Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had come as a shock – the invitation. She was gathering her brood from the park where they’d been playing with Marcus while her and Rio discussed business on their bench.

“I’ll tell you when I’m done with the drops.” Beth stood from the bench as the kids ran towards her, still bouncing with energy.

“You do that.”

Beth didn’t respond as four mouths chattered and dirty hands grabbed at her jeans.

“Alright,” Beth began steering them towards the parking lot. “Everyone get in the car so we can go home for dinner.”

Then came the begging for fast food – something she was going to have to tell Dean to cut back on because she was certain he brought home takeout more so than not when he had the kids with him. Beth said they were having spaghetti for dinner and they could like it or lump it.

“Miss Elizabeth!”

Beth turned with a raised brow as Marcus raced ahead of his father towards her. He stopped in front of her drawing a heavy breath.

“Can you come to my birthday party next week?” he asked, peering up at her hopefully. “And can everyone else come too?” he looked at the four kids buckling themselves in.

“I’m not sure, Marcus,” Beth began, thinking how unorthodox it would be to go to Rio’s son’s party, not sure she could even imagine it in her mind. “We have a lot going on next week with clubs and recitals, and I have work.”

“Oh.” the disappointment on his face nearly made her buckle.

“Please mommy! Please can we go?!” Emma kicked her feet happily from her car seat, earnestly pleading.

“It’s really up to your dad.” Beth knew Rio would somehow make it so they didn’t see each other beyond the park bench – he who was always so careful about his private life.

“Dad!” Marcus called, though Rio was just reaching the parking lot. “Can Miss Elizabeth come to my party?”

Beth turned back to the car, finding that Danny had gotten a toy caught in Jane’s hair and there was an imminent meltdown if her quivering lip was anything to go by. Beth expertly removed the figure and finished buckling everyone in. With a sigh she closed the van door, finding Rio holding his son.

“You comin’?” he asked with an amused twinkle in his eye.

“That’s up to you. I don’t want to intrude.” Beth moved around him, heading towards the driver’s side.

“What do you say, pop? You want Elizabeth and her hellions to come?”

Marcus smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Rio turned back with a smirk.

“So mama, you comin’?”

And she hadn’t been expecting this. She’d known Rio for an entire year and she still didn’t know his last name because he was so careful in revealing things to her, unless it was something that was going to shock her (i.e. Marcus). Yet here he was inviting her and her children to his son’s birthday party. There was bound to be other family members there. Beth studied him for a long moment, wondering what his angle was, wondering how she was going to somehow get the short end of the stick.

“It’ll be fun.” He vaguely stated with a small frisson of heat in his eyes.

Wailing started from inside the car. Beth didn’t want to know what catastrophe had happened.

“Fine,” Beth conceded. “If you don’t think it’ll…be a problem.”

“Cool,” he smirked at her. “I’ll text you the info.”

He’d texted her the details later that night, along with the directions to have her girls do the drops the evening of the party. Beth wasn’t comfortable leaving Annie and Ruby to do a dangerous job that she had signed them up for without asking. Of course they accepted it with her minimal explanation and promises that this was a one-time thing.

Now she was herding her kids to get ready, the excitement of going to a play place with a ball pit driving them up the wall and in turn, driving her up the wall.

“Kenny, grab the gift from the spare bedroom!” Beth called up the stairs over their exuberant discussion about their plan to play pirates in the ball pit.

Jane sat on the couch, pouting.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Beth asked, stooping to help tie her shoes.

“I don’t wanna go.” She huffed.

“Why not?”

“Marcus only ever plays with Kenny and Danny. They should go.”

“There will be other kids there,” Beth smiled at her. “I’m sure that you’ll find someone to play with, and I bet Emma feels a little left out as well. Maybe you and her can play your own game?”

Jane shrugged, not convinced.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fun. Trust me.” Beth scooped her off the couch to blow raspberries on her cheek until she laughed.

Beth charged Jane with the careful task of making sure the gift reached Marcus unscathed, and she took her duty so seriously that Beth had to stop herself from laughing. They were running late by the time she managed to lock the front door as the kids poured down the stairs towards the car. Beth couldn’t wait to unleash them into the play place so they could burn off some energy. Sitting in a room with screeching children was not something that Beth was looking forward to, not to mention she had been anxiously checking her phone for a text from Annie or Ruby saying they were home safe from the drops.

The moment the van was parked, the kids were scrambling to get out. Beth had to hold the gift while Jane wiggled from her seat but she repossessed the package with all the dignity of a queen once she was out of the car. The boys were already inside, gawking at the monstrosity of the play place. Emma clung to her hand, the noise and the crowd overwhelming her.

“You made it!” Marcus came sprinting over, eyes sparkling with joy and face already flushed from playing.

Marcus directed Jane to a table already full of presents, thanking her for the gift. Then he took charge of the rest of the kids, showing them small cubbies where their shoes had to be stored.

“A bouncy castle!” Jane exclaimed, eyes wide with wonderment.

“Do you want to go play on it?” Marcus asked.

She eagerly nodded and then four sets of feet took off. Emma still held onto her hand.

“Be careful!” Beth called after them, but they were already in full play mode. “Don’t you want to go?” she asked Emma, who shook her head and stood against her leg. “Alright, let’s go find somewhere to sit.”

Beth found a few unoccupied plastic chairs around a table pressed against the wall. Emma insisted on sitting on her lap. She was always shy, crowds and unfamiliar surroundings bothered her most of the time. Beth found some coloring sheets on the table with crayons that had seen better days. Together they worked on the same sheet, Beth confirming what color each part of the lion was to be.

“You want his mane to be purple?”

“Yeah.”

Beth picked up the stub of a purple crayon and began coloring, her eyes lifting every few minutes to see if she could spot the rest of her kids (and to see if she could find Rio in the crowd). Her mind kept drifting to the oddness of the entire situation and she found herself asking once again how she ended up here.

Pressure on the back of her chair drew her from her thoughts.

“So you made it.” She could feel Rio’s breath on her hair.

“I said I’d be here.” Beth answered as Rio moved to sit beside her, his chair closer than it really had to be.

“What’s with the squirt? Doesn’t want to play?” Rio asked looking at Emma with a soft smile, causing the girl to squirm slightly, something she did whenever she was the center of attention.

“She’s shy.” Beth murmured softly, reaching for the green crayon and handing it to Emma.

“Hmm.” Without a word Rio stood and headed into the play area, calling Marcus to him. Crouching down, the two had a conversation which ended in Marcus coming to the table.

“Would you like to play with us?” Marcus asked. “We’re going to play in the ball pit.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Emma!” Jane ran over, jumping up and down. “You have to come in the ball pit with us! Kenny is pretending to be a sea monster and we have to try to get away!”

Beth could feel Emma crumbling under the sight of their excitement as they continued to explain the game that they’d be playing, pleading for her to join in. Once the rest of her siblings joined in asking, she was wiggling from Beth’s lap and darting to the cubbies to store her shoes. Beth smiled as they all helped Emma into the ball pit to play.

Rio sank into the seat beside her, elbows propped on the table, his knee just brushing hers.

“Thank you.” She offered quietly, watching Emma screech and try to scramble from Kenny’s reaching grasp.

Rio shrugged. “Sometimes they just need a little nudge.”

“Did he invite all these people?” Beth asked.

“He wanted to invite his whole class. Maya didn’t seem to think it was a problem.”

Maya?

“My ex.” Rio gestured with his chin.

Beth turned and found a stunning woman laughing in a group. Long dark hair, perfect tan skin, dark sparkling eyes, what looked to be a perfect body. Younger. No wonder Rio had been with her. She was the exact type that Beth often thought Rio was interested in. Her heart plummeted to her stomach. Logically she knew that they weren’t meant to be – her with her baggage and he with his secrets - but in the back of her mind there was always that small flicker of hope. He was a good dad; she often thought so when she watched Rio and Marcus on the playground together. He stuck to his principles, he was organized, and confident (sometimes too confident), and he was good with her kids when he interacted with them. Was it right to feel so much over a shattered dream that was never really realistic?

Beth found herself tugging self-consciously on her blouse that she’d thought looked wonderful before she walked out the door that day, thinking about her body that bore the marks of four pregnancies. Beth knew it wasn’t right to compare herself to others, but she found herself doing it anyway, and knew she came up short in comparison to Maya.

“Thank you for letting the kids come.” Beth threw out in an effort at conversation to distract herself from her spiraling thoughts.

“Marcus likes ‘em.”

“Hi!” a chipper voice came from beside her. Beth turned to find Maya standing beside her. “You must be Elizabeth.” She smiled warmly, extending her hand.

Beth took her hand, plastering on her best smile as she realized Maya was even more beautiful up clsoe. “Nice to meet you.”

“Marcus talks about you and your kids all the time,” She smiled. “I’m Maya, by the way. This one is horrible with introductions.” She gave Rio a reproachful look before turning her attention back to Beth. “I’m glad I finally got to meet you and I’d love to meet the kids – if they ever emerge from the ball pit. I can’t tell you how much Marcus looks forward to seeing them every week. It’s all he can talk about when he comes home.”

“The kids enjoy seeing him too,” Beth found it easy to be open with Maya who was beaming with love for her son. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to basically pry their hands from the equipment in order to get them home.”

“I keep asking Christopher about you but he clams up the second your name comes out of my mouth. I have to get all my information from Marcus.”

“I hope it’s all good. When it comes from the mouths of babes, you can never be too sure.”

Maya threw her head back and laughed. “Isn’t that the truth? I was ratted out the second I started going steady with my fiancée. And I’m sure he ran a background check the moment Marcus spilled the beans.” Maya gestured to Rio.

“Had to make sure.” Rio interjected gruffly.

“Don’t mind him,” Maya waved her hand. “He does like Nathaniel, no matter what he says.”

“He’s better than Graham, remember him?” Rio leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms.

“It was a fling. I was never serious about him.”

“Good thing being that he hadn’t had a steady job for more than six months at a time. Nathaniel is good to you and Marcus, and that’s good enough for me.”

Maya bent down towards Beth. “He’s a softie, though he doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“Jesus, Maya, don’t you have somethin’ to be doin’?”

Maya laughed. “Fine, I’ll leave you to it.”

They were silent for a long moment as Beth watched Maya mingle with other parents.

“She seems nice.” Beth offered.

“She is.” 

With nothing more to add, Beth fell silent. She didn’t realize how much she was checking her phone until Rio covered her hand with his own, trapping her phone against the table.

“Somethin’ goin’ on?” he asked.

“No. I’m waiting for a call.” Beth answered, trying to ignore the warmth of his hand.

As if the heavens heard her, her phone vibrated beneath their hands.

“Excuse me.” Beth muttered before standing and heading outside where at least she’d be able to hear herself think.

The second she reached the cool air, she answered Annie’s call.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing, just letting you know we’re done, like you requested.”

“Did it go okay? No problems?”

“Everything was fine. I dropped the cars and Ruby picked me up. Not a soul in sight.”

Beth released a heavy breath, leaning against the cold brick wall.

“And Ruby’s okay?”

“B, everything went fine.”

“Did you remember to set the alarm at the dealership?”

She could nearly near Annie rolling her eyes through the phone. “Yes, mother dear, everything is locked up tight.”

“Thank you. Both of you.”

“What did you have going on anyway? You were kind of weird about it when Ruby asked earlier.”

“Oh…well, I’m at a birthday party.”

“Did anyone tell you that you’re really bad at dodging questions?”

“Fine, I’m at Marcus’s party.”

“Marcus? As in gang friend’s kid?”

“What other Marcus do we both know?” Beth snapped.

“How in the hell did you end up there?”

“I – it’s a long story.”

“We’re due for a girl’s night soon, anyway. When Deansie has the kids next week, we’re having story time.”

“Fine.” Beth groaned, running a hand down her face.

She said a quick goodbye to Annie before hanging up and tucking her phone back into her jeans. A weight was lifted from her shoulders knowing that Ruby and Annie managed to get the drops done without any issues. Beth didn’t head back in immediately; instead she watched the sun set over the tree line in the distance, relishing the quiet. Beth’s mind never strayed too far from Rio, analyzing every look and touch. There was something different about him tonight, almost like he had more intent rather than the shallow flirting she usually received and put no stock in. Shaking herself from her thoughts, she headed back inside, wondering when the correct time would be to bow out gracefully without raising an eyebrow.

Rio was still seated where she’d left him, eyes tracking Marcus as he bobbed and weaved through the play place. Beth took her seat again, not looking at Rio.

“Everythin’ okay?” Rio leaned back, tossing his arm across the back of her chair. Beth clocked the movement.

“They got the drops done.” Elizabeth responded as his fingers toyed with the ends of her hair.

“Good.”

“Why did you invite us?” she asked suddenly, inclining her head towards him. “Unless this is somehow part of a scheme I don’t see yet, it doesn’t make any sense.”

“It don’t make any sense?” his voice was serious and Beth turned to find his dark eyes watching her closely.

She was saved from having to respond by the uproar of children as the cake was brought out. Rio stood, dragging his fingers along her shoulders.

“Up for some cake?” Rio’s somber expression was quickly replaced by a more jovial one, though his eyes didn’t quite match his tone.

Marcus was beaming from all the attention he was getting, but Beth found her eyes wandering to Rio on an endless loop. She was thankfully distracted by the kids returning with their cake, fingers already covered in frosting. Marcus joined them a moment later, a frankly gigantic piece of cake sitting heavily on his plate. Beth was trying to get the kids to rub hand sanitizer on before their fingers made it to their mouths (she didn’t trust that ball pit in the least and wasn’t looking forward to whatever illness they could have contracted while diving in) when Rio sat down beside her with two plates of cake, sliding one in front of her.

“Thank you.” Beth smiled quickly as she struggled to get Emma to rub in the sanitizer instead of letting it drip down her arm and all over the table.

After Beth scrubbed her own hands, Rio grabbed up the bottle to do the same. The kids talked between bites of cake (decorated like a soccer field which was turning all their lips green), and Beth could see Marcus flagging as he tried to finish his slab. Beth nudged Rio’s leg under the table to get his attention, and she was thankful that he caught on quickly.

“Hey Pop, wanna try out some arcade games before we call it a night?” Marcus placed his fork down, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “Who raised you? Your ma would be horrified if she saw that.” Rio shook his head and tossed a napkin across the table as he dug out his wallet, pulling out a crisp bill.

Marcus snatched the bill and ran towards the token machine. Her kids chirped up then, begging to play some games too. Beth dug around in her bag for her wallet, finding it beneath Emma’s stuffed rhino, and just as her fingers closed around it, Rio fished four more bills from his wallet.

“Everyone gets one,” he sternly looked at them to make sure each kid picked up one bill. “Careful you don’t lose your tokens when they come outta the machine.”

“Rio,” Beth began to protest as the kids snatched up the money and ran after Marcus, jostling for position. “I’ll pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it, mama.”

“It’s too much.” Beth insisted pulling her wallet out.

