She kept talking. “Supply is exceeding demand for Dominic at the spa. He rents out his rooms in the back to the massage therapist and skin technician. The massage therapist only works part-time and her appointments are now six weeks out. The skin technician is a little flaky and it isn’t unheard of that she misses appointments and when she comes in, nearly every day, she’s usually late so her appointments run late. That reflects on Nic, not her and he’s not a big fan of that.”

She stopped talking; Ty swallowed the last mouthful of oatmeal and set his bowl on the counter.

Then he prompted, “You’re telling me this because…?”

“I think I want to go to school to do one or the other or maybe even both. They make three times as much as I make, I’d never screw over Dominic and they have it sweet. It’s like, the best job in the world. A woman looks forward to a massage or a facial; it’s the highlight of her day so, in a way, you giving it to her makes you the highlight of her day. It’d be cool getting paid to do something people look forward to, being the highlight of their day and, when they leave you, they feel relaxed and peaceful. I think that would be awesome.”

“Do it,” Tyr replied and Lexie blinked.

“Uh… maybe you should think about it. First, it costs money to go to school. Second, it’ll mean me being away in the evenings, third –”

Ty cut her off. “Babe, do it.”

“But, we have –”

He lifted a hand, wrapped it around the side of her neck and asked, “You wanna do this?”

She nodded.

“Do it.”

His woman held his eyes. Then she grinned.

Then she said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

He gave her neck a squeeze before he released it but only to move his arm to slide around her waist and bring her closer, muttering. “Payback is me gettin’ rubdowns from my wife when I get back from the gym.”

She set her bowl aside, lifted her hands to rest them on his chest, rolled her eyes and said to the ceiling. “I’m not even enrolled in classes yet and he expects freebies.”

“God don’t care about me expecting freebies.”

She rolled her eyes back and retorted, “God cares about everything.”

That was the damned truth, fortunately.

“All right,” Ty changed the subject, “somethin’ for you to think about today.”

Lexie tipped her head to the side and asked, “What?”

“We got a kid comin’, we got a shitload of money in the bank and still not a small amount of cash in the safe. The first one comes, we lose our guest room. The next one comes, you lose your craft room. They get to the point where they can cogitate, my woman is not gonna let me f**k her the way I like anywhere but the bathroom. This does not work for me. We need a new house.”

Her eyes got big and her lips parted before she whispered, “But I love our house.”

“I do too but it isn’t gonna fit four kids, us and our sex life.”

It was then her eyes slid to the side and she murmured, “This is true.”

Ty pulled her closer, her eyes slid back and her hands slid up to round his neck. “This does not have to happen now but it has to happen. You need to think about what you want. We do this; we do it once and settle. We don’t need to be movin’ our brood all over Carnal as it grows so you find what you like in a way that you’re gonna like it a good long while.”

“What about what you like?” Lexie asked.

“I got one condition and that is, your ass in my bed every night. Since that’s gonna happen anywhere we’re gonna be, the rest of it, I don’t give a f**k.”

That was when he got her soft face, warm eyes and a sweet, quiet, “Ty.”

“We do it before the first one comes then we do it soon. It’s your first, you advance, I want you worried about our kid not movin’. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, her arms around his neck getting tighter, her body moving up because she rolled up on her toes.

“Now, I gotta get to work,” he said quietly.

She nodded and, still whispering, replied, “Okay, honey.”

He bent his neck and touched his mouth to hers. Then he dropped his forehead and touched that to hers. Then he released her, tagged his travel mug but wrapped his hand around her hip and gave her a squeeze before he let her go again and started moving away.

“Later, mama,” he said to the backdoor and heard said to his back, “Later, baby.”

Then Ty walked out the backdoor, down the stairs, got in his Cruiser and went to work.

* * * * *

Three and a half hours later…

Ty’s cell rang, he did the drill, looked at the display, flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Champ,” he greeted.

“Where are you?” Julius asked quickly, his voice strange, urgent and Ty felt a whisper of dread snake up his spine.

“At work,” he answered.

“You haven’t heard,” Julius stated.

“Heard what?”

Julius sucked in breath.

Then he told Ty, “Day before yesterday, Shift was FTA at his prelim hearing.” Pause then, “My man, this kicks me in the balls to tell you this shit because I know you got a relationship with that cop but he was there, Peña, at the courthouse. When the hearing was cancelled, he walked out right into a drive-by. He took four. He’s alive but they are not thinkin’ good things and when I say that, he’s already received last rites. Him still breathin’ is a miracle and that miracle is aided by a machine.”

Ty was already on the move through the garage to the office where Wood was in with Stella and Pop.

“Shift do it?” he barked into the phone.

“Was mayhem, the shooter took out three other people, two survived, one got one right in the neck, bled out before help arrived. Bystanders were freaked, it happened fast but they said it was a black man though further descriptions aren’t great. My guess is, Peña’s got more enemies than just Shift. But you gotta have this head’s up.”

“Right,” Ty muttered, climbing the stairs to the office.

“Sorry, brother, wish you and Lexie had a longer run without shit news comin’ at you,” Julius said quietly.

“Me too. Thanks for callin’ to tell me, brother,” Ty replied, opening the door to the office.

“I’ll call, I get any more,” Julius told him. “Later.”

“Later,” Ty said into the phone, flipped it shut, looked through the office to see all eyes on him, his intent to tell them he had to walk to the salon to deliver shit news to his wife. Lexie’d be pissed if he waited until that night. Peña’s position elevated significantly in Lexie’s mind since he’d gone all out for Ty so that meant Lexie’d want their asses on a plane and she wouldn’t want a delay in that.