"You wanna explain the recent love you and Mom been showin'?" Ty asked.

"Ty " Irving Walker started.

"If you can call it love," Ty cut him off to say. "Got a wife, a good one. She loves me, she's got my back. Her people show, meet me for the first time, find out my recent history, they're laughing and drinkin' cocktails in my kitchen within ten minutes. My parents show, in five minutes Lex is so pissed, she's throwin' sass and then she's on the phone with me ranting. Like I said, I got a wife, a good one who loves me which means I love her and can't say I'm particularly thrilled about the fact that my parents piss her off and set her ranting. I try to shield her from that shit, not have it show up in my driveway."

"You know your Ma," Irv told him.

"Yeah, and I know you. Lex told me you weren't smashed. A miracle."

His verbal bullet hit true and he knew it when Irv spoke.

"Ty," pause then, quietly, "son."

Ty waited. That was all he got. It was more than he ever got before but it was not enough.

So he went on, "I'll tell you, not because you deserve to know but because, you can pull your shit together to be a better fuckin' grandfather than you were a father, then I'll want my kid to have that because you're the only shot my kid'll have at a grandfather and you can take from that that Lexie and I are tryin'. But this love you and Mom are showin' does not end with me handin' cash over so she can blow it on smokes and you can drink it."

Irv was quiet a moment and it was a long moment.

Then he said softly but with feeling that trembled in his voice, "Burned in me, what was done to you."

It was Ty then that was quiet.

Irv kept talking. "Burned in me over five years."

Ty still didn't respond.

Irv finished it and he did it on a whisper. "I can be a better grandfather."

Ty sucked in breath. Then he said, "All right, Dad. I'll talk to Lexie, see if she's comfortable with you bein' in our house. I know one thing though, Mom doesn't show. I'm protective of my wife, she's protective of me and I do not want Mom rilin' her up and she will just by showin' her face. Lexie's still pissed and unless Mom gets her head outta her ass, Lexie won't get unpissed. She knows what was done to me and she's sensitive to anything that might get at me. Keep Mom away."

"It'll be just me," Irv assured him quickly.

"I'll talk to Lexie, let you know."

"You... you," he said, still talking quickly then he paused then, "You done good with her son. She's not hard to look at but that's not what I mean. She... she..." another pause, then quietly, "It's good you got one with sass. Back then... years ago... Reece... your Ma," another pause then, "Way people were, the way they were knowin' she was with me, her folks, anyone... shit they said, way they looked at her... at us..." Ty heard him blow out a sigh. "She couldn't take it."

Ty stood still and stunned.

Christ, thirty-six fucking years and his father was sharing.

What the fuck?

Irv continued, "She got pissed at me 'cause there were too many a' them to get pissed at. Even your Ma, way she is, doesn't have enough vinegar to sustain bein' pissed at the world so she focused. Shoulda let her go, let her be but felt I owed it to her since I knocked her up and fucked up her life."

"You wear a full body coverall when you were datin' her?" Ty asked.

"What?" Irv asked back.

"Dad, she made her choice, you didn't make her make it. She couldn't live with it, that's on her. You didn't owe her shit, not puttin' up with her anger for-fuckin'-ever, not dealin' with her shit by poisoning your body, not makin' your sons put up with it."

"It was gone by the time you could process it, son, but loved her once and she loved me. She got bitter and wears it on her face but back then... you hooked yourself a beauty, Ty, but back then your Mom was nothin' to sneeze at and, I know you won't believe it, not now, but she was funny, shit, boy, made me laugh so damned hard, thought I'd bust a gut anytime I was with her."

Ty stared unseeing out of the door of the garage, hearing this information, shit he did not know, shit he could barely believe that was still, fuck him, shit that was good to hear and he replied, "Spent five years learnin' a lot, most especially that every breath is worth something. So, I won't piss this away and not tell you I don't appreciate, no matter how late it is, you sharin' with me. But I'll point out, it's still fuckin' late. I rotted for five years "

Irv interrupted him with, "I wrote you "

Ty cut right back in. "Yeah, but didn't see you in the courtroom, Dad. Didn't see you before I went down, when that shit was swirlin' around me, not once and before that, when I did, every time I did, you were shitfaced."

