1.28

“Sooo…” Kaylee said, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between the three of them. Kiki turned and looked at her.
“Yes?”
Fiddling with the edge of her shirt for a moment Kaylee cleared her throat before turning her head and staring into her Nana’s worried eyes. “Nana, I was thinking, we were thinking, that if you wanted, no pressure of course, but we would like it if-” Kaylee blew out a breath.
“You would like it if what Bug?”
Kaylee smiled at the nickname. She would never tire of hearing that. “We would like it if moved in with us. We just brought a house and it’s huge! Big enough for all of us. We don’t have any plans for upstairs so it would be like you’d have your own apartment. You could come and go as you wanted. I-I wouldn’t expect anything from you. I-I just want to be close to you.”


They stared at each other for a moment before Kaylee nudged Ty with her foot. “Don’t you think this is a good idea Ty?”
“Game's on babe,” Ty said in distracted tones. Her nudge suddenly became a kick. He grinned but didn’t bother to turn around.
“For your information,” he said as a commercial came on, “Your grandmother and I talked about this already. At the cemetery actually. I kind of let her know that you would like her to be closer.”
Kiki snorted. “That boy let me know, in no uncertain terms, that he thought it would be best for me to move out of this dump and be closer to my grandchild.”
Kaylee’s hand flew to her chest. “I wouldn’t call this a dump…not exactly.”
Nana waved her hand. “It is a dump. We all know it. But I wouldn’t want to intrude between the two of you. You’re still in the honeymoon stage.”
“Nana, we’ve been married for nearly five months. I think we're past the honeymoon stage.”
Ty snorted. “Thanks babe.”
Kaylee was horrified. “No, I didn’t mean like that! I meant-”
“Yeah, yeah! Wave my flaws in my face. Now I’m just going to true harder to make sure you remember that you are married. I think I’ll start tonight.”
“Tyrese!”
“Game’s on!” He turned up the TV.

Kiki laughed before she sobered. She shook her head. “I can’t move in with you two. With you three, soon to be four. Like you said, it’s really not that far away. And besides, you don’t need an old lady cramping your style. At your age I used to enjoy walking around the house naked. That’s when everything was perky of course. Now I think I’d trip over something.”
Ty roared with laughter before looking over his shoulder. “Just for the record Kiki I think you still look good. Now I know where Kaylee gets her love of tats from.”
Kiki smiled. “Terry got me interested in tattoos when he came home from school one day with one. It was wicked and I made him take me to where he had gotten his done so I could get one. Kaylee looks like him with her lip ring.”
“She had a nose ring but-”
“Guys!” Once she had their attention she turned back to Nana. “Will you think about it though? Think about moving in with us? Please?
“I’ll think about it,” Kiki promised softly.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to stay a few days?” Kiki asked as Ty helped Kaylee into the car before he rounded the hood.
Kaylee rolled down the window. “We promised Gabe that we’d be home as soon as possible. He’s probably stressing because we didn’t come home last night. I don’t want to have him worried.”
Kiki smiled. “You’re a wonderful mother Kaylee.”
Kaylee blinked back tears then blew her a kiss. “I love you Nana. Don’t forget to think about what I said.”
“Girl, how could I forget when you’re always telling me to remember? You take care of her Ty.”
“I always will Kiki.”
Kaylee looked in the rear view mirror as they pulled away from the curb. Nana was standing in the middle of the road waving at them. Kaylee lifted her hand then let it fall back into her lap as they turned the corner and she disappeared from view. The soft murmur of the car radio filled the silence until Ty took one hand off the steering wheel and placed it over both of hers.
“Give her some time babe. Just like you she has to adjust to the fact that her granddaughter is back in her life. And while it isn't the best place to live it is her home. Remember our first place? You stressed about leaving there and we’d only stayed there for a year.”
Kaylee gripped his hand tightly. Through it all Ty was her lifeline. “Do you think she’ll come stay with us?”
“Yeah, I think she will. We just don’t know when. Have some faith baby. It’ll all work out how its supposed to.” There was another silence and then he spoke again.
“What happened in the cemetery? You seem…different. Almost like something that had been worrying you isn’t any longer.”
She smiled. He was so sensitive to her moods. “That’s exactly what it is. I found peace in that cemetery Ty. I found peace.”
He took his eyes off the road for a moment to stare at her then with a nod he turned back to the road.

They pulled up in front of the house just after eight. Kaylee breathed deeply when she got out of the car. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she had become to smelling the ocean until she was in the city and it felt as she were being suffocated with all the smog. They both turned when they heard a sharp bark, the scrabbling of nails against wood and then they saw Buster come flying off of the porch.
“Hey boy! Come here, come here!”
Kaylee shook her head as Buster and Ty greeted each other as if they separated for weeks. Her heart jumped when she heard her name being screeched in a pitch that should be outlawed but at the same time warmed her heart.
“KAYLEE!! TY-TY!!”

They both watched as Gabe walked/crawled down the stairs and down the sidewalk. Gabe would get upset if anyone picked him up before he was ready to be picked up. When he plopped down in the middle of the walkway and held his arms up Kaylee swooped down and hugged him tight.
“I missed you Gabe,” she whispered as she pressed a kiss to his head.
“Stop hogging him,” Ty said right before he snatched him out of her arms and tossed him up in the air. Gabe laughed.
“Again!” he squealed and Ty complied before handing him back to her with a wink.
“I’ll just get the stuff that Kiki gave me to bring home with us.”
“What stuff?” Kaylee demanded.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. She just told me to bring it home with us. Go into the house. It’s sort of chilly out here for you and Gabe.”


