All Through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas (27 page)

“Just hang tight,” Cosmo told his mother. “Stay there, we'll come and get you.” He paused. “No, you stay inside the coffee shop where it's warm. If we get there, and you're waiting outside…Mom. Robin has enough to worry about today without putting the possibility of you freezing to death on his list, all right? Good. Just order a cup of tea. We'll be there soon.” He snapped his phone shut and shot Robin a desperately amused look. “Apparently, Mom likes you best.”

Robin laughed as Cosmo lifted Billy out of his high chair. “Come on, Buddy, let's go find your grandma,” the SEAL said to his son. “You need to hit the head before we get into the car?”

“Yeah, but…Gwamma likes Unca Robin best?” Billy asked, clearly worried about that.

“Nah, I was just teasing,” Cosmo told his son. “See you guys tonight. Let us know if you need us to help with anything,” he said to Jules and Robin, before turning his attention back to Billy. “Grandma loves everybody best—she loves you and me and Mommy and Uncle Robin and Uncle Jules.”

“And Unca Izzy?”

“Yup, even Uncle Izzy…”

Robin sighed as he watched Cosmo carry Billy out of the kitchen.

“That's one lucky kid,” Jules murmured, putting voice to Robin's thoughts. “Having a dad like him…”

Jane laughed. “You guys are freaking me out a little—standing there ogling my husband.”

“I'm not ogling,” Jules said. He looked at Robin. “Are you?”

“Not in a gay way,” Robin said. “But definitely in a God-I-wish-you'd-been
-my-
father way.” He smiled at his sister. “Maybe you and Cosmo could adopt us. Take us camping.”

“God, no. I hate camping,” Jules said.

“Really?” Robin looked at him.

“Uh-oh,” Jules said. “You didn't know that?”

“No,” Robin said.

“I used to like it,” Jules said, “but lately…I'm totally camped out.”

“How could you be camped out?”

“I take it you like camping,” Jules said.

“Yeah,” Robin said, pulling him close. “And I bet you I could get you to like it again, too.”

Jules laughed. “Sweetie, there's not much that you
couldn't
get me to like, if you put your mind to it.”

“My mind?” Robin teased.

“Among other things…”

And, ooh, the look that Jules was now giving him was not a conversation-in-the-kitchen-with-Robin's-sister-listening look. And sure enough, Jules had forgotten that Jane was standing there. “Yikes,” he said, glancing over at her. “Sorry.”

But she was laughing. “I bet if you run upstairs really fast, I could talk Robin into bringing you the rest of your breakfast in bed.”

“I suspect he won't need any encouragement,” Jules told her, even as he blushed.

“I suspect he won't either,” she said, reaching across the island to ruffle Robin's hair, the way she used to do when he was little. “Seriously, guys, it's not even seven. Go back to bed. We'll lock the door behind us when we go, okay?”

Robin nodded. “See you tonight.”

“Yes, you will.” Jane ruffled Jules's messy hair, too. “Thank you for loving my little brother.”

The smile Jules gave her was beautiful. “Thank
you
for loving your little brother, too.”

Adam stank.

The trip from L.A. had been horrific, with a too-short layover in Phoenix that had made him miss his connecting flight. He'd then had to wait seven
hours
for the next flight to Boston—via Dallas, Atlanta
and
Newark.

He was exhausted, he was starving, and yes, the cold sweat he'd manufactured back in his kitchen in L.A. had not improved with age. His T-shirt was ready for a toxic waste dump and he could smell his own feet, even while standing up.

The jacket he was wearing was barely suitable for a cold day in Southern California, let alone winter in Boston, but he hunched his shoulders against the wind and put his hands in his pockets as he bypassed the luggage carousels and headed for the door to the taxi stand.

Please God, let the cabs here in Boston take credit cards…

The line was long and, damn, it was cold, but Adam stood there, because cold was better than lying dead on the floor of his living room, with a hole blown through his extremely nonrobot head by some mental case with a newly purchased gun.

He took out his phone and turned it back on, checking to see what time it was because he had absolutely no clue, other than it was daylight.

It was nearly noon, which was good. It was also the day before Jules and Robin's wedding, which probably wasn't as good, although certainly better than being the day
of.

Adam keyed in Jules's cell phone number with his thumb and was just about to press
talk,
when a voice spoke in his ear.

“Close the phone, Wyndham.”

It was a male voice, a rich baritone with a faint Western accent.

Adam turned and found himself looking up at
…not
Jim Jessop, but Jules Cassidy's good friend Cowboy Sam.

“Oh, thank God,” Adam breathed, even as his phone was taken from his hands by someone standing on his other side. It was the cowboy's wife, Alyssa, whom Adam had always thought to be much too gorgeous, much too smart, and much too not-white to have hooked up with a good ol' boy from Texas.

Of course, Sam
did
ooze pure sex appeal, with his rugged good looks, sun-streaked hair, and long,
long
blue-jean-clad legs. The cowboy boots and sheepskin-lined leather jacket he was wearing this afternoon really worked for Adam, too.

“Jules is a little busy today,” Alyssa said, checking his phone to see that, yes, he had been about to call Jules. In fact, as Adam watched, she deleted both Jules's and Robin's numbers from his address book.