Rio’s hand closed over hers. “Elizabeth.”

Beth stopped to look at him.

“It was only ten bucks each; it’s nothing to lose your head about.”

“I’d feel better paying you back.”

“You can pay me back by invitin’ me to yours for some of that chicken with the mushroom sauce you make.”

Beth blinked at him, unsure of what she expected to come out of his mouth, but knowing she’d never expected that that.

“Are you…asking me for a date?”

“Depends. Your babies gonna be there? Not a date if they’re there.”

“Would you want them there?”

“What do you think?” The phrase packed enough heat to make a flush rise on her skin.

“Why?”

“Because, sweetheart, we’ve gotta deal with whatever it is between us eventually. Can barely sit next to you without wantin’ to be inside you.” Beth’s eyes flickered around to make sure no one heard – being in the middle of a child’s party made the comment lewder and she could feel the flush creeping down her neck. “You’re a distraction.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you just so you can get me out of your system.” Beth hissed, feeling her hackles starting to rise.

“Ma, I don’t think I can get you outta my system, no matter what I do.”

Beth turned fully to him then, seeing warmth and lust dancing in his eyes.

“So what you’re suggesting…”

“We see each other. At home, at the movies, fancy restaurants, whatever you want. Only one rule: no business talk.”

“And the kids?”

“We don’t involve them, not until we’re sure.”

“They’re already kind of involved.” Beth pointed out.

Rio laughed. “Fine, we’ll keep the park dates but that’s it, until we decide.”

Beth was quiet for a long moment. “I can’t decide if you’re serious or trying to humiliate me right now.”

Rio huffed. “I ain’t got time for games. You in or out?”

“Why all of a sudden? We were just arguing last week, like we argue every week, about literally everything.”

“Time to shit or get off the pot, as the sayin’ goes. We’ve been dancin’ on the knife point for long enough. Aren’t you tired of walkin’ the tightrope?”

God, was she ever. The anticipation of who was going to cross the boundaries for the first time since they were cross the last time sometimes made her lose sleep. After a few of their meetings with some heavy handed flirting (on his side), Beth had to go down for a nap to recuperate. She was worn down from it all.

“It’ll make work messy.” She pointed out.

“Ma, we’re already messy. Maybe this’ll straighten us out.”

“If we hypothetically do this,” Beth started. “Then we’re exclusive 100%. I have four kids and I’m not risking not being there for them because you can’t keep it in your pants.”

Rio snorted, turning so his knee was pressed against her thigh.

“Deal, as long as you don’t go runnin’ back to that ex,” he bit his lower lip as he lazily studied her. “So how ‘bout it? We gonna give it a go?” He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, giving her his full attention.

“Fine,” Beth agreed. “But if things go sour between us on a personal level, it can’t bleed into work.”

Rio’s hand was in her hair, his mouth covering hers for a brief moment before he pulled away. Beth ducked her head and cleared her throat as Rio chuckled.

“You shy all of a sudden?”

“We’re in the middle of your son’s party with your ex standing a few feet away.”

“There’s a bathroom in the back.” Rio salaciously suggested.

Beth groaned, knowing that she would never live down the bar bathroom, even if it did rank number one in her sexual escapades list (not that the list was very extensive). She began to gather her things, knowing it was getting late.

“Do you ever hold a conversation that doesn’t have an undertone of sex involved?”

“With you? No.”

“I don’t know if I should be offended or flattered.”

Together they headed into the arcade area, Rio’s hand on the small of her back, where the kids were running around. Beth told them to finish up with their tokens and go to the prize counter to redeem their tickets soon because they were heading out. Beth could tell how tired they all were based on the fact that no one argued to stay longer. Emma took Beth’s hand and took her to the candy machine, diligently feeding in tokens and receiving whatever off-brand candy the claw scooped up.

When she next turned around, it was to find Rio scooping a crying Jane from the floor where she’d tripped and skinned a knee on the carpet. Rio smiled, letting her know that it was handled. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen Rio care for one of her kids when they were injured. At the park, she usually had her hands full dealing with work calls or another one of her kids needing something, and when she was busy, Rio silently stepped in. She still remembered how shocked she was when he’d helped Emma out of the woodchips after she’d fallen off the seesaw and then took her to the swings where he pushed her until she was giggling.

At the end of the night, Beth couldn’t ever remember being so thankful to see her van which was one of the few cars still left in the lot. Rio carried Jane to the car because she was still clinging tightly to him, sniffling against his throat.

“Remember what I told you about fallin’ down.” Rio whispered to Jane as she climbed into her car seat.

“You gotta get back up.”  Jane wiped her nose on the back of her hand, making Beth wince.

“That’s my girl.” Rio ruffled her hair before stepping back to close the door.

Beth stepped around the back of the van, Rio following.

“You’ll let me know about dinner?”

Beth smiled. “I’m free Tuesday night.”

“Cool. You gonna kiss me goodnight?”

“You’re incorrigible.” Beth huffed before pressing her lips to his quickly.

“Aw, come on, ma. That was barely anythin’.”

“Well it’s all you’re going to get until I decide otherwise. See you Tuesday.” Beth pulled open the driver’s door.

“Lookin’ forward to it.”

Beth climbed into the van, releasing a happy sigh, glad that it was dark enough to hide her Cheshire grin.

Chapter Text

It had been one month since Marcus had his party. One month since Rio had flipped his game – their game – leaving Beth feeling like she was standing on shakier ground than before.

She’d invited him over to dinner like she said she would; only the evening took a downhill turn immediately. It started with Beth being held up at work for over an hour, trying to figure out what the new hire had done on their sale that afternoon, which put her behind on her drop schedule.

Annie’s car picked that night to start acting up again, stalling every few miles. By the time they made it back to the dealership, her car was nearly dead. Beth was horrified when she saw what time it was, and even more horrified when she found her phone dead. She scrambled for Annie’s phone, shooting off a quick text to a number she had memorized long ago. A part of her was sure that Rio would be long gone after waiting anything over fifteen minutes.

Beth raced home, shocked to find Rio’s car nestled up to the sidewalk that ran in front of her house. Quickly she gathered her things and darted up the front steps, finding the door already unlocked.

Beth found Rio on the couch flipping through Architectural Digest, his feet on the coffee table and Buddy’s head resting on his lap.

“I’m so sorry I’m late.” Beth breathlessly dumped her stuff in the hallway, smoothing down her helpless hair. “And how did you get in?” She questioned as her mind finally caught up with the fact that Rio had been waiting for her in her house.

“Your security is shit, mama. That’s somethin’ we’re gonna have to talk about seeing as your line of work ain’t exactly résumé appropriate. Anyway,” Rio tossed the magazine to the cushion to the left, seeing as Buddy was curled up on the right. “Phone dead?” he asked.

“Yes,” Beth moved into the room, unbuttoning her blazer and fighting to pry her shoes off. “When I finally had a chance to tell you I was running late, it was dead.”

“Figured when I got the message from an unknown number.”

“I guess I’ll go start dinner, if you don’t mind eating late.” Beth ran through a check list of what she had to do.

“I got it covered.”

The doorbell suddenly rang, causing Beth to jump. Rio smirked at her as he stood and headed towards the door, Buddy following diligently behind. Rio greeted the man at the door, striking up some casual small talk as he handed money over and returned with two pizza boxes. Beth shoulders fell with relief.

“Didn’t know what you liked, so I gotta little of everythin’.” Rio set the two boxes on the table. “Why don’t you get changed while I grab some plates?  You better not be one of those people who eat pizza with a knife and fork, ‘cause that’ll be a deal breaker.”

“You didn’t have to do this.” Beth swallowed thickly – when was the last time someone did something like this for her? “We could have rescheduled.”

“Why? I was already here and you still had to eat. Plus, I can get a second date outta you this way – you still owe me some chicken.”

Beth gave a short sharp laugh, feeling the stress of the day melting beneath his playfulness.

“Let’s go, ma, before the pizza gets cold.” Rio brushed past her, his hand lingering on her waist before heading to the kitchen.

Beth went to change, knowing that Rio had been in her kitchen often enough (usually uninvited) to know where everything was. She changed into lounge pants and a large sweater. They were eating pizza in the living room – not exactly a dress up worthy occasion. When she returned to the room, she found beer resting on coasters and Rio bent over two open boxes, considering the pies closely. She padded quietly over to him, peering into the boxes with him.

“Everything okay?” she questioned.

“Yeah, tryin’ to decide what I want.”

Beth smiled at his seriousness, taking the plate he offered her.

“What about you?”

“I’ll have the peperoni.”

They ate their pizza on the couch, sipping beer and talking of anything but work. The kids were generally a safe topic, so they swapped parenting stories in addition to going over generic facts about one another.

It was a good night, despite the rocky beginning. Beth walked him to the door, making sure he took some leftovers for Marcus. They stood at the door awkwardly for a moment (well, she was awkward).

“Am I allowed to kiss you goodnight?” Rio questioned.

“If you keep it PG.” Beth warned as he stepped closer.

“Sweetheart, I’ve seen you naked.” Rio dipped his head with soft laugh, dragging his nose along her cheek.

“That was then.” She murmured, turning so she could kiss him.

------

Now she was at the park with him, watching the kids run around.

“We need to set boundaries.” Beth broached the subject as softly as she could.

“What kinda boundaries?” Rio stirred next to her, his arm on the bench behind her.

“I know you don’t want to talk about business when we’re together having dinner and whatnot, but we need a space where we can talk about things.”

“I can just pop over to yours if you need to talk – you gotta talk?” Rio turned with a raised brow.

“Not at this exact moment,” Beth turned to keep an eye on the kids. “I’m just saying, should there come a time where we do have to talk business, we need to set aside time for it.”

“Why everthin’ gotta be black or white with you?”

Beth opened her mouth to snap at him, but stopped herself. She refused to get into an argument with him right now, not when they were having a good time.

“There’s plenty of grey in my life, for your information.” Beth shifted against him. “I just meant that if we’re going to give this a real chance, we need to work on our communication. It was never really good and with feelings thrown into the mix, it’ll probably be worse. Once a week we should set aside an hour to go over work just to make sure we’re on the same page.”

“Mama!” Emma came running over as fast as her short legs could take her. “Marcus says there are trails over there,” she gestured vaguely towards the playground. “Can we walk on them? He said there’s a creepy old tree that looks like it has a face.” She whispered.

“Are you up for a walk?” Beth asked with a raised brow. “I’m not going to carry you when you change your mind and decide you’re too tired.”

“Mama, I wanna see the tree.” Emma begged.

“It’s a short walk.” Rio interjected. “She’ll be able to manage it.”

Beth saw the spark of victory light in her daughter’s eyes as Rio took her side.

“Alright, we can go see the tree.” Beth agreed.

“Just follow me, little mama,” Rio stood, picking a leaf from Emma’s hair. “I know the area. Now go and gather the rest of ‘em, and we’ll get goin’.”

She took off like a bolt to relay the good news. Beth walked beside Rio as he led them to the start of the gravel path. They weren’t two minutes in before Marcus took the kids ahead, leaving Beth and Rio to bring up the rear. She loved to see the kids interact. There had been more park visits since they’d decided to try this out, and Beth could see the kids jiving well with each other. Of course Marcus gravitated towards Kenny and Danny, but there were moments when he and Jane went off on their own to explore when they got tired of the rough play. Marcus usually asked Emma to join them if she was alone, and Beth always felt her heart swell at his thoughtfulness. Being the baby of the family definitely had its downfalls, but Marcus was inclusive and very protective of Emma. When loud kids joined them on the playground, Marcus was there, making sure she didn’t give up her swing just because an older kid wanted it.

Beth was pulled from her thoughts when Rio interlaced their fingers. He was always so easy with touching her that it sometimes surprised her.

“What’re you thinkin’ about?” he asked.

“The kids.”

“You always thinkin’ about those babies.”

“No, I’m thinking about the kids as a collective, including Marcus. They get on well, and it makes me happy to see it.”

“They’re still at that age where the world hasn’t poisoned ‘em yet and they’re open to new things.” Rio remarked. “There’s a fine line between them learnin’ about the world and becomin’ jaded. Marcus started learning about the Trail of Tears a few weeks ago. Kinda hard to explain shit like that when they lookin’ at you with those eyes ‘cause they don’t know any better yet.”

“Sometimes I feel like the world is getting uglier by the day,” Beth admitted, peering around at the beautiful trees swaying the wind and listening to the kids carry on up ahead. “I’m scared of the world they’re growing up in.”

“You’ve gotta good head on your shoulders and they have good heads on theirs. I think they’re gonna be fine with you guidin’ them.”

And sometimes Beth didn’t think so. Now that Dean was officially moved out (even if he did make excuses to stop by the house every few weeks), she was having a hard time handling it all herself. Beth found herself in bed at night wondering if one of her kids thought that another was receiving more attention, now that there weren’t two people to balance things out. She didn’t want them to feel like they were in competition, but she was only one person needed by four. Beth was stretched so thin these days trying to keep it all together and moving that sometimes she felt like she was going to snap like a rubber band.

Rio’s praise wasn’t just empty words, they weren’t the cliché responses people have when you’ve revealed something personal that they have no interest in knowing or helping you with. There was no “oh, it’ll be fine!” or “It’ll get better – just you wait!”. He always spoke with honesty and purpose. Whenever he demonstrated his confidence in her and her abilities, she let that confidence bloom in her chest and put down roots in her soul. After spending years with almost no self-confidence outside of her role as a stay at home mom, Beth would take what she could get.

Silently she squeezed his hand with a smile. Rio read her gratefulness and lifted their joint hands, pressing a light kiss to her skin.

Chapter Text

There was a long drawn out silence as Annie and Ruby gawked at her announcement. She knew that it wouldn’t go over particularly well with them, but after discussing things with Rio, Beth decided it was time to clear the air. Of course she hadn’t expected them to jump for joy; she wasn’t exactly expecting it to go down like a lead balloon either.

“Now? Now you listen to me?” Annie leaned across the breakfast bar, eyes wide while Ruby had stopped halfway through lifting her coffee mug to her mouth.

“You act like I never listen to you.” Beth began placing leftover plates from breakfast into the sink to give herself something to do.

“Come on, B, you never listen to anyone, least of all me. And for the record, when I said you need to ‘get back out there’, I meant hook up with one of those single dad’s from PTA, not get back into bed – literally – with gang friend.”

“Annie.” Beth warned. Once her sister started, it was difficult to get her mind out of the gutter.

“You can’t tell me you two aren’t knocking boots every twelve seconds seeing as you basically eyefuck each other each time we do a drop.”

Beth rolled her eyes, turning back to the sink to start washing the pots from last night.  “I’m not going to dignify that with a response.” She shot over her shoulder.

“I’ll wait for you to tell Ruby all the gritty details who will then tell me when I get her a discount on that wine she drinks.” Annie muttered, stuffing half a slice of toast into her mouth.

“For your information - not that it’s any of your business - we haven’t slept together since we decided to start seeing each other.”