“So, how was my little brother? Did you miss me?”
“Yep!”
“I missed you too, Gabe.” She carefully climbed up the stairs and had just shifted Gabe so she could open the door when she looked through the glass to see a familiar figure sitting on the couch. Just sitting on the couch as if he hadn’t been gone for weeks and then when he had returned he hadn’t stopped by. Shoving up the door to the house she stared to make sure he was really there.

He gave her a sheepish smile. “Hello Kaylee. Kava had to run home for a moment and I said that I-”
“TY!” Kaylee yelled. “You stay right there,” she said jabbing her finger at him “And don’t move a muscle.”
“Oh man Kaylee, why’d you-”
“I said stay!”
Gabe clapped his hands. “STAY!”

From behind her she could hear the sound of footsteps running up the walk and then clamoring up the porch.
“He is going to be so mad at you for scaring him,” Karrick stated calmly as he stood.
“He’s going to be even angrier with you for staying away. You had us worried Karrick! What is wrong with you?”
He looked away as Ty burst into the house.

“What? What’s going on? What’d you yell my name for Kaylee? Are you okay? The baby?! The BABY?!! No, something wrong with Gabe? Damn it, what the-” He froze when it finally dawned on him that there was someone else in the room.
Kaylee nodded, satisfied, as she bent to put Gabe down. She looked up just in time to see Ty cock back his fist.

“Where in the hell have you been?” he demanded as he punch Karrick on the shoulder. He knew it had put a lot of strength behind that punch but Karrick didn’t even wince. He just rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.
“I had some thinking to do. I think best in solitude.”
“You could have let us know that you were okay. Kaylee was worried.”
She rolled her eyes. Ty had been the one that was worried. He was the one that pounced on Kava with questions about Karrick’s whereabouts every time she walked into the house
“I didn’t mean to worry anyone. It’s just I had a lot to think about.”

Karrick sat back down and shot a look at Kaylee. A look that she missed since she was going through the mail.
“Is everything okay? Do you need anything?”
“Everything is…everything is fine. It will be fine.”
“You do know that we’re your friends right Karrick? We’d do anything we can for you.” Ty paused when he noticed Karrick wince before he started to tap his fingers on his thighs. That worried him. Karrick was a study of stillness. He never fidgeted.

“You can talk to me about anything. Are you having female troubles? I didn’t think that you were interested in females actually. I mean, I didn’t think you were interested in sex. So, I mean…if you need any pointers or anything I’d be happy to…”
Karrick stared straight ahead.
Deciding that the conversation was getting embarrassing for the both of them Ty let out a sigh of relief when Kaylee walked over to sit next to Karrick. She was always good at distracting people from their problems.

“Karrick, whatever it is-”

“Ty, did you see the game last night?” he asked abruptly cutting her off in mid sentence. Blinking Kaylee stared at the back of Karrick’s head and had to resist the urge to slap it. It must be something that was a ‘guy’ thing for him to be so rude. Karrick was never rude. He could have taught manners to Emily Post. Come to think of it maybe he had taught Emily Post. Shaking her head she got up from the couch. Catching Ty’s gaze she motioned with her hand and he shrugged. She scowled and motioned again causing him to sigh and then nod in resignation.
“Well, I think I’ll go down to the beach and just watch the waves.”

“So, Kaylee thinks we should talk.”
“Yes, I noticed the look she was giving you. Ty, I-I can’t talk to you about this yet. It’s something that I will talk to you about but…not now.”
“Alright, I respect that. You wanna play the PS3?”
“I thought you’d never ask. Same game?”
“You know it.”

Kaylee rolled her eyes as she came out of the bedroom to see Ty and Karrick involved in some type of game. She had never gotten involved in the gaming system. Ty had tried to teach her but he eventually gave up when he realized that she had no skills whatsoever with the controller.
“You look hot babe. I like that bikini on you.”
She jumped, startled. She hadn’t thought that Ty had even noticed her. “I look like a beached whale.”
“Nah.” He continued to mash buttons furiously on the controller while Karrick, she noticed, calmly pressed a button every now and again with a slight smile on his face.
“Anyways," Ty said. “Don’t forget you and I have a date in the bedroom later tonight.”
“Yeah…let’s see if you can keep up,” Kaylee said trailing a hand down his neck as she passed by. She noticed that he almost dropped the controller. Biting back a laugh she headed out back.
“You see that Karrick? That woman is evil! I love her. I still say you should let me hook you up with…”

Kaylee shut the door, cutting off whatever else Ty was saying. Buster came around the side of the house and together they sat down on the beach to just watch the waves.
“Ya know Buster, for the first time in my life, I don’t feel this weight bearing down on me. It’s crazy…and kind of scary. I guess I should just enjoy it right? Heaven knows that I don’t need to go looking for trouble. It always finds me.”
Buster yawned then sat up and nestled against her side for a moment before he licked her face. Laughing she turned back toward the water and let the crashing of the waves lull her into a near meditative state.