Hello, she was pregnant, which oddly enough didn't make her look any less capable of thoroughly kicking his ass.

“Congratulations,” Adam said, but it was like talking into a void.

“He and Robin are both very busy,” Sam told him. “They don't want to talk to you. They don't want to
see
you. And they
really
don't want you fucking up their wedding. So why don't we all just go on back into the terminal and get you onto a flight back to L.A.?”

Alyssa was thorough as she went through his phone. She also deleted his incoming and outgoing call logs before she handed it back to him. “You really need to go home and sleep this off, Adam,” she said, her tone far more kind than Sam's had been as she, too, took hold of his arm.

“I'm not drunk,” he said. “And I'm not going anywhere, so take your hands off me.” He smiled at Sam. “Honey, you can put
your
hands a whole lot lower if you want.”

“No, thanks,” Sam said, as Alyssa countered with, “Adam, you smell like a distillery.”

“I had a few drinks on the flight,” he admitted. “I spilled one of them.” He started to reach into his jacket pocket for the photos, but Sam bristled, tightening his grip on Adam's right arm. Adam laughed. “You seriously think I'm reaching for a weapon? I just got off a plane.” He reached again, and this time Sam let him. “I'm not here to sabotage the wedding, despite what you think.” He handed Sam the photos. “I'm here because my stalker got himself a new toy.”

Sam was silent as he looked at both photos. He didn't say a thing. He just handed them over to his wife.

Alyssa looked at them. Looked at Sam.

“You get any more e-mail from this Jessop guy?” Sam broke the silence to ask Adam.

“I haven't had Internet access,” he said, holding his breath. Please God, let them believe him…“Not since yesterday morning.”

Sam and Alyssa seemed to reach some kind of consensus, with Sam nodding and Alyssa saying, “We're going to find the nearest Kinkos. You're going to get online and check your e-mail. And then we're going to figure out what to do.”

As Robin always used to say
—score.

“You're not serious,” Robin said.

“I'll be back in forty minutes,” Jules said, as Dolphina heard the front closet open.

“This is what Adam wants,” Robin pointed out.

Dolphina could tell, even from here in the office, that he was trying very hard not to lose his temper.

“He wants you to jump when he says jump,” Robin continued. “And here you go, jumping.”

“Sam and Alyssa have some concerns,” Jules said. “
They
asked me to look at the photos. I'm going to meet them at the coffee place, because I don't want Adam here.”

“And I can't go with you because…?”

“You can get started with Will,” Jules said, as if that were his real reason for wanting Robin to stay behind. “You know he's going to want photos of you by yourself—you're the movie star.”

Robin laughed. “Why don't you just admit that you don't want me to go with you because you're jealous of Adam, because you're afraid I'm going to…what, Jules? Take one look at him and go
Gee, how could I have been so foolish to agree to marry a man whom I deeply love, because hey now, if I didn't, I could still be having a cheap sexual relationship with some loser I used to fuck when I got drunk enough not to care who I was with. I'm sorry, Jules, the wedding is off. I'm running away with Adam.
”

There was silence then.

“I don't want you to go with me,” Jules finally spoke, his voice so quiet Dolphina almost didn't hear him, “because, yes, I'm jealous of Adam. Because I hate seeing you with him. Because I
really
hate picturing you with him.”

More silence, then, Robin: “Thank you for being honest with me. Call me if you're going to be more than forty minutes, okay?”

“I'm sorry,” Jules said. “I hate that I—”

“Shhh,” Robin cut him off. “Just go, baby, and come back as quickly as you can.”

“Yeah,” Jules said.

Dolphina heard him come farther into the foyer. He let himself out the front door without saying anything to her at all.

Robin, however, came into the office. “I'm going upstairs,” he said. “I've got a headache—I gotta lie down, take a combat nap. We woke up way too early this morning, then never got back to sleep so…”

“Okay,” she said, turning from her computer to face him. “Can I get you anything?”

He
did
look tired. “No. Just…wake me up when Will gets here, all right?”

“All right,” she said.

“Seriously, Dolph,” Robin told her. “Wake me. Don't wait until Jules gets back. I don't want you to have to sit here with Will all that time. And you know he's going to get here early, so…”

“Thank you,” she said.

He turned to go, but then he turned back. “You heard all that, huh?”

“Kinda hard not to,” she said.

“I get jealous of Adam, too,” Robin said. “And when I do, Jules goes
what I had with him was a…a…puddle, what I have with you is an ocean,
and…I believe him. I do. He said it, he meant it, and I believe him. So why doesn't he believe me when I tell him the same thing? Why do we have to rehash this, over and over? What does he want me to do?”

“Reassure him?” Dolphina suggested.

Robin sat down on the sofa. “I know I should just be grateful that he trusts me at all. God knows I made some huge mistakes. That YouTube thing. I watch it sometimes, just to remind myself how incredibly magnanimous Jules is.” He met Dolphina's eyes. “How much do you want to bet that all of the cable news stations play a ten second clip from my drunken YouTube-memorialized binge when they announce our wedding on Saturday?”

“They'll play at least ten seconds,” Dolphina agreed.

“Somehow,” Robin said, “Jules found it in himself to forgive me after that. It had to take—it still has to take—an incredible amount of courage to put your heart on the line for someone you know is capable of hurting you.”