She shot her eyes to Joker like she did anytime Travis said “moo mah,” convinced it was “mommy.”

Joker didn’t know if she was right. But he liked to see her face when it happened.

She tore her eyes from Joker’s and put her hands to her son, who started climbing on Joker, shouting, “Bah! Dah! Kah! Duh! Buh!” then he pounded on Joker’s shoulder and gave her angry baby face.

“He’s good with me,” he told her.

“He sure is,” Mrs. Heely said, a smile in her voice.

“You don’t have your truck,” Carissa told him.

“Swing back around when you’re done, you can take him home and I’ll ride behind you,” he said.

“Okay, sweetheart,” she murmured, leaned in and this time he turned his head so she didn’t get his jaw with her kiss but his lips. “See you later,” she whispered when she pulled away. She bent in to Travis, who turned his face into Joker’s neck and pressed, thinking she was going to try to separate them.

She blew a raspberry on his neck and he giggled but kept shoving into Joker.

She moved away.

“So cool to see you again, Mr. Robinson,” she said.

“Keith, Carissa,” he invited.

“Keith,” she said warmly.

They shook. Mrs. Heely said her goodbyes to Keith. Carissa came in for another lip touch for Joker and a raspberry for Travis. After that, Keith and Joker watched Carissa and Mrs. Heely walk to his woman’s wreck.

With his mother walking away, Travis exposed his plan and started struggling to get down, showing that he may like Joker, but what he really wanted was to crawl all over the dirt and grime of a garage.

Joker held him steady, eyes locked on Travis’s mother’s sweet ass.

“How old is he?”

At this question from Keith, Joker tore his eyes from Carissa’s ass and looked to the man beside him.

“Nine months.”

Something moved over Keith’s face that was easy to read. Unhappiness and anger.

“Please tell me Mr. Neiland is a better father than he obviously was a husband,” he requested.

Yep.

Nothing got by Keith Robinson. He knew exactly how big a jackass Aaron Neiland was back in the day, which was why he was a bigger one now.

“Far’s I can tell, he digs his son.”

“And Carissa has you,” Keith said quietly.

“And I got them both,” Joker replied.

“Would you like to know one of the best feelings in the world, Carson?” Keith asked.

Joker wasn’t sure he did. With all that had just gone down, anything could come of that. All that just happened but also, Joker was holding in his arms what Keith and his wife could not have.

Still, he said, “Sure.”

Keith looked him deep in the eye, Joker tensed at the force of his gaze, and the man whispered, “Being right.”

Joker drew in breath.