“You have that smoking hot man in your house and you don’t immediately drag him to bed?” Annie asked incredulously.

“We’re still waiting to see if we can function as a couple on the most basic level before adding that into the mix.”

“You guys have already had sex though.” Ruby pointed out.

“Exactly, so we know we already click.” They more than clicked. She didn’t even know sex could be that way, that her blood could pound through her veins so fast that it felt like her head was spinning and her soul was hovering somewhere just outside of her body. “We need to know if we can operate outside of the bedroom and with us working together as well, we’re walking a very fine line.”

“I’d be walking that fine line to whatever flat surface I could find.” Annie crassly murmured and Beth shot her a quelling look.

“So how long has this been going on?” Ruby asked.

“Three months.”

“Three months – and you’re only now saying something?” she looked at Beth with a raised brow.

“I needed to be sure it was something before I told you guys. If it was just going to be a spark that flickered and died, what was the point in mentioning it?”

“So it’s serious then?” Ruby pushed.

“Is anything with Rio ever not serious?” Beth sighed. “With him it’s either all or nothing, which I suppose is a blessing and a curse. But to answer your question: yes, it’s serious.”  

Annie made a sound of distress that they ignored.

“And you’re happy?”

Beth couldn’t stop the smile at Ruby’s question. It was an automatic response, one that surprised her but she relished it.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Ruby’s eyes were full of warmth and while she might not entirely agree with Beth’s decisions, she was happy for her.

“I am,” Beth answered happily. “I had no idea that being with someone could be like this. He’s thoughtful and kind, and best of all he listens when I talk. He actually listens. Sometimes I lose my train of thought because I get caught up in just looking at him engaged one hundred percent with what I’m saying. With Dean, I was lucky if I got two seconds of eye contact.”

“Damn, Beth, sounds like you’re in love with the guy.” Annie grabbed for the orange juice. “I never heard you talk about Deansie that way, even at the start.”

“I am not in love with him.” Beth protested. It was a question she steered a wide path around because she wasn’t ready to face that prospect just yet.

“How is he with the kids?” Ruby interjected, changing the subject much to Beth’s relief.

“Amazing, obviously.” Because there wasn’t really anything he struggled with. Sometimes she was convinced that the sheer force of his confidence saw him through just about anything.

Of course she’d discovered a whole new kink watching him interact with her kids (something she’d admit to Ruby somewhere down the line, once she got used to the idea herself). He was always warm and playful with them, and Beth was surprised at what that sight did to her. She imagined dragging him inside while the kids kicked around a soccer ball and having her way with him. The look he gave her sometimes when he caught her looking made her sure he understood exactly what was going through her mind. Beth didn’t think there was anything more attractive than Rio caring for her kids.

“Does he live here or what?” Annie asked while peeking down the hallway to her bedroom like Rio was going to spring from around the corner.

“No, we see him and Marcus at the park. They’re already accustomed to seeing him there, but we were thinking of maybe having dinner next week and slowly introducing him into their lives.”

“The kids are okay with him?” Ruby questioned.

“They think he’s the most interesting person they know, but that’s just because of the tattoos. I’m fairly certain that Kenny knows what’s going on because he’s been a little standoffish. There’s a part of him that resents the fact that Dean is gone and he sees Rio as a replacement, but the other part of him can’t help but be interested. Rio taught him how to throw a football the other day, and he was beaming by the end.”

Beth watched from a bench as Rio crouched down in front of Kenny, showing him the proper way to line his fingers up with the laces of the football Marcus had dug out of his father’s car. Rio jogged a short distance away to receive the ball. He made small adjustments here and there, and Beth could see Kenny’s confidence building with each throw. His last throw was his best yet.

“There ya go,” Rio praised Kenny as he caught the ball easily. “That one was almost a perfect spiral.” Rio threw the ball back, smiling when Kenny caught it.

And Beth found herself thinking about the last time she’d watched Dean try and teach Kenny something - she recalled it was something about basketball. Kenny was having a hard time getting the ball into the net, and his frustration was mounting. She remembered Dean looking disappointed and Kenny picking up on it. Kenny said something about having homework to do – a lie, seeing as Beth had helped him finish it earlier - so he could escape to his room. He never did go back out with his dad after that. Beth had to coax him into picking the ball back up again. It took weeks to convince him, and when he did, she stayed outside for hours until he could shoot the ball successfully a few times in a row. Beth had cheered him on to the point his face flushed in embarrassment, but she could see he was pleased.

She couldn’t help noticing that Kenny tended to turn more towards her when he needed help with something rather than Dean. It broke her heart to see it, but she wanted Kenny to be confident in himself and his abilities, so she taught him what he wanted to know, encouraging him until he got it. By that point, Dean had failed to notice his kids were growing up and were no longer content with five minutes of rough housing in the backyard as his contribution as a father. They were older and needed more from him. The distance between them was growing and Beth couldn’t do anything to stop it. If Dean wasn’t willing to alter his view of his children now that they were no longer four and a half years old, she couldn’t help him. He’d wake up one morning and come to terms with the distance he’d created between him and his children. By then, it would be up to the kids to forgive him or not.

“And what does Deansie have to say about all this?” Annie prodded, letting her distaste for Dean drip form her words.

“I haven’t told him yet, but I think he knows something is going on. He texted me after I dropped the kids off saying we need to talk.”

“Well that’s ominous.” Ruby sat back in her chair. “You think it’s about Rio?”

“What else could it be? I can’t imagine he’s going after full custody, not after we’ve talked it through.”

“This is Dean we’re talking about here.” Annie reminded them.

It was quiet for a long moment as the three of them thought about the havoc he’d caused over the last two years. Beth found herself being grateful for Dean’s colossal screw up. If he hadn’t almost driven them to the brink of destruction, she’d never have met Rio. Beth wondered if Dean realized that he’d set this ball in motion. Most likely he’d try to twist the blame back around and onto her.

The girls took their leave a few minutes later, planning on seeing her next Tuesday for the drops she’d scheduled. Beth was grateful it was Sunday – the one day a week she was officially off. She made herself her favorite coffee and took it to the lounge chairs she’d positioned just right a few weeks ago on the back patio. She stared out into the backyard, shivering slightly in the chilly breeze. Fall was coming fast, which meant she’d have to start thinking about the fall bake sale the school did. She needed to start squirreling away money for Christmas gifts.

The door slid open with a soft sound behind her and she didn’t turn, already knowing who it was. Rio stepped forward, sitting beside her legs on the lounge chair, angling his body towards her. Before he spoke, Rio took stock of her expression and found her softly smiling.

“It went well?” he asked, fingers slipping over her jean clad knee.

“Mm. I didn’t expect them to be happy or anything, but I think we can get there.”

Rio smirked at her. “I’d expect nothin’ less from you.”

Beth’s smile became more pronounced at his confidence in her. Rio patted her hip and she slid over, letting him cram his body beside her on the chair. Beth turned so she could toss a leg over his, sighing once she was settled, though drinking her coffee was a little bit of a strain.

“We’re good, right?” Beth prompted.

“Why, you think I’m mad at you or somethin’?”

“No, I mean this,” she gestured between them. “I think it’s going well, but I don’t know if you feel the same.”

His chest vibrated beneath her ear before his arm tightened around her.

“Yeah, ma, it’s good.” His velvet voice slid comfortingly over her and Beth felt her muscles relax further as she sank against him.

Yes, it really was good.

Chapter Text

Six months in, and they hit their first road block. That was pretty good, considering.

Beth was absolutely exhausted from work, drops, shuttling kids all over town, and having Dean call her just about every night. She had been planning to tell Dean about Rio soon, only Emma beat her to the punch, explaining how Rio had let her touch his tattoos after dinner one night.

Beth peeled herself off Rio’s bare chest with a groan, shivering as the cool air washed over her. He’d spent the night at her place, like he’d spent the last five nights.

The kids had come home yesterday and she’d narrowly avoided an argument with Dean in the driveway after Emma had spilled the beans. Dean clenched his jaw when Rio stepped from the house to meet the kids. A part of her regretted him stepping from the front door, but another part of her didn’t want to hide him like he was a dirty little secret. The one thing that struck her was the kids. Usually it was beaming smiles when they saw Rio, and now there was definitely some sort of disconnect going on. Rio must have noticed because he lifted his gaze to meet Dean’s evenly, the accusation subtle, but there. It was clear that Dean had discussed Rio with the kids, and by their expressions, it wasn’t nice.

Rio shifted beside her with a small sound, hand grasping for her in the dim morning light. Beth kissed him quickly on the cheek before wiggling to the edge of the mattress to escape his searching fingers. If he got ahold of her, she wouldn’t be out of bed for another hour.

“Come back to bed.” Rio grumbled, letting the sheet slide down his chest.

“As tempting as that is, I have to go to work and get the kids to school.”

“Want some company in the shower?” A spark ignited in his eye.

“Not with that look on your face,” Beth tugged her robe on over her pajamas. “I wouldn’t make it to the dealership until noon. Wasn’t last night enough?”

“I told you, sweetheart, ain’t never gonna be enough.” Rio climbed from bed in only his boxers, stretching like a cat.

She’d had to basically fight him to get him to wear something to bed when their sex-a-thon had ended last night.

“You can strut around naked any time you like, but not with kids around. I don’t have it in me to explain the birds and the bees to them just yet.”

He’d grumbled as he hunted down his boxers from where they landed clear across the room while Beth dug out some fresh pajamas. She had kids in and out of her bedroom often enough to know that sleeping naked was not something that should be taken lightly.

Beth climbed into the shower, noting her body was littered with hickeys. He had strategically placed them so no one would see which she was thankful for. Last night had been something else. They started sleeping together about a month ago, and it seemed like after each time Beth wanted more of him than she did before. She unashamedly stared at him now as he moved around the room half dressed, where before Beth wouldn’t be caught dead admiring him. Often he would quirk an eyebrow at her when he caught her staring, and Beth would smirk at him. That usually ended with him snagging her ankles and dragging her down the bed. But last night there had been something almost feral in him, and she knew it had to be about Dean. He was possessive and territorial, almost like he was reminding her of how much more he could give her, like he was trying to crawl into her skin and embed himself there so he’d be with her always. Beth didn’t know how to broach the subject. He didn’t have to worry about Dean; he was a non-threat in her eyes because there was no chance in hell that she’d go back to him, not after the six months she’d had with Rio.

Once Beth was dressed and her make-up was done, she followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen. Rio had thrown on his clothes from yesterday (she knew he’d take a shower once the house was empty – either at her place or his, depending on his schedule). He was standing at the stove, making omelets. Her coffee cup was filled; the milk and sugar already added the way she liked. Beth stood on her toes and pressed a grateful kiss to the side of his mouth which earned her a soft smile.

Beth gathered materials for the kid’s lunches and began to assemble the sandwiches, her gaze straying to Rio. Did he want to talk about yesterday? The cold shoulder he got from the kids who went from vying for his attention to barely being able to look at him during dinner made her shift uncomfortably. They hadn’t talked about it last night. Once the kids were safely tucked away in bed, he’d essentially dragged her into her bedroom.

“Spit it out, ma. I can feel your eyes burnin’ into the back of my head.”

“I’m sorry about yesterday.” The words fell from her mouth. “About the kids…”

“Don’t worry,” Rio brushed her off, but his carefully neutral tone made her attention sharpen. “I ain’t their dad. They don’t know me.”

“Yes, but they like you. I’m sure Dean said something to them.”

“Of course he did,” Rio turned with a plate full of omelets. “You see his face when they went into the house with nothin’ but a few mumbles?”

Beth sighed, rubbing her hand over her face.

“I’ll talk to them and see-“

“It’s fine.” Rio cut her off, turning back to the stove. “You can’t make’em like me. They gotta get there themselves.”

Beth stared at him for a few seconds longer, the warmth of the morning gone in the wake of his detached voice. She got up and went upstairs to wake the kids, making sure that they all remembered to brush their teeth. By the time the kids made it downstairs, Rio was in the shower, even though he usually ate breakfast with them. Beth cut and divvied up the food, warning the kids not to drop anything on themselves.

“You okay, baby?” Beth asked, seeing Emma’s pale face.

“I don’t feel good.” She murmured.

“Well, why don’t we get some food into you? That might help.”

She picked at her breakfast, but didn’t eat much. The kids were gathering their lunch and backpacks when Emma ran down the hall to her bedroom without a word. Beth panicked, hoping that Rio was decent because he hadn’t come out of the bedroom yet. Beth unlocked the van, sending the kids out before heading towards the bedroom.

Rio was just stepping out, but stopped when he saw her.

“Emma’s sick. She’s washin’ her mouth out now.”

Beth followed Rio back into the room and to the bathroom.

“Ready to spit?” Rio asked and Emma nodded.

Rio lifted her easily, letting Emma spit the mouthwash into the sink. Rio put Emma down and her lip quivered as she moved to Beth, arms raised to be picked up. Beth scooped Emma up, running a hand over her hair. Beth could feel how hot Emma’s skin was against her own. She shot Rio a concerned glance as he tossed out the paper cup Emma had used.

“I’ll have to call Annie,” Beth murmured. “I think she may have a late shift tonight. At least I can drop the kids off and be back before she has to go to work. At least I think she has a late shift.”

“Take the kids, I’ll stay with her.” Rio offered, washing his hands in the sink and drying them on the hand towel.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I can move some stuff around. No big deal.”

“Okay, I’ll go put her to bed.” Beth squeezed his arm before she left, carrying Emma back to bed. Beth closed the blinds and shades, helping Emma change into her pajamas. Once she tucked her in, she headed back downstairs.

“Are you sure you’re okay with staying with her?” Beth asked as Rio dug around in the closet and returned with plain crackers.

“I’ve had a sick kid before, ma, I’ve got it.” Rio grabbed a glass and filled it with water.

Except he wasn’t required to take care of her kids, not after just six months of officially seeing each other. He could just as easily say he had plans and leave her to fend for herself. Beth chewed her lip as she watched Rio gather up the glass and crackers.

“You gonna be late, mama, and those kids are waitin’ out there.” Rio brushed past her, not meeting her eyes.

Beth listened to him walk away, feeling the tension between them. She followed him, catching him at the bottom of the stairs. Beth murmured a quick thanks, leaning up to kiss him quickly. He gave a small smile, but it didn’t meet his eyes. Beth didn’t know what was wrong, and it was clear he didn’t want to talk about it as he disappeared upstairs.

Beth dropped the kids off at school, swung by the store for some soup, stopped at the dealership to collect some paperwork so she would be somewhat productive today, and then returned home. Quietly she headed upstairs, not hearing a sound. When she reached Emma’s room, she found Rio propped up against the wall, Emma’s head resting on his thigh as she slept. Beth felt herself melt a little. Rio was typing frantically on his phone with one hand, the other gently stroking Emma’s hair. He met her gaze for a moment before looking away. He was closed off.

Thankfully Emma squirmed awake at that moment, blearily blinking at Beth.

“How are you feeling?” Beth asked, stepping forward into the room.

