Apparently he was still Taciturn Ty by text.
I grinned at the phone. Then I looked at my watch. Then I grabbed my diet, sucked down a huge swallow, fished out the cherries, plucked them off their stems, ate them and sucked down another swallow.
Then I jumped off my stool and announced, “Gotta go gussy up for the celebration. I’ll see you all later?”
“Yeah, Lexie, congratulations,” Tate said.
“Later,” Deke said.
“Have fun tonight, darlin’,” Jim-Billy said.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Krystal scarily said while rounding the end of the bar.
I couldn’t see a way to avoid a somewhat-frightening and I still wasn’t certain what to think about her Krystal walking me to my car so I said my final farewells and headed out with Krystal at my side. She didn’t speak and I didn’t either. But I did stop at the driver’s side of the Charger and looked down at her.
She was inspecting my car.
“Sweet ride,” she approved.
Well, that was a good start.
“Thanks.”
Her eyes came up to me and her voice was soft when she spoke. “I see you intend to take care of our boy. Makes me feel better. Way things were at your party, couldn’t tell and didn’t like that.”
Maybe she had honest juice before I arrived. Or maybe she was just the kind of person who put it out there.
“We had a… thing,” I told her quietly.
“Yeah, you’ll have more what he went through. Don’t give up on him. There’s about two men I’d say this about, Tate is one, Ty is the other and I’m married to Bubba, love him to death, he’s pulled his shit together and I’m glad but I wouldn’t say this even about him but Ty’s worth not givin’ up. You get him to the other side, you won’t regret it.”
“I won’t give up on him,” I whispered, deciding I liked Krystal.
She nodded and held my eyes.
Then she said softly, “Be smart. You stick your neck out, the bunch you’re goin’ up against, they’ll whack your head clean off.” I sucked in breath but she didn’t quit talking. “You know that, what they did to your man. A man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. Tate and Deke wadin’ into that shit, don’t got a good feelin’. Ty bein’ pissed and wantin’ to do somethin’ about it, I get. I definitely get that. Don’t got a good feelin’ about that either. But men gotta do what they gotta do and we women got two things we can do, stand by their side or be smart enough to do what you just did and find men who know what they’re doin’ to take their man’s back. Now, you set that ball rollin’,” she jerked her head back to the bar, “you see to your man and keep your head down. Ty feels about you like you feel about him, he didn’t survive that nightmare to come out the other side and watch his woman enduring her own. Keep yourself safe, if not for you, then for him. Get me?”
I nodded. I got her.
She nodded back, muttered, “Make him happy,” then turned and walked back to the bar. She stopped at the door and called, “By the way, you got grease stains on the back of your shirt.”
Then she shot me a knowing grin, turned, threw open the door and entered the bar.
I stared at the door long after she disappeared behind it.
Then I got in my Charger and drove home.
* * * * *
Ty
You’re far and away the most beautiful man I’ve met…
The words played in his head once again as he hit the garage door opener. They’d been playing in his head since Lexie said them. Over and over. So often, they were all that was on his mind. So often, Keaton and Misty were long gone before he thought of them again. He’d forgotten they were even there.
You’re far and away the most beautiful man I’ve met…
Fuck him but he liked that she thought that.