The light died in his eyes but they got bright in another way.

He swallowed, controlling his emotions, and his smooth voice was rough when he said, “I would appreciate that, my dear.”

“I’ll talk to Brock,” I whispered, reaching out and grabbing his hand.

He turned it in mine and gave me a squeeze.

Then he let me go, started to stand, and I went up with him.

“Take care of yourself, Tess,” he said and I moved toward him, put my hands on his shoulders, and touched my cheek to his.

Leaving it there, in his ear I whispered, “You too, Dade. Anything you need, I’m here.”

His fingers curled around my upper arms, gave them a squeeze, and I moved back. He again let me go, smiled his solemn smile, and walked out of the shop.

I snatched up the folder and envelope, hoofed it to my office (which was now Martha’s office, really), and found her on the computer.

“Can you give me two shakes?” I asked. “I need to talk to Brock. Private. Good news. I’ll fill you in in a sec, but he gets the news first.”

She studied my face, nodded, and didn’t delay in dashing out and closing the door behind her.

I pulled out my phone, called Brock and held it to my ear as I dumped my purse and the folder and envelope on my desk.

“Babe,” he answered as I opened the folder.

“I got a surprise visitor at the shop today,” I told him and didn’t make him wait. “Dade came by.”

“Shit,” he clipped.

“No,” I said quickly, turned over some papers, and went mute at seeing a photo of Olivia doing it doggie style with a very muscled young man at least twenty years her junior. I also noted that repeated commentary from Brock was proved irrevocably correct through photo evidence. She was beautiful but she was bony.

Ick.

“Tess?” Brock called, his voice terse.

I slapped the folder closed and grunted, “Ugh.”

“Babe, what the fuck?”

“Um… wait a sec while my retinas recover from being seared.”

“Tess,” he growled.

Crap. Time to pull it together.

“Honey, Dade just gave me copies of his private investigator’s reports and photos as well as a sworn affidavit as to Olivia’s behavior after their marriage as it pertains to the boys. He’s going to be contacting your attorneys to tell them he will stand as a witness to her unsuitability to parent. And, if what I just saw does not set her attorneys scrambling to give you everything you want, he’s going to talk to some of his buds who ‘wear robes and command gavels,’ his words, to see that this nightmare is sorted out sooner not later.”

Brock was silent.

Then he asked, “What did you just see?”

“Let’s just say what I saw means you aren’t getting one of your favorite positions for a long time because it might take eternity for the image of her getting boinked, by what appeared to be her boy toy, to heal, considering it’s burned like acid on my brain.”