Man Of The Family

“Sunny,” he said, “I owe you an apology myself. I didn’t exactly put out the welcome mat the other day. And, well—Chris told me—I was sorry to learn about your divorce.”

“So am I,” she said.

Griffin blew out a breath. “You already know about my situation.”

Her face softened. “You don’t know where your wife is now. And—I’m treading on dangerous ground again here—that hasn’t helped Amanda.”

“Or Josh,” he said. “She’s defiant. He’s fearful.” Griffin told her about the flat tire, the car rocking at the side of the road every time another semi blew past. “I think he equates Rachel’s disappearance with death itself, a concept he’s only beginning to understand.”

“I couldn’t imagine leaving my children like that,” she said.

His tone hardened. “Neither can I.”

“But then, I don’t. Have children, I mean.” Sunny was all but strangling the hibiscus blossoms. “I see so many troubled kids in my work. Of course their cases usually involve violence, but the emotional damage is always severe. I wish I could help them more. But I’m rarely their lawyer. I’m on the other side of the issue—prosecuting the person who harmed someone they love.”

“That’s helping, too,” he pointed out, trying not to notice how the fading light made her skin softly shine.

“They break my heart, though. Young girls like Amanda,” she said, stumbling a little on the last, “having to deal with grown-up matters they can barely comprehend. Why would someone hurt them, their families, that way?”

The raw emotion in her voice made him study her more closely.

Yet asking probing questions was her style, not his, and Griffin didn’t know why he’d felt the urge to push. He could tell she wouldn’t like it.

She clutched the flowers even more tightly. “But enough about me,” she said. “Or rather, my work. How do you like Jacksonville?”

Griffin had been asked that very question at least a hundred times since the move. “I like it fine.”

Sunny tilted her head as if she guessed he was lying. “You don’t miss Boston? And being on TV? Chris told me you’d only been in the anchor position for a year or so. You were their golden boy, he said.”

“Until Rachel took off. Not to blame her for the job I have now—or the move.” He paused. “In Boston, I couldn’t afford to keep Josh in day care, or put Amanda in some after school program. I never finished at the station until almost midnight some days—most days—and then they were missing Rachel. I couldn’t have them missing me, which was way too familiar.”