Filled with Brightness "Babe."

I looked up at Ty's call to see he was standing in the opened, wood framed glass door to the front deck, hand still on the handle, a funny look on his face It was Sunday, a week and a half after I got my job and we'd celebrated and it had been a week and a half where I'd spent a good amount of effort at keeping him distracted from his grand plan o' vengeance.

And, as far as I knew, I'd been successful.

Mostly, I did this with sex.

But we couldn't have sex every minute we weren't working or eating (alas) so I'd had to get creative.

And that creativity was helped by Laurie, who came into the salon to have her hair cut and highlighted. While she was waiting for Dominic to finish with a client, I'd shared with her my deck plant vision but lack of experience seeing as I'd lived in an apartment the entirety of my adult life but had managed to keep a houseplant alive for a few years so I had hope if not knowledge. In return, she'd shared that Betty of Ned and Betty owned the Carnal Hotel and the healthy, abundant flowers outside were her doing. Then she'd phoned Betty while sitting in Dominic's chair and about seven seconds later Betty had walked through the doors of Carnal Spa to give me a very long but friendly lecture about keeping outdoor plants alive in the Colorado Mountains.

I took notes.

Three pages of them.

Dominic's "spa", by the way, was really just a hair stylist that did manis and pedis. But Dominic's gay partner Daniel was building a couple of rooms at the back where he was hoping to expand into facials and massages.

"If the biker babes in this freaking town do facials and massages," he'd said. "Color me stunned when I found out the bitches got manis and pedis. Been living amongst them for years, still do not understand them. I get you wanna dip your toe into rough and tumble but attach your ball and chain to it? Uh... no. When your man doesn't bother to shave or get a haircut, my guess would be you wouldn't want a French pedicure. But I started that trade and those biker bitches were all over it. There you go. I may be fucked with facials, that might be taking it a shade too far, but you can't know unless you try."

By the way, my pay stunk but Dominic was hysterical, the work was entirely stress free, I got paid enough to cover the gas to drive down and then some, it was something to do with my days, it was doing something where I met half the town (the female half) and it came with free manis and pedis and half off Dominic doing your hair. And since he was a master and I liked my manis and pedis, I thought it was awesome.

So, since I had Betty's tutelage, the minute Ty got home on Saturday afternoon, I pounced.

And I did this by announcing, "Garden center is open on Saturday until eight."

To this he'd replied distractedly, head bent to his phone, thumb moving over the keypad, texting someone, "Go on, mama, I got somethin' I need to do."

Alarm bells sounded since he didn't share that something he needed to do. It wasn't like we were attached at the hip but unless he was working out, there weren't many somethings he had to do that took him away from me and I suspected the something he had to do was vengeance related.

I thought fast then called his name softly.

His head came up and turned to me.

"I've been, um... thinking about the, uh... money you owe me," I started.

That was when I watched his body get tight.

So I quickly went on, "I've decided to, uh... donate it to the cause."

This was a lie, of course, since I was fired up to derail the cause but I thought it was a worthy lie to tell.

I felt guilt when he blinked then his eyes flared then his body turned to me and it started coming to me with intent, the look on his face sweet and hot so I lifted a hand and he stopped.

"Minus deck plants and furniture," I added. "I like to have coffee in the morning with the view and I'd prefer not to stand at the railing while doing it."

His reply was all Ty. Instantaneous and generous.

"Get what you want, Lex, before you go I'll give you the money."

This was not falling into my plan.

So I scrambled.

"I want you to help me pick the furniture. It's going to be yours too and you also should have what you want. I donate the leftover if you come with me. Do we have a deal?"

He held my eyes for a long moment while I endeavored to look innocent.

Then he said, "Deal."

I smiled big at him. He grinned at me. Then his head dropped to his phone and his thumb moved over the keypad. Then he went with me and he didn't touch his phone, not the rest of that day or the next.

This was because I went nuts at the garden center which also had kickass patio furniture. Kickass enough that even Ty got into the selection process and it was him who went overboard.

So in the Cruiser on our way home, we had trays and trays of plants, bags of soil, coils of hoses and ten enormous pots, four terracotta (front deck), four turquoise (deck off kitchen as well as top and bottom of the outside steps) and two purplish-gray (our deck off the bedroom) as well as a window box for outside the kitchen window.

