I nodded.

He looked to the women on his deck. “Who’s got the keys?”

Bessie lifted a hand with the keys dangling from it. Ty let me go, walked to her, grabbed them with a muttered, “Thanks,” and walked around them to and down the stairs, pulling his phone out of his back pocket.

My eyes went from where he disappeared to my girls to see they were all looking at me. This boded bad things. Not many women on this earth would miss watching Ty move, even if it was just to walk down some stairs.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“Get that white booty o’ yours in the house,” Ella snapped, “now.”

I knew her tone. I was in trouble.

Therefore, I didn’t hesitate because I’d learned it was better when you were in trouble with Ella to face it fast, get it over with, accept your penance and move on. I walked into the open door and they followed.

Then I headed to the fridge while declaring with more hope than certainty I’d get away with the stall, “We’ll start with drinks.”

“We… will… not,” Ella countered and I turned around to see them all in, the door closed and they were huddled at the island opposite me. Honey had her hands on it. Bessie had her hands on her hips. Ella had her arms crossed on her ample bosom. All their eyes were on me.

“Explain,” Ella ordered.

“It’s cocktail hour and you guys just got –” I began but stopped when Ella’s arm snaked out and she slapped the counter of the island with her open hand.

“Explain!” she shouted.

“Ella,” I whispered but said no more, words clogging in my throat as they always did when she got that kind of pissed at me, be I thirteen or thirty-four.

“How on sweet God’s earth are you married to a brother I’ve never met?” she asked.

“It’s a long story,” I told her.

“Well, lucky you, your three girls got the next two weeks off so you got plenty of time,” Ella shot back but my heart skipped happily.

“You guys are here for two weeks?” I asked.

“Alexa Anne,” Ella said warning low.

I sucked in breath and took in their angry eyes. Well, Honey looked curious, not angry but Bessie and Ella were ticked. And this was because they knew why I might keep a secret from Honey but I had no good reason to keep a secret from them. Or lie to them. And doing either would draw the wrath of hellfire down on me. We were tight, Ella the only mother I knew, Bessie closer than a sister. They had my back and I had their love and I returned both.

So I had a lot of explaining to do and the only hope I had of doing it without hurting feelings was giving it to them straight.

I walked to the island and put my hands on it.

Then I said, “About two days after I left, I picked up Ty from a correctional facility in southern California. He’d just got done doing a nickel for manslaughter.”

Bessie closed her eyes and looked away. Honey’s eyes got huge. Ella’s head dropped to look at her hand on the island.

I kept talking.

“It was an errand for Shift.” Bessie and Ella’s eyes snapped back to me. “He wasn’t forthcoming about this errand. I thought he wanted me to pick up Ty and take him somewhere but he didn’t. He was presenting me to Ty as payback he owed. Ty needed a wife and that was me.”

“Girl,” Ella said low.

“No, listen to me,” I whispered. “He didn’t do it.”

“That’s what they all say,” Bessie hissed and my back shot straight.

“Well he didn’t,” I fired back and she blinked at my fierce tone. “You’re here two weeks, you’ll see. He’ll show you and his friends will show you. He got framed. I’ll explain that to you when we have cocktails but right now, that’s a part you need to know. By the time you leave to go home, you’ll feel it tearing at your heart like I do, that he got targeted because he’s got color and got in the sights of a dirty cop to go down for a crime he didn’t commit. But you’ll also leave knowing he’s a good man and I’m in good hands.”

“You met him a month ago,” Ella reminded me and my eyes slid to hers.

Then I replied gently and cautiously, “Spent a lot of time with bad, Ella, I know the feel of good.”

I watched her clench her teeth. It wasn’t a low blow, it was the truth and sometimes the truth hurt.

I pulled in another breath. “It started fake, a deal, me being his wife and he was going to get me free from Shift. Something happened and now it is far from fake. Now, we’re starting a life. It’s good. I’m happy. I have a job and he has a boatload of friends who care a lot about him and brought me into the fold the second I stepped foot in that door.” I swung an arm out to the door behind them. “No joke, the second we walked in they gave him a welcome home bash and mingled it with a wedding party. They didn’t know we were fake and by then, it had only been a few days, but we weren’t anymore. They don’t know what you know and I’d appreciate you didn’t tell them when you meet them. But what you need to know is I care about him, a lot. I’m trying to help him adjust to being out which isn’t easy most especially because of why he was in. And we’re starting something, something good, something I never expected I’d have and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it and keep it good. Everything in my power.” I pulled in yet another breath, slid my eyes through a trio of women I loved and finished softly but with emphasis, “Everything.”

They looked at me and I let them.

Then Ella asked, “He got targeted because of his color?”

“He’s half-black and the local Police Chief is not a big fan of color and when he needed a fall guy and he lost big to Ty in poker, he chose him to take the fall,” I answered.

“Local? I thought he did time in California?” Bessie asked.

“It’s a long story that requires alcohol but the cop business is a family business and he’s got a cokehead brother in California who needed a problem solved. Against his will, Ty solved it and he lost five years of his life doing it,” I replied.

“That’s just terrible,” Honey whispered.

“Yeah, it is,” I stated firmly. “Unimaginably terrible. Crushingly terrible.”

“You’re in love with him,” Ella said quietly and I looked to her then I held her eyes.

Then I whispered, “Yes. Falling in love, yes, I am, Ella. Fast. He bought me diamonds. He bought me a wedding bouquet. He bought me a Treasure Island snow globe.” I pointed to the sill, her eyes followed my finger then I dropped my hand and her eyes came back. “He took me to Moab. He brought me to this house. He gave me his friends. He gave me his protection, dragging me out from under Shift. He gave me freedom from that. The air I breathe now is clean. Fresh and clean. And its air I share with Ty. He gave me all that and it took over a week for me to make him laugh.” I leaned forward, “Over a week.”