She pressed closer. “Ty, honey,” she said softly, “I get what you’re trying to do but it’s going to be okay, I’m going to be okay. You don’t have to give me my every heart’s desire to prove to me you love me.”
“Mama, every other time I wanna turn on the f**kin’ TV, gotta first locate the remotes and this usually involves diggin’ them outta the cushions. That shit’s a pain in the ass. Last week, got up and kicked over a nearly full beer I put on the floor. That shit’s also a pain in the ass. We need a f**kin’ coffee table.”
She giggled, he heard it, saw it, felt it and liked it.
Then she said, “All right, baby, we’ll buy a coffee table.” Pause then, “And a rug.”
Pushing it.
Whatever.
“And a rug,” he agreed.
She smiled at him.
He brought them back to the matter at hand. “So, what I was sayin’, we gotta get you your ride, we gotta take Julius and Anana out so we can pay them back for causin’ you fear, heartbreak and the need to make a mad dash across the United States in order to watch me die but you also gotta be briefed. I don’t know what you got planned today but I want you in town, at the garage, twelve thirty, we’ll go to lunch at the diner and I’ll fill you in.”
“I’m going to be unpacking, cleaning the house and finding out if Dominic replaced me,” she informed him then smiled again. “So lunch with my husband fits right in.”
His arm gave her another squeeze and he smiled back.
Then she asked, “Did Dominic replace me? He hadn’t when I talked to him a couple of weeks ago but –”
“Mama, I’m not hip on the goings-on at the local salon. Think, to be a Steel Magnolia, you gotta have a pu**y.”
After he said that, his wife burst out laughing, so hard, she couldn’t hold her head up, she dropped it to his chest, her hands clenched in fists in his tee and her shoulders shook with it. And as he listened to and felt her humor, he wondered why he didn’t give her more of it.
He had to make up for that too.
Then her head shot back and, still laughing, she informed him, “I’m not sure there’s an official Steel Magnolia’s rulebook but I think you’re right, that particular requirement goes without saying.”
He grinned at her.
Then he changed the subject to another important one he had to touch on before he went to work and as he did it, his fist slid out of her hair and his arm moved down to wrap around her shoulders.
“All right, Lex, you got a busy schedule but take some time, call Bess and talk to her about drivin’ out here. She wants to put Dallas in her past; we got an extra room while she gives Colorado a try.”
The laughter fled her face but warmth suffused it, her body, already pressed close, melted into his and she whispered, “Ty.”
“But, she takes that room, she sleeps with the f**kin’ door closed.”
The warmth stayed in her expression but her eyes lit with more humor as she said quietly, “All right, honey, I’ll make that clear.”
He grinned at his wife. Then he muttered, “Gotta get to work, baby.”
She nodded. He dropped his forehead to touch it to hers, dipped his chin so he could brush his mouth to hers then he let her go, walked around her, nabbed his travel mug and slid the backs of his fingers along her hip as he moved back by her, saying, “Later, mama.”
He felt her eyes on him as he walked through the kitchen to the stairs and heard her saying, “Later, honey.”
And having that back, all of it, from waking up with his wife to f**king her in the shower to being with her in the kitchen to feeling her eyes on him while he walked to the stairs to hearing her soft, sweet, “Later…” he knew he missed it when it was gone but it being back he knew he actually missed it.
But it was back and as he moved down the stairs, he prayed to God that this time he kept his shit together and took care of it.
* * * * *
Two and a half hours later, Ty was under the hood of a car when his phone rang, he swung out, straightened, nabbed a rag, used it to do a half-assed swipe to get the grease off his hands, pulled his phone out of his back pocket and saw a number he didn’t recognize but an area code he did.
Dallas.