“Yeah,” Jasper confirmed. “That chick can’t come into the locker room and Coach gets bad. He lays it on me but mostly he lays it on Tripp.”

“How bad?” Layne asked.

“I can take it,” Tripp answered and his eyes moved to his younger boy.

“How bad, Tripp?”

Tripp shrugged. “He’s a dick, Dad, but I can take it.”

Layne looked back at Jasper.

“He can take it,” Jasper stated. “But still, it’s bad.”

Layne clenched his jaw and felt the muscle move in his cheek.

“I can take it, Dad,” Tripp repeated on a whisper and Layne caught his eyes. Tripp was looking at him steady, unblinking.

He could take it.

Another indication he was Layne’s son.

“You tell me if you can’t,” Layne ordered.

“Okay,” Tripp agreed.

“No shit, Tripp and no shame in that. Got me?”

Tripp nodded and grinned. “No shit, no shame, got you.”

Layne felt his temper ebb and he grinned back. Then he looked between both of them.

“A friend is comin’ to stay. He’ll be here tonight. Name’s Devin Glover. He’s an ex-PI. Good, solid guy, he’s been around the block and he taught your old man a lot.” Both Layne’s sons nodded. “He’s also a nut,” Layne went on and both Layne’s sons stared at him. “Total nut. You’ll get it when you meet him but, fair warning, the guy’s whacked.”

“He’s not gonna f**k up pasta bake with Keira tonight, is he?” Jasper asked.

“It could happen,” Layne answered honestly and Jas’s eyes got huge. “I’ll be here, Bud, I’ve got your back and, way you describe Keira, sounds like Dev is a member of her club.”

Jasper’s face lost its worry and warmed. “Yeah, she’ll probably think he’s a scream. Her long lost grandpa.”

Layne smiled at his boy and then said to them both, “School.”

Tripp moved quickly, rinsing his bowl and putting it in the dishwasher. Jasper took more than his usual time in getting his shit sorted so Tripp was out the door to the Charger before Jasper was even down the stairs with his books.

Layne would understand when Jasper came up to him and handed him a piece of paper.

“Mom’s schedule,” he mumbled.

Layne nodded and pocketed the paper. “Good man.”

Jasper nodded back and walked to the utility room door. Layne walked his coffee mug to the sink but turned to the door when Jasper called.

“Everyone in school is talking about you and Rocky,” he informed Layne.

“That’s kind of the point, Bud,” Layne replied quietly. “You cool with that?”

“Everyone thinks it’s the shit, you bein’ with her,” Jas said instead of answering Layne’s question. “Apparently, they all knew about you guys, you know… before.” He went on and kept talking when Layne didn’t. “Guess they never shared with Tripp and me ‘cause we’re your sons.”

Layne didn’t reply. Jasper had something to say and Layne was going to give him the chance to say it.

“Tripp said Melody was here then she was gone,” Jasper noted.

Layne kept his gaze steady on his son and stayed silent.

“It’s not fake, is it?” Jasper asked softly and Layne studied his son thinking he had vastly underestimated Jasper too.

“It was, Jas, it isn’t anymore.”

Jasper nodded.

Layne continued. “She doesn’t know that yet, though.”

Jasper stared at him then his mouth twitched before, very slowly, it spread into a smile.

Then Jasper shocked the shit out of Layne and walked straight into him, he bumped the side of his chest against his Dad’s like Layne had seen him doing to his buds.

He stepped away, looking to the floor, mumbling, “Later, Dad.”

“Later, Bud,” Layne returned.

Layne stared at the door for long minutes after it closed. Then Blondie sauntered up to him and sat at his feet, head back, tongue lolling, the invitation to pet her or, preferably, give her a rubdown, opened.

He turned and surveyed his house from the kitchen thinking he was beginning to like the place.

He looked down at Blondie and asked, “You wanna go to work with me today?”

She had no idea what he was saying but she got up on all fours, her body shaking with excitement and she barked.

Layne decided to take that as a yes.

* * * * *

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what the f**k is that?” Devin asked when Layne came through the door to his office. Devin’s eyes were on Blondie.

Blondie ran forward and jumped on Devin’s wife beater covered chest.

“It’s a dog, Dev,” Layne answered then ordered Blondie to get down.

Blondie whipped her head toward Layne, whipped it back to Devin, aimed a lash of her tongue at his face, got nothing but air and then jumped down, put her nose to the ground and started her voyage of the discovery of his office.

Devin scowled at her and then looked at Layne. “Jesus, boy, next thing I’ll find out is you drive a mini-van.”

“That’s another reason I called you here all the way from Cleveland, Dev. I wanted you to help me pick the color,” Layne returned and Dev rolled his eyes.

Then Devin walked to the reception desk and picked up a white cup of lidded coffee. A Mimi’s coffee.

Devin was wearing a pair of dress pants he should have thrown away probably five years ago, a pair of scuffed shoes and his wife beater. Thick, gray, chest hair could be seen out of the top of the wife beater and the shock of white-gray hair on his head looked like he hadn’t even run his fingers through it after getting up from the couch. Total bedhead.

“You didn’t get me a coffee?” Layne asked, walking into the room.

“What am I, your nanny?” Dev asked back.

Good to know Devin hadn’t changed. Layne knew the man would take a bullet for him but he’d give him lip the entire time he was doing it.

“You go to Mimi’s in your wife beater?”

Devin moved away from the reception desk to his bag spread open on the couch and Layne moved to the desk, dumping the folder with TJ Gaines’s file on it, turned to Dev and leaned back into it.

“Woman runs that joint ain’t difficult to look at,” Dev muttered rather than answering Layne’s question which did answer Layne’s question that, yes, Dev wandered into Mimi’s wearing a wife beater like he’d wander up to his own kitchen counter and pour himself a mug of joe.