”

“Oh, well, sorry about that. I slept like shit last night.” Kevin shook his head as he piled hard boiled eggs into a bowl.

“Do I even want to know why?” Living with a teenager was equal parts joy and angst, it seemed. Greeley was a great kid, but like everyone else of that age, his moods swung like Tarzan on a vine: fast and often.

“Ortiz fucked something up on a case,” Kevin muttered.

“Ortiz? You mean Ortiz your favorite Cold Case Detective? That Ortiz?” Ronan bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud.

“Yes, that Ortiz.” Fitzgibbon’s lip curled into a snarl.

“What the hell did he do?” Ronan knew Ortiz really wasn’t the captain’s favorite detective. Fitzgibbon had just said that to drive Ronan nuts. Not that it worked though.  It wasn’t like Ortiz to mess anything up either.

“He lost a piece of evidence.”

“What do you mean lost a piece of evidence?”

“Do you really need me to pull up Webster’s Dictionary and quote you the fucking definition of lost, Ronan?” Kevin barked.

“You do realize that one member of our esteemed consulting team is a fricken psychic, right? All you need to do is explain the situation to Tennyson and he can probably find what you’ve lost. Or, you can say the novena to Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things and hope the evidence turns up.” Ronan shrugged and started to walk away. He was beginning to wonder if Kansas was poisoning everyone.

“Ronan, wait!” Kevin called. “I’m an asshole.”

“I know!” Ronan returned without turning around. He grabbed a copy of the newspaper off the front table. “Be ready to go in ten, Cap.”

Fifteen minutes later when everyone was piled into Ronan’s rented truck, the only one of them with a smile on his face with Greeley. He was stuffing his face with muffins and chatting on about how much fun being a consultant was going to be.

Ronan led them all into the sheriff’s station, but there was no one to meet them at the front desk. He pulled out his phone and punched the contact he’d entered into his phone for Barlow Reed. A minute later, the sheriff walked into the main office.

“Ronan! So glad you could make it. Uh, this isn’t a day care,” Reed said when he got a look a Greeley.

“That’s good because I’m here to work, sheriff.” Greeley’s posture was straight and his voice was firm.

“You asked for consultants. You’ve got four of them. Let’s get to work.” Ronan wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit today. One wrong word out of the sheriff’s mouth and he was going to be poolside back at the hotel working on his tan.

Barlow Reed studied Ronan and the others for a minute before sighing and buzzing the door open that led from the lobby into the office. “I’ve got a conference room set up for you all to work in. Coffee, tea, and bottled water are in the kitchen. Shitter is down the hall.” Reed pointed.

Ronan bit his tongue. He could never imagine Captain Fitzgibbon treating guests in his precinct like this, but to each his own. “Thanks, sheriff.”

“I introduced Ronan to my people at the funeral, but for the rest of you, these are Janowitz, Lazaro, Boone and Walsh.” Reed pointed them out as he called their names.

“Well, if it isn’t little Tennyson Grimm,” Janowitz sneered.

“Janowitz, I see you’re the same booger-eating amoeba you’ve always been,” Tennyson shot right back.

“Booger-eating amoeba?” Ronan bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing.

“We went to Kindergarten together. He was a notorious snot-snacker back then too. No one wanted to be his field trip partner because we had to hold hands and he always had one finger busy digging for nose gold.”

“Eww, TMI, Ten.” Ronan held up a hand. He couldn’t help noticing that the sour looks were back on the faces of the other sheriff’s deputies, same as they were at the funeral yesterday.

Walsh was openly sneering at them. “What the hell is this? A gay pride parade?”

“It must be. I’m looking at the clown.” Greeley shot him a wicked smile.

“We’re here to work, sheriff. If this homophobic bullshit is what we’re in for, we’re out.” Ronan turned toward the door.

“Detective O’Mara, I assure you that Walsh doesn’t speak for all of us.” Reed shot Walsh a warning look. “Let me show you all to the conference room.”

Ronan stayed where he was for a minute, staring Walsh down. When the other man looked away, Ronan nodded and followed behind the sheriff as he led the way. It was a typical conference room with a rectangular table and large flat screen television mounted to the front wall. Greeley and Fitzgibbon took the seats on the far side of the table. Ten and Ronan took the seats on the near side. There were document boxes sitting at the far end.

Barlow hit the power button on the television and it came to life with the photograph of a young brunette woman. “This is thirty-three-year-old Shannon Bradley. She was a wife and mother to a thirteen-year-old daughter named Kayla.” The picture on the screen flipped to one of the Bradley family during happier times.

They looked like a nice family. Although, every family looked like a nice in posed pictures like this. Once you peeled down through the layers though, that’s when the ugly truths started coming to life.

“Are you sure the kid’s okay to see this stuff?” Reed asked.

“He’s tougher than he looks.” Fitzgibbon nodded at his son.

The sheriff shook his head and flipped to the next picture. It was the mutilated body of Shannon Bradley. “On the night of Thursday, September 6, 2007, someone stabbed Mrs. Bradley twenty-one times. The knife was from the block kept in the kitchen and was left at the crime scene.” The next picture showed the bloody murder weapon laying on the kitchen floor next to the body. “The stab wounds were mostly concentrated on the victim’s torso.”

