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After a deep breath, she says, “Yes.”
I open my eyes. All the females are focused on me, even my messy-faced daughter through her long, unblinking eyelashes.
Yetta’s got a hand up to her face, half covering a large eye patch. I don’t see any ink, so her tattoo must be underneath.
I consider telling her how beautiful she is, because she is—she looks just like Lex but older and with darker hair—but figure it’s better not to comment on her looks. There’s more to everyone than meets the eye. I learned that from her daughter.
So instead, I ask, “How are your window boxes holding up?”
“Um, oh.”
“My mom lives out here with us now. Her house is just a short walk away.”
It must be the one I saw last night. It didn’t have any window boxes.
“You didn’t get her house in the divorce?”
“All of Kordin’s assets were seized. I didn’t bother fighting for it since my dad…”
“Well, I’ll just have to put new window boxes up at your new place,” I tell Yetta to get us off that topic.
Yetta lowers her hand to her collarbone, then chest before letting it fall altogether, giving me a hint of a grin. “I do like flowers.”
“Yes, she does. She even works at Gwen’s with me a couple days a week.”
“Think you can order me some Queen of the Nights?” I ask my mom.
“For Lex?”
“For my future mother-in-law. I promised her I’d plant some for her. And stick around long enough to help her see them.”
“Ah, Reece, you’re so—”
“Sweet,” Lex finishes for my mom with a headshake.
“Only for you,” I say to her. I thought maybe I’d lost that part of me, but being around Lex again brought it back out. I love her so fucking much.
I love this, whatever the fuck is happening. I think it’s always been my destiny to be surrounded by women, and after spending the last couple years of my life without any, I’m perfectly fucking at peace with it.
“What about Charlie? Where’s she?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, but Charlie’s running late,” Breck reports to Lex like she’s already on the clock. “She was dropping off donuts at Home Base, but she should be here any minute.”
“Home Base?”
“You probably knew it as The Playground.”
What the fuck?
“Lex?”
“A lot’s changed, rook,” is all she says.
“Alot,” Breck agrees. “It’s a community outreach center now, specializing in helping women and children in need.”
My sisters have the luxury of never knowing what that building was really like.
“Charlie’s one of Lex’s volunteer coordinators there.”
