Jasper moved to follow but Layne put a hand on his chest and looked to Tripp.

“Get your Grandma to make everyone lunch,” he ordered, Tripp nodded and then hurried after Seth.

Devin gave Layne and Jasper a look before he followed Tripp.

Layne took his hand out of Jasper’s chest and said, “We gotta be quick and you gotta get down everything I say.” Jasper nodded and Layne laid it out for him, what happened with Stew, what the gig was with Gabby and what his role was with Seth. “You get that?” he asked when he was done.

“Got it,” Jasper answered.

“You think you need to bag on Youth Group?” Layne asked.

“Naw, we gotta keep on that too,” Jasper replied.

Shit, Jasper was a good kid. But he’d told him that once today and once was enough so Layne just nodded.

“Check in with her regular,” he repeated.

“I said I got it,” Jasper returned.

“Rocky and me’ll take Paige. You follow with Seth in the Charger. We go to their house first, help them get their shit then we go to Cal’s.”

Jasper nodded.

“Control Keira,” Layne ordered. “The woman in our house is humiliated enough. We don’t need Keira sayin’ anything or doin’ anything nutty.”

Jasper’s chest expanded. “She’ll be cool.”

Layne lifted his chin. “I reckon she will.” Jasper relaxed, Layne turned and moved to the door, muttering, “Let’s get lunch and get this done.”

He had a hand on the handle when he heard Jasper call, “Dad?”

He looked to his boy. “Yeah?”

Jasper stared at him, expression hidden except a muscle ticking in his cheek.

Finally, he spoke and the words seemed forced out of him. “I’m glad you’re proud of me.” Layne jerked his chin up and started to turn the handle on the door when Jasper finished. “’Cause I’m proud of you too.”

A new burn ignited, just in his chest, so hot, he was finding it hard to breathe.

His voice was hoarse and low when he said, “Good to have you back, Bud.”

He saw Jasper’s chest was moving like Layne knew his was moving and he knew his son had the same burn inside him so he left him alone to beat it back, turned the handle and walked into the house.

* * * * *

Layne hit the button on the remote and the TV flicked off then he looked down at Rocky’s head resting heavily in the middle of his chest.

Vera was upstairs in Tripp’s bed. Tripp was on an air mattress in Jasper’s room, Jasper in his bed. Gabby had called in to Jas and she was safe at Brandy’s. Stew was wherever Stew was but none of his shit was at Gabby’s. Paige and Seth were at Cal’s old house.

Devin was out, whereabouts unknown, but he was either at J&J’s getting hammered or he was talking a bookie into doing him a favor and laying a fake trail of Coach Cosgrove betting on high school football games as well as giving insider information on when he’d be throwing them. Layne thought this because that was what Layne would do and Devin had taught him everything he hadn’t learned in the field so if Dev felt like playing dirty, Layne reckoned that was how he’d play it.

And Layne was on his back on the couch with a sleeping Raquel, her body half on his, half tucked into the seat of the couch at the back. Her knee was cocked, thigh resting over both of his, her pelvis snug in his hip, her arm was slung along his waist and she’d been out for the last hour.

He moved and her head instantly came up.

“Time for bed, baby,” he whispered and her eyes came to his.

He watched her blink, look around the room and he started to curl up, his arm around her back tensing to take her with him when she pressed into him and her gaze came back to his. Then he settled back when she moved her body so it was mostly on his, only partly in the couch and she crossed her arms on his chest and put her chin on her hands. He’d pulled the clip out of her hair hours ago so it was down, falling around her shoulders and on his chest.

Now she was studying him, sleep still in her eyes, something he couldn’t read with it.

“You know,” she started softly, “I promised I’d live it real.”

“Yeah?” Layne asked when she said no more.

“Well, I’m thinking about going back on that promise,” she told him and his arm around her squeezed.

“Roc –”

One side of her mouth she couldn’t control twitched up and she said, “Layne, if this is your real, I think we should live it fake for Sunday. I’ll wear an apron and make a pot roast and you can put on loafers and we can pretend to be Ozzie and Harriet without seeing disgusting  p**n ographic pictures starring Stew ‘Ick’ Baranski, shaking anyone down, setting up safe houses for victims of domestic violence or sending teenaged kids on undercover assignments at Church Youth Groups.”

He used his arm around her to pull her up his chest, her chin came off her hands, her face came level with his and he gathered her hair in his other hand as he fought back a smile and told her, “Don’t own loafers, sweetcheeks.”

“We’ll go to the mall,” she offered. “I don’t own an apron either, we’ll pick one of those up too.”

“Not a big fan of shopping,” he informed her.

“That’s okay, you can swing by and get me a coffee. I’ll do all the grunt work.”

He used her hair to bring her mouth to his and he kissed her lightly. He did it lightly because she put pressure on his hand and pulled back a little and he watched her eyes move over his face then her hand came up and he felt her fingers at his jaw. She watched as they glided feather light along his jaw, his lips and then over his cheekbone before her fingers slid into his hair at the side of his head, curling around the back and her eyes came back to his.

“I know about you,” she whispered.

“What do you know?” he whispered back.

“You help people,” she was still whispering.

“Rocky –”

She interrupted him. “I know about Kim Kempler.”

“Roc –”

“And I know about Winona Jakobi.”

“Baby –”

“Mostly women, right Layne?” she asked softly and he felt his body get tight.

“It isn’t –”

“Women with kids but on their own,” she cut him off. “Women like your Mom who struggle going it alone.”

“Ma did all right,” Layne reminded her.