“I’m thirsty.” She croaked.

Rio shifted her a little so he could lean over and grab the glass of water he’d left on the nightstand.

“Little sips, Squirt. It might upset your stomach.” Rio cautioned quietly.

When he returned the glass when she was done, he stood from the bed, making sure she was tucked in. Beth didn’t miss the brief moment when he brushed her stringy hair from her face.

“I’m gonna head out.” Rio murmured as he passed.

“Rio-“ Beth turned and he was gone, even though she was more than certain he had heard her.

Beth spent the day checking in with Emma and working through some paperwork. It was noon when the phone rang: Danny had been sick in school. With no other course of action, Beth packed a sweaty Emma into the car to drive to the school. Danny was pale and sweaty as well, collapsing into the seat when they reached the car. She rushed home, getting them quickly to bed, though they were both up a few minutes later, clutching the containers she’d left for them in case they were sick again. She kept fighting for them to drink water, not needing dehydration to compile the issue.

Pushing her pride aside, Beth called Dean, asking if he could pick up Kenny and Jane from school because she was stuck home. He complained for a while, but eventually huffed and said he’d do it.

When Beth went back upstairs, Emma was awake.

“How are you?” Beth took a seat beside the bed in a chair she’d pulled from Jane’s desk.

“Good. Where’s Rio?” she asked.

“At work, I guess. He’s very busy.”

“He’s nice,” Emma said quietly. “Daddy said he wasn’t, but he is.”

“Daddy said Rio wasn’t nice?”

“No, he said that Rio was gonna hurt you because he hurt Daddy.” Emma’s lip quivered. “I don’t want anyone to hurt you, mommy.”

Beth leaned over, stroking her hair.

“No one’s going to hurt me, baby.” She assured her. “And Rio isn’t going to hurt me or you, or your siblings. Has Rio ever hurt you?”

“No,” Emma said, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. “He kissed my knee when I fell outside.”

Beth smiled. “See? He’s looking out for us, like he did today. Rio made sure you were okay when I took your brothers and Jane to school. He does nice things like that all the time.”

“He petted my head when I asked.” Emma said with a smile.

“And it made you feel better, didn’t it?”

Emma nodded. “Daddy never does it right.” She scrunched her nose up.

Beth didn’t say anything. One of the promises she made to herself was to never talk poorly about Dean to the kids. It wasn’t fair. The kids shouldn’t be forced to pick a favorite between their parents.

“I told Rio I was sorry about being mean to him. Kenny said we shouldn’t talk to him anymore.”

And that just about broke Beth’s heart.

“You shouldn’t listen to everything your brother says,” Beth said. “If you like Rio, you should talk to him.”

“I do like him. He’s fun.”

Beth sat with her for a little longer before letting her get some sleep. When it was time for Dean to show up with the kids, she sat on the front porch to wait for them. She’d talk to Dean today.  The kids climbed from the car, slightly concerned with why their dad had picked them up. Beth explained quickly to them what was going on, telling them to make sure they washed their hands when they went inside. She met Dean at his car.

“Is Danny and Emma okay?” Dean asked.

“Yes, they’re sleeping.”

Dean looked up and down the street. “Is he here?”

“No.” Beth answered, feeling her anger rise.

“I still don’t think he should be around the kids.”

“You can dislike him all you want, but you absolutely cannot drag the kids into it.”

“What are you talking about?” Dean feigned ignorance.

“Emma told me that you said Rio was going to hurt me.”

“And he probably will.” Dean shot back.

“That’s not the point, Dean. You cannot turn the kids against him. It’s not your place to do so, and frankly, it’s a little petty.”

“I’m perfectly in my right to control who’s around my kids.”

“Yes, because parading a line of women a mile long in front of the children every two weeks is so different.” Beth snapped back, remembering how it seemed every two weeks Dean had a different woman around.

“That’s not the same thing.” Dean was flustered.

“Rio is a solid man. He’s there for me, he’s there for the kids, and they like him. I’m happy for the first time in years, why do you have to try and ruin that?”

“He’s a gang banger, Beth. What’s to stop one of his associates from showing up at the house?”

“Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why I even met Rio?” Beth pushed, and by the rage on his face, he had thought about it. “You drove this family to the brink buying gifts for your child bride, and I had to rob a grocery store just to keep our heads above water. If you’d kept it in your pants, I would have never even clapped eyes on him.” Beth sighed. “That’s neither here nor there. He’s a part of my life, and will be a part of the kid’s lives until either of us decides it’s not working anymore.”

Dean’s jaw clenched just as Rio pulled up.

“You can hate him until you’re blue in the face, but you don’t talk about this with the kids. It’s not fair to them and it’s wrong of you to put these issues on their shoulders. He’s not replacing you, if that’s what you’re worried about. You will always be their dad, but they’re going to resent you somewhere down the line if you force them to pick sides.” Beth quickly added.

Rio stopped beside her, jerking his chin at Dean in acknowledgement while placing a hand on the small of her back.

“Kids okay?” he asked.

“Yes, they’re sleeping, thankfully.”

“I brought dinner so you don’t have to cook.” He held up bags from their favorite Chinese takeout. Beth smiled at him, happy that he always thought of these small things that may not be a big deal for others but meant the world to her.

Beth turned back to Dean. “I’ll let you know how the kids get on.”

“Fine.”

Beth didn’t wait to watch Dean leave, but instead walked to the house with Rio beside her. They ate dinner in relative silence, Rio only really wanting to talk about the kids and if they were getting over their stomach bug. Beth felt herself sinking into a dark hole, wondering if this was the end of things for them because Rio hadn’t been this closed off since…well, ever. Was it right to question the stability of her relationship at the first stumble? Probably not, but Beth couldn’t keep the insidious thoughts away.

Beth spent the night taking care of the kids – all of them now sick and puking every hour. She found herself sitting on the stairs, her head resting on the banister when Rio came down the stairs, squeezing her shoulder as he passed. Beth followed him into the kitchen, watching him grab a bottle of water. Her nerves were raw.

“I know you didn’t ask for this.” Beth sighed. “You don’t deserve to deal with four sick kids and my conniving manipulative ex, and I’m really sorry about that. But I don’t want you to stick around out of pity, so just letting you know if you want to call it quits, it’ll be fine.”

The kitchen was silent. Beth glanced at him quickly, seeing that Rio had the water bottle at his mouth but had stopped before taking a sip.

“I’m gonna assume it’s the exhaustion that has you speakin’ that nonsense at me right now.” Rio took a long draw from the bottle, eyes keenly meeting hers.

“Rio-“

“Ma, I knew what I was signin’ up for. You think those babies came as a surprise? I’ve known you for over a year now and you always doin’ shit for ‘em, like robbin’ that store. They come first, as they should.”

“But Dean-“

“He’s a man child – always has been and probably always will be. He talks shit about his ex’s new partner to his kids. It ain’t a surprise.”

“But the kids said –“

“Yeah, Emma told me when I was sittin’ with her today.”

Beth felt her shoulders sink.

“But you think I’mma let that weasel turn those kids against me? Does it tick me off he makin’ things more difficult? Yeah. But you and me, we’ve been through worse. We got this.”

“You don’t have to stay to take care of them, if you want to go home.”

“You gotta stop tryin’ give me an out.” Rio smirked. “Those babies are important to you, and because they’re important to you, they’re important to me. Takin’ care of them means I’m takin’ care of you.” Rio was serious to the point it took her breath away. “We supposed to rely on each other, mami. You and those kids are a package deal, and I knew that from the start. So you need help with those kids, I’m there ‘cause this thing ain’t gonna work if we only half committed.”

Beth cleared her throat, her eyes burning. Rio placed his bottle on the counter, leaning against the island with his hip, arms crossed over his chest while he regarded her closely.

“I might just kiss you for that.” Beth murmured quietly.

Rio flashed her a brilliant smile.

“Might? I think we can do a little better than that.” His voice was husky as he pushed off the counter and stepped forward, curling his fingers in her belt loops and tugging her hips against his.

Beth smiled as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, meeting his kiss halfway.

Chapter Text

Beth had a rare evening to herself. The kids were at Dean’s, her kitchen was clean, her calendar in order, and she was sprawled out on the couch nursing a glass of bourbon and eating popcorn. Beth picked up her phone, checking again for any messages from Rio. Nothing.

She wasn’t sure what was going on with him. He’d cryptically said goodbye to her a few days ago, refusing to answer any questions she posed to him.

“So you’re not going to tell me where you’re going?” Beth blatantly asked when she was frustrated by Rio’s lack of answers.

“Nah.”

Beth threw her hands up in the air, done with the conversation. She began to viciously scrub her coffee cup free of stains, hearing the front door close. The second the house was plunged into silence Beth stopped, staring blankly into the backyard. He’d been open with her about things, more so than he had ever been before, and she found herself nervously pacing the house wondering why he was suddenly playing things so close to his chest. She threw herself into work as a way to distract herself. She reorganized the filing system at work, rearranged her office, and worked late into the night because she didn’t have to be home for the kids.

At home she already rearranged all of her drawers and closet. Slowly Rio had started to leave more things at her place so he could get ready in the morning, but she wanted him to have his own space in the closet and drawers. Beth had a pile of things to donate, pausing for a moment as she pulled out the red dress with small polka dots, her mind flitting back to the first time she felt Rio’s hand on her thigh and his lips on her throat. Carefully she tucked the dress back into the closet with a smile, feeling like that moment was from another lifetime.

When she went to bed that night, Beth sunk into the mattress with a sigh. The comfort was forgotten as she turned and looked at the empty spot beside her. It surprised her how quickly she got used to sharing a bed again and how much she enjoyed it. When she woke up with him stretched out on his stomach, more than half of his face buried in the pillow, one of his hand inevitably somewhere on her body, she felt like nothing could touch them. How often had she simply studied the lines of his back? How often had she wondered at his long lashes resting on his cheek, the small flickering movement beneath his eyelids as he slept? Contemplated the peacefulness that came to him only in sleep? Beth turned on her side, ignoring the gaping emptiness beside her with a deep sigh.

She awoke fully, the room still dark. Someone was in the house, making sure they moved as quietly as possible. Did she lock the door? Did she put the alarm on? Rio had just about bit her head off when she said they had a system, but she never engaged it, so now she tried to make it a routine to set the alarm before she went to bed. She could hear the steps heading towards her bedroom, and Beth immediately pulled open her nightstand draw, feeling the cool metal of the handgun she kept. Rio had insisted that she needed to know how to use it in case trouble came to their door. She was worried that he’d gotten involved in something more dangerous than his usual, but he told her that they could never be too careful, especially with the kids.

She climbed from bed, her heart pounding and her palms sweating. She stood how Rio had taught her, finger resting just so on the trigger while taking deep breaths and trying to center herself.

The door swung open.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell are you doin’?” Rio hissed, hands lifted to show he was defenseless.

She lowered the gun immediately, her head spinning with adrenaline and relief.

“I thought you were an intruder!” Beth responded, dropping the gun heavily into her drawer once more. “I didn’t know you’d be back tonight.”

“I should argue about you hesitatin’ when you got a gun on someone, but I ain’t got it in me right now.”

“Well, we should be thankful for the small blessings.” Beth sarcastically replied, angry that he’d slipped back without a word in advance, petrified about almost shooting him in her doorway, furious that he’d left the way he did.

But that all was inconsequential when she saw him wrap an arm around his middle as he more or less hobbled into the room.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’, just need to lay down.”

Beth moved quickly, hearing him protest as she switched a small lamp on. Her hands flew to her mouth because even in the dim light, she could see his split lip and black eye.

“Oh my God, Rio!”

“Don’t get all worked up.” He waved her off, heading towards the bathroom.

Beth followed, horrified further when he was beneath the harsh lights and reflected in the mirror. He was covered in blood, his skin almost grey beneath the smears, bruises, and sheen of sweat. She must have made a sound because he met her gaze in the mirror briefly before it skittered away.

“You got a towel I can use to wipe down?”

Beth fumbled beneath the sink for a towel she didn’t mind tossing, handing it to him without a word. She then began to dig out all the medical supplies she had in her bathroom, thanking the fact that having four kids kept her well stocked.

“Can you take your shirt off?”

“You ain’t playin’ nurse.” He gruffly bit out, wetting the towel and dragging it across one cheek.

“And I’m not letting you bleed all over the bathroom either.” She snapped, turning towards the kit she’d started unpacking on the counter.

Finding the small sheers at the bottom, she stood behind him and started to cut his shirt from his body, causing him to drop a few choice words as he struggled to move away.

“This shirt is a lost cause, and seeing as you can barely stand up straight, I think it’s safe to assume that you can’t undress yourself. Now I’m going to spend the next hour patching you up, so I suggest you suck it up and deal with it.”

She boldly met his gaze in the mirror, letting him know that he wasn’t winning this argument. His split lip quirked up – the movement so subtle that if she didn’t know him, she’d have missed it.

“I wanna bend you over when you talk like that.” He huskily murmured.

“I know.” Beth responded casually (he told her all the time what watching her be a Boss Bitch did to him – it was some of the best sex they ever had). She cut his shirt all the way up his back and slid it off his body to the floor.

She kept her face neutral as she took stock of the various cuts and bruises littering his torso. Beth took the towel from him and began gently wiping away the blood and grime, changing the pressure of the wipe whenever Rio’s breathing hitched. He’d turned his head down until his chin was nearly touching his chest making it so she was unable to read his expression; instead she had to read the tightening of his shoulders and back.

“Now are you going to tell me what you were doing?” she asked, knowing she sounded cold, but it was the only way she was going to get through this without cracking at the image he presented.

“Turf war. Some asshole moved into the area with all that pomp gangsters have now – all flash and no substance. Had to put him in his place.”

Beth paused, meeting his gaze in the mirror. “You could have been killed.” She bit out.

“Yeah, I’m aware. Your point?”

And Beth never wanted to deck him more upon hearing his cavalier tone, pound him until her knuckles were bleeding. She saw her vision go hazy for a moment as rage consumed her so completely that her throat was closed. Beth’s breath echoed in her ears as she tried to calm down enough to finally speak.

“Never once did you think that was something I needed to know? And if you give me that bullshit line about how it’s not my department, I’m going to lose my mind.” Beth felt the flood gates open. “We blurred those lines too long ago and far too much to ever go back. You have a son to think about, you have four kids upstairs whose lives you are now a part of. I understand what you’re involved in – what we’re involved in – is dangerous, but you have a family. Can you at least try to minimize potential harm, just a little bit?”

Rio stared at her. When she realized she wasn’t going to get an answer, Beth started to rip open bandages harder than necessary. Rio turned and sat on the edge of her soaking tub where she usually lined up candles and rested her glass of wine during her long luxurious baths. Beth silently worked on him, not looking into his face but focusing on her task because she couldn’t decide if she was more relieved that he was safe or angry about his complete lack of self-preservation.