“Suspects?” Ronan asked.

“The husband, Stephen, was out of town. He was a salesman for a plumbing supply company and regularly took trips out to Topeka twice a month. When he did, he was gone for five days at a time, leaving on Monday morning and returning on Friday in time for dinner. The daughter was asleep in her bed at the time of the murder. She woke up for school in the morning and was the one to discover her mother’s body.”

“Mr. Bradley’s trips out of town were well known?” Greeley asked. His pen was poised to start writing over a page with other notes he’d already jotted down.

“Yes, neighbors told us they would check-in with Shannon and Kayla during the week to see if they needed anything. They’d also help out with snow removal in the winter and when the tornado sirens would go off as well. Over the course of the investigation we interviewed the usual suspects, sex offenders and people in the area with criminal records. We came up with nothing, which is why when I heard that you were in town I had to ask for help.” The sheriff took a deep breath. “We all watched you on the Reality Show Network, Tennyson. Granted, religion still rules Union Chapel, but I’m open-minded enough to know that whatever skill-set you have on your own and together with Ronan works. This is the first and, so far, only murder we’ve ever had in town and I’d like to get this one off the books.”

Ronan had to admit it was an impressive little speech, even if it was born of desperation. “I know this is a long shot, Barlow, but what’s the state of the crime scene?”

“Abandoned. After the murder investigation cleared him, Stephen Bradley moved to Severance. He and Kayla still live there. I check in with them twice a year. He never got remarried and Kayla’s a mother to a child of her own now.”

Ronan knew which two days of the year the sheriff checked in with Stephen Bradley: Christmas and the anniversary of the murder. It was standard procedure in Cold Case to call the victim’s family on those two dates every year. Ronan wasn’t looking forward to his first Christmas in the squad for that very reason. “We’d like to go out there if it’s possible.”

Reed nodded. “You’ll find the keys to the house in one of the evidence boxes. The Sheriff’s Office owns the property now, so you’re free to come and go as you please. Just remember to lock up. The local kids try to get inside to hold seances and other bullshit like that.” His face crumpled. “Ah, sorry, Tennyson.”

“It’s okay, sheriff. Unless you have a talented medium conducting it, any séance is bullshit.” Tennyson winked at Ronan.

Ronan hid his burst of laughter with a cough. No one else around the table bought it. He’d been right earlier when he thought this was going to be fun. He was doing what he loved with the people he loved most in the world. Best of all, there was no pressure to solve this cold case. He was just here as a consultant.

 

 

19
Tennyson

Tennyson breathed a sigh of relief when Sherriff Barlow Reed left the room. It wasn’t that he disliked the man, he just wanted to get to work. The sooner they all had a chance to look over the evidence, the sooner they could get out to the Bradley house.

Shannon Bradley’s spirit wasn’t here at the sheriff’s station, so Tennyson was hoping that maybe he’d be able to contact her spirit at the family home. If not, his only other hope was a face to face meeting with her widower and daughter.

“What are you getting, Ten?” Ronan asked.

“Nothing so far,” Ten said. “Shannon’s spirit isn’t here. Not that I expected it to be.” Why would the ghost of a murdered woman hang out at the sheriff’s station? So far as he knew, she had no connection with the people who worked here.

“You think we might have better luck at the house?” Ronan asked.

Ten nodded. “That, or with her daughter. The sheriff said she was a mother now too. If I were a grandparent in the afterlife, I’d be hanging out with my grandchild.”

“Just like Bertha,” Greeley chimed in.

“Exactly.” Ten couldn’t help smiling at the teenager. He was glad Greeley was here with them instead of bumming around at the hotel’s pool.

“Let’s start unpacking the evidence boxes,” Fitzgibbon commanded. “Encyclopedia Brown, you keep notes.”

Greeley raised an eyebrow at his father, but flipped to a blank page in his notebook.

“I see you’ve elected yourself boss, Cap.” Ronan pulled an evidence box closer to himself and flipped the lid off.

“I don’t see any reason why we should deviate from our roles, unless you want to play Nostradamus for the day, Ronan?” Kevin winked at Tennyson.

“If I’d known his role was up for grabs, I would have dressed in one of his shirts instead of this stupid button-down and tie.” Ronan yanked at the knot in his tie.

Ten grinned. He’d only packed a few dress shirts for the wake and funeral and hadn’t seen the need to wear them again for the trip to the sheriff’s station, so he’d worn a polo shirt and jeans. 

“I’ve got the box with the victim’s clothes,” Fitzgibbon called out. Ten watched as he unpacked Ziploc bags labeled with the garment stored inside. Each piece of clothing was stained a deep brownish-red. 

Once Greeley had catalogued everything, Ten reached out for Shannon Bradley’s bloodstained blouse. He closed his eyes and focused his attention on the shirt. The crime had been committed ten years ago. It was asking a lot for any psychic residue to still be clinging to the item. He was about to set it back down when a wave of anger blasted toward him. “Holy fuck!” Ten dropped the shirt like it was on fire.

“What is it?” Ronan was at his side in an instant.

Ten looked up at Ronan. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “Someone was pissed. It felt like a tsunami of anger hitting me at full strength.”

