I continued to stare then it happened.
The sob tore through me making my body jerk violently and filling the room which, upon hearing it, went completely silent.
Then I shoved my face deep in my husband’s neck, tightened my arms and legs around him and burst out crying.
I felt his head turn and heard, “Mama,” murmured in my ear and then I reared back, eyes fuzzy, cheeks wet, my head shot up and jerked from side to side.
Then I shouted, “The California Governor is issuing a public apology for wrongly convicting my man!”
Then another sob tore out of my throat and I shoved my face back in Ty’s neck as his arms tensed around me, his body shook with what had to be silent laughter and the salon filled with cheers and whoops.
I didn’t cheer or whoop. I held tight to my husband, my body convulsing with my emotion, my husband holding me tight right back.
Then I felt his head turn again and in my ear I heard, “Mama, get a handle on it.”
I reared back, tried and failed to focus on his face and snapped, “No! No fucking way! This feels too good. I’m never getting a handle on this!”
Then I shoved my face back in this neck and kept right on crying.
“Ohmigod! We need champagne! We need champagne right now!” Dominic was shouting and I heard movement around me including the cash register opening. “Stockard, girl, get your booty over here. Take this. Go down to liquor store. Get champagne, not the California kind, the French kind. From the chill cabinet. Stop by the grocery store to get cups, I don’t care if they’re Dixie cups, just get lots of them. Jazz, finish her off later and run down to the garage, get those boys in their coveralls down here. We gotta celebrate!”
Through this, I kept crying.
Then I heard Ty whisper, “Not sure how I feel about celebratin’ with a gay guy and a bunch of * in a salon and, babe, equally unsure how Wood’s boys are gonna feel about it.”
To that, I again jerked back and informed him, “They’re gonna have to suck it up.”
He stared in my eyes as I blinked the wetness out.
And when I finally (kinda) focused on him, I saw he was smiling, white, huge, beautiful and right there for the world to see.
And seeing that smile, I burst back into tears.
*
Forty-five minutes later…
The party had begun in earnest in Dominic’s spa.
Someone bought pre-prepared deli trays from the grocery store. More champagne was carted in with the addition of beers. Shambles hoofed it down to the salon and added a tray of just-out-of-the-oven chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies.
Jim-Billy was there as were Krystal and Laurie. The boys from the garage were there and this included Pop and Wood, Stella hanging back to hold down the fort in the office. Maggie showed about five minutes after Wood got there. Ned and Betty arrived ten minutes after Maggie.
Dominic, Kayeleen and Jazz were working and socializing which meant they were working slowly.
No one cared. If they had to wait an extra half an hour to sit in a chair, they could do it with a Dixie cup of champagne in their hand and a kickass cookie.
The rough guy mechanics, by the way, gave not one shit they were drinking champagne or they were doing it with a bunch of * and a gay guy. I had a feeling this partly had to do with deli trays, cookies and the fact that it was one of them who brought the beer. Though I had a feeling it was mostly to do with Ty.
I was sitting in Ty’s lap in my chair behind the receptionist desk, sipping champagne, a perma-smile on my face, talking to Jim-Billy, Betty and Krystal who were all hanging over the high counter of my desk at the same time I was wondering at the state of my mascara when Tate and Deke walked in.
I felt my heart skip then stutter when I saw their faces. I also felt Ty’s body tense under mine.
They only had eyes for Ty and, like Ty when he walked in, I couldn’t read their faces but I felt their vibe and I didn’t get it.
I didn’t get it until they walked straight up to the counter at my desk, Betty, Jim-Billy and Krystal peeling back to give them space and Tate started speaking.
“At nine o’clock this morning, a tri-county police task force marched into the Carnal Police Department, seized all records and arrested all the officers on duty excepting Frank Dolinski and Chace Keaton. Mick Shaughnessy and his boys from Gnaw Bone were tasked with rounding up those not on duty and it’s been reported that Mick himself took Arnie Fuller into custody fifteen minutes ago.”
I stared at Tate, my mouth hanging open.
Ty said nothing and since I was staring at Tate I could only assume he was too (though his mouth was probably not hanging open).
Then I heard Dominic shout, “We need more champagne!”
And it was at that, I watched Tatum Jackson grin.
*
Ty
Eleven and a half hours later…