She was turning to go back to the sink when he caught her hips. Beth was tense beneath his hands as he pulled her between his legs. She didn’t touch him and didn’t look at him, not until he leaned forward and pressed his face against her stomach as his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her tighter against him. Beth gazed down at the top of his head, watching the carefully controlled rise and fall of his bare shoulders. She touched him then, one hand to the back of his head, the other dancing softy across his shoulders. He groaned softly against her stomach at the sensation.

“I could have helped,” Beth spoke softly, trying not to break this moment of peace. “If you’d let me.”

“Nah.”

“Rio-“

“No,” he lifted his head, making sure she met his eyes. “And that’s final. Those babies need you more than they need me.”

And I need you. Beth dropped her eyes, knowing he’d already read the thought from her face.

“Come on, ma,” he jested lightly. “Someone would snap you up in a heartbeat if somethin’ happened to me. I’ve seen those men follow you around at PTA like lost puppies hopin’ to catch your attention.”

“I don’t want to be snapped up by someone,” she shot back, not in the least amused. Beth didn’t want to get into the fact that she didn’t think there would be anyone after him, not for her, at least. Even if they broke things off, she’d never find something like this again, someone who made her feel so alive and confident, someone she wanted to strangle and kiss at the same time. “If something happens to you because you let your ego make you reckless, I’ll bring you back from the dead just so I can kill you myself.”

Rio huffed lightly. “I don’t doubt it.” The smile slipped from his face. “You don’t gotta worry about it right now.”

Beth studied his face carefully. The man always spoke in cryptic statements that she was learning to decipher.

“You took care of it?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, I took care of it. He ain’t causin’ any more problems.”

Beth nodded, still scratching lightly at the back of his head, knowing that it relaxed him. Sometimes when he was stressed at night she scratched at his scalp until he dropped off to sleep. Even now, she could see his eyes closing. Beth acknowledged for a moment that Rio more or less admitted to her that he killed a man, and perhaps a year or two ago that would have turned her stomach. Now though, she was relieved he was safe – that they were safe.

“How long has this been going on? The war, I mean.”

“Been hearin’ rumors for a few weeks. Then he hit one of my trucks, tryin’ to pull some kinda power move, encroachin’ on my shit.”

“Are we safe?”

Rio inhaled deeply, nodding. “We good. Now that the king pin is down, they’ll be fightin’ for control within the ranks. Half the time they self-destruct tryin’ to take one another out. I’ll keep an eye on things to make sure.”

“And they’re not going to go after you?”

Rio shook his head, sliding his hands up under her shirt so he could touch her skin. “They can’t do anythin’ until they figure their own shit out. By then,” Rio shrugged. “They ain’t gonna have the power they did when they moved into the area. We all got our own program we followin’, we all agree to territories, and we all don’t take well to some punk comin’ in like he owns the place.”

“You mean…there are more of you? People like you?”

“Yeah, ma, you think I’m the only one pullin’ shit like this?” Rio smiled up at her. “We get together every once in a while to make sure things are still solid, deal with any beefs we got. We typically keep to ourselves, until somethin’ like this happens. We got a good thing goin’, and we wanna keep it that way or there’d be bodies all over Detroit. We got to watch for the feds, so it’s a waste of time to have inner conflict between factions. Bad for business.”

Beth nodded, running a thumb over one of his eyebrows.

“Are you going to be okay or do we need to go to the hospital?”

“I had Demon make sure there weren’t any broken bones. His wife is workin’ at the hospital now as a nurse.”

Beth was surprised. “I didn’t know Demon was married.”

“A lot of my guys have a family, that’s why they do what they do.”

Truth be told, Beth never really thought of his guys outside of work. It was odd to think that they had completely different lives when they weren’t pulling jobs for Rio. Beth leaned down, pressing her lips to his forehead. She caught the brief flicker of vulnerability when she pulled back, his eyes full of an expression she didn’t have the courage to name, but made her chest tighten nonetheless.

She was never very big on physical intimacy, especially in public. It had gotten better since Rio seemed to spend more time in her bed than outside it. It was easy to learn to touch him in the dimness of their room where nothing existed beyond the four walls surrounding them. Rio understood her need to almost practice casual touches once she explained her issues stemming from Dean and the years where the only physical contact she had was with her children. So Rio would stretch out on his back and let her play, let her hands stroke across him as she talked about inconsequential subjects, becoming accustomed to the feel of him beneath her fingertips. Most of the time when they were in bed together, Rio’s eyes were burning, watching her like a predator, ready to roll her beneath him when her attention was diverted for a single second. But in the moments when he let her discover him in her own way, a lazy warmth seemed to wash over him, his eyes intent and sincere, patiently watching her learn with silent encouragement.

“I’ll clean up and help you change so we can go to bed. Do you want to shower?”

“Tomorrow.” His voice was velvet. “I just wanna wrap myself around you.”

“Just to be clear,” Beth said, pressing a lose bit of tape down onto his skin that she’d missed. “There isn’t going to be any bedroom gymnastics until you can move without wincing.”

“Whatever you say, mama,” he smiled, smacking her ass lightly as she headed back to the sink to start cleaning up.  She shot him an amused glance in the mirror before he headed out into the bedroom.

Once she’d washed her hands and wiped down the counter, she headed out to find Rio just pulling on a new pair of boxers.

“You could have waited and I’d have helped.”

“I ain’t a child.”

Beth held back her retort, knowing his surliness was probably a mixture of pain and exhaustion as she pulled down the sheets for him. Gingerly he climbed into bed, making a comment about how he didn’t mind her being his nurse after all as she leaned over him. Beth rolled her eyes (how he could still be so inappropriate while in pain was beyond her) and moved around the bed to climb in herself. She leaned up for a moment to flick the light off. Rio shuffled up behind her, settling down with a weary sigh against her neck. Beth felt the stress ease from her body as he molded his front against her back.

“You better not blame me for bumping your injuries in the middle of the night.” She warned, seeing as he was leaving as little space as possible between them.

“I don’t care,” he murmured. “Just wanna hold you and sleep.”

Chapter Text

The holidays came up on them quickly.

Halloween had been uneventful – Annie took the kids trick-or-treating, Marcus had been with his mother, and Rio was away on business. Thanksgiving had been interesting. Beth had invited the Hills, Annie and Sadie, and Dean.

“You think that’s a good idea?” Rio asked as they watched the kids play in the leaves out back.

“Do I particularly want to invite Dean? No. But I know that he’ll be alone, and I’m not going to give him a chance to toss the fact I kept the kids from him in my face. The kids want him here.” Beth wrapped both hands around her coffee mug.

“You think he can handle it?” Based on his tone, Rio didn’t think so. Beth shrugged.

She woke early on Thanksgiving morning, already running through everything she had to make. She shot off a quick text to Rio, asking if he could pick up some cider before he came. He’s gone to Maya’s place for Thanksgiving last night – she was going on a cruise with her now-husband that morning, so they’d moved Thanksgiving dinner up a day.

Beth spent the early hours finishing the turkey cupcakes and leaf shaped cookies she spent the night baking, carefully frosting until she felt like her eyes were crossing.

By the time Rio and Marcus showed up, she had various smears of colored frosting on her hands and her fall themed apron and her back ached slightly.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Ms. Beth!” Marcus happily entered the room in dressy black pants and a dark green shirt.

“Happy Thanksgiving, honey.” Beth leaned down to hug him, careful of the frosting. “I think everyone else is upstairs getting ready so they should be down soon. Why don’t you grab a spot in front of the TV – the Macy’s Day Parade will be on soon.”

“Do you need any help?” Marcus asked, and Beth couldn’t help but smile. He was always so thoughtful.

“You know,” she leaned down with a whisper. “I could use help with something.”

“What?” Marcus answered intrigued.

“I’m kind of running out of room on my plate.” Beth grabbed a finished red leaf. “So you could help me by eating a cookie.”

His eyes lit up, thanking her as he took his treat like it was a treasure. Rio was just stepping into the room (most likely pausing at the front door to hang their coats up) as Marcus darted out.

“Slow down, Pop. What’d I tell you about runnin’ in the house?”

Rio shook his head as he stuffed two gallons of cider into the refrigerator. Beth had returned to the cookies, pausing as Rio stepped up behind her in order to meet him in a quick kiss.

“Happy Thanksgiving.” She breathed against his lips as he pressed against her.

“Mm, same to you, mami. All the monsters upstairs?”

Before she could answer, Emma came storming into the room, sobbing. Beth could see that she’d tried to brush her hair…and gotten the brush stuck.

“Mommy.” Emma wailed, her face red and streaked with tears.

“It’s okay.” Beth soothed her as she quickly wiped her hands, preparing to remove her apron and do some damage control.

“I got it.” Rio squeezed her hip, snagging a cookie as he moved around the island, taking a bite.

“Hey squirt.”

Emma’s crying slowed as she looked up at Rio.

“They’re gonna cut all my hair off.” She hiccupped as the tears started again.

“Come on, we ain’t gonna let a hairbrush beat us, yeah?”

Emma nodded, though the tears didn’t seem to be slowing.

“Here,” Rio handed her the cookie he’d taken a bite out of. “You snack on this while we go to war with that brush.” Rio scooped her up.

“Can you check on the others?” Beth asked, hoping to avoid any more disasters.

“Already plannin’ on it.” Rio called over his shoulder as he headed upstairs with Emma.

Beth started cooking, knowing that the earlier she started the better. Every year she made grand plans for dinner, and thought every Thanksgiving Day that she had bitten off more than she could show.

 It was nearly thirty minutes before they returned, and Beth was thankful that there were no tears this time.

“Everything okay?” she asked with a raised brow.

“Rio braided my hair and tied a ribbon on the end!” Emma exclaimed, the vestiges of her meltdown gone.

Beth admired her ribbon, knowing that her little hands would continue to touch the silky texture causing the knot to come undone multiple times over the coming day. Already she could see Emma reaching back to check it. She looked up at Rio with a raised eyebrow. She didn’t know he could braid. Rio shrugged a shoulder as he moved to wash his hands.

The kitchen was in full swing by the time the parade started. The one thing the kids could help with was the snack setup. Beth didn’t cook breakfast or lunch on Thanksgiving, instead she chose to keep an array of snacks on the table that people could pick on throughout the day. All of the kids grabbed some eggs to peel, under both Beth and Rio’s watchful eye. When the doorbell rang, Jane took off towards the front door.

“Hey – check to see who it is before you open that door!” Rio called after her, always conscientious about security in a way that Beth never was, though she knew she should be (and she was getting there, especially after Rio’s injuries during the turf war he neglected to tell her about).

“Okay!” The sound of her new shoes stopped at the door. “It’s Auntie Ruby!”

Beth could hear the Hills piling into the house and heading towards the kitchen. Rio was standing beside her, shirt sleeves rolled up, cutting up potatoes. He must have felt her nervous energy.

“Relax,” he murmured, dumping the potatoes into the pot she had set out, squeezing her hand briefly before returning to work. “It’ll be fine.”

Did anything bother him? Her thoughts were pulled back to the moment as Ruby and Stan stepped into the room, the kids already in the living room chattering away. Beth hugged them both; Rio jerked his chin at Ruby and wiped his hands to shake with Stan.

“Beth, I was already bringing apple pie – why’d you bake?” Ruby questioned as she saw the cupcakes and cookies.

“That’s what I said.” Rio muttered under his breath, earning him a swift elbow jab.

She wasn’t about to admit that she was so stressed last night that she needed something to help her cope. Usually she’d climb into bed with Rio until he made her entire body liquefy, but he’d been away.

The Hills snacked and chatted until they joined the cooking fray. Ruby started on the sweet potatoes and Stan worked on the turnips. This would be the first time that either of them spent an extended non-crime related amount of time with Rio. She could see their eyes on him every few minutes like they couldn’t quite believe that he was standing there, working raw potatoes into manageable chunks that would turn into fluffy mashed potatoes.

Except he was standing beside her, and had been, for months now. It was night and day between this relationship and the last. Rio picked up the slack when she felt herself splitting at the seams, and most of the time, he was already doing it before she had to ask – and that – that’s what made all the difference. By the time she had to ask for help from Dean, it was often too late. But Rio saw when the first crack appeared, and was there to keep it together.

That’s not to say that she didn’t do anything in return. Beth often found herself keeping Marcus when Rio was working. She’d purchased a large desk calendar and one night she sat down with Rio and wrote down every single activity that was going on with all of the kids. Of course there was overlap, but they worked things out where they could. She’d started going to baseball games, watching at how encouraging Rio was from the bench, hollering when Marcus went up to bat.

Beth and Rio had become expert jugglers. Even though they were insanely busy, Beth never really minded, unless it meant that her and Rio barely had time for themselves. Sometimes at the end of the week, she tugged him onto the couch, sprawling across him and listening to his even breaths, letting them center her.

Now she was fairly certain that Rio was trying his damnedest to brush against her when he could because he liked seeing her squirm. Beth kept shooting him glances, but he was pretending he was the innocent party (was he ever?).

Annie and Sadie showed up only a few minutes before Dean. Sadie had gone to sit with Kenny and Annie had started glomming all the snacks and talking with her mouth full. When the doorbell rang, there was a brief moment when the entire kitchen went still, all eyes turning to Beth and Rio.

“I’ll get it.” Beth breathed, wiping her hands.

Dean was late and Beth assumed it was because he had been debating whether or not to actually show up. She’d at least give him credit for arriving to see his kids. She opened the door to find him awkwardly shuffling in slacks and a button down shirt.

“Hi.”

“Hi, Dean.” Beth stepped back to let him in.

“You look great.” He mentioned, eyeing her from head to toe.

“The adults are in the kitchen and the kids are watching the parade.” She ignored his comment, not willing touch that topic today, especially not with her boyfriend in the next room.

Beth wasn’t surprised that Dean went to see the kids first, and stayed there. He’d always been more comfortable around them, people who loved him unconditionally and didn’t study him beneath a microscope. When Beth had seen him working at the dealership, she’d never realized just how uncomfortable he was communicating with people he saw as having nothing in common with. It was one of the reasons – she knew now – that the business had tanked.

Beth returned to the kitchen, jumping back into things, giving Rio a grateful smile when he squeezed her hip reassuringly. Ruby, Stan, and Annie had drifted out back onto the patio. It was a fairly warm day for November, and so Beth kept the back patio doors open to let some of the heat from the stove out. She caught sight of Stan tossing Buddy’s ball into a pile of leaves and the dog returning with a number of them stuck in his silky fur. Dean had wandered into the kitchen briefly, shooting an unkind look at Rio when his back was turned, before heading out back with everyone else. Beth didn’t bother to address it. Dean was determined to dislike Rio no matter what.

When it was time to eat, the kids scrambled to claim their spots beside their favorite adults. Emma had practically climbed Rio’s leg when Beth told everyone dinner was ready. Rio had grinned down at her, running a hand over her hair careful not to disturb her braid.

“Alright, little mama, you can sit next to me, but your ma gets my other side.”

Rio caught her eye and Beth found herself smiling before turning back to slice the turkey into manageable pieces.