“Could you tell who it was that killed her?” Fitzgibbon asked.

Ten shook his head. “No. All I could feel was the white-hot rage. I couldn’t even tell what the rage was directed toward or even who it was that was angry.”

“What do you mean you couldn’t tell who was angry? Do you mean it could be Shannon’s anger you could be sensing?” Greeley set down his pen to give Ten his full attention.

“Right. She could have been super pissed at the person killing her or at the idea that she was dying. With my own wedding less than a month away, I’d go nuclear if someone tried to kill me now.” Ten shivered in the warm room. Being within arm’s reach of his dreams coming true he could understand Shannon being filled with rage at the idea of dying. What he couldn’t understand was being filled with enough anger to be on the other end of the murder weapon.

“I’ll keep that in mind, babe.” Ronan pressed a kiss to the side of Tennyson’s head. 

“I don’t know how the hell the two of you solve so many cases if you’re always kissing each other,” Boone said as she walked into the conference room. She was wearing a good-natured smile on her face.

“They’re like swans,” Fitzgibbon laughed. “It strengthens their pair-bond and makes them better detectives. You’ll get used to it over time.”

Boone laughed along with them. “Look, guys, I just wanted to apologize for the reception you got out there. Janowitz and Walsh worked this case originally and they’re pretty pissed off that Reed asked outsiders to look into it.”

“I get that, Boone,” Ronan said easily.

“Throw in the fact that Tennyson is a hometown boy and a psychic and gay to boot and that adds insult to injury.” She shrugged. “Religion is still king here no matter how much the world is changing.”

“I hear you,” Tennyson agreed. “Thank you for coming in here. I appreciate it.”

“How does it all work?” she asked. “I mean with you talking to the dead victim. I can’t imagine that evidence is admissible in court, even in a place as liberal as Boston.”

Ronan barked out a laugh. “Come on, Boone. We’re not that liberal back east!”

“If I’m able to connect with Shannon Bradley’s spirit and she can tell me who killed her, Ronan and Cap will use that information to hopefully get her killer to confess.”

Boone seemed to be considering that information. “And what if he doesn’t?”

“Then we hope she’s given us a clue that leads to additional evidence,” Ronan said.

“How do you mean?” Boone looked puzzled.

“Let’s say Shannon kept pictures in a secret place, like in a crawl space or something. If she told Tennyson about it, you or one of your colleagues would be able to collect the evidence and use it against the suspect.” Greeley grinned proudly at his father. 

“What he said.” Fitzgibbon slapped Greeley’s back.

“Are you planning to go out to the Bradley house?” Boone asked.

“After we’ve had a look at all the evidence,” Tennyson said.

“I’d like to come with you. If that’s okay?”

Ronan exchanged a silent look with Fitzgibbon. “Is the sheriff keeping this investigation on the down low or is he making it public knowledge that he’s looking into the case again?”

Boone looked around the room. She seemed to be studying the outsiders. “He’s asked us to keep it quiet until you’ve spoken with Stephen and Kayla.”

“We’ll take unmarked cars when we go out there then. You’re in if Reed signs off on it,” Fitzgibbon agreed.

Boone smiled. “I appreciate it, guys.” She smiled as she headed out the door.

“You want to explain that to me?” Ten asked. “I thought the sheriff wanted us to take a look at things because we were impartial third-party observers.”

“He does, but he also wants to make sure we stay on a short leash, right Cap?” Ronan looked at Fitzgibbon.

The captain nodded. “Yup. If I were running this operation back home, I would have stuck one of my detectives in there to tag along, just in case.”

“So, she’s gonna report back to Reed?” Ten shook his head. 

“You bet your sweet ass she is, but so far as I see it, she’s the lesser of the four evils. Janowitz has an obvious bone to pick with you, Ten. Walsh hates the gays, and I can’t put my finger on Lazaro. At least Boone seems pleasant enough and we don’t have to worry about her flirting with any of us.”

“Praise, Jesus,” Greeley muttered. “Now, can we get back to work?”

Tennyson couldn’t help laughing. This kid was one in a million.

 

 

20
Ronan

When 4pm rolled around, the concentration around the conference room table was broken by the text jingle going off on Tennyson’s phone. Ronan watched with curiosity as his lover’s face lit up with a smile. Those kinds of smiles had been few and far between on this trip. “Who’s got you smiling like that?”

“Shelly Brinkman. She’s invited us all to dinner at her house tonight.” Ten grinned over his phone at Ronan.

“Oh man, I loved meeting her. She was so nice to us at the funeral lunch. Can we go, Dad?” Greeley turned on the charm.

“Tennyson was the one who was invited. I think it’s up to him.” Fitzgibbon smiled at Ten before he started packing up the box of evidence he’d been working on.

“What do you think, Ronan?” Ten set the phone down and focused on his husband-to-be.

Ronan would love nothing more than to watch Tennyson smile like that for the rest of the night. “What kind of cook is Shelly? I mean, are we gonna be eating like kings? Or stopping at McDonald’s on the way home?”

Tennyson burst out laughing. “You really are awful. You know that? How many times has Mommy Dearest invited us over in the few days we’ve been out here?” Ten held up his right hand, making a zero with his thumb and index finger.

