I looked from Elvira, who was still punching buttons to Mitch, who was staring at Elvira like he didn’t know whether to laugh or kick her ass out.

Then I looked back to Elvira who was still punching buttons.

“Are you saying that you’re texting photos of Mitch and me to women I don’t know?”

She looked from her phone to me. “Yep, kind of. Actually, I’m texting them photos of you in Mitch’s arms.”

Those arms tightened as I asked, “But why?”

“Because they know Mitch,” she answered instantly. “They also like Mitch and they wanna be certain Mitch is with a woman they approve of. Now, you just had a drama and before that spent the day with Mitch and two kids at Elitch’s and you still look hot. I included this intel with my picture texts. This’ll go over good. Not a lotta women look good after a day with two kids in an amusement park. I tell them about the exhaust yourself, run yourself ragged, bleed yourself dry speech you laid out about two kids that aren’t even yours, that’ll go over good too. But you gotta do cosmos in a little black dress to really win them over and that’s on you.”

“I don’t own a little black dress,” I told her.

Her attention went back to her phone. “That’s okay, we’ll go shoppin’.”

“Uh…I need to hire an attorney not shop for a little black dress,” I reminded her.

She pressed a button, muttered, “There.” Then she looked at me. “Right, so, quick, I mentioned Hawk. He’s a scary-ass, motherfucking commando. When I say that, I do not lie. So I’ll repeat, he’s a scary-ass, motherfucking commando. So, when your mind conjures up a vision of a commando, that’s Hawk. And Hawk likes kids. But he don’t like kids bein’ scared and bein’ used for bullshit family dramas. I tell him this, which, by the way, I’m totally tellin’ him this, even though he don’t know those kids, like, at all, he’s gonna go psycho badass, motherfucking commando and the Trailer Trash Twins won’t know what hit ‘em.”

Holy cow.

“Elvira –” Mitch started, his voice low, one of his arms dropping, his body turning toward Elvira but she wasn’t to be denied.

“Sorry, Mitch. Good as done.”

“Do not get Hawk involved in this,” Mitch ordered.

“Right, so, quick for you,” she stated. “Your woman is hot, she’s got curves, she’s got ass, she’s got legs, my guess is, you’ve noticed that. Now, she might drink cosmos with us girls but she’ll come home, drunk, to you in a little black dress. You want that and not her money goin’ to attorneys to deal once and for all with those skanky ‘ho’s, you turn the other cheek and I let loose Hawk and his band of not-so-merry men. That way, not only do you get your woman home drunk in a little black dress, you get to turn your attention to those two kids, one of ‘em who is across the way right now, scared outta his little kid brain.”

I wasn’t certain I knew what unleashing a psycho badass, motherfucking commando entailed.

I was certain we needed to see to Billy.

So I turned into Mitch, put my hand on his chest and whispered, “Honey, we really do need to see to Bud.”

Mitch scowled at Elvira a second then his arm around me gave me a squeeze, he looked down at me and murmured, “Right.”

I leaned further into him and murmured back, “Right.”

“We done here?” Elvira asked and Mitch and I looked at her.

“We’re done,” Mitch answered, moving both of us toward her at the door.

“Thanks, Elvira,” I said as she opened it.

“No skin off my nose. Ain’t me gonna make those ‘ho’s run for their lives on their stripper shoes, it’s Hawk,” she muttered, sticking her head out the door but doing it performing a side-to-side scan like she, too, was a commando checking that the coast was clear. Then she looked back at me, “Though, wouldn’t mind bein’ in on that operation.”

I grinned.

Elvira grinned back then forged across the breezeway.

Obviously, the coast was clear.

“Baby,” Mitch called softly as he guided us into the breezeway.

I looked up at him to see he was looking down at me.

“The time to talk with Billy is now. He’s tired but I don’t want him in bed stewin’ on this shit. I want him in bed breathin’ easy.”

I nodded my agreement.

Mitch wasn’t done.

“I’m gonna lead the discussion. You trust me with that?”

Like he had to ask.

“Of course,” I answered.

“Good,” he muttered, his eyes leaving me and going straight as we neared Derek and LaTanya’s door.

“Mitch,” I called, slowing and in doing so, he slowed too.

“Yeah?” he asked looking back down at me.

My arm around him gave him a squeeze.

“Best day ever, baby,” I whispered.

I watched the preoccupation shift from his eyes as they lit with that light I’d been seeing all day.

Then he repeated, not in a question, “Yeah.”

Then he guided us into Derek and LaTanya’s apartment so we could get our kids.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Men Don’t Have Moments

We got the kids home, leaving Elvira behind to give the scoop to Derek, LaTanya, Bray and Brent. I struggled with Billie’s loose limbs and dead weight body getting her out of her clothes, into her PJs and tucked into bed with her pink teddy while Mitch got Billy into the bathroom to change and brush his teeth.

Mitch was pouring me a glass of wine while I lit candles when we heard Billy come out of bathroom.

My eyes went to Mitch to see his on me then, his eyes not leaving me, he called, “Bud, come into the livin’ room for a minute, yeah?”

I finished with the candle as Mitch moved out of the kitchen with my glass and a bottle of beer for him. Billy appeared in his loose shorts and tee at the mouth to the hall.

Mitch stopped on his way to my new, super-awesome couch (and yes, I got the one from Penny’s window, I asked for it and she felt it agreed with her “vision” so there it was, in my living room).

“I know you’re tired, Bud, but we gotta talk about something before you hit the sack. You cool with that?”

Billy, his head tipped back, his eyes on Mitch, again looking fifty, hesitated a moment before he nodded.