We also bought a round, gunmetal table with four wide-seated chairs with turquoise pads and matching umbrella to put on the deck off the kitchen. With this we bought the coolest, most awesome furniture for the front deck, a curvy, rounded, flowing huge loveseat made in weatherproof resin the color of straw with a long swirly footstool that fit into the loveseat making it a big kind of shell-like oval both of which had thick sand-colored pads and big square toss pillows for the back of the loveseat. This was going to sit at one end with two matching curving, high-backed lounges sharing a low, bubble-like, glass topped table that would sit at the other end. For our balcony, we got one large, oval resin lounger that was big enough to fit two even with one of those two being Ty and was really a chair and ottoman shoved together. This had dark gray, thick pads and a matching, oval ceramic-topped table. Making awesome even more awesome, it had a light-gray canvas canopy attached that you could swing up or down depending on the kind of sun or privacy you wanted.

As usual, Ty did not fuck around. It was the nicest most stylish stuff they had, by far. Statement furniture, classy, unusual that was beautiful to look at and comfortable.

I freaking loved it.

They did Sunday deliveries which I also freaking loved.

The next day, I commandeered Ty to lug pots around, fill them with soil and attach the window box. While he did this, I started planting and occupied his mind by asking him (frequently) what he thought of my gardening efforts (in other words, every time I got one of the pots planted). He approved and was very patient with me distracting him every twenty minutes to drag him wherever I was working so he could look at a planter filled with flowers, spiked and trailing greenery which I could tell he gave not one shit about. Still, it kept him home, occupied and off his phone.

Then the furniture arrived and we became occupied with setting it out and assembling what needed to be assembled. When we were done, we took a shower together and then I occupied him by guiding him out to the lounger on our deck and breaking it in. It was good tall pine trees hid us from view on either side and at the front there was nothing but hill and forest. But Ty pulled the canopy up just in case. It hid the wrong part of us but it was something.

The salon was closed Sunday and Monday and Ty's days off were Sunday and Thursday so I could keep him occupied most of the time but with me at work on Thursday and him not, this presented a problem.

I solved it by calling Laurie and asking for Tate's number then calling Tate and dragging him into Distract Ty Duties. He said he'd do what he could and I knew he did when I got home to no Ty. Ty arrived an hour and a half later and when he did he told me he was at Tate's helping him "with shit".

Success.

Yesterday evening, another Saturday, he was again at his phone and I'd run a new play, mildly bitching about not being in the mood to cook. I bitched for about two point five minutes before he told me to get my shoes on, we were going out. We went into town and had Italian. Then we went to Bubba's and drank with Ty's friends. We didn't get home until late.

Another success.

And that day, Sunday, I had my play sorted out. I told him we needed to hit the home wares store and he'd instantly balked. Garden furniture, he could do. Home wares, his reaction to the concept stated clearly were not his thing. I'd had to get creative with incentive for him to go with me, I did, he liked it, I liked it and he went, liking my incentive so much, I talked him into taking the Charger.

And I talked him into the Charger because I'd put something in the trunk.

Then I directed him to make a pit stop at a place I'd previously scoped out in Chantelle on the way to the mall. He knew why the instant we parked on the street outside the shop. I saw his face change when he looked at the sign but I got out of the car before he could say anything. I was standing at the trunk by the time he folded out and his eyes came to me but he didn't speak.

"Pop the trunk, honey, will you?"

He held my eyes but said not a word.

"Pop the trunk, Ty," I semi-repeated.

He popped the trunk. I reached in and took out the long, hard-sided cardboard tube in the back that I'd found in a closet in one of the middle floor bedrooms. I slammed the trunk and headed to his side, taking his hand in mine and tugging him to the frame shop. It took a mighty tug but I got him to come unstuck, slam his door and follow me in.

He picked the frame for Tuku's pen and ink, we left the tube and then we went out to the Charger. We didn't go to the home wares store but then again, that was a ruse so we didn't need to. We went straight home so Ty could express his gratitude by fucking me on the couch, fast, rough and brilliant.

I was on a roll and hoping I was succeeding, making Ty's time with me as good as it could be, something I'd want to do anyway, but something I was determined to do so he'd want to be where I was instead of where he needed to be so vengeance would be his. Krystal advised me not to stick my neck out. I was doing everything in my power to stop Ty from sticking out his. I liked his neck and head where it was. And I was hoping, the more I played this game, the less important his grand plan o' vengeance would be and Tate could do his work. Or, if Tate couldn't, Ty would give up and just live his life and for him to do it, I had to demonstrate it was going to be a good one, worth giving up his grand plan o' vengeance.

And so far so good. He texted but if he wasn't at work, working out or running, which he did in the mornings of his days off, he was with me or Tate.

And he seemed content, happy even, grinning more often, chuckling a few times and, twice, I'd made him burst out laughing. I was hoping these were indications that his nightmare was fading. I was hoping these were indications that he was healing. I was hoping I was helping him to get to the other side.