Beth had laid out all the food on the kitchen island instead of the table being that there was a small herd of people going to be seated. People could get up and serve themselves, so there wouldn’t be constant questions to pass things down the table where there was no room.

Beth helped Marcus and Jane get their food, going down the line and plopping what they wanted in neat little piles. Rio helped Emma with her plate, settling her down with a glass of cider before returning to get his own food, heading back into the dining room once he was finished.

“Did you forget something?” Beth asked when he stepped back into the room again.

“Yeah, what’d you want?” Rio asked, picking up another plate and standing ready at the island.

“I can get my own in a minute.” Beth replied, piling another pot into the sink.

“If you don’t cooperate, I’ll just give you a pile of turnips.”

She glared at him and he smirked back, twirling the plate in his hands. He knew how much she hated turnips. She only made them because Annie and Danny seemed to like them. So Rio worked down the line, filling her plate, adding an additional sweet potato glazed with butter and brown sugar because he’d seen her taste the mixture earlier and practically groan. She watched him scoop up some of the runoff that was in the pan and drizzle it over the potatoes.

Beth caught him as he rounded the island, kissing him quickly before he returned to the dining room to place her plate in front of her spot. When she finally sat down with a sigh, Rio was giving her a heated look, and Dean was tightlipped and glaring at them. Beth avoided his eyes, thinking that she’d been subtle with her physical affection, but clearly not. While she wasn’t as embarrassed with physical affection as she had been before, she didn’t want to rub it in Dean’s face.

Rio cut Emma’s turkey up for her before eating his own food, picking up the gravy when she asked for it.

“How much?”

“More.” She stared intently at her plate.

Rio kept pouring. “You gotta tell me when to stop, squirt.”

“That’s good!”

“You best eat all that gravy.” Rio warned, seeing her plate practically swimming in the gravy.

“I will,” Emma promised. “Thank you!”

She dug in with gusto, and Beth didn’t have the heart to tell her to eat neatly, as her little legs pumped away happily beneath the table. At one point she had to ask Rio to retie her ribbon. He scrubbed his hands before snagging the materials and expertly returning the bow to the end of her braid.

The table was full of conversation, her carefully crafted centerpieces were sparkling in the light, and the mood was good (Dean not included). She photographed this moment in her mind, wanting to remember how content she was. Ruby, Stan, and Annie had gotten used to the idea of Rio being around, and if the day started a little stiffly, it wasn’t so now. Rio bickered with Stan over football, draft picks, and players from across the table. Beth didn’t have anything to add to that conversation. She could watch a game, but didn’t know anything beyond that. Regardless, she enjoyed watching them interact.

“Mom, can we go outside and play football?” Kenny asked, far at the other end of the table.

“Sure. Just put your plates on the counter, and go change into clothes that you can get stains on.” The kids gathered all their things up and lined them up on the counter before taking off. Marcus came back in the room to his father’s side.

“Dad, is my soccer bag in the car? I don’t have any clothes.”

“You left it at your mom’s last night, remember?”

Beth pushed away from the table as the disappointment started to settle on his features. “I think I have some of your things in the wash,” she had vaguely remembered finding things he’d left behind when all the kids had decided they wanted to play in the rain and came in soaked to the bone. “Come on, we’ll go get them.”

Beth headed into the mudroom where the washer and dryer were, digging through the clothes she had yet to fold.

“Here we go,” Beth pulled out a pair of jeans. “I think there’s a t-shirt somewhere in here.” Once the shirt was located, Marcus thanked her and ran off to get dressed.

She had just closed the dryer door when a shadow fell across the room. Rio had stepped in, kicking the door closed softly behind him.

“What are you-“

And he was on her, pressing her up against the wall and spreading her lips with his own. Normally, Beth would shove him off and tell him that they couldn’t make out like teenagers when everyone was just in the other room, but she found herself pulling him closer instead. They’d been so careful all day about touching too much, about having their feelings show clear across their faces. Beth didn’t mind everyone knowing they were dating; she just didn’t want them to see how far gone she really was when it came to him.

It felt good to stop thinking for a moment after working so hard all day, and instead lose herself to the sensations. When Rio pulled away (growling when Beth took his lip between her teeth), he rested his forehead on hers.

“I’m pretty sure that everyone knows you followed me in here.” Beth murmured when her breathing slowed.

“So? They’re cleanin’ up the kitchen for you. You’re lucky they don’t hear that sound you make when I’m slidin’ into you.”

Beth snorted. The man was constantly trying to get in her pants, no matter the time or place – a fact that still stunned her.

“I always wonder what you see in me.” Beth admitted quietly.

“Right now, I’m seein’ you in this dress.” Rio huskily responded, dragging a rough finger down the neckline of her dress, dipping between her breasts for a moment before sliding up her throat until his hand was tangled in her wavy hair.

The dress was new – a spur of the moment decision while hunting for new fall decorations. She’d walked by it on a rack, and stopped. The rustic orange and floral pattern had caught her eye. It was cut slightly lower than she’d have liked, but it had been so long since she’d purchased something new and something that made her feel powerful.

“I like seein’ you take care of my kid like he’s your own.” Rio answered more seriously. “I like that he knows he can count on you when he needs somethin’.”

“I meant to ask – where’d you learn to braid hair like that?”

Rio shrugged, almost looking abashed – not something that she’d ever seen before. “Youtube.”

“Youtube?”

“Emma asked me a few weeks ago to braid her hair, but I told her I had to brush up on my skills first and by brush up, I mean I had to learn. Not much braidin’ when you have a son.”

Beth was furiously kissing him a second later, barreling into him and causing him to stumble back slightly. The man had gone home after her daughter had asked for him to braid her hair, and took it upon himself to learn simply because she had asked. If she wouldn’t be utterly mortified later, Beth would have shoved him to the floor and taken him in that room. Instead, she pulled away, her gaze glued to his swollen and parted lips, knowing that his eyes were burning into her.

It wasn’t until they heard feet pounding down the hall upstairs that they parted fully. His thumb brushed beneath her lip, a lewd smile on his face.

“Your lipstick is smeared.”

Beth smiled, rubbing the color from his mouth as well.  

“Better get out there before one of the boys comes to find me.” Rio finally said, heading towards the door as Beth straightened her dress.

“Can you stay?” Rio paused, raising a brow at her over one shoulder, and Beth immediately realized how salacious her words sounded. “I meant tonight. Can you stay tonight? If you’re not busy or anything.”

There was a pause, enough to make her squirm slightly.

“Also, Jane made cookies, so if you could eat one and tell her they’re good, it would be appreciated.” She blurted.

“Why you sayin’ that like they ain’t?”

Elizabeth didn’t know how to phrase it. “There is…a certain taste to it.”

Rio chuffed lightly. “Yeah, okay, I’ll eat a cookie.”

He turned, opening the door before stopping, turning to look over his shoulder at her. His voice had dropped to that velvety texture that never failed to make her soften, but his words made her stomach clench happily.

“I’m never too busy for you, Elizabeth.”

He smiled before slipping from the room. Beth found herself grinning as she pulled down extra sheets from the top shelf so she could make up the bed in the guest room for Marcus.

Chapter Text

“Yo.”

If she hadn’t been on the phone numerous times with him, Beth would assume that he was ticked at her, but she had gotten used to his terse greetings.

“Hey,” she greeted warmly. “Are you busy right now?”

“Just got outta a meetin’. Why?”

“Can you come home?”

“What’s goin’ on.” She could tell he was concerned being that he stated, rather than asked. It made sense as Beth had never asked him to come home before his scheduled arrival.

“Nothing.” Beth lied, and even she could hear the false tone.

“Elizabeth.”

“Can you just come home?”

There was a long pause as she heard him shuffle on the line. Beth could see him now, sitting forward in his chair, elbows braced on his knees, worried.

“You okay? The kids okay?”

Beth smiled into the phone. “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me.”

Rio growled something in Spanish before she could hear him swiftly moving, knowing he was most likely heading towards his car.

“I promise that everything is perfectly okay, so don’t come through the door guns a’blazin’.” Beth assured him. “I’m serious – no guns.”

“Fine. Be there in fifteen.”

He hung up without a word. Beth rolled her eyes, but was still smiling. Rio didn’t like to be out of the loop, and whenever he was he tended to be a little testy about it. Beth headed back into the kitchen where five children were preparing a birthday cake.

“Alright, he’ll be here in ten minutes.” Beth announced, causing a mini-uproar of activity. Rio said he’d be home in fifteen, but she was taking into account the fact that he’d be going a minimum of fifteen miles per hour over the speed limit because even though she said everything was fine, he still wasn’t quite sure.

It was Sunday, and they were celebrating Rio’s birthday. When Beth had told the kids they’d gone out to dinner to celebrate when they were away at their respective parent’s houses, she was met with shocked and disgruntled expressions.

“But mommy,” Jane exclaimed. “We have to bake him a cake! We missed his birthday!”

And from there, the wheels in her mind were turning. It would be fun and touching to have the kids plan something for Rio, even if his birthday was a week ago. Rio had mentioned he’d be out that Sunday dealing with some business so Beth had set the plan in motion.

The kids had decided that breakfast food would be had – Rio loved breakfast food. Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and potatoes were piled on plates on the table cooling and the pancake batter was ready to go. They’d made the cake earlier in the day. Beth had frosted the fluffy layers and then evenly divided the cake with carefully drawn lines of frosting into five even sections after a brawl had erupted on how the cake should be decorated. Each one of them was assigned a section where they would decorate it however they wanted. Picasso had nothing on that cake, Beth thought as she gazed down at it. Besides the time she’d accidently dropped a cake when it slid off the stand, this was the single ugliest thing she’d ever seen. Regardless of the mess that was the cake, Beth loved it. They were each so proud of their section of the cake, and she loved that they all wanted to contribute to celebrating Rio’s birthday.

Marcus had carefully covered his entire section in nonpareils, though Beth was sure that more had landed on the floor than the cake, based on how many she heard bouncing off the table. Kenny had drawn a football on his section. Danny had used rainbow sprinkles and chocolate chips. Jane had used the leftover heart shaped sprinkles from Valentine’s Day and some edible glitter. Emma had stuffed everything she could find on her cake. M&M’s, sprinkles, Hershey kisses…it was the busiest slice by far.

They’d gone out that morning to purchase streamers and balloons that were all over the hallway, kitchen, and dining room. They’d all scribbled their names in a card that Emma had carefully placed beside the cake on the counter. Emma, Jane, and Marcus had drawn pictures for him that they placed on his plate at the table.

Beth was just pouring the pancake batter when she heard his car pull into the driveway. “He’s here!” she called.

The kids scrambled to their hiding places, chittering and giggling. They’d give themselves away in a second, she thought with a smile.

The front door opened, and Beth moved into the hallway, smiling when Rio stepped in.

“What’s up?” he asked carefully with his hand reaching behind his back, eyes searching behind her for a threat yet seeing streamers and balloons strewn about.

“Surprise!” the kids shouted, darting out from around the wall in the dining room.

Rio’s brows shot up as they poured forward, all hugging him. “What’s goin’ on?”

“It’s for your birthday!” Marcus announced, dragging his father into the dining room. “Ms. Beth made all your favorites and we helped decorate the cake.”

As the kids presented their sections of the cake and pointed out how they tied balloons to each chair (and anything else they could think of), Beth slipped into the kitchen to flip the pancakes. She retrieved the orange juice and put the kettle on for tea, listening to the cheerful conversations in the dining room.

“Food looks good, mama.”

Beth smiled as she placed down two mugs, watching as Rio went to dig out her earl grey tea.

“The kids were sad they missed your birthday and they wanted to make it up to you.”

 Beth pressed up on her toes to kiss him, hearing a chorus of ‘ewww!’ from the dining room. Rio huffed against her mouth.

“You all just wait till you’re bringin’ home people you wanna kiss.” Rio called back.

Protests met his comment and Beth laughed, remembering when she was little and she thought boys were gross. Rio slid his hands into the back pockets of her jeans, pulling her forward.

Beth couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment where she became comfortable being affectionate with Rio in front of the kids. Physical affection had been a struggle; something that Rio had worked with her on, letting her move things at her own pace and never forcing her when she was uncomfortable. She wanted the kids to realize that cold distance between partners wasn’t normal. She wanted them to have healthy relationships when they grew up, and she knew that started with her and the example she set. She was so comfortable with Rio that it had started seeping in to her interactions with him even in front of the kids naturally. Barriers had been erected at the start of their relationship, incase things didn’t work out, and those barriers had been lowered even without her knowing it.

So as he drew her closer to him, squeezing her ass harder than was really necessary, Beth turned her head in order to kiss his strong jaw line.

“The pancakes are going to burn.” She murmured against his skin.

Rio released her with a hard kiss and grabbed the kettle to add water to their mugs. Beth saw the kids stealing strips of bacon from the plate as they took their spots around the table. Rio brought their steeping tea to the dining room before popping back in for the orange juice for the kids. The pancakes cooked quickly and she brought the stack out and told everyone to dig in. Beth only ate a little, seeing as she had picked at the food as she cooked it that afternoon. Instead, she watched everyone else. Kenny and Marcus were talking about video games, Danny was talking with Jane about his school project and she offered to lend him her fun scissors and glitter glue, and Emma had left her seat to sit on Rio’s lap, picking food off his plate.

Emma had taken to Rio more than the rest, her eyes lighting up each time she saw him after being at Dean’s. Beth knew it was because Rio listened to her. He sat on the couch as she shattered on about everything she had done when at her dad’s place. Beth knew it was because Dean really listened to her, unless it was something he was personally invested in. He gave her generic answers and never really engaged with her like Rio did, asking her questions and letting her get excited about what she was talking about. Dean only ever really had conversations with the boys, about boy things. He didn’t know how to talk to the girls about dancing, art classes, princesses, fairies – nothing. Beth had one time caught Rio having a thirty minute conversation about Disney princesses with the girls, each discussing their favorites. Emma liked Ariel, Jane liked Rapunzel, and Rio had mentioned Merida and her red hair all while shooting heated glances in Beth’s direction (but had ultimately settled on Mulan).

Beth was resting her chin on her hand, watching Emma using Rio’s fork to eat some scrambled eggs and smiling as they tumbled off her fork and back to the plate. Beth lifted her gaze, finding Rio watching her. She smiled slowly at him, and he returned her smile with a soft one of his own.

Our family.

The look her gave her let her know that he was thinking the same thing, which only made her smile more.

And later that night (after thanking the kids and trying to get them to sleep after eating a ridiculous amount of cake), he told her how appreciative he was, of her and of the kids and how grateful he was that things had turned out as they had. They still argued like cats sometimes, but they were working on talking things through instead of running off to lick their wounds that would fester anyway.

“It’s not always like this,” Beth agreed wiggling down in bed and thinking back on the wonderful day they’d had. In fact, a lot of the time with the kids there was fighting, grudges, crying, and simultaneous meltdowns. It was a miracle to have all in good moods at the same time. “But when it’s good, it makes everything else worth it.”

