Page 13 of Fourteen Years

“Back at you.” I said, taking stock of him. “Who would’ve thought we could clean up so well?” I asked.

“The things we do for love.” he muttered, tugging on the collar of his pink dress shirt.

“Real men wear pink.” I affirmed, watching Lexi and Nat jump up and down, chattering excitedly. The blue tulle of Lexi’s dress stuck to the pink glitter of Nat’s reminding me of cotton candy at the fair.

“Damn right,” said the cop in a gruff voice.

After an evening of making a thirteen-year-old’s dreams come true, watching her dance with her friends and every cop that was there, Lexi was wearing my too big suit jacket as she climbed back into the truck.

“How was your first dance, Squirt?” I asked, starting it and backing out of the parking place.

“So much fun.” she said softly, staring out the window.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Dad would’ve loved it,” her tiny voice came to me in the dark cab, lit only by the dashboard.

She turned her head, her hair so much like her father’s coming out of the updo her mom had put it in, smiling sadly at me.

Suddenly choked up at her soft statement, I reached over, patting her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“He sure would’ve, sweetheart.”

Chapter 07

“You really think she’s turned a corner?”

Becks’ soft voice came to me from the driver’s side of her SUV, leaning up to peer at me around Lucas.

I smiled reassuringly and nodded at her.

“We’ve been talking a lot more than we had been lately. She’s letting me help her with things, and willing to ask for help when she needs it. She even had me over for dinner the other night.”

It had been a couple weeks since I’d found Monica sitting in front of that nightstand in tears. I’d seen the handwriting on the envelope. Paul’s messy scrawl had driven all of us nuts when he’d been alive. Monica was constantly misunderstanding telephone messages or notes he may write down instead of texting. He hated texting. I hadn’t pushed to know what was in it. Just helped her to her feet and wrapped her in a huge hug. We’d finished emptying the room.

Her and the girls seemed lighter. They’d gone shopping that night and Lacey had even texted me funny pictures of them in the store picking out decor and bed items. I had been shocked when Lacey had even thanked me for helping and trying to come around even more. Usually she was so hesitant to instigate communication in her teenage years that it knocked Mon and I sideways when she was nice to us.

Becks’ eyes lit up and Lucas groaned.

“I know that look. It means you have an idea,” he quipped.

Beck's small hand slapped his muscular arm.

“Shut up. I was just thinking Trev should start coming to our weekly dinners at Monica’s!”

A warm feeling moved through me at the idea of it.

“I don’t know, guys. That seems like a couple thing.”

“Lucas and I weren’t together when I started joining them for weekly dinners with Monica and Paul,” argued Becks.

“Yeah. And just look how that turned out,” her husband laughed.

“Would that be so bad?” asked Becks.

Both of us swung our gaze to the woman. Me wondering if I was that transparent about wanting my ex-wife again, Lucas in shock at her suggestion.

“What is with women and matchmaking? Dude, I’m sorry-” he began.

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