Though, not better than his “gypsy.”
“Hey, Daddy!” one of the little ones shrieked.
“Hey, baby,” Ty called back to his daughter.
Okay, that “baby” was even better than “mama.”
Yeesh.
Mountain men.
Who knew?
Lexie drew her girls closer to me. “Lella, Vivie, this is Miss Justice. Say hi.”
The older girl standing and holding Lexie’s hand waved shyly.
The younger one Lexie was juggling in an arm at her hip, shouted, “Hey, Miz Justiz!”
“Hey, beautiful babies,” I greeted them.
The one at Lexie’s hip beamed.
The one holding Lexie’s hand moved into her mother’s leg and ducked her head.
I did the round of introductions.
Once released, Lella wasted no time sharing her wishes that she wanted to be upstairs with her father. Vivie wasted no time crawling all over Jim-Billy who tickled her and blew raspberries on her neck all of which required her to squeal loudly and with easily discernable glee. When denied access to her father, Lella then joined the crawling-all-over-Jim-Billy activities to which he put his beer to the floor so he had two hands to tickle and squeeze.
Lexie collapsed into the couch, declaring, “Jim-Billy’s gonna look after the girls. You’re coming into town with me for a massage, mani and pedi. Nic’s got it all sorted on the schedule. But we have about half an hour before we have to leave.”
“I’m gonna look after the girls?” Jim-Billy asked.
“Yay! Jim-Billy!” the younger girl screeched before collapsing on Jim-Billy’s chest, making him give an audible grunt, and determinedly (with tongue sticking out and everything) trying to tickle his sides.
“Right, I’m gonna look after the girls,” Jim-Billy muttered, doing it grinning.
“That’s not happening.”
This came from upstairs, it was unyielding, and it was Deke.
Lexie looked upstairs. “Tate’s meeting us here. He’s taking us down. And he’s sticking with us while we do our thing and bringing us back.”
Wood showed at the edge of the upstairs landing beside Deke, his handsome face a mask of incredulity, his goatee-surrounded lips asking, “Tate is gonna hang at a salon while you girls are doing massages and getting your nails done?”
“Yeah,” Lexie answered.
Wood burst out laughing.
Ty burst out laughing.
Jim-Billy burst out laughing and Lella and Vivie both collapsed on his chest, probably not getting it but they burst out laughing too.
Deke did not burst out laughing.
He pulled out his phone and stepped away from the landing.
I heard a murmured conversation, glanced around, saw a lot of smiles (except Cal, who was shaking his head while pulling at a large spool of wire he’d brought in from his SUV).
Deke came back to the edge of the landing with no phone.
“Tate’s gonna take you,” he declared. “He’s gonna stay with you. You do that, you come right back. No sandwiches. Nothin’, Jussy. You get right back here.”
“You got it, boss,” I called.
He was not amused.
He stalked back to where he was drywalling.
I looked to Mr. T. “You wanna hang during a mani-pedi?”
He shook his head, pushing up from the couch. “I’ll take that as my cue to leave. I have things to do at a location where I might find Wi-Fi and wish to stop by the station to speak with Lieutenant Keaton. I’ll be back with sandwiches.”
I glanced around and back to him. “Bring a lot.”
He glanced around and back at me.
When he did, I knew I was not the only one who’d been given solace that day.
Mr. T had as well.
“I will, Justice.”
I grinned at him.
He did not grin at me.
With formal farewells, he took his leave.
I then hung with my new posse until Tate came to take us to the salon.
During the mani-pedi portion of the excursion, I took a call from Shambles. His tone was hushed, which told me something he didn’t say with words, this being the call was not overheard by Sunny.
What he did say was that he and Sunny had heard what had happened, I was in their thoughts and they were going to bring me dinner one night, “later…when you’re feeling better.”
I sussed this as Shambles protecting Sunny from anything that seeing me in my state might dredge up from her own attack.
And I was down with that, totally. Even more so considering, if Shambles could inject heaven into baked goods, a dinner from him might be an exercise in ecstasy.
Tate took us back to my place. Mr. T brought sandwiches, ate with us, all the guys taking a break, Lauren showing and bringing more beer (mostly for Jim-Billy, the guys didn’t drink, Lexie didn’t either, Lauren and I did).
Mr. T took off.
Lexie and the girls took off.
Released from babysitting duty and Justice-entertaining duty, not long after, Jim-Billy exchanged his armchair at my house for his stool at Bubba’s.
Tate helped the dudes for a while while Laurie and I chatted, Lauren and my conversation broken occasionally by Joss checking in, Uncle Jimmy checking in and Aunt Tammy doing the same (the latter two had been informed by Mr. T what had happened).
Eventually Lauren and Tate took off as did Wood and Ty.
And Deke and I took off while Cal was still working.
Before leaving, I noticed that three (and for a while, four) men got a lot more done than one (or two). They not only made up for what Deke couldn’t do on the day he lost looking out for me, they drywalled one entire side of my upstairs.