So now it was early evening and I was out on the front deck watering as Betty taught me to do. Sometimes, if the day was really hot, I had to water in the mornings and evenings after the heat went off the day. I was also feeding the plants on her schedule. They were looking good, filling out, blooming and I was a stickler for pinching off the deadheads so every bit was healthy.

And I was also studying the funny look on Ty's face. We'd been together almost a month and some of that time he'd been closed off. I knew he still held his cards close to his chest. He didn't let his thoughts or feelings show often but he did it and I was becoming attuned to his moods.

But that look was a new one I did not get.

Until I heard shrieked, "Alexa Anne Berry! Where you at, girl?"

My heart skittered to a halt, my mouth dropped open then I closed it only to open it again in order to whisper to Ty, "Holy fuck. That's Ella."

"Movin' truck just pulled in the drive, mama," he told me.

"Aaaaaahhhlehhhhhxsaaaaaah!"

That wasn't Ella.

That was Bessie.

My heart started hammering, I smiled bright and dazzling at Ty, dropped the hose where I stood and raced by him, around the side of the house and down the walkway. I made it to the railing to see a short, white moving truck in the driveway, Ella, Bessie and Honey standing outside and to the side of it looking up at the deck off the kitchen.

"Ohmigod!" I screeched, "What are you doing here?"

Three heads swiveled to me and three faces split into huge smiles.

"Ahhhyeeeee!" Bessie squealed then disappeared under the deck and I knew she was going to the stairs.

"Girl! Look at you!" Honey shrieked then she disappeared.

"There's my baby!" Ella cried then she disappeared.

I raced down the deck and hit Bessie on the fly as she got to the top of the stairs, arms tight, bodies swaying. Honey hit us and burrowed in so our arms moved to accommodate her. Ella came next and we affected a group hug, giggling and swaying.

Then we disengaged but Ella kept me close with an arm around me as I looked at her.

"What are you doing here?" I asked again.

"Well, you needed your stuff. So we rented a truck and brought your stuff," she answered.

"Got us one of those GPS's," Bessie added, grinning at me. "Took us right to your door."

"Ace crib, sistah," Honey put in. "I am no mountain girl but this place is the shit."

"This is true but I need a cocktail. You cannot imagine what bein' in a big truck with these two for two full days does to a woman," Ella told me. "They weren't my flesh and blood, I'd be facin' time."

I grinned at her total lie. She'd spawned Bessie and Honey, she adored them and she put up with a lot from them and me and Ronnie. She did not do this without losing her ever-lovin' mind on a relatively frequent occasion that often included threats of murder but she would no sooner carry them out, or lift a hand, than she'd voluntarily be boiled in acid.

Caught up in the moment, the surprise, I totally forgot where I was and why I was there until I heard Honey whisper a low, stunned, supremely appreciative, "Muthafuckah."

Bessie, Ella and my eyes went to her then went to where her eyes were aimed to see Ty was standing, arms crossed on his massive chest, just outside the open kitchen door.

"Yo." His deep voice rumbled and I sensed rather than felt the group quiver.

Everyone was silent and still for a moment, taking in all that was Ty. Since there was a lot of him and all of it was really good, this moment lasted awhile.

Ella broke it by saying, "I see in the mountains they make mountains of brother. I wish I'd known this forty years ago."

Ty grinned. This caused another group quiver to glide through his female audience.

I experienced my quiver right along with my family then I realized what was happening and that it was brilliant, having them there but it could be explosive, depending on their reaction to the news of why I was there.

But this was family and always would be family and Ty was my husband.

So they had to know.

And they had to accept him.

Because he was family now too.

Therefore, I decided against stealth tactics and instead to launch an all of it out there in the open offensive and take my chances.

So I disengaged from Ella, moved to Ty and reengaged with him, sliding my arms around his middle, he reciprocated by sliding his arm around my shoulders.

My family watched silent and every last one of them had their mouth open, Honey, wide open, Bessie, partially open, Ella, lips parted.

Then I said, "Ella, Bessie, Honey, this is my husband, Ty Walker. Ty," I tipped my head back to catch his eyes, "I've told you about my family."

My gaze went back to the girls as the reactions started.

"The fuck you say." That was Bessie.

"Uh... say what?" That was Honey.

Ella didn't say anything but her eyes had narrowed.

My body tensed. When it did, Ty gave me a squeeze.

Then he spoke and I looked back up to him. "Get these sisters inside. Give them a drink. And give them an explanation. I'll call the boys and get them over to help unload the truck." I stared at him and didn't move so he gave me another squeeze and murmured, "Now, Lex."