Fire Inside (Chaos #2)(102)

Hop chuckled.

Ty-Ty gazed at her son with a smile twitching at her mouth.

Tack didn’t miss a beat and muttered, “I’ll remind you of those words when we have our first pregnancy scare.”

To this Hop chuckled more. I joined in but Tyra cut narrowed eyes to her man while Rider looked confused and Cut shouted, “La-La, I want blue Powerade! Now!”

I set the kids up with Powerade. The men got beers and firmly planted themselves in the living room, not in my family room, which was too close to the kitchen and thus might mean they’d be called on to do something like open jars or chop onions. Tyra and I got down to cooking.

“So, let me get this straight. The bondsman accepted an out-of-state cosigner. Your mom was released. She went home and tossed all your dad’s shit out on the lawn and called a locksmith. He got released from the hospital, came home and couldn’t get into the house but found his crap in the yard and a note on the door telling him she was going to clean him out during the divorce proceedings. The police were called again when he kept pounding on the door and shouting. He was told to find elsewhere to stay. Your mom asked your sister to find her an AA meeting. And you’re in love with Hopper Kincaid,” Tyra stated and I smiled at her.

“That about sums it up,” I confirmed.

“Holy crap,” she replied.

“I know,” I agreed then went on. “Wish I was there when she was tossing all dad’s stuff on the lawn. Lis was. My sister is all over this. She’s liking a jailbird mom with a backbone so she’s decided she’s talking to Mom again and dragging her husband Bart along with her. So they were there when Mom was doing an extreme clean of the house. Bart thought it was a scream and took all Dad’s pictures of him with senators and congressmen off the wall of his study and flung them out the window. Lis said she wanted to throw stuff too but she was laughing too hard, and by the time she got herself together, they’d already taken care of business.”

“That’s crazy, Lanie,” Tyra told me.

“That’s the Heron Family, Ty-Ty. If there’s a statement to be made, you might as well do it with flair.”

She started giggling and I did it right along with her.

She sobered and caught my eye. “You okay with all this?”

I looked back down to the mushrooms I was slicing. “Yeah.” I pressed my lips together then turned to her and said softly, “Especially the AA part.”

“You think she means it?” Tyra asked.

“I think she’s never, not once, not even back in the day when Lis told them she didn’t want to speak to either of them until Mom sorted herself out, admitted she had a problem. They say admitting it is a not only the first step but the most important one so, yeah. I think she means it.”

“Happy for you,” she told me.

“Me too,” I replied and watched her eyes slide to the living room and back to me.

“How happy should I be for you?”

I understood what she was asking so I gave it to her.

“He’s gentle. He’s understanding. He’s proved over and over he has my back. He’s mellow, which is good to come home to when my mind is a mess and work is crazy. His kids are great, they like me, and I love watching him with them. He sang ‘You’ll Accomp’ny Me’ to me at a biker bar. And he loves me.”

Her eyes shot up at Hop singing to me and she breathed, “No joke? He sang to you?”

I shook my head. “No joke.”

“Tack told me he used to be in a band. Is he good?”

I smiled. “He’s a rock star.”

“I mean, is he good when you aren’t looking through love glasses,” she teased and I locked eyes with her.

“He should never have given it up. He’s phenomenal,” I stated firmly.

“Wow,” she whispered.

“You don’t know wow until you’ve seen Hopper onstage with a microphone and a guitar. Then you’ll know wow.”

Tyra grinned.

I went back to slicing mushrooms.

“ ‘You’ll Accomp’ny Me?’ ” she asked quietly.

I looked back at her. “It was the best moment of my life until he said last night, ‘Do you have any f**kin’ clue how much I love you?’ ”

Her eyes got big.

“Wow,” she repeated.

“Yes. Now that was wow.” I pulled in a deep breath and turned to her. “He’s mine. I’m terrified. Love hasn’t gone real well for me. He gets that. He’s patient. We fight. It hurts. But somehow, after each fight, we come out stronger.”

“If it’s right, that’s how it works,” Tyra shared.

“I’m getting that now.”

“I wish you would have told me,” she said carefully and I shook my head.

“I don’t know how it happened, Ty-Ty. I don’t know what I saw that led me to him but I’m glad I followed my gut and my heart because it was Hop I needed to guide me through letting the past go. It couldn’t be you. I was blaming myself for you getting hurt. It had to be someone else and there isn’t anyone in my life, even my sister, who could do it with the tenderness and understanding Hop gave me.”

Her eyes got bright but her lips smiled and she again said, “Wow.”