“If you want, I’ll gather all the things I don’t mind you smashing and put them on the coffee table, or an alternate option, I can go grab you a bottle of beer,” I offered.

He looked down at me. Then he stalked to my armchair, sat down, bent forward, put his elbows to his knees and both hands to the back of his head.

I hurried to him and crouched down beside him, my fingers curling around his thigh.

“Seriously, Brock, let this out,” I whispered.

“Fucked up,” he muttered to his knees.

“Brock—”

“Knew I shouldn’t’ve but left them to her for a year. A fuckin’ year,” he bit off.

“Honey—”

“She’s playin’ my boys,” he said, still talking to his knees.

I squeezed his thigh. “Honey—”

“With every breath she takes.”

I squeezed his thigh again but kept my fingers tensed into his flesh and also kept silent.

“Fuck!” he exploded, then threw himself back against the chair.

I straightened, moved, and climbed in, putting a knee in the seat on either side of his hips so I was astride him. I leaned forward, hands on the fast-drying material of his running shirt, and put my face in his face, feeling his hands curve around my hips.

“This, too, shall pass,” I whispered.

“Yeah, babe, but it needed to pass yesterday or, say, two fuckin’ years ago,” Brock responded.

“Okay, it didn’t. You can’t turn back time, honey. Just talk to them.”

“And say what, Tess? That their mom is a miserable, scheming cunt and their dad is an asshole who put his job before them and left them to that bullshit?” Brock asked angrily.

“I would shy away from the c-word,” I advised on a whisper, sliding my hands up to his neck and holding tight. “And, also, maybe the a-word too.”

He sucked in a breath through his nose and looked over my shoulder as his fingers dug into my hips.

Then his eyes came back to mine. “I want you over tonight.”

I shook my head and squeezed his neck. “You should be with your boys and Martha came by earlier. I’m meeting her and some friends at Club.”

“You didn’t hear me, Tess. I want you over tonight.”

“Brock, they need their dad and me being around is just confusing them and making them feel torn and maybe even guilt.”

“Babe, you are not gonna disappear every time I have them especially when I have full custody of them. Eventually, this two-house bullshit we got goin’ is gonna be done, we’re gonna be livin’ together, and they’re gonna be with us.”

My fingers spasmed on his neck at this news. News it appeared Brock took for granted. News that was news to me.

Happy news.

He kept talking, cutting into the tingles I was experiencing due to receiving this happy news.