Cautious silence then, “She haul her ass from Florida?”
“We’re at the diner havin’ lunch.”
Total silence then, “Brother…” pause then, “fuck, it good?”
He smiled at his wife. Then he told Tate quietly, “Yeah, brother, all good.”
Ty watched as her face lost some of her concern and got soft.
Yeah, all good.
“Good,” Tate said quietly back.
Unfortunately, Ty had to bring the conversation back around. “Seems we gotta step shit up before everyone who can prove I didn’t do it gets dead.”
At that, Lexie’s eyes got big again. He gave her an “it’s all good” chin lift even though it wasn’t. This time, she trusted him and popped the fry in her mouth.
“Seems we do. I’ll talk to Deke,” Tate replied.
“I’ll talk to Julius.”
“Right,” then, “happy for you, Ty, Lexie’s back.”
“Not as much as me.”
A smile in his voice with, “I bet.” Then, “I’ll tell Laurie.”
“Good. I’ll tell Lex you’re tellin’ Laurie.”
A chuckle in Tate’s voice with, “Good.”
“Junior high,” Ty muttered.
“Yeah, but not the shit part of it,” Tate returned.
He had that right.
“We done?” Ty asked.
“For now,” Tate answered.
“Then later.”
“Later.”
He flipped his phone shut and caught Lexie’s eyes as she was taking a big bite of burger. It wasn’t hard to catch her eyes. She was staring at him.
She put the burger down, chewed twice and with mouth full, prompted, “Well?”
“Misty’s dead.”
Her entire torso jerked forward and back as she did a slow blink and stopped with eyes wide.
Then, mouth still full, she asked loudly, “What?”
“The wicked bitch is dead, mama.”
She stared, chewed, swallowed, grabbed her soda, sucked deep on her straw, slammed the cup down and instantly commenced throwing sass. “Well, shit! If she’s dead, how can I have a bitch smackdown with her?”