Rio leaned over her in bed, brushing hair from her face with a gentle look in his eyes that made something warm unfurl in her stomach.

“Yeah, it’s worth it.” Rio murmured before kissing her.

Chapter Text

It was a girl’s night – the kids were away, and Rio had agreed to be out of the house. Beth had insisted that he didn’t have to leave just because Annie and Ruby were there.

“And have you worryin’ about me sitting alone in the office slavin’ away? Nah, mama. I got things to take care of anyway.”

“Anything I can help with?” she asked.

“You can let me know how drunk you gonna get tonight. Last time you went out drinkin’ it ended pretty well for us, though I wouldn’t have pegged you as an exhibitionist.” He smirked at her blush. “We should go back, for old time’s sake. Make sure you wear that little red dress you have hangin’ in the back of your closet.”

Beth ignored him as the flush crept across her pale skin. Having sex with him for the first time in that grungy bathroom was so far outside of who she was, sometimes it was like another person had done those things. She definitely didn’t regret it; just how he could bring it up so casually in conversation still took her off guard. Beth wasn’t a prude, far from it especially with Rio, but discussing it was a whole different matter. She never discussed sex with Dean and while she had to push herself to talk about it with Rio and it was getting easier, sometimes she was still a little embarrassed. Rio couldn’t understand that after everything they’d done, the mere mention of sex outside of the bedroom had her stuttering.

Beth walked with him to the door later that day, telling him not to stay away all night just because they were up late when he cut her off by kissing her in a way that almost had them undressing in the hallway.

“See you later.” He huskily murmured while he tugged a loose curl before leaving. “Take it easy tonight, yeah?”

Beth nodded, not meeting his gaze, thinking back to that morning.

They’d been dating for an entire year now, and while that milestone seemed to amuse Rio, Beth felt worry and impending dread settling into her marrow. She wasn’t sure what started the negative thoughts, but she couldn’t seem to shake them from mind. It wouldn’t have been so bad, if Rio hadn’t started picking up on them. It was kind of hard not to, especially in the bedroom.

They’d had sex that morning, lazy and soft, but she hadn’t climaxed. In fact, she hadn’t climaxed in weeks. Dean wouldn’t have noticed, but Rio did. And while he bought her excuses for a little while, he wasn’t buying them now.

“What’s goin’ on, mama?” Rio murmured when she’d batted his hands away as he tried to bring her over the edge.

“Nothing,” she answered as a knee jerk reaction while she yanked the sheet over her. “I don’t know.” She finally admitted with a sigh. “I just feel like there’s some sort of…blockage in me. It’s not that I don’t want it, I do, but I just can’t seem to get there in the end. It feels close, but then it’s gone.”

“Somethin’ botherin’ you?” she was thankful he didn’t ask her to elaborate her vague references to sex and orgasms.

“I don’t know.” Beth rubbed her hand over her face. Except that she did know.

Beth set up the snacks and drinks that night, pulling out the pile of blankets Annie was going to ask for at some point in the night. When the doorbell rang, she called them in. Ruby had brought over some of Stan’s chili for dinner, which she was thankful for – she didn’t want to have to order out.

They got caught up on Desperate Housewives, shouting at the screen and in Annie’s case, throwing popcorn. Once they finished their episodes, they turned to talking while a rom com played in the background. Ruby talked about Sarah’s latest presentation and Annie discussed how Sadie was settling at his new school. And for the first time ever, Beth found herself the center of attention during a topic that was decidedly not about her kids.

“So, how is gang friend and will be he joining us?” Annie asked, gulping down some wine and wiggling her eyebrows at Beth.

“He’s fine – he’s working right now.” Beth chose to ignore her sassy look that was going to turn into Annie asking about their sex lives.

“And what’s it like being a blended family and all that?” she pushed.

Beth shrugged her shoulders. It wasn’t easy, but it was getting easier. “We make it work.”

“Of course you do,” Annie reached for a handful of tortilla chips. “Because you two are somehow both dumpster fires and yet perfect for each other at the same time.”

“Emma talks about Rio all the time.” Ruby interjected.

“I know,” Beth sipped her bourbon - the expensive one that Rio had gifted her for their anniversary. “She can’t get enough of him, and vice versa.”

“He’s good with her.” Ruby said, surprising Beth. Ruby laughed at her expression. “I saw him at Thanksgiving. It’s kind of weird to see him all domesticated – especially with the kids.”

“He’s hardly that.” Beth murmured, thinking of the times he crept through the French doors and into the bedroom after a night of doing God only knows what. She could tell when it was particularly bad because he didn’t talk to her. She knew it was extremely bad when he crawled into bed and put his back to her. The next morning he’d wrap himself around her, squeezing her tight to him, sometimes waking her with wandering hands and heavy petting until she turned in order to claw his shirt (if he was wearing one) from his body.

Beth let her thoughts wander as Ruby and Annie continued to talk. It wasn’t until Annie left to go to the bathroom that Ruby questioned her.

“What’s up? You’ve gone quiet.” Ruby mentioned as they gathered things and began to cart them back to the kitchen.

“Nothing, just tired.” Beth brushed her off.

“We’ve been friends since middle school,” Ruby turned, hands on her hips. “I’d like to think that I know you pretty well.”

Beth sighed, leaning against the counter.

“Rio and I have been dating for a year now,” she began, chest tight with stress that had been building for weeks now. “What if I don’t see it?” she barely whispered, tears springing into her eyes as she felt the strain finally cracking the box she’d tried to keep her worries in.

“See what?” Ruby asked surprised by Beth’s crying.

“What if I don’t see when something goes wrong? I thought Dean was amazing from the start and I keep thinking that there had to be a point where things changed, a point where things could have still been repaired. What if I come to the same point with Rio? What if I don’t see it? I don’t want to end up like I was with Dean where we were just disgruntled roommates.”

Ruby pulled her against her chest while Beth sniffled.

“First thing’s first – we need to cut you off because liquor makes you weepy. Second, if you and Rio have made things work this well for an entire year, I think you two can make it through anything. You said yourself that you guys talk about things more than you and Dean ever did, so right there you’re already one step ahead of the game.”

“I never knew it could be this way,” Beth pulled away, wiping her face. “I feel like I have a partner rather than a fifth child. I can’t tell you what it’s like to not worry about things like getting home to make dinner because I can trust Rio to take care of it. Just all these little things he does that a lot of people wouldn’t think twice about, but I do because I’ve spent so long doing everything myself. Sometimes when he can see that I’m overwhelmed, he’ll just pack everyone in the car and take off for about an hour and come home with some assortment of pastries from my favorite bakery because he knows I just need time to myself. I never have to ask, he just does it.”

“Beth, you were with Dean out of necessity. Your life was a mess at home and Dean was a means to an end. Sure you may have cared for him at some point down the line, but did you ever care about him like you care about Rio?”

Beth blinked at her.

“I wish you could see the way you look at Rio,” Ruby said. “I’ve never seen you look at Dean like that – not once in the twenty years you were married, and I think that says a lot. Not to mention the way Rio looks at you. Half the time I feel like I should be blushing.”

A sharp laugh came from Beth, clearing some of the darker thoughts in her mind. Ruby hugged her again.

“I’m sure the sex is probably off the wall, so you also have that going for you.”

Beth pushed away. “Has Annie rubbed off on you or something?” she laughed, turning to the sink.

“Come on B, you told me all about Dean when you two first started sleeping together and you’re as quiet as a mouse when it comes to Rio. All you do is blush when we bring it up.”

“I only talked about Dean so much because it was new and I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“And you thought I could help with my zero experience?”

“I just wanted your support, that’s all.” Beth stuffed the left over cheese in the only available spot in the refrigerator. She really needed to sort through the leftovers and make some room in there.

“So, do we at least get a little bit of a hint?” Ruby asked with a raised brow. “I can’t image him being bad in bed, not when he walks around with confidence basically oozing out of every pore on his body.”

Beth felt the bourbon loosening her stranglehold on her words.

“He’s good.” Beth finally admitted, drying Annie’s wine glass and placing it on the drying rack.

“Good? How good are we talking here?” Ruby reached to dry the next glass. “Good like it’s better than Dean, or good like mind-blowingly good?”

“Both.” Beth grinned at Ruby.

“Damn.” Ruby breathed. “You have to give up more details.”

“Ruby, I’m not going into specifics.” Beth felt her face growing hot. “Suffice it to say that more often than not it’s like having an out of body experience. Sometimes it takes me ten minutes to be able to move again.”

“No.” Ruby just about gasped, staring at Beth with her mouth slightly agape.

“Sh!” Beth hissed, smiling and focusing on scrubbing cooked on cheese from the bowl Annie used for the nachos she insisted on bringing.

Ruby giggled, bumping her shoulder into Beth’s. Beth snickered, but the smile fell away from her face.

“There is one thing,” she prompted, catching Ruby’s attention. She explained what had been going on the last few weeks when her and Rio were having sex.

“And it’s not him?” Ruby asked.

“Definitely not. I’m always into it, I just feel like I can’t…” Beth vaguely gestured to the air.

“Talk to him.”

“We do talk about it.”

“No, not about sex. Talk to him about what you told me. Stress can impact your sex life. Talk to him about what you’re worried about – it’ll help.”

The girls left soon after, and Beth sat in the large armchair in her room with a single light on, taking small sips of bourbon and mulling over what Ruby had said. Rio came home an hour later, and she listened to the natural sounds of him in the kitchen, finding them comforting. When he appeared in the bedroom doorway, she smiled softly at him.

“You good?” he asked softly, obviously having read the strain in her before he left earlier. “Why you drinkin’ in the dark?”

“It’s not completely dark.” Beth countered, uncurling her legs so she could sit up straight. “We need to talk.”

“Alright, ma, let me get some of that first.”

Beth held out her glass, their fingers brushing when he took the tumbler from her. She watched him take a hefty swallow before he handed it back. Rio sat on the edge of the bed, elbows braced on his knees, running his tongue along his teeth in order to clean away the last vestiges of alcohol.

“About this morning,” she started, feeling his eyes laser focus on her. “I said that I didn’t know what was bothering me, but I did.”

Beth explained about Dean, about her worry that she’d somehow ruin or poison another relationship unknowingly and only become aware of it when it was too late to do anything about it. Rio listened silently, eyes never straying from her, letting her finish.

“Anyway, what I’m saying is that I let my thoughts get to me to the point that they started to impact you – us – and I’m sorry.”

Rio sighed, sitting up.

“Why’d you take so long to say somethin’?” he questioned.

“I didn’t want to sound like a lunatic because I was creating problems where there were none.”

“You coulda said somethin’ instead of lettin’ this fester in you. You gotta problem, you tell me. That’s what this is. You shouldn’t be censorin’ yourself.”

Beth remained silent and Rio sighed again, opening his mouth to speak.

“I can’t help but compare you,” Beth cut off whatever he was going to be saying. “And I know you hate it, you hate when I talk about him, so I don’t, but I’ve only ever been with him and you, so I instinctively compare you.”

“I don’t care that you talk about him.” Rio murmured. “You wanna talk about Dean for twelve hours, let’s do it. What I don’t like is that he has you convinced that somehow your marriage crumblin’ is on you.” His tone went dark. “You make him throw away all that money? Mortgage this house three times over? Stick it in every bitch under twenty five that stepped into that dealership? He made his own bed, and now he’s lyin’ in it.”

“I could have –“

“No.” Rio stopped her. “You coulda what? Talked to him to patch things up? Mami, he was already steppin’ out on you. You delusional thinkin’ you could reason with a man who was cheatin’ while you were carryin’ his kid.”

Beth flopped back in her chair.

“You know I don’t like him,” Rio huffed. “He loves his kids, I’ll give him that. What I don’t like is that he don’t take any responsibility for what he did. He puts it on your shoulders, and you let him. You worried about missin’ the warning signs of us fallin’ apart? If we keep talkin’ about shit like this, we don’t have to watch for them. We catch these things and work on’em before they’re too much for us to get past. It’s when we stop fightin’ and talkin’ that we gotta start worryin’.”

“I think…I think there’s a part of me that believes it was me as a person that turned him away.” Beth admitted quietly, staring into her empty glass. “That it was something about me that made him turn to other people and I guess that I’m waiting for you to find it too.”

He started to say something, anger thick in his voice before he stopped himself. She listened to him take a few deep breaths.

“Just ‘cause that dumbass couldn’t see what he had doesn’t mean I can’t.” Rio finally said when he’d collected himself. “That ex of yours is stuck in high school. Wants the hottest girl in school and a trail of side pieces followin’ along. Thinks it makes him more of a man to feel wanted by a crowd of women, and havin’ them when he wants even when he’s got a ring on your finger.”

It was true; Dean cared about stupid things that attributed to his image as a successful man: the house, the kids, the wife, the dealership, his looks. She wondered briefly if he’d discussed his affairs with his friends, bragging about how many he could have and how great he was all under his wife’s nose.

“His sleepin’ around is on him – not you. He needed to validate his frail ego and that’s all there is to it. Why’d you think he found women twenty years younger than him, less brains than him? It made him feel powerful havin’ them fawn over the image of success and wisdom he flashed.”

“Do you think that’s why he hates you so much? Because you don’t have to try so hard to be impressive?” Beth asked absently.

Rio threw his head back and laughed loud and boisterous. “Oh, mama, he hates me for a lot of reasons. He thinks I filled your pretty little head with delusions of grandeur that drove you into my arms, that I seduced you away from your white picket fence life and upended your family.”

“But he did that himself.”

“Yeah, well he needs someone to blame that isn’t him, and there’s no better person than his ex’s new younger more successful lover.”

Beth smiled across the room from him before her brow furrowed.

“I don’t mean for this to sound like I miss Dean,” Beth explained. “I don’t – not in the least – but-“

“You feel guilty and you worried about repeatin’ history.”

“Yes.”

“Stop lookin’ for what you did wrong, mama, you’re gonna drive yourself crazy searchin’ for something you ain’t never gonna find.” Rio leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees and his eyes burning into her.

“You happy? With us?” he asked.

“Of course I am.” She insisted.

“You willin’ to work on stuff if it crops up?”

“Yes.”

“You plannin’ on takin’ another man on a bathroom break?”

Beth snorted. “Rio, I’m trying to be serious.” He flashed her a quick smile.

“Just makin’ sure we’re on the same page, and we are.” He promised her, echoing her answers to his questions.

“Oh, it’s comforting to know that you won’t be taking another man into your bed.” Beth grinned at him like a cat.

Rio smirked at her, letting the lazy salacious smile spread across his face. “Saucy,” he murmured. “I’ll take it you’re feelin’ better.”

“Mm.” Beth answered, placing her cup down on the floor, standing and undoing the sash of her robe. “I’m feeling a lot better.” She let the robe fall to the ground, revealing the red button down dress with the tiny white dots - a dress that would be insignificant to anyone but them.

Rio sat up, hands clenched on his thighs as his dark gaze drank in every inch of her, a deep pleased sound rumbling from his chest.

