She patted him on the thigh. “We’re going home after we check out, and tomorrow we’ll sleep late.”
He wouldn’t meet their eyes. “Then back to fucking court on Monday.”
Thomas leaned over the table. “It won’t be bad. Nevvie might not even have to testify again for the victim impact part.”
Nevvie noted Tyler’s confusion. “Ty, they convicted him. The jury came back after ten minutes. Sentencing is on Monday.”
He closed his eyes, dropping his head. “Bloody hell. I thought for sure I’d made a right balls-up of my testimony.”
Thomas patted Tyler’s hands. “This is why we keep telling you to stop trying to fix stuff that ain’t broke. If you hadn’t taken off you’d have known. There weren’t any reporters at the house when Bob drove us home. The State Attorney said your little speech probably sealed the case.”
Tyler finally laughed, lifting his head. “To top it all off, somehow I managed to lose my blasted ATM card. We’ll have to cancel it and get a new one.” He frowned when Nevvie and Thomas laughed. “What? I don’t see anything funny about that.”
Nevvie smiled and handed it to him. Thomas leaned forward again, dropping his voice. “As I tried to tell you, our little slave has overthrown your evil genius title.”
Tyler turned to her and smiled, then leaned in for a kiss. “What would I ever do without you, angel?” he whispered.
She squeezed his hands. “Just doing my job.”
“What, taking care of your master?”
She caressed his cheek. “No, Tyler. Taking care of my husband.”
Tyler rode with Nevvie. She’d confiscated his keys before breakfast, just in case. He slumped in the passenger seat, his top two buttons open, shirt rumpled, his tie and jacket on the back seat. She didn’t push him to talk and waited to speak until they finally reached Alligator Alley.
“When will you understand you don’t need to break your back or beat yourself up?”
He looked out the window, studying the sawgrass flats and refusing to meet her gaze. “I don’t seem to be doing a good job of taking care of either of you lately.”
“Stop it. That’s the kind of stuff we mean.” She patted his thigh. “We love you the way you are. Just be you, stop trying to make it all better. We love you no matter what. You don’t need to buy our love.”
He looked at her sharply. “What do you mean, buy your love?”
“You don’t get it. If you never fixed me a cup of coffee again, I’d still love you. Thomas would still love you if you never ironed another shirt. All of that. Everything. We will still and always love you. You are more than good enough, Tyler. Take us at our word. You don’t have to prove yourself. There are no scorecards in our heads tallying up how much you do for us on any given day for us to say, ‘Okay, he reached the limit, we love him.’ The fact that you love us is enough.”
She held her right hand out to him until he took it. She squeezed and softened her voice. “Just love us. We love everything you do for us, but that’s not why we love you.”
He finally squeezed back.
She softened her voice even further. “I need you the way you are. I need you nurturing and nourishing my heart and soul. Thomas has enough strength to take care of both of us, and he needs us taking care of him.”
She glanced at him. “All things considered, you did a damn good job. Because of you we are a family. You brought us together.”
He met her eyes the next time she looked at him. Maybe her words finally struck home. He was wounded so deeply, years of not dealing now catching up with him. So many years, so much pain.
If she ever met his father she’d deck the son of a bitch. And she didn’t feel warm fuzzies for his mother, either.
She kept trying. “Let’s face it, I’m the queen of abandonment issues, I know a thing or two about getting dumped by family. Fuck ‘em. Your father’s an asshole, your mom’s an ungrateful bitch. You have Thomas, and you have me, and you have a whole household of Kinsey women who not-so-secretly drool over you.”
Finally, a genuine smile. “Karen goosed my ass at Thanksgiving.”
Nevvie faked a territorial growl. “She’d better keep her hands off my husband. I don’t share well, especially not with my sister-in-law.”
He laughed.
“I want you to ride home with Thomas after the next gas stop.” She glimpsed his fear and clarified. “You need to spend some time alone together because you haven’t had that in a while. I’ll go on ahead and—” she dropped her voice, “prepare something special for my sweet husbands.”
He looked surprised at the way she changed the words. Usually she reserved that tone of voice for the slave game.
“Husband, Ty,” she whispered. “You’re my husbands. Got it?”
He nodded. “I love you, Nevvie. I love him, but I need you.”
“I know.”
Tyler pumped gas for the Lexus while Tom filled the Ridgeline. She walked over to Thomas and leaned in close. “He’s riding home with you.”
“Why? Did something happen?”
“No. You need to talk. Tell him the things that maybe he hasn’t heard from you in a while because I’ve been around. You don’t get a lot of private time.” She turned, blocking the view, and grabbed his crotch. “I’ll have a surprise waiting for you both, my sweet husband.”
Like Tyler, he was surprised, his reaction to her tone of voice the same.
Pavlov would have been proud.
She kissed them both before leaving and hugged Tyler tightly. “Talk with him.”
“Be careful, sweetheart.”
Nevvie quickly pulled ahead, pushing the Lexus and holding it at eighty. She left them behind and ran through a mental list in her head of things she’d need. She’d completed her preparations by the time the boys pulled into the driveway nearly forty-five minutes after her.
It was dark, and the way she stood inside the doorway made her visible only to the boys from the driveway. When they realized she was naked, both smiled.
Tyler hugged her, sliding his hands down her back to her hips, pulling her to him. “I’m not sure how active I’ll be tonight, sweet.”
“That’s okay. I wanted to give you a nice homecoming.”
Tyler kissed her then Thomas walked in and closed the front door. “Mmm. Me like.”
She grinned and kissed him. “I’d hoped you would.”
They followed her to the kitchen. Except for the light over the kitchen sink, the living room and kitchen were bathed in candlelight.
She’d been busy.
Three steaks sat on the counter, ready to grill, and she had the side dishes almost finished. “I’m assuming one of you will cook these for me?” she purred. “I’ve already lit the grill, but I don’t think you want me covering up, and I don’t want to risk going out in the backyard nekkid in case there’s any free-range photographers on the loose.”
Thomas grinned. “See, Ty? That’s how you say it. Nekkid.” He patted her bum. “I’ll do it. You get the fugitive settled.” He washed his hands and grabbed the plate, taking it out to the patio.
Tyler leaned on the counter. “How did I get so lucky?”
She put her arms around him. “Well?”
He rested his forehead against hers, closing his eyes. “We had a good talk, sweetheart. Better than we’ve had in a long time, I should think.”
“And?”
He finally met her eyes. “Again I ask, how did I get so lucky? To find two people willing to put up with me?”
Nevvie and Thomas spent all day Sunday focused on Tyler. By the time they went to bed they’d noticed a marked improvement in his demeanor. They met Bob at the courthouse at nine on Monday morning. The State Attorney told him he would get by with reading Nevvie’s witness impact letter and not have her testify.