Hearing Tennyson’s laugh was almost a foreign sound to Ronan. Had it really been that long since Ten had laughed like this? It had been a difficult couple of months since he’d been shot in August, to the conclusion of the Max Harmon case, and now with David Grimm’s death. There really hadn’t been a lot to laugh about.  “I say we go and have a great time. I’m looking forward to hearing stories about what you were like when you were little. I hope she’s got pictures too.” Ronan waggled his eyebrows. 

Ronan hadn’t wanted to say anything, but he’d looked over the pictures out for display at Kaye and David’s house and there hadn’t been any of Tennyson at all. It was as if their son didn’t exist. It made Ronan’s blood boil to think they’d erased their son from their lives.

“I’ll text her back and let her know we’re all coming.” Ten picked up his phone and started typing.

“At the end of day one do we have any conclusions on the Shannon Bradley case?” Greeley asked as he paged backward through his notes.

“As much as I kind of hate Janowitz and Walsh, they did a good job investigating the crime,” Ronan noted. “So far as I can tell, every ‘I’ was dotted and every ‘T’ was crossed.” Their attitudes might suck, but they seemed to be competent cops.

“I agree,” Fitzgibbon chimed in. “I spent two hours reading over the transcripts of interviews they conducted with the husband, his coworkers, neighbors of the couple, and Shannon’s friends. I can’t think of a single question I would have asked that they didn’t in those situations.”

Sitting forward in his seat, Greeley shrugged, looking uneasy.

“If you’ve got something to say, son, spit it out. You asked to be here for your fresh perspective. It’s not doing anyone any good if you swallow it down.” Fitzgibbon shot Ronan a look that said, “Watch this.”

“I agree with both of you, but the one thing I didn’t see was an interview with the daughter. I know she was only thirteen years old at the time of the murder, but she was also the only one home at the time of the crime. At the very least they could have done a cognitive interview with her.” Greeley sat back and looked around the table at everyone.

Ronan thought Greeley’s words over carefully. A cognitive interview was a process of memory retrieval that walks a victim or eyewitness through what they remember with their five senses rather than grilling them with questions in a typical police interrogation. “Greeley makes a good point. I wonder why they didn’t interview the child at all?”

“They make such a big deal about hand-holding kids today,” Tennyson started, “that I wonder if someone was trying to protect Kayla? Her father or grandparents, maybe?”

“Is it possible she was interviewed and those notes are missing?” Greeley asked.

“Are you getting any kind of vibe about that, Ten?” Ronan turned to his fiancé, who wore a puzzled look.

Ten shook his head. “No, I’m not getting any kind of deception surrounding this case from inside the sheriff’s office. These deputies did everything by the book. It just seems like the leads dried up.” Ten looked around the table. “It’s like you always say, Ronan, crime doesn’t take a holiday. People move on, memories grow dim. Life goes on, until someone or something comes back around to shake the tree.”

“Now we’ve got to be ready to see what falls out.” Ronan grinned.

“The sheriff said the family needs closure on this case, but I wonder…” Fitzgibbon scrubbed his hands over his face.

“What do you mean, Dad?”

“It’s been ten years. Stephen and Kayla moved away. Life went on, like Ten said. I looked up Union Chapel’s crime statistics online last night. Shannon Bradley has been the only person murdered in this town in the last hundred and fifty years. It’s not like there’s some serial killer out there picking off members of this town one by one.”

Ronan nodded. “You’re thinking that if we solve this case it’s going to bring up a lot more heartache for the Bradley family than it’s going to relieve.”

“I think so,” Fitzgibbon stood up and stretched his long arms over his head. “Not that I think we should let the crime go unsolved and the killer go unpunished.”

Ronan had to agree with his boss there. Ten years was long enough for Shannon Bradley’s killer to have gotten away with his or her crime. Whether they knew it or not, time was running out on that person’s freedom. Come hell or high water, they were going to find the young mother’s murderer and bring that person to justice.

 

 

21
Tennyson

A mixture of excitement and nervous energy was tossing around in Tennyson’s stomach. After they’d all cleaned up the conference room at the sheriff’s station, Ronan had driven everyone back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner. Now they were all on their way to Shelly’s house.

Ten was calling out directions to Ronan as he drove. He couldn’t believe that after thirteen years he still remembered the way without having to use the GPS.

“So, Shelly and her husband were foster parents?” Fitzgibbon asked.

“Yeah,” Ten turned around so he could see Kevin in the backseat. “Usually they had two or three foster kids at a time. They were always tough as nails kids from Kansas City. Kids whose parents had drug problems or who’d gone to prison. These were the kind of kids who’d beat you up for your lunch money.” Ten laughed. “But by the time Shelly was done with them, they were sweet as pie and on the right path. She’d get letters from some of them years later and invitations to their weddings, pictures of their new houses and babies.”

“That’s pretty amazing.” Fitzgibbon sounded truly awed.

