“You can’t break in my house and threaten me!” Tina yelled.

Joe looked around then back at Tina. “Pay attention, bitch, I just did.”

Oh Lord.

I walked across the room and got close to Joe, wrapping my hands around his bicep which was usually firm but now it was flexed and it felt like steel.

“Joe, honey, go home. I’ll talk with Tina.”

He twisted his neck and looked down at me. “Gave you that chance, buddy. I told you she fucks with your yard, we got problems.”

“But, Joe –”

“She fucked with your yard, we got problems.”

“She toilet papered my yard!” Tina shouted. “It took me hours to clean that shit up.”

Joe looked back at Tina and I could only see his profile and it scared me. She got the full face and shrank back.

“She didn’t do that to your yard, woman, she was in bed with me. You shit where you live, pissin’ people off, you gotta expect retribution. And you make a habit of shittin’ where you live. Who fuckin’ knows who did that to your yard? All I know is, it wasn’t Vi. You retaliated against the wrong person that person is my woman and your retaliation crossed a line. She can’t clean that shit up without it costin’ her and you’re gonna fuckin’ pay for it.”

“Fuck you!” Tina shouted and Joe shrugged, dropped his arms and turned away.

“So be it,” he muttered, sliding a hand along my shoulders and moving me to the door where he stopped and turned back to Tina. “I was you, I’d think about it. You got until tomorrow mornin’ to put a check in Vi’s mailbox. You don’t, it’s on. You get me?”

“I’m callin’ the cops,” Tina returned.

“You think Mike Haines and Alec Colton and the boys who work with ‘em are gonna be fired up to help you?” Joe asked, this finally penetrated and Tina’s face twisted. “Yeah,” Joe murmured as he noticed Tina was realizing maybe she should have made some friends along with all the enemies she created along the way. “Five hundred dollars, Tina, in Vi’s mailbox by nine o’clock tomorrow morning,” he finished then he turned us again and walked us out the door.

When we hit the fence, he picked me up and lifted me over setting me on my feet. Then he jumped it, took my hand and walked us to the dead grass in my yard where the girls were standing.

“It smells of bleach,” Keira informed us, Joe’s mouth got tight, Kate saw it and shoved Keira’s arm.

“All right girls, take the shopping bags in the house,” I ordered, wondering if I’d have time to do anything about my yard before Bea and Gary got there and thinking I wouldn’t considering I only had one day and I’d be working that day.

“Should we –” Kate started and I looked at her.

“House, baby,” I said softly, “we’ll worry about this tomorrow, yeah?”

She nodded, tagged Keira, they went to the Mustang, got the bags and went into the house. Joe stood staring at the word in my lawn.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Hope that check isn’t in your box, buddy,” Joe said to the yard then looked at me. “Be my pleasure to fuck with that bitch.”

I looked at his face and hoped the check was in my box. Tina was indeed a bitch and her writing the same with bleach in my beautiful grass proved it. But I reckoned no one, not even Tina, deserved the fury Joe looked ready to unleash.

“You want a beer?” I asked and Joe stared at me.

Then he shook his head but answered, “Yeah.”

We walked in the house, my arm around his waist, his around my shoulders.

“It’s just grass,” I told him softly.

He stopped us at the front door and curled me into his front. “Yeah, Vi, it’s just grass. And your brother just died. I’d have a lot more patience with her shit if it was two months ago or six months from now. She’s not gonna change but she should be human enough to pick her times. She wasn’t so I hope that check is not in your box. She needs a lesson and I’m in the mood to give her one.”

“Joe –”

His head dipped down and he touched his lips to mine before saying, “Don’t worry, baby, whatever I do won’t blow back on us.”

“But, she’s alone, Cory hasn’t been back for ages and she’s –”

He interrupted me. “A woman who needs a lesson.”

“Joe –”

“Vi, beer.”

I studied him and I knew enough to know Joe had made up his mind.

Therefore, I sighed, walked in my house and got my man a beer.

* * *

It was dark, the girls were asleep and I was cuddled into Joe’s side.

“Joe?” I called.

“Yeah, baby,” he answered.

“Scales are even,” I told him on a whisper.

“What?” he asked.

I closed my eyes, pressed closer, opened my eyes and kept whispering. “Missed Tim, missed a lot of things about him. One of those things was knowin’ there was someone who’d look out for me, the girls.” I pressed my lips together and bit them both as I felt his body grow tight then I continued. “Remember that night we met? I had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to ask Kenzie to turn down the music?”

“Baby –”

“Tim would have done that. I wouldn’t have had to put on those boots and go into the cold.”

“Vi –”

“I wouldn’t have had to leave our bed.”

He rolled into me, murmuring again, “Vi –”

“I wouldn’t have had to tromp through the snow, get cold or even get angry.”

His hands started moving on me under his tee as he whispered, “Shut up, buddy.”

“Tim always had our backs, he never let anything like that touch us. Never.”

“Vi, shut it.”

“You won’t either.”

“Shut it, Vi.”

“We had everything. Everything. Tim gave it to us. Having Nicky, you had a lot, Joe, but you never had everything so you can’t know how much it hurts to lose it.”

Joe was silent.

I kept talking. “Having it back, you giving it to us, the scales are balanced.”

He didn’t tell me to shut up again. He kissed me, not hard and greedy and demanding. No, it was long and tender and beautiful.

When he was done, he tucked my face into his throat and held me.

“Love you, Joe,” I whispered to his throat.

“Love you too, buddy. Go to sleep.”

