He grinned back.
Then I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing.
* * * * *
Ty
“All’s well that ends well, my man,” Julius said in his ear.
“All’s well that ends well, my ass, Champ. Jesus f**kin’ Christ, are you insane?” Walker shot back and he felt his wife’s body shift.
He looked down at her. He had a f**kload of her toss pillows shoved behind his back on the armrest of the couch so he was only partially reclined. She had one hip in the back of the couch, the rest of her soft body was on his, his arm curled around her back, hand up his tee she was wearing, his fingers trailing the bare skin of her rounded ass. He was talking on the phone. She was watching her finger tracing his tat and she was doing this like she was committing it to memory. She was wearing his tee and nothing else. He was wearing his jeans and nothing else; he hadn’t even bothered to button but two of the buttons mainly because he wasn’t done with her.
“She there?” Julius asked in his ear.
“Yeah,” Walker replied.
“She stayin’?” Julius went on and Walker’s pulse spiked.
“Yeah,” Walker repeated.
“She naked?” Julius kept going and Walker clamped his mouth shut.
Julius chuckled, assuming mostly wrongly. Lexie was in his tee but still, by no means was access hindered.
Then Julius spoke again. “You give this time, you’ll stop bein’ pissed and thank me. Now, seein’ as you two are reuniting and I ain’t sleepin’ on no couch, Anana and me have checked into Carnal Hotel. My woman, for some f**kin’ reason, right now is sittin’ in reception playin’ fuckin’ Harry Potter f**kin’ Clue with the proprietors. I’m gonna leave her to that shit ‘cause, you know me, brother, I got no interest in f**kin’ Clue. Colonel Mustard did it, however the motherfucker did it, his ass is in the hole. Don’t need a reminder a’ that shit. So I’m gonna get my trunks on and take a dip. We’ll all go out and celebrate tomorrow ‘cause the next day, Anana and me gotta get our asses home. You’re buyin’. That Rooster place. And you’re buyin’ ‘cause, no matter how pissed you are right now, you know you owe me.”
Before Walker could reply, Julius gave him dead air.
He flipped his phone shut, tossed it on Lexie’s jeans on the floor and scowled at it.
“We need a coffee table,” she noted quietly and his eyes moved from his phone to his woman.
She’d stopped tracing his tat and her eyes were on him. They were still slightly swollen from crying but they were also still beautiful.
The most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
We need a coffee table.
Fuck.
Fuck!
His mama was home.
She was home and those f**king divorce papers were ashes in his sink.
That something inside him, that thing she gave him, that thing that had been gone since she was, making him feel hollow, empty, came back, filling him up. It shifted and again started settling.
She’d been there now for hours. After he burned the papers, he went back to her and took his time welcoming her home and he didn’t do it with words. The first time was urgent, desperate, the same feelings for both of them but for different reasons.
The second time was not.
When he was done with her, she got on her phone. She got on her phone because, no matter he’d f**ked up and hurt her, people who cared about him were worried.
First up was Honey. The easy one. Walker listened to Lexie dealing with surprised relief and then tears.
That done, next up was Ella. Same drill at first, surprised relief then tears. Then, this surprising Walker, guilt. Guilt that Ella didn’t give it up to Lexie that Ty had come looking for her. Guilt that she’d kept information from Ty about where Lexie was. Guilt that her protective instinct was less protective and more misguided and stubborn mingled with sadness that she’d cost them time that didn’t end in tragedy but she’d lived with that possibility for over eleven hours so the ghost of that was there all the same. Then more tears.