The minute he got close, his sons’ eyes moved to him and he got identical smiles and nods.

Keira said, “Hey, Mr. Layne,” and Layne greeted her back but Giselle didn’t say a word. She just lifted her arms, instantly reaching for Cecilia.

Tripp and Giselle often babysat for Cecilia and Giselle doted on Layne and Rocky’s daughter. Tripp doted on Giselle. She hadn’t become less shy but she had become extremely tight with his son. They were as inseparable as Jasper and Keira but in a different way. Tripp’s public displays of affection were limited to hand holding and sometimes when they were watching TV, Giselle would curl up at his feet and rest her head on his knee or curl on the seat of the couch and rest her head on this thigh. Though once Layne had started down the stairs and caught sight of them making out, hot and extremely heavy, on the sectional in a way that stated they did it often when they had no audience around. Not making a noise, Layne had retraced his steps, left them to it and hoped with his father, stepmother and baby sister all upstairs, making out was as far as Tripp was prepared to go.

But at all times, Tripp was gentle with Giselle and he was still the only person Layne had seen that could make her smile big or laugh hard, both unconsciously. She never liked attention but sometimes Rocky would nudge Layne, nod at Giselle and he’d see Giselle watching his son move through the kitchen or sit watching TV and she’d do it with a look on her face that reminded Layne of Rocky. It wasn’t the same but it was just as good. Tripp made her laugh but he also made her feel safe and he made her feel special, three of the best gifts Tripp could give her and her look made it clear she appreciated them.

He handed CeeCee to Giselle and dropped to the grass, stretching out like his sons.

“You and Roc missed the big announcement,” Jas stated when Layne settled and Layne’s eyes went to his boy who was now no longer a boy in any sense of that word.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Kate’s gettin’ married,” Jas declared, Layne’s eyes moved through the people and he located Kate Winters, Keira’s sister and Vi’s older daughter. Kate was just about to enter grad school and she was now leaning against a tall, lean but built, dark-haired man. She was also smiling happily and talking to Cal’s Aunt Theresa and Uncle Vinnie.

“You know him?” Layne asked.

“Yeah, his name’s Tony. He’s a cop, Chicago PD,” Jas answered and Layne grinned, thinking the apple definitely does not fall far from the tree. Kate’s Dad was a cop on the Chicago PD. “He seems solid,” Jasper finished.

“Good,” Layne murmured and he looked at Keira. “You like him, Keirry?”

“Sure, he’s hot,” Keira replied, Jasper’s eyes sliced to her, she grinned insolently at him then leaned in close to his face. “Not as hot as you, honey,” she whispered, glanced over her shoulder at her sister and her man, then back to Jasper where she noted, “But no denying, the Winters women have really good taste.”

Jasper glared at his girl then looked at his old man. “You know, Dad, I woulda been happy with the gene you gave Tripp, the one that would lead me to a woman who wasn’t a complete nut and also wasn’t friggin’ irritating all the time.”

Keira, completely unoffended by this, burst out laughing. So did Tripp and, to a lesser extent, Giselle. Jasper did not.

Layne smiled at his son then he saw Cecilia straining away from Giselle, her arms stretched out to Tripp.

Tripp took one arm from under him as Giselle lost hold of a very determined CeeCee and she landed on Tripp’s chest. His arm circled his sister’s fat bottom, she reached up, latched on and pulled at his lip which made Tripp smile and instantly bend his head, heft her up his chest and blow into her neck.

Cecilia giggled.

The birth of Cecilia was an event that made a lot of people pretty f**king happy, including Layne’s two boys. They loved their sister and CeeCee liked her Mom and Dad, she liked Vera and Devin, she liked Dave and Merry, she liked Keira and Giselle, but she adored her brothers.

The person it didn’t make happy was Gabrielle. Gabby detested her sons’ devotion to Rocky and Layne’s daughter and didn’t mind letting that fact be known. She didn’t say anything but it pissed her off, her sons preferring to be with their Dad, Roc and their sister and Gabby, being Gabby, found her own, particular bitchy way to let this be known.

As usual, it wasn’t a good play. Her boys didn’t like it and she didn’t let it go so she’d managed to alienate them both. Now, neither saw her very often. When Jas came home from Purdue, he was on the air mattress in his old room, now Tripp’s room. And Tripp, more often than not, stopped taking his turns at Gabby’s.

When this started, Gabby had threatened Layne with attorneys. As he’d told her that morning at Rocky’s apartment, Layne didn’t respond because he never responded. She called, he didn’t answer. She called him from a number he didn’t recognize, he picked up, heard her voice then hung up. She left a message, he didn’t return it. The buzzer beeped at his office and he saw her on the monitor, he walked to the outer door and locked it. She never came to the house because she tried that once, the door went unanswered and Tripp had pulled up while she was camped out on one of Rocky’s Adirondack chairs on the front porch and this didn’t go over very well with Tripp, as in at all, so she’d never tried that shit again.

Gabby didn’t enter his or Roc’s life except when he became annoyed when his sons’ spoke of her bullshit, bitter antics.

But Tripp had had a word with his mother, it was a word she didn’t like but, whatever it was, it was also a word that made her back off. After that, Tripp went his own way and that way normally led him to his room at Layne and Roc’s.

With time, Tripp had learned cool. He’d also learned to focus his intensity. And both made Tripp Layne a young man you didn’t mess with, even if you were his mother.

Rocky had intervened on Gabby’s behalf and she’d done this more than once, with both boys together and separate. She’d intervened but her efforts weren’t successful. Devin had been right, like their father, both Layne’s sons saw Rocky’s vulnerable spot even before she exposed it that Saturday afternoon and her work at healing that wound hadn’t stopped his sons’ from militantly standing strong to protect against it, or anything, causing her pain. This wasn’t because their old man loved Rocky, it was because they did. The addition of Cecilia just strengthened their connection with Layne’s wife. That didn’t mean they didn’t love their mother that just meant she’d made an extremely stupid play. He knew his boys, they cared about Gabby, they’d find their way back – but when they did, they’d do it on their terms.