"And that's what I'm explaining."

Fucking shit, this was enough for now, he was done.

So he moved it that way. "Lexie wants you in our home, you can explain it more when I'm not at work."

"She said I could come if I called and didn't bring Reece," Irv said softly.

"Yeah, but I give a shit about my wife and what she's feelin' so you're just gonna have to wait until I confirm."

A pause then, "I'll wait, Ty."

"And I'll call, either way."

"'Preciate it, son."

Ty pulled in breath. Then he finished with, "She lets you in, when you come and spend time and then forever, you treat her like crystal. Her life has been shit and she's got no blood family. The family she made for herself means the world. She makes you her family, you do not fuck her. You fuck her, we're done. That's it. Done. Are you with me?"

"I'm with you, Ty."

"Right. I'll call."

"I'll be waitin'."

And, obviously, Lexie said yes and she did this about point two five seconds after he finished telling her about the phone call.

Which led them to now.

His wife, tricked out for a visit from his father who didn't give him much but a few knocks and a lot of nothing until he had a telephone conversation with him a few days before.

Their Monday had been dramatic, their week not uneventful. Nina Maxwell, his new attorney who he and Lex had gone to meet on Thursday, was a very pretty blonde with two young children, a law degree, an excessive amount of energy and more sass even than Lexie.

This meant Pena had heard from her twice. It also meant the Attorney General's office had heard from her daily and not just the one in Colorado but also the one in California. And it further meant that, along with communications they got from Samuel Sterling, the ACLU had heard from her. She was all over it. So, lastly, this meant that the Attorney General's office had not fucked around in locating the communications Misty had sent and contacting Chace Keaton to obtain a sample of Misty's handwriting which, Nina reported, the man had delivered to Denver himself. They also contacted Misty's friend in Maryland and obtained a sworn statement that not only did she receive the documents from Misty with instructions of what to do with them, she'd also received frequent and increasingly frantic phone calls from a firstly anxious then downright terrified Misty including one warning her she'd be receiving the documents and getting her assurance that she would follow through should something untoward happen with Misty.

And she'd followed through.

With a man with the kind of money and influence of Samuel Sterling and an increasingly interested ACLU at her back, Nina wasn't accepting any bullshit or delays. Still, she was getting them and this likely had to do with the fact that Internal Affairs in Colorado and California were trying to hold her back while they sorted their shit.

Nina Maxwell might be the pretty blonde mother of an infant and toddler who, in person, was very sweet and fucking funny, but when she was not dealing with him but for him, she was making it clear she didn't give a fuck about IA investigations, she gave a fuck about a half black man who had five years stolen from his life and deserved a clear name and restitution, not when they got around to getting their shit sorted but yesterday, and the woman was a pit bull.

Therefore, Ty was lying on the couch watching a game, not wound up about his future, Lexie's future and the future of their children. Pena was on it. Tate was on it. Julius's boy was on it. Fucking Chace fucking Keaton was on it. Samuel Sterling was all over it. The ACLU were sticking their noses in it. And Nina Maxwell was living and breathing it.

So he was lying on the couch, drinking a soda, watching a game and wondering if he had enough time to make his wife and himself come in the enjoyable effort of planting his seed in her womb before his father showed.

And, lying on that couch, drinking a soda and watching his woman in that dress and shoes with her tanned skin, round ass and long fucking legs on show as she nervously fluffed, arranged then rearranged toss pillows, Ty made his decision.

And that decision was, two birds, one stone.

So he put his soda on the coffee table, put one foot to the floor, did an ab curl and lunged.

He caught Lex at the waist in mid-fluff of a pillow. She cried out in surprise, dropped the pillow, hit him front to front, he fell back then rolled so he was on top.

Then he yanked her skirt up to her waist.

"Ty," she breathed, eyes big and on him.

"New dress?" he asked, his hands moving around her waist, back, down and into her panties.

"Uh... yeah," she whispered, her hands moving to his chest and resting there like she didn't know whether to push or something else.

He rolled his hips with intent and she spread her legs either because his hips were giving her no choice or because she wanted it. Either way, he felt his cock start to get hard.

"Ty." It came again, breathy and her fingers curled into his tee.