“I’m just telling you the good stuff. There was plenty of heartbreak too. Kids who ended up going down the same path as their parents or who got pulled out of the Brinkman’s house in the middle of the night to go back home or who got moved on to another house. My mother would always ask why she set herself up for that kind of heartbreak. Shelly always said the kids were worth it.” Tennyson had always wondered though. Even when he’d been a little boy, he could still see the toll getting and then losing those kids had taken on Shelly and her husband.

Kevin sniffled. “I don’t know what I’d do if someone tried to take Greeley away from me.”

“I do!” Greeley laughed. “You’d go all Hulk SMASH!”

Tennyson laughed too. He didn’t think he had the strength to go through that either, coming to love a child only to have to give them up at some point in the future. He startled when Ronan reached over and took his hand.

“We’re either having biological kids of our own or we’re adopting. I couldn’t do it either, babe. It would kill me to have a child and then have to send him or her back to parents who were just going to mistreat them again. I wouldn’t survive that.”

Ten leaned over to press a kiss against the side of Ronan’s right temple. “I love when we’re on the same wavelength like that. Besides, a tiny baby girl with your blue eyes and your mother’s red hair is too delicious a creation to pass up. This is it right here.” Ten pointed. “Second house on the left.”

“Wait! What did you just say?” Ronan sputtered.

“Second house on the left,” Ten repeated.

Ronan parked the truck and turned to face Ten. “No. I heard the part about where the house was. I mean what you said about a baby girl with my eyes and my mother’s red hair. Is she real or were you just making a point?” He was practically panting for his next breath.

Tennyson opened his mouth to answer Ronan’s question, but just as quickly shut it again. His teeth clacked together from the force. There were so few true surprises left in the world. Ten sometimes forgot Ronan still had the gift of surprise in his life. He was going to keep his mouth shut about this if it killed him. “That was just me thinking out loud.” Ten rolled his eyes dramatically hoping to sell the point. “Greeley, don’t forget the cheesecake back there.”

“Oh, I won’t, Uncle Ten. I’ve been salivating over it the whole way here.” Greeley’s excitement was contagious as he hopped out of the truck with the giant box in his arms.

“Nice try, Kreskin. You don’t fool me for a second,” Fitzgibbon whispered as he shut the back door of the truck.

Ten turned to face Ronan’s boss. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He raised an eyebrow in challenge before turning and following Ronan and Greeley toward the front door. The last thing he needed was Fitzgibbon’s big mouth ruining his big sell.

“Hi, boys!” Shelly threw the front door wide open to greet them. The house was a two-story, brick-faced Colonial.

“No one’s called me a boy in nearly thirty years,” Fitzgibbon snorted.

“Get used to it.” Ten laughed.

“Christ, she’s only a few years older than I am.” Kevin seemed to be having a hard time processing that detail.

“Roll with it, Kevin. Let’s have some fun tonight. Oh, and volunteer to do the dishes, huh?”

“I can do that. Especially if the meal is top shelf.” His grin stretched from ear to ear.

“What have you got there, Greeley?” Shelly asked.

Greeley handed Shelley the box. “We stopped and got a cheesecake for dessert. It’s got four different toppings.”

“And let me guess, you’ve got dibs on all four, right?” She wrapped an arm around his shoulder, giving him a quick hug.

“Dad? Can we take Shelly home with us?” Greeley burst out laughing.

“Thank you for inviting us, Mrs. Brinkman and for having my son’s number so fast.” Fitzgibbon took her tiny hand in both of his and bowed over it.

“Well aren’t you just the sweetest man. And it’s Shelly. None of that Mrs. Brinkman stuff. Come on in everyone. Dinner is just about ready. I made barbeque. Hope you all brought your appetites.”

“Wait, you mean like Kansas City barbeque? Like they show on the Food Network?” Greeley’s eyes just about popped out of his head.

Shelly nodded. “I made ribs, potato salad, coleslaw and corn bread, even though it’s more of a southern staple. I had a feeling you’d like it.”

“Awesome! I can’t wait to try it. They don’t make that kind of barbeque back in Massachusetts. We’ve been to a couple of places and they add a bunch of heat thinking that takes the place of real KC flavor.” Greeley shook his head sadly.

“Are you sure you want to be a social worker and not a chef?” Ronan asked.

“I can be both.” Greeley grinned. “When we get our house, Dad’s gonna get a kick ass grill like the one you and Uncle Ten have and then I can grill my little heart out.”

“Oh really?” Fitzgibbon crossed his arms over his chest.

“Like you’d say no to home cooking?” Greeley challenged.

“The boy has a point, Cap.” Ronan laughed.

“Greeley, why don’t you help me set the table and you can tell me all about Massachusetts.”

“Sure!” he followed Shelly into the kitchen, leaving the others in the large living room.

The room looked suited to Shelly’s tastes, with floral couches and a warm eggshell color on the walls. The television was a small flat screen and didn’t look like it got a lot of use. Stacked up on an end table near a comfortable looking pink chaise were piles of Nora Roberts’ paperbacks and some Sudoku puzzle magazines.

“Hey, Ten!” Ronan called out from behind him.

Ten turned to see Ronan standing near a long rectangular table covered in framed pictures.

“Who is this adorable gap-toothed urchin?” Ronan held up a picture of what could only have been a first grade Tennyson.

