He bent his neck, spit, rinsed, reached and shoved his toothbrush opposite Lexie's in the holder.

Then he moved to the shower.

Ty was standing with a hip against the counter, bowl of sliced bananas, cut strawberries and yogurt held up in front of him, spoon in his other hand shoveling the food into his mouth.

His eyes were on his woman who was back in his tee and a clean pair of panties, hair wet, combed back but drying fast and wavy in the Colorado air. She was filling a travel mug of coffee for him at the same time eyeing the dirty dishes, the stains and crumbs on the countertops and the piles of mail all the while looking like she wished she could stop eyeing them.

Before she left, there was a time or two when he came home when their bed wasn't made but this was rare; a time or two when she'd done a half-assed job of it, yanking up the covers, fluffing pillows and tossing them wherever they'd land but this last was more than he'd ever do. A couple of days would go by where their clothes would remain on the floor where they'd discarded them or tossed them in the preliminaries to fucking. A week might go by where she'd let mail stack up on the side kitchen counter. A few times, she'd leave the dishes in the sink and do them the next morning.

But under all that was always clean and eventually she'd get to tidying.

Clearly, six weeks of build up was about five and a half weeks too much.

He chewed, he swallowed then he spoke. "Fill the dishwasher, mama, and I'll empty it. I'll take out the trash. I will not vacuum. I will not clean a fuckin' toilet. And, on the inside, I had enough of sweepin' and moppin' for a lifetime. So, I will kick in in the ways I just said. Other than that, it's up to you to decide if you can hack it or if we gotta find a cleaning lady."

The first words he spoke, her eyes came to him.

When he was done she asked, "You'll fill the dishwasher and empty it, did you actually do that while I was away?"

Even though he sensed she was teasing him, his gut tightened at her tone.

He'd just got finished fucking her in the shower. Before that, she made a show that she was taking them forward, with him all the way to their next step of building a family. And after she did that, she'd grinned at him.

But, since their shower, he got that tone and that tone matched the set of her frame. Quiet, pensive, borderline uncertain.

He'd bought that, being a dumb fuck, treating her like a dick, saying shit to her he shouldn't have said, comparing her to Misty, a woman he hated and she hated and, it was arguable, but he got the sense his wife hated Misty at least as much as he did. On some level, it could be worse, seeing as Misty was a sister and Misty strapped the sisterhood with the shit he piled on Lexie, shit she didn't deserve. Misty perpetrated a betrayal to that sisterhood, an unforgiveable one.

But Lexie was treading cautiously, probably not even knowing she was doing it. Twice, he fucked up, twice he was a dick, twice he lashed out and mouthed off. The first time, she didn't do shit to deserve it, the second time, she did but his response was way the fuck over the line. Now, he could see, she was going to do everything she could so she didn't buy a third time.

Ty would take that tone over the one she spoke to him with when she was on the beach, her voice void, dead, remote. He never wanted to hear her talk like that again, feel the darkness that shrouded her, experience her being so far gone, he knew he could run flat out every day for the rest of his life and never reach her. He never wanted that back, for him or for her, that was so agonizing, he'd take anything else from her, even this.

That said, he still didn't like it.

So he put his spoon in the bowl, set it aside and ordered gently, "Mama, come here."

Lexie, being Lexie, came direct to him.

He wound an arm around her waist, pulling her body to his and her hands came up, flat on his chest, not to hold him back, just to rest them there as her head tipped way back to look at him and his other hand wrapped around her neck, his thumb moving on her jaw.

"It's gonna take time for you to trust me again " he started but she cut him off swiftly.

"I trust you."

His thumb stopped stroking and his fingers gave her a light squeeze as he dipped his face closer. "Baby, you don't."

"I do."

He shook his head and asked quietly, "Can you shut up a minute so I can talk?"

She pressed her lips together but her eyes flared.

Now that, he liked.

