“This is the third time I’ve called today, Merry, you get this, call me back,” Layne growled into the phone, flipped it closed, took another drag and on the exhale he called Dave.

“Hello?” Dave answered.

“Dave. Layne.”

“Tanner, son, how are you?”

“Been better, Dave,” Layne answered honestly, an answer he wouldn’t have thought he’d give after he woke up that morning and after what transpired in his closet that day but, f**k him, there he was, giving it. “Listen, I’ve been tryin’ to get hold of Merry. You know where he is?”

“He’s on call this weekend, Tanner, probably busy,” Dave replied.

This wasn’t an excuse for Merry not to take his calls. Merry always took his calls.

“He got anything else goin’ this weekend?” Layne pushed.

“Not that I know of. He had a hot date last night but then he’s always got a hot date. Boy needs to settle down, he’s too old for this shit. I don’t know what was wrong with Mia. Never could get that.”

Layne couldn’t either. He hadn’t been around when Merry hooked up with Mia but he knew her before he left town. She was a seriously pretty, petite redhead with a temper that matched her hair but a wicked sense of humor and a smile that rivaled Rocky’s, falling short because she didn’t have a dimple and Layne had never been in love with her. Word was Merry fell and fell hard then broke loose for no reason.

Seemed the Merrick kids shared a particular trait.

Fuck, he really needed to talk to Merry.

“Dave, can you tell him if you see him or hear from him that I need to talk to him?” Layne asked. “As soon as he can.”

“Sure, son, no problems,” Dave paused then asked, “How’s Roc?”

“We’re back together,” Layne announced without preamble and this was met with utter silence.

Layne let the silence stretch and waited for Dave’s response as he took a drag and exhaled.

Finally, Dave whispered, “Sorry?”

“We’re back together, Dave,” Layne repeated. “Things changed on Friday and we talked it through last night.”

“You talked it through?” Dave repeated.

“Yep,” Layne replied and waited.

“You been separated for closin’ on twenty years and you talked it through,” Dave said.

“Yep,” Layne returned.

“How is she?” Dave asked, this question giving Layne nothing.

“She would be fine but Ma’s here and not Roc’s biggest fan so let’s say it’s not goin’ as smooth as I’d like it to go.”

“Vera’s there?”

“Yep.”

“Oh boy,” Dave muttered, knowing Vera and living in the same town as Vera until Vera moved to Florida five years ago. Vera hadn’t just decided to hate Rocky for breaking Layne’s heart. She became an equal opportunity Merrick hater, blaming them all. The only person Vera hated more than Rocky and her family was Gabby and that was only because Gabby wasn’t just a bitch to Layne, she was a bitch to his mother too and such a far cry from what Vera had when she had Rocky, it dug that particular knife in deeper.

“You need me to come over, even out the numbers?” Dave offered.

“I’ll take care of Roc,” Layne replied.

There was more silence then, “Tanner, I’m happy for you, I’m happy for Rocky, if this is the right thing but…” he hesitated before he went on, “doesn’t this seem sudden?”

Sudden? Jesus.

“Don’t know, Dave,” Layne returned. “Been wanting her back for eighteen years, she’s felt the same, we’ve been together for a month, both of us strugglin’ to hold it back, Friday it broke through, that doesn’t seem sudden to me.”

“Right,” Dave whispered.

“You got anything to give me?” Layne asked.

“Anything to give you?” Dave asked back.

“Yeah, anything to give me,” Layne repeated.

“Like what?” Dave asked.

“Anything,” Layne returned, losing patience.

Dave was silent.

Layne lost patience.

“Dave –”

Dave cut him off. “I’ll give you this, Tanner, I’ll tell you I lost faith in God the night he took Cecilia from me but, if I’d believed in Him, I woulda prayed for this to happen so now that’s it’s happened, it’s made me think maybe He’s finally kickin’ back in.”

This statement made Layne go silent.

“Happy for you, son, happy for Rocky. It’s about damned time,” Dave whispered and Layne heard the disconnect.

He flipped his phone shut, took a drag from his cigarette and turned to look into the house to see Vera sitting back in her armchair, a smug smile on her face. He couldn’t see Tripp but Jasper was staring at his grandmother, his profile not happy and Rocky was strutting up the stairs.

Fuck, she’d said something else.

Layne crushed out his cigarette and entered the house just as Rocky disappeared around the top of the stairs, heading to his room.

Layne moved after her.

“Tanner,” Vera said. “You shouldn’t smoke. Not even one a –”

She stopped talking when her mouth clamped shut after Layne’s eyes hit her and she read what was in them.

Layne took the stairs two at a time.

He found Rocky in his bed, back to the headboard, knees up, an arm around her calves, pillow sandwiched between her chest and thighs, cheek to her knee and an arm outstretched to point the remote at the TV.

Her head came up when he walked in.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey,” he replied, walked direct to the bed and climbed in.

She watched him do this, her face blank, clearly locked in her head then, when he settled, she went back to the remote, flipping channels on the TV.

“I’m footballed out,” she mumbled her fictitious excuse to leave the living room.

Layne leaned forward, pulled the remote out of her hand, switched the TV off, tossed the remote to the foot of the bed and then gripped the pillow Rocky was cradling and tugged it out. Her head came up and he shoved the pillow behind his back at the headboard and then he went after her. Grabbing a hand, he yanked her forward until she came off-balance and landed with a hand to his chest, her body to his side and her head to his shoulder.

Her head went up and back and she started to pull away while looking at him.