She pressed her lips together before noting, “I do too.”

Christ, there it was. There it f**king was. Jesus. She was trying, finally genuinely trying and she hoped just like he did that she didn’t f**k it up.

Jesus.

He nodded, reached out and took the check. Then he pulled out his wallet and shoved it inside.

“Mike?” he heard her call as he was pushing his wallet back into his inside blazer pocket.

His eyes went to her. “Yeah?”

“I’ve, uh…been asked out on a date. By an attorney in another firm who was working a case joint with our firm.” When he made no reply she finished, “I thought that, um…you should know just in case something comes of it and I need to tell the kids or introduce them to him.”

“Pleased for you, Audrey,” Mike said softly and got another hesitant smile.

“Yeah, he’s kind of cute,” she whispered and Mike smiled back.

Then he told her, “But he’s a lawyer so he’s probably got some ass**le in him. Be careful.”

“Been working with them long enough, I get that better than you,” she replied her smile still there, still hesitant but less so.

Mike nodded.

“You have to go,” she reminded him.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

She held his eyes and didn’t move.

Then she whispered, “I love our kids.”

“I’m not only glad you finally figured that out, I’m glad you figured out how to show them.”

Her head tipped to the side, her eyes got soft and she gave him another cautious smile.

Then she said, “Take care of yourself, Mike.”

Mike unfolded from the chair on a nod and, “The same to you, Audrey.”

She nodded back.

Mike lifted his hand and flicked two fingers at her, turned and walked out of Mimi’s.

Then he walked down the street, around the side of the Station to the back parking lot and got in his SUV to drive home. Dusty was cooking for his kids and the Riveras.

He made the drive deciding he’d tell Reesee and No about what their Mom had done. They’d been waiting a long time to have one who gave a shit. Now they had her, they should know.

He just hoped like f**k this lasted. But even if it didn’t and this was the only gesture she was able to pull off, they should have it.

And they would.

*

Saturday afternoon…

Mike and Dusty had just got back from the airport, following the Riveras in their rental there in order to wring the last seconds out of their visit by waving them off through security.

Now they were walking with Layla across the field, Dusty to hit her wheel, Mike to talk with Fin.

Dusty was in a quiet mood and Mike read this correctly as the fact that she was going to miss her friends. She’d started bonding with Cheryl, Vi, Rocky, Feb and their crew but it would take years to build anything with them like she had with Jerra and, because of her years with Jerra, it would never be the same. Still, Mike knew all of them were good women, if some of them totally f**king nuts. What she’d eventually build would be good.

He knew her mood had to do with the Riveras leaving and not anything else because the rest was sorting itself out. He’d told her what they had on McGrath and Debbie and she knew their plans for getting them to back off. He’d also explained what happened with Audrey. And Rhonda had told Della she would prefer it if she was the one who grocery shopped for the boys, made dinner at night and cleaned the house. She’d also taken over feeding and watering Dusty’s horses in the mornings. She had yet to help out with the pottery but she was finally stepping up, paying attention to her home and family.

So the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t a train. A week, two, Rhonda kept her shit and they were able to immobilize Debbie and McGrath, life would just be life.

He was looking forward to it.

They stopped in the vast area between the farm and the house, she turned and looked up at him.

“This is me,” she said softly, jerking her head toward the barn and Mike got close, lifted his hand and cupped her jaw.

“Summer, the kids off school, we’ll go down to Texas.”

She pressed her jaw into his hand and whispered, “Thanks, gorgeous.”

He dropped his head, touched his mouth to hers then lifted it and ordered gently, “Get to work.”

She gave him a grin, he dropped his hand then she moved toward the barn. Layla stood there looking indecisive and Mike lifted a hand and pointed at Dusty’s departing figure so Layla turned and trotted after Mike’s woman.

He moved to the house. Dusty had texted Fin and he’d told her he was in from the fields to eat lunch. She asked him to stay because Mike wanted a word. When Mike walked in the backdoor, he saw Fin at the sink downing a Coke, waiting for him.

Fin dropped his hand, his eyes on Mike and muttered, “Yo, Mr. Haines. Everything cool?”

Mike noted his eyes were alert but his posture relaxed. Rees and No were with their mother that weekend which was one of the few times that every available minute Fin had was not with Mike’s daughter. Still, he had no doubt they communicated profusely during these times as they did any other time they were forced to be apart. So Mike knew that Fin probably knew more about the state of his daughter at that very moment than Mike did.

“Yeah, everything’s cool. Just need a few words with you,” Mike told him, advancing but stopping four feet away and leaning a hip against the counter. He rested a hand in the counter, locked eyes with Fin and asked quietly, “All going okay with your Mom?”

Fin nodded. “We woke her shit…uh, I mean, seems the other night we woke her up.”

Mike let the swearing pass and nodded back, muttering, “Good.” Then he went on, “You should know, been workin’ with some of my boys at the Station as well as a few other friends who are kickin’ in. Seems we may have some leverage on your Aunt Debbie and Bernie McGrath. Things will get hot the next week or two but what we got, it’s lookin’ good the rest of that will cool down.”

As he spoke, Fin’s alert gaze got heated as well as intense but he simply jerked his chin up when Mike finished and murmured, “Thanks for that, Mr. Haines. Don’t know if I can –”

“Nothin’ for you to do. Dusty’s my woman which means she’s in the family so you’re in the family. Family steps up for family so if you’re shufflin’ markers you owe in your head, stop. This is life, Fin. You take, later there’ll be a time you give. It’s just the way it is. Let it go.”