“Okay. ‘Night, honey.”

“’Night, baby.”

It took awhile for me to sleep. It took longer for Joe. I knew this because I fell asleep before him.

It was strange I got to sleep because my mind was focused on wondering what was on his.

But I got to sleep.

And I again slept the night through without the nightmare.

* * *

The check was in the box the next morning well before nine.

Tina was a bitch but she was no fool.

Joe looked annoyed. I was relieved.

The girls were both up early. Kate had her last shift noon to four at the Custard Stand before quitting to go back to school on Monday. Keira had a full day of sunbathing and pool frolicking ahead of her at Heather’s, her last hurrah before school started. I’d gotten them up because I needed to give them instructions before I left and they started their days.

“Keirry, baby, can you clean your bathroom before you go to Heather’s?” I asked, though I didn’t expect an answer, I just expected her to complain about it then do it, so to avoid the complaining I hurriedly turned to Kate and went on. “And can you vacuum and dust before you go to work? I’ll mop the kitchen after dinner tonight but I’ll be late because I have to do the big shop for Gramma and Grandpap before I get home.”

Before Kate could agree and Keira could bitch, Joe said, “Make a list, I’ll swing by the store after I deal with the yard.”

All three pairs of Winters girls eyes went to Joe.

It was me who spoke.

“Deal with the yard?” I asked.

“Tim’s folks’ll be here tomorrow, buddy. Can’t have that word bleached into the lawn,” Joe answered.

This was true but a quick fix was virtually impossible unless you, say, killed all the grass around the letters. This was an option which held merit since I didn’t want Bea and Gary to see the lawn like that and worry. But after the care I’d taken with my lawn, it wasn’t one I liked overly much.

“How are you gonna deal with it?” I asked with curiosity.

“Dig it out. I’ll be at the garden center sometime late mornin’ to pick up some rolls of sod.”

I hadn’t thought of this option mainly because that was a lot of work, it would take a lot of time and it would cost some cake. The first one I could do, the second one, no way (making, for me, the task impossible, but not for Joe), the last one, since Joe was paying for everything, was also doable but I wasn’t used to having leftover money yet so it didn’t spring to mind.

I had thought of watering the hell out of the yard to drain away the bleach and sprinkling grass seed then watering the hell out of the yard again. This would mean the word “bitch” would be in my yard for weeks, maybe months, which sucked.

Joe’s solution was so much better.

Before I could tell him that, Keira piped up. “I’ll help you!”

My mouth dropped open. So did Kate’s.

Keira giving up sunbathing and pool frolicking to help Joe in the yard was a miracle. Such a miracle, if I was a Catholic, I’d notify the Vatican, no joke.

Again, before I could say anything, Joe, who was sitting on a stool next to Keira (Kate was behind the counter with me), reached out and wrapped a big hand around the back of her neck. Then he gently swayed her side to side.

“You’re with me, honey, we’ll have it done in no time.”

Keira beamed at Joe. Kate turned startled eyes to me. I wished I had time to lead Joe to our room and rip his clothes off.

Since I had to go to work, instead I said to Joe, “Walk me to my car?”

Joe’s eyes came to me, he nodded, gave Keira one last sway with his hand, let her go and walked me to my car.

I unlocked it, opened the door and stood in it as Joe came to stand in front of me.

Then I bunched his tee in my fist, pulled him closer, got up on tiptoe to get close to his face and whispered, “Anything you want.”

His head jerked slightly and he asked, “What?”

“Tonight, payback for the yard, payback for makin’ Keira smile like that, anything you want. You name it, I’ll do it.”

A slow smile spread on his face as his hands went to span my hips.

“That’s quite an offer, buddy.”

I got closer, both my body and my face to his and I kept whispering. “Be creative, baby, don’t know when I’ll be feelin’ this generous again.”

“Oh, I’ll be creative,” he whispered back and I felt my nipples get hard.

My hands slid up his chest and around his neck and I laid one on him, my brand of a hard and demanding kiss and Joe liked it. I knew this because his arms wrapped around me and he growled in my mouth.

“Love you, baby,” I whispered against his lips when I was done kissing him.

“Yeah, me too,” he touched his mouth to mine then said, “You get a break, make a list for the grocery store. I’ll pick it up when Keira and I come ‘round to get the sod.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll grill some brats tonight.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll get store bought shit to go with the brats. Don’t want you cookin’, you’ll need to conserve your energy.”

I shivered at what his words meant then repeated, “Okay.”

He grinned and it hit me he was grinning a lot lately. Smiling too. I liked this so I smiled back but I suspected my smile was a lot like Keira’s beam. I suspected this because Joe’s eyes dropped to my mouth, his face got intense and then he kissed me, hard and demanding.

He did it better.

* * *

When I got home that evening, the yard looked like a yard. No yellow-brown “bitch” in the middle of it. Joe and Keira did such a good job you could barely see the sod lines. And the rest of the yard had been mowed.

I walked into the house, seeing it clean and tidy. Even the kitchen was sparkling, including the floor.

I knew why when Keira came running from her bedroom, a boy band playing loud so she shouted over it, “I cleaned the kitchen!”

I smiled at her. “I can see, baby.”

“And the bathroom,” she went on as I put my purse on the counter.

“Thanks, honey.”

“Kate vacuumed and dusted and I put the pictures back in the frames,” Keira continued, pointing to the pictures which were in the frames and back on our shelves.

I looked but I didn’t look closely. I wanted them back where they were but I wasn’t ready to see pictures of Sam just yet.