“Oh! My! God!” Tennyson groaned. “I thought my mother burned all the copies of that picture.” Ten could feel his face burning up. He was wearing a little blue button-down shirt and a matching bowtie. Both of his front teeth had fallen out that summer, but his smile was as wide as the Mississippi. He looked happy.

“Let me see!” Fitzgibbon peered over Ronan’s shoulder. “HA! What a cutie with those flyaway curls and no front teeth.”

“I need a copy of this picture.” Ronan sounded sincere.

“I can make you one on the printer in my office,” Shelly offered from behind them.

“Oh, no, Shelly. You don’t have to do that.” Tennyson prayed she took him up on his offer.

“We don’t have any pictures of Ten from when he was a little boy. He looks so happy. It would mean the world to me to have a copy of this.” Tears glittered in Ronan’s eyes.

Ten had no idea Ronan felt that way.

“Actually, Ronan, after we met at the funeral the other day, I went through all of the pictures I had of Tennyson and made you copies of them all. They’re in an envelope in my office. I knew there would come a day when he would want them. Either in time for your wedding or when little ones of your own came into your lives.” Shelly set a hand on Ten’s shoulder. “Not all of your memories of your family and this place are bad ones simply because the last memory was.” She patted his shoulder and moved away.

Tennyson had never thought about Union Chapel and his childhood in that light before. As much as he hated to think about it, Shelly might have a point. Not all of his memories had to be painted by the same brush that colored his last day in town.

“Here you go, Ronan.” Shelly handed him a large, sealed manila envelope.

“Wow,” Ten was in awe. He had no idea Shelly had that many pictures of him. “Where did all of these come from?”

“You might find this hard to believe, but your mother was always very proud of you.” Shelly shrugged. “Dinner’s just about ready. Why don’t we head outside to the patio table?”

Ten felt like he was rooted to the floor. “Did my being gay change all that?” he whispered to Ronan when they were the only two left in the living room.

Ronan wore a strange look, as if he didn’t quite know how to answer the question. “I’ve never heard news before that made me completely change my mind about something. I’m not sure how I would react to that.”

Ten frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Your parents spent seventeen years loving and caring for you. They were putting aside a college fund for you. They planned for your future, Ten. Then, you said one sentence and everything changed.” Ronan shrugged. “I guess if you came out and told me that you cheated on me I suppose those words would have a similar effect on me that your coming out had on your parents, but it would take one hell of a long time to get over you, babe.”

Tennyson’s mouth hung open. “Jesus, Ronan, I would never-”

 “I know you wouldn’t,” Ronan interrupted. “I just couldn’t think of anything else that you could say that could make me all of a sudden just stop loving you. Like, when I was with Josh, his actions made me fall out of love with him over time. I can’t put my finger on just one thing he did, you know?”

Tennyson nodded. He knew what Ronan was trying to say. “I’ve been over it in my head a million times in the last thirteen years too. How could my telling them I was gay and psychic turn their feelings for me from love to hate in a heartbeat?”

“Why don’t we ask Shelly about that? Maybe she has an answer you don’t have? Or at the very least a point of view you may not have considered.”

Ten was about to agree with Ronan, when his stomach growled with hunger, deciding the matter for him.

When they got outside, dinner was in full swing. Greeley’s plate was loaded so high with ribs, Tennyson was worried there wouldn’t be enough left for him.

“Got enough food there, kid?” Ronan asked.

Greeley grinned and shook his head no before he tore into a rib. “So goo!” he muttered around his mouthful.

Ten assumed he meant, “so good,” and grabbed for the platter of ribs as soon as he and Ronan were settled in at the table.

“Can I assume I’m looking at Union Chapel’s newest crime fighters?” Shelly asked.

Ronan burst out laughing and reached for the potato salad. “Is that just good detective work or does news really travel at the speed of light in a small town?”

“A little bit of both,” Shelly admitted, sounding a bit sheepish. “I ran into Marcus Boone at the post office this morning and he mentioned his wife, Lynn, was going to be working with out of towners.” Shelly rolled her eyes. “You all are the only out of towners I know of.”

“Oh, so you invited us to dinner to hear the skinny about the crime?” Fitzgibbon bounced his eyebrows.

“Of course not, Kevin. It’s obvious you’re looking into poor Shannon Bradley’s murder.”

Tennyson choked on a bite of cornbread. Ronan whacked his back until he caught his breath. “How’d you know that? You don’t have a bit of the sight too? Do you?” Ten hadn’t sensed anything paranormal about Shelly, but she could be better at masking her powers than he was.

“No, of course not, silly. We’ve had one murder in this town. It’s now a cold case and we have three famous Cold Case Detectives in our piss-ant town. I don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out which case Barlow Reed has you boys looking into.” Shelly laughed.

“Wise ass,” Ronan muttered under his breath.

“Language!” Shelly laughed, slapping out at Ronan with her cloth napkin.

“Save me, Nostradamus!” Ronan waved his white napkin in the air. “I’m still recovering here.” He went to open his shirt.

“Not at the table. No one wants to see your scars.” Ten rolled his eyes.

“He really calls you Nostradamus, Tennyson?” Shelly asked, sounding awed. “I thought that was just a cute thing for the reality show.”