He beat back a grin and talked. "Drama over, we're back to us and I didn't just fuck up, I did it huge, I said nasty shit that shouldn't have been said and I can't take that back. The wounds I inflicted went deep and I can only hope to Christ one day they heal over. Until that day, mama, all I can promise you is that I'll do all I can do to beat that shit back and never do that to you again. But we got a rocky road ahead of us and I don't know where it's gonna lead before we get to the other side. The only thing I can give you is, that shit comes outta my mouth and cuts you, you gotta understand that shit was planted in me and I gotta get it out. I'll try to do it in a way that doesn't harm you but I obviously am not battin' a thousand with that so I can make no promises except I'll try. What you need to give me is to know it is not about you, it's about me, you gotta suck it up and stand by me, you gotta know, in the end, I'll work my ass off to make it all worth it to you and you gotta always remember I love you and I have never, not once, said those words to any breathing soul so you also gotta know what that means."

She blinked.

Then she asked, "You've never told anyone you love them?"

He shook his head and answered, "Loved one person in my life, Tuku, he died without me sayin' those words to him and, to this day, even though he was not a man prone to that kind of shit, I wished I'd said it and I wished he'd died knowin' what he gave me and all he meant to me."

She nodded, her face understanding in a way that made the wound he had from what they went through, a wound still raw, a gaping wound torn open in the left side of his chest, pulsate because he knew from her look she'd learned that lesson the day before.

He didn't do that to her but what he did forced Julius's hand so he had that to make up for too.

"I can give you that, Ty," she whispered, her hands pressing into his chest.

"Thanks, baby," he whispered back then still spoke soft but firm when he ordered, "Now, I took that shadow out of your life but this mornin', I see it's over you. Get rid of it. This is you and me, people live through this shit and if they manage to do it together, it makes them stronger. Power through, mama, and get to that other side with me."

She stared into his eyes and kept whispering when she said, "How did you know?"

He dipped his face even closer, gliding his hand from her neck up into her hair and his arm around her got tight. "My Lexie beams bright and she can do that shit even in her sleep. The Lexie shuffling around this kitchen is doin' it under a cloud."

She held his eyes. Then she pressed closer. Then her lips tipped up at the ends.

Then she said, "Okay, honey, I'll turn on the light."

He felt his lips tip up at the ends too before he replied, "Okay."

She got up on her toes and kissed his throat. He closed his eyes when he felt her lips and the brush of her soft hair on his jaw. Then he opened them when she dropped back to her feet.

When he had her gaze again, he reminded her, "We got busy and you didn't get your take last night. Lotta shit goin' down and I'm skippin' my workout tonight to come straight home and take you to the Dodge dealership outside Gnaw Bone before we gotta be home to get ready to take Julius and Anana to The Rooster."

He brows drew together. "The Dodge ?"

"Gettin' you another Charger."

Light dawned then right on its heels denial started. "Ty "

He shook his head and his fingers in her hair fisted and tugged gently. "Gettin' you another Charger."

"But... I don't... you can't..." she paused then finished, "the money."

"The angle Tate's workin' doesn't cost a fuckload of cash to grease the palms of scumbags who won't do something for nothing. You need a car that I can trust, the Snake would do in the summer, a Charger's better for the winter. You loved that car. What I did meant you lost it. I got the cash, you're gettin' another one." He paused then finished, "Tonight."

"But "

He cut her off. "And, this weekend, fuck me, we're goin' shoppin' for a coffee table."

She blinked. Then tried again, "But "

"And I gotta send more money to Ella to get your shit back."

"My shit is at Dominic and Daniel's. They have an old ranch house with a barn so they could store it for me. They were waiting for me to settle somewhere so they could send it to me."

Well, thank fuck. One problem that wouldn't cost a fucking fortune or take weeks.

"Good. I'll talk to the boys, get your shit home."

She grinned. Then she told him, "We don't need a coffee table."

"You said last night we do," he reminded her.

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 fuckin' 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 fuckin' 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 pussy."

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 fuckin' 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 fucking 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.

He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

"Yo."

"Ty," he heard a man say.

"Yeah?"

"Angel."

Fuck him.

Pena.

"Pena," he greeted.

"Just so you know, Duane Martinez came in two days ago to make a belated report that he was assaulted by one Tyrell Walker."

Fuck.

"You're shittin' me," Ty rumbled.

"No, a fuckin' drug dealer pimp walks into the fuckin' Police Station lookin' like the weasel he is but a healthy one and he does it to report a fuckin' assault."