I thought fast then called his name softly.

His head came up and turned to me.

“I’ve been, um… thinking about the, uh… money you owe me,” I started.

That was when I watched his body get tight.

So I quickly went on, “I’ve decided to, uh… donate it to the cause.”

This was a lie, of course, since I was fired up to derail the cause but I thought it was a worthy lie to tell.

I felt guilt when he blinked then his eyes flared then his body turned to me and it started coming to me with intent, the look on his face sweet and hot so I lifted a hand and he stopped.

“Minus deck plants and furniture,” I added. “I like to have coffee in the morning with the view and I’d prefer not to stand at the railing while doing it.”

His reply was all Ty. Instantaneous and generous.

“Get what you want, Lex, before you go I’ll give you the money.”

This was not falling into my plan.

So I scrambled.

“I want you to help me pick the furniture. It’s going to be yours too and you also should have what you want. I donate the leftover if you come with me. Do we have a deal?”

He held my eyes for a long moment while I endeavored to look innocent.

Then he said, “Deal.”

I smiled big at him. He grinned at me. Then his head dropped to his phone and his thumb moved over the keypad. Then he went with me and he didn’t touch his phone, not the rest of that day or the next.

This was because I went nuts at the garden center which also had kickass patio furniture. Kickass enough that even Ty got into the selection process and it was him who went overboard.

So in the Cruiser on our way home, we had trays and trays of plants, bags of soil, coils of hoses and ten enormous pots, four terracotta (front deck), four turquoise (deck off kitchen as well as top and bottom of the outside steps) and two purplish-gray (our deck off the bedroom) as well as a window box for outside the kitchen window.

We also bought a round, gunmetal table with four wide-seated chairs with turquoise pads and matching umbrella to put on the deck off the kitchen. With this we bought the coolest, most awesome furniture for the front deck, a curvy, rounded, flowing huge loveseat made in weatherproof resin the color of straw with a long swirly footstool that fit into the loveseat making it a big kind of shell-like oval both of which had thick sand-colored pads and big square toss pillows for the back of the loveseat. This was going to sit at one end with two matching curving, high-backed lounges sharing a low, bubble-like, glass topped table that would sit at the other end. For our balcony, we got one large, oval resin lounger that was big enough to fit two even with one of those two being Ty and was really a chair and ottoman shoved together. This had dark gray, thick pads and a matching, oval ceramic-topped table. Making awesome even more awesome, it had a light-gray canvas canopy attached that you could swing up or down depending on the kind of sun or privacy you wanted.

As usual, Ty did not f**k around. It was the nicest most stylish stuff they had, by far. Statement furniture, classy, unusual that was beautiful to look at and comfortable.

I freaking loved it.

They did Sunday deliveries which I also freaking loved.

The next day, I commandeered Ty to lug pots around, fill them with soil and attach the window box. While he did this, I started planting and occupied his mind by asking him (frequently) what he thought of my gardening efforts (in other words, every time I got one of the pots planted). He approved and was very patient with me distracting him every twenty minutes to drag him wherever I was working so he could look at a planter filled with flowers, spiked and trailing greenery which I could tell he gave not one shit about. Still, it kept him home, occupied and off his phone.

Then the furniture arrived and we became occupied with setting it out and assembling what needed to be assembled. When we were done, we took a shower together and then I occupied him by guiding him out to the lounger on our deck and breaking it in. It was good tall pine trees hid us from view on either side and at the front there was nothing but hill and forest. But Ty pulled the canopy up just in case. It hid the wrong part of us but it was something.

The salon was closed Sunday and Monday and Ty’s days off were Sunday and Thursday so I could keep him occupied most of the time but with me at work on Thursday and him not, this presented a problem.

I solved it by calling Laurie and asking for Tate’s number then calling Tate and dragging him into Distract Ty Duties. He said he’d do what he could and I knew he did when I got home to no Ty. Ty arrived an hour and a half later and when he did he told me he was at Tate’s helping him “with shit”.

Success.

Yesterday evening, another Saturday, he was again at his phone and I’d run a new play, mildly bitching about not being in the mood to cook. I bitched for about two point five minutes before he told me to get my shoes on, we were going out. We went into town and had Italian. Then we went to Bubba’s and drank with Ty’s friends. We didn’t get home until late.

Another success.

And that day, Sunday, I had my play sorted out. I told him we needed to hit the home wares store and he’d instantly balked. Garden furniture, he could do. Home wares, his reaction to the concept stated clearly were not his thing. I’d had to get creative with incentive for him to go with me, I did, he liked it, I liked it and he went, liking my incentive so much, I talked him into taking the Charger.

And I talked him into the Charger because I’d put something in the trunk.

Then I directed him to make a pit stop at a place I’d previously scoped out in Chantelle on the way to the mall. He knew why the instant we parked on the street outside the shop. I saw his face change when he looked at the sign but I got out of the car before he could say anything. I was standing at the trunk by the time he folded out and his eyes came to me but he didn’t speak.

“Pop the trunk, honey, will you?”

He held my eyes but said not a word.

“Pop the trunk, Ty,” I semi-repeated.

He popped the trunk. I reached in and took out the long, hard-sided cardboard tube in the back that I’d found in a closet in one of the middle floor bedrooms. I slammed the trunk and headed to his side, taking his hand in mine and tugging him to the frame shop. It took a mighty tug but I got him to come unstuck, slam his door and follow me in.

He picked the frame for Tuku’s pen and ink, we left the tube and then we went out to the Charger. We didn’t go to the home wares store but then again, that was a ruse so we didn’t need to. We went straight home so Ty could express his gratitude by f**king me on the couch, fast, rough and brilliant.