“Oh no, that was all real.” Ten shot Ronan an annoyed look. “Wasn’t it, snookums?”

Ronan laughed. “Let’s just say I wasn’t Ten’s biggest fan when we first met. I thought his gift was a bunch of bullshit, if you’ll pardon my French?” He turned a charming smile on Shelly.

Shelly laughed along with him. “That part came through loud and clear.” She shook her head. “I just can’t believe we all got to watch the two of you fall in love on television like that. It was just so real and authentic. Not like The Bachelor where they manufacture it all.”

There were still times when Tennyson found it hard to believe too. “Dad told me that he and Kaye watched the show. Do you think they saw our genuine feelings for each other?” Ten paused. He turned to stare into Ronan’s deep blue eyes. “Or, were they hoarking up their supper every time we gave each other a soft look or whatever…”

Shelly was quiet. She took her time folding her napkin before setting it down on the table in front of her. “I had a feeling you might ask something like that.”

Tennyson’s nerves surged back. His stomach was tossing like a paper airplane in a tornado. The longer she stared at her barbeque sauce-stained napkin, he wasn’t sure Shelly was going to answer him at all.

“I told you at the funeral that your mother and I had a difference of opinion when Cal Foster came out several years ago. After I heard your mother’s unvarnished opinion about gay people, it was then that I realized the real truth about you and why you’d left Union Chapel so suddenly after graduation. It was one of those train wreck situations. You know you should look away, but you can’t bring yourself to do it, kind of situations. So, I asked her if she and David had kicked you out for being gay. It took some hemming and hawing, but she eventually admitted it.” Shelly looked up at Tennyson with tears brimming in her blue eyes. “I know that doesn’t come as a shock to you, but what she said next was what broke up our friendship.”

Ronan set a hand on Shelly’s shoulder. “No matter what it was, we’re all here for you.”

Shelly smiled. Her eyes crinkled, sending her unshed tears cascading down her cheeks. “Thank you, Ronan. That means a lot to hear you say. I always knew I was doing the right thing by walking away from Kaye, but…” She trailed off. Wiping her eyes, Shelly took a deep breath. “When I asked Kaye how she could stop loving you over something like being gay, she told me that God made a mistake.”

“God made a mistake? I don’t understand?” Ten looked around the table and saw similar confused looks on Kevin, Greeley, and Ronan’s faces too. “What kind of mistake?”

“I asked the same question. I wondered if she meant that He made a mistake in giving a special child like you to her to parent, but that wasn’t it. Kaye said that God made a mistake in creating you.”

Tennyson took a sharp breath. He shouldn’t have been shocked to hear that his mother thought that way, but it still stung.

“God never makes mistakes, Tennyson. Isn’t that the first thing they teach at Union Chapel Calvary Baptist Church? If Kaye was willing to throw such a basic tenant of the church aside to fit her own prejudice then there was something bigger going on with her. Don’t you think?”

Ten looked up at his mother’s oldest friend. He could see how much it cost her figuring out who Kaye Grimm really was as a person and as a mother. He could feel how hard it was for Shelly to walk away from her friend and how much it still hurt her now. He managed a small nod.

“To answer your question, I don’t know what she or David thought when they watched your reality show. I can imagine it must have been odd for her to see you as a grown man. More odd still to see how well you’d done for yourself in spite of the way you’d been treated.”

“What do you mean?” His brow knit together.

“Tennyson, you were a scared seventeen-year-old boy when they put you on that bus. I know you had a year to plan out what you were going to do and where you were going to go, but Kaye didn’t know any of that plan, right?”

Ten nodded.

“Can you imagine her shock to see that you landed in Boston and not in Severance or in Kansas City or St. Louis? I mean, hell, you ended up halfway across the country with friends who love you and a wonderful life and a career. When that show started, you were on the precipice of a new, second career and falling in love with the man of your dreams. Your parents watched your metamorphosis, just like they would have done if you’d stayed home and gone to community college.” Shelly laughed. “Only you did all of it without their help, guidance, or money.” The tears were back in Shelly’s eyes, only this time they weren’t mournful tears. “I remember what I thought when I saw you on that show for the first time.”

Ten hated to admit it, but he was a little afraid to hear the next words out of Shelly’s mouth. “What?” he half-whispered.

“I thought you were a phoenix, rising out of the ashes of your old life, to start fresh.” Shelly’s voice was filled with pride. “Look at all you’ve done in the last year or so, honey. You’ve mentored others with your same gift. You’ve brought closure to grieving families. You saved Ronan countless times. More importantly, you let him save you.” Shelly shook her head. “All worth the price of one bus ticket, wouldn’t you agree?”

Tennyson read between the lines. It was the single worst moment of his life when his father brought him to the Greyhound terminal and watched him get on that bus. He’d never been more scared or hurt in his entire life. Every step he’d taken from that moment forward had been leading him to Ronan O’Mara and the life they were destined to lead together. All of the pain and the lonely nights and the wondering why his parents didn’t love him enough to accept him was all worth the price of the bus ticket that led him into Ronan’s path. “I absolutely agree.”