He pulled his hands out of her panties, sliding them down the backs of her thighs then, when he got to the backs of her knees, he yanked up. Hard.

And he did this while asking over her gasp, "New shoes?"

"Ty "

He cut her off. "New shoes, baby?"

"What are you...?" He ground his hips into hers, she trailed off and whispered, "Yes. New shoes."

He dropped his face close to hers and one hand went to the side of her neck, one hand slid up to trace the edge of the leg of her underwear as he spoke.

"Mama, I want you to have everything you wanna have. Everything," he paused as his fingers made it between her legs, one slid in and pulled the gusset away and he watched her eyes heat as her lids dropped halfway and her lips parted. "But," he went on softly, dipping his head so his mouth was a breath from hers, "you gotta slow up. We got attorney fees and, all this effort," he slid his finger lightly through her wet, "could mean a baby soon." He brushed his mouth against hers, feeling her breath had escalated and he whispered, "This dress is the shit, baby, and you look fuckin' good in it. I know what you're doin', for me, my Dad comin'. But you don't gotta be you all tricked out. You just gotta be you. He's gonna like you. He already likes you. The thing you gotta get is the effort is his to make you like him. Not my mama goin' all out to make him like her."

"Oh... okay," she whispered and Ty slid his finger deeper through the wet folds, her chin went up half an inch, her legs spread wider, her hips tipped up as she gasped and he grinned.

"Stick with me, baby, I'm not done," he whispered back and he watched her try to focus on him and he beat back his grin growing to a smile as his finger dipped deeper and she bit her lip. "Our house is already a home 'cause we live here. We got time, means you got time to build it, make it what you like." He brushed his mouth against hers again and said softly, "Home is you, Lex, not a place. I lost a lot but right now," he found her clit, pressed, rolled and listened to her whimper as he finished, "I got it all. You don't have to break your neck or the bank to give me anything more. Yeah?"

"Yeah," she breathed, her hips tipping up further, her fingers releasing his tee to slide around to the back, pull it up and dive in. And he knew, the look on her face, the wet at his finger, she'd say "yeah" to just about anything.

Still, she'd said yes so one bird down, one to go.

His finger rolled and his mouth brushed hers again and he whispered, "What you want, wildcat?"

She lifted her head off the couch to get his mouth but he moved it away, her eyes opened slightly and she whispered back, "Your cock, baby. Hurry."

"Already?" Ty asked, brushed her lips, she lifted her head to get more and he again pulled away. "Thought I'd finger fuck you first."

Another whimper, her hips jerked, she liked that idea.

But she said, "We need to hurry and finger fucking doesn't make babies, Ty."

He pressed harder, rolled and her neck arched. "No, but it's fun to watch."

And it fucking was.

She righted her head and whispered, "Ty, we don't have "

He moved his finger, drove two inside and engaged his thumb.

Her mouth stayed open but only so she could moan low in her throat, her whole body arched and her nails dug in and raked up his back.

Yeah, fuck yeah, it was fun to watch.

And feel.

His fingers moved, going deep, his thumb relentless.

"Hurry, mama, I want in there when you're done," he told her, voice thick.

"Okay," she breathed, moving her hips to ride his hand then, desperate, "Your mouth, honey."

"You come in my mouth, I watch until you do."

"Ty "

"Hurry."

Her neck arched and her hips went desperate too. "Ty."

Fuck, his wife was beautiful. And that was the only reason he kept doing what he was doing because she was so fucking wet, he wanted his mouth down there.

But he couldn't watch and he liked watching.

So he watched.

"Reach for it, mama."

She did and he knew when the noises came fast and low, her nails stopped digging and her arms wrapped around to hold on just as her legs curved around his hips tight, heels digging in to use him for leverage to reach for it, get more out of his hand.

Then her neck arched, her back arched and he knew she was there so he growled, "Mouth."

She dipped her chin, offered her mouth, he took it and kept working her with his hand while her noises drove down his throat straight to his aching cock. He was waiting until she was done so she could keep his hand before he took her with his cock. Finally, her body melted under him, her limbs loosened but stayed around him, he knew she was done and he was about to go for his fly when his phone rang.

Not wanting surprises, he'd given certain numbers their own tones.