 

 

22
Ronan

“That was the best meal I’ve ever had in my entire life!” Ronan stripped off his shirt and threw it across the room, hitting Tennyson square in the back. Ronan patted his stomach and yawned. He was feeling well-fed and happy.

Ten raised an eyebrow. “You better watch it, pal. It’s been two months since you’ve been able to work out and you’ve been eating like shit. Tons of ice cream at home and now barbecue. Those six-pack abs I fell in love with are starting to go the way of the Dodo!”

“What?” Ronan squawked. He ran into the bathroom to look at himself in the full-length mirror. All of the lines were still there. He had to admit he wasn’t looking as bulked up as he had looked before the gunman shot him in August, but spending nearly a month flat on his back in a hospital bed would do that to a man. “I’m still a perfect ten. An eleven even! You need to get your eyes checked.”

Peeking his head around the corner, Ten smiled at his lover, who was posing in front of the mirror like a bodybuilder. “What are you doing?”

“Enticing you. Is it working?” Ronan waggled his eyebrows.

“Maybe.” Ten folded his arms over his chest.

“Maybe?” Ronan never had to work this hard to catch Tennyson’s interest. It was a good thing he’d left his boxers on. “What’s on your mind, since I know it isn’t my cock?”

Ten sighed. “That obvious, huh?”

Ronan crossed the bathroom and picked up Ten’s hands. He tugged his loved into the bedroom and sat him down on the edge of the turned-down king-sized bed.  He knew that coming back to Kansas was going to be an eyeopener for Tennyson and had been prepared for more talking than fucking. “We got a lot of interesting information tonight.”

“Yeah,” Ten chuckled. “We sure the hell did.”

“How does it feel to have someone see you as a phoenix?” Ronan climbed up on the bed behind Ten. He pressed a kiss to the back of his lover’s neck before he started rubbing his tight shoulders. He figured giving Ten a backrub would loosen him up and keep his own hands busy.

“It’s pretty amazing. I mean, I’ve never even thought of myself that way, but to have someone else see me like that? Wow! All I did was live my life.” Ten shrugged.

“We’re a lot alike in that, you know. I lost my Mom right after I graduated from the academy thirteen years ago and in a way, you lost yours the day you got on that bus. We’ve both had to make it on our own with only ourselves to rely on.” It surprised Ronan that he really hadn’t looked at his own life from this angle before. Like Tennyson had just said, he’d just lived his life. He had a dream to become a police officer and went out and made it a reality.

“We were both so blessed that we knew what we wanted to do with our lives, Ronan. Times like this always make me think of the boys we met during the Justin Wilson case.” Ten shivered under Ronan’s gentle touch.

Ronan knew Ten had a tender spot in his heart for those boys who’d been forced out of their homes under the same circumstances as he had been. Their only option had been to sell themselves to keep body and soul together, while Tennyson had his gift to rely on to make money and support himself. “I wasn’t sure at first what you’d think about Shelly asking if our relationship was worth the price of you leaving Union Chapel and your family behind.”

Ten reached a hand back to pat Ronan’s. “In the beginning, as the miles rolled past, I wondered if I was making the right decision. I kept asking my spirit guides if my parents would change their minds and how would they ever find me when that day came. They never answered me, Ronan. I asked them about my parents for years. All I ever got in return was silence.” Ten turned his head until his eyes met Ronan’s. “They never answered me until the day you walked into West Side Magick. I knew that day that it didn’t matter if my parents had changed their minds. I know now that you were the real reason I got on that bus. You were the reason I got off in Salem, Massachusetts.”

Ronan smiled. He pressed a kiss against Ten’s nose. “It reminds me of that saying about how God’s greatest gift is an unanswered prayer. I never understood how that could be true. How could not getting something you want be what was best for you? I understand it now.”

“Me too.”

“Are you going to be okay if we get on the plane to fly home and your mother never wants to hear from us again?” Ronan knew it was a risk asking the question. They were a month away from exchanging vows. He needed to know how this trip into Tennyson’s past was going to affect their future.

Tennyson’s eyes twinkled with something Ronan couldn’t quite put a finger on. “You taught me that families are something we build. Look at all of the people we’ve got in our lives, Ronan. Good people who love and support us, no matter what. They are our family. We’re not done building our family. Not by a long shot. We’ve got some amazing new friends on our horizon.” Ten grinned. That sparkle was back in his eyes again. “Fitzgibbon isn’t the only one who’s getting a baby. You’re going to be the best father ever. I don’t want to spoil any more of the surprise than I already have, but the family we’re building together is going to keep growing. Kaye is going to have a decision to make. Either she allows her beliefs to hold her here in the past or she finds a way to become a phoenix in her own right and rises above her raising. Those are her only two choices.”

Ronan could hear all of the words that Tennyson was saying, but his brain cast back to his future husband’s earlier comment about the blue-eyed, redheaded baby girl. “I’m going to be a father?”

Tennyson laughed. He turned around on his knees to face Ronan, pushing his lover gently onto his back. “You are.” Ten straddled Ronan’s hips before kissing each of his bullet scars. “The best father ever.”

“When?” Ronan closed his eyes. He could almost see the little girl’s face in his mind’s eye. Now that he knew such a thing was possible he wanted his princess in his life now.