“Your girls go home tonight?” he rasped quietly, his gaze stopping at her chest, taking in the button that was straining to remain closed.

“An hour ago.”

“Good.”

The sex that night was loud, ferocious, and definitely satisfying – so much so that Beth called in sick to work the next day.

Chapter Text

Beth was home alone, finishing making the kids beds because Dean was dropping them off today. Emma would be upset that Rio wouldn’t be there to greet her – he was away with Marcus on a field trip to a farm/petting zoo but would be home later that night.

She had just pulled the pizzas out of the oven, letting them cool so the kids could dive right in when they got home instead of raiding her pantry like a bunch of locusts. Beth figured they could eat pizza, play outside for a little before coming in and watching a movie. That should get them to bedtime. The ice cream she had stuffed in the back of the freezer was still up for debate, depending on their energy levels. Nothing like stuffing a kid full of sugar before bed.

Everything in the house was put away for once. Beth and Rio had worked hard to get the kids to understand the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves, and it had mostly stuck. Sometime Emma was too full of excitement, leaving a trail of discarded belongings behind her when the next thing caught her interest. Danny was always the most tidy of all of the kids, so it really wasn’t a change for him. Regardless, it took a lot of strain off of her and made her days easier.

She was just finishing cutting the pizzas into manageable pieces when she heard them running to the front door. It was odd having so much noise in the house after being alone for the last few days, but she loved her kids and enjoyed having them around even at the expense of the peaceful atmosphere. It was a struggle to try and listen and respond to everything they were telling her, all talking over one another, but she did her best. She pilled pizza onto four plates and sent them outside to sit at the picnic table and eat in the setting sun.

“Pizza?” Beth asked Dean when the kids were seated and eating.

“No, thanks. Could we talk for a minute?”

And just like that, Beth knew what was coming, felt her muscles bracing for this conversation. Honestly, she was surprised it had taken him this long to get there. Living on his own was going to be a struggle, she knew, but she thought he’d be able to muddle through and create a new life for himself. Clearly it wasn’t going that well. Beth rearranged the pizza on the trays slowly.

“Sure.” She carefully answered. “What’s up?”

“I miss you.”

Beth paused, looking at him, watching him play up the pathetic expression on his face because it had worked in the past, numerous times. Beth was naturally a guilty person, and Dean preyed on that. He meant to shock her with his blunt admission, hoping to catch her off guard by being straight forward for once, like that would somehow jolt her into her own confession.

“I don’t know what you want me to say to that.” Beth responded, taking the tray she’d just emptied and dropping it into the sink to be washed later before picking up her own plate.

“I want us to be a family again.”

Beth slammed her plate down on the counter, her pizza nearly jumping off the plate.

“Do you understand how disrespectful you’re being right now?” she kept her voice small and even, afraid she’d explode. “My boyfriend is on his way over with his son to spend time with the kids and you want to talk about getting back together?”

“We’re a family, Beth,” Dean snapped. “You’ve proven your point well enough, alright, I get it.”

“Proven my point?” Beth asked, genuinely confused.

“I know you just wanted to show that you could live without me, so you hooked up with the man with the tat on his neck just to stick it to me, but enough is enough. The kids need things to get back to normal.”

“Jesus Christ,” Beth’s voice was full of awe. “Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? This wasn’t some spiteful long term plan to try and get you to shape up, Dean. It’s not a phase I’m going through. I care about Rio - a lot, in fact. He’s good with the kids, and with me.”

“I don’t need to listen to you go on about how much you like having sex with him.” Dean bit out, referencing that long-ago conversation.

“Not everything is about sex, Dean! He’s supportive, he listens, he does things for me that I don’t have to ask him to do. He treats me like we’re part of the same team, instead of relegating me to a supporting role to him and his needs. He treats me like a human being.”

“And I didn’t?”

“No.”

And he wasn’t expecting that. He blinked in surprise.

“All you ever did was complain about what I wasn’t doing, after I’d already done so much. I dropped the kids off at school, I did the shopping, I drove them to every game, recital, and club while being involved in PTA, and I kept the house in order. Yet you had the nerve to complain about dinner not being on the table waiting for you on days I was swamped and running late. You could have stepped up and done anything to help, but you didn’t. All you wanted was your ego stroked and when I wasn’t meeting your exacting standards, you turned somewhere else – several times.”

Dean was white as he glared at her. Beth took a deep breath.

“I can’t come back. Even if Rio and I crash and burn in the worst way, I wouldn’t want to. I know what being valued feels like now, I know what it’s like to have a partner who bears the load with me, and I won’t settle for anything less. The woman you married doesn’t exist anymore. I won’t ever be the quiet little housewife catering to everyone but herself again. Please accept the way things are. This is normal for the kids now.”

A long moment of silence passed as Dean considered her words.

“They barely look at me, Beth. It’s Rio this and Rio that. Kenny told me that Rio took him out of football.”

“What?” Because that certainly hadn’t been what happened.

“I don’t think it’s right that he can do what he wants with my children and I can’t have a say.”

“Kenny didn’t want to do football anymore, he told you that already. He joined an engineering club at school because his math is better since he started seeing a tutor, so he’s more confident.”

“He didn’t seem to have a problem until your boyfriend came into the picture. I didn’t think he was serious about dropping it, but that gang banger pushed him to it – I know he did because Kenny will do anything he says.”

“This is what I’m talking about!” Beth threw her hands up in the air. “You don’t listen, Dean. You don’t listen to me and you don’t listen to the kids. Rio saw that Kenny wasn’t happy and sat down to talk to him about it. He’s young, but he’ll be a teenager soon, and that means he should have some control over what he does in school. We should be encouraging him to explore things that he enjoys instead of making him do what we want.”

“We didn’t make him join football.” Dean protested.

“He joined because of you. When you saw the flyer you told him about playing in high school and Kenny was afraid of disappointing you, so he signed up. You knew exactly what you were doing while you were regaling him with stories of your star quarterback years. He shouldn’t feel like he has to follow in your footsteps in order to make us proud. We’re setting them up for failure if we put expectations like those on them. We should be encouraging them to be good, happy people, and that starts with supporting them when they discover things that they find fulfilling.”

“I can’t do anything right, can I.” Dean muttered, turning his back to her, seeking pity though he would find none from her.

“Listen, Dean-”

“I am listening.” He snapped over his shoulder.

“No, really listen.”

Dean turned back to Beth.

“They love you, Dean, but you need to engage with them and the things that they love, not just the things that you enjoy. Don’t close yourself off from them because you don’t understand them. Try, and even if you don’t get it, they’ll appreciate that you made the effort when they get older and that you supported them through it all.”

Dean sighed, displeased.

“And stop trying to turn them against Rio. They’re happy with him, and they’re happy with you. You’re confusing them.” Beth figured if they were airing their dirty laundry, she might as well get it all out there.

“Oh, I’m confusing them?” Dean accused.

“Yes, you are. They like Rio, but they listen to you talk about him and then they’re not sure. They’re allowed to like him if they want – they’re allowed to have opinions.”

“And what, are you two going to get married and then they’ll have a new step dad? Am I never going to see them after that because your crime lord husband demands it?”

“Stop being ridiculous.” Beth ordered. “First, Rio and I are most likely not getting married. Second, you’re their father and that will never change. However, putting them in the middle of your resentment of Rio is not going to end well.” She warned.

For a long moment Dean didn’t say anything, letting what she said sink in.

“So you’re not getting married? Are you guys breaking up or what?”

“Why is it just because we aren’t getting married it means we’re on the rocks?” Beth asked before sighing. “We know where we stand with one another, why do we need a piece of paper to prove that? We’re together, we’re a family.” Beth shrugged her shoulder casually.

It was hard to explain to someone outside the relationship. Rio and her were solid as the Earth. He’d jokingly brought up the topic of marriage one night, and Beth had said that marriage wasn’t something she’d be interested in exploring again.

“We basically married anyway.” Rio concluded, curling up against her back. “Livin’ together, takin’ care of the kids together, workin’ together.” He huffed against her neck, and she could tell he was smirking. “We work better than most married couples.”

Beth agreed, smiling in the dark.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the front door clicking open, a light tread heading directly to the kitchen with a heavier slower tread following behind. Beth shook the seriousness of the conversation from her as Marcus entered the kitchen, his mood changing just slightly as he spotted Dean. Marcus was never sure about Dean, and Beth knew it was because he’d caught Dean staring on more than one occasion. While Marcus didn’t understand, Beth knew Dean was looking for some clue about Rio in his son.

“Hi, Miss Elizabeth.”

“Hey, honey.” Beth pressed a quick kiss to his head, handing him a plate of pizza. “Everyone is already outside eating, why don’t you go join them?”

Rio entered the room as Beth was handing Marcus a napkin. She moved to open the back door for him, the kids greeting him loudly as he stepped out onto the back patio. Beth held the door open as Emma wiggled from the bench and ran past Marcus, calling for Rio.

“Rio!” Emma cried as she saw him standing in the hall, darting forward. Rio caught her easily, swinging her up in the air, smiling as she squealed.

“Hey, little mama.” Rio greeted warmly, meeting Beth’s gaze as Emma wrapped her arms around his neck. “What’d you do this week?”

“I colored you a picture and I worked on my letters like you said, and daddy took us to the aquarium and I saw scary sharks-“

And on and on she went, Rio encouraging her as she wiggled in his arms with excitement. Rio managed to squeeze in a small greeting to Dean, who barely jerked his head in response.

“I’ll get out of your hair.” Dean grumbled after staring at Emma and Rio with something close to betrayal on his face. He headed to the door without a word. Beth considered going after him, not wanting him to leave on a sour note. They all had to get along eventually and Rio wasn’t going anywhere, but Dean slammed the door behind him, so she stayed put.

“Go on out back and I’ll be out in a minute.” Rio bent to put Emma back on the ground, smiling as she took off like a tornado.

Beth was already stepping forward as he swung the door shut, her arms wrapping around his waist and her face pressed to his chest. Rio didn’t say anything, instead he held her tightly to him. Listening to his heartbeat always seemed to calm her down. It gave her something to focus on until she was right again. When she pulled back, he tucked her hair behind her ear, letting his pinky trace down her face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” Beth answered, though she wasn’t sure. Rio could hear it in her voice because his only response was a raised eyebrow.

“You sure?” he pushed when she didn’t offer anything more.

“I don’t know, but I will be.”

Rio studied her for a long moment with his ultra-observant skill set and must have come to the conclusion that she was being honest because he gave her a single nod.

“Pizza smells good.”

And she smiled at the compliment, but more at the fact that Rio trusted her to take care of things, to take care of herself. Clearly Dean had upset her, but instead of jumping the gun and taking the reins from her, he was giving her the space to deal with it herself. The fact that he trusted her enough to do so made her happy.

They spent the rest of the night with the kids, turning in early. Beth was still contemplating whether or not she should get into the details of her conversation with Dean as she dressed for bed, but was saved from the decision as the doorbell rang.

Rio had just pulled the sheets back in order to climb in. In a flash his gun was in his hand, the movement so fast that Beth had nearly missed it.

“I don’t think a murderer would ring the doorbell.” Beth murmured, snatching up her robe.

“I’ll get it.” Rio mumbled, yanking on a pair of lounge pants that hung low on his hips and made Beth’s mouth water.

She padded behind him at a safe distance, peeking down the hall as he opened the door, using it to block himself from whatever was waiting on the other side. She was reminded all over again that what they did was dangerous – he more than she – but they were in it together now. Part of her was uncomfortable with the fact that Rio’s first instinct when the doorbell rang at night was to grab a gun, but the other part of her was happy that he was so vigilant because sometimes Beth found herself forgetting the immense gravity of their situation and the potential repercussions.

Rio turned to look back, catching her eye.

“It’s for you.”

She hadn’t expected that. In fact, she was just contemplating grabbing her own gun from the bedroom. Beth moved forward, shocked that when Rio opened the door fully, Dean was standing on the stoop dressed in an old hoodie and jeans. Rio stepped back.

“Call me if you need me.” He spoke softly as he passed her. Beth nodded.

“What are you doing here?”

And she could see his eyes following Rio for a moment, envy consuming his face before he could hide it. She couldn’t blame him – hell, sometimes she was envious of how Rio looked without a shirt wishing she could have a little bit of tone in her own muscles.

“He had a gun.”

“He has lots of guns.” Beth stepped out onto the front porch, letting the door barely close behind her. She shivered in the chilly night air. “And before you say anything, he is extremely careful so the kids don’t get their hands on them.”

Dean nodded, leaning against the railing.

“So, what are you doing here?” she asked again.

“I wanted to apologize.”

“Oh?”

“I’m being a shit about this whole situation.”

She didn’t disagree.

“I was thinking about what you said, about the kids resenting being in the middle, and you were right. They all like him, so he must be doing something right.” Dean stared absently at the window before he turned and dropped to the top stair.

Beth stepped forward, joining him, though the coldness from the wood seeped straight through her thin pajamas.

“You’re happy?” he asked, shooting her a sideways glance.

“Very.”

“And he treats you and the kids well?”

“All of the time.”

“Good.”

They stared out across the yard, without sharing a word. Beth finally turned to him.

“Why the change of heart?”

Dean paused for a long moment.

“You remember my friend Rob from high school?”

“Kind of.”

“He got married a few years after us and in less than five years they had three kids and were filing for divorce. I can’t tell you how often I had to hear him threaten to break Lydia and her new boyfriends up. Their kids are a complete mess. I think one just got picked up for shoplifting or something. When I got home tonight I realized I didn’t want to be that person, always looking for some way to get back at an ex. I mean, Rob’s entire life centers around whatever new way he can screw her over and I have to listen to it. It makes me realize that I don’t want that for us.”

“And this epiphany came on suddenly after we argued?”

“I know how it sounds,” Dean gave a slight smile as he rubbed his neck. “But I’m serious. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, or I won’t have moments where I’m a dick about things, but I’m letting you know that I’m going to try for the kids.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

They fell silent and Beth pleaded with a higher power that this moment wasn’t a dream.

 “Where do you think we went wrong?” he asked.

“Dean.” Beth sighed the warning. She didn’t want to get into it – she was tired and cold, and Rio was most likely prowling the bedroom like a caged lion.

“I mean, we were good for a while, and then we weren’t. What changed?”

“We got together when we were young,” she said. “And we were married far too young because people expected it. We hardly knew who we were and by the time we did, we already had kids. Staying together just seemed like the easiest option at the time.”

“Do you think if the cheating and money problems hadn’t happened we’d still be together?”

“I don’t know,” Beth answered. “I think I’d been feeling discontented for a while, and with all that it gave me the push I needed.” She thought for a moment. “I think that even without all that baggage, we would have ended up here eventually. Not as quickly, but someday.”

“So no matter what you’re saying we wouldn’t have made it.”

“No, we wouldn’t have. We were well matched as teenagers, but not as adults and I don’t think either of us wanted to admit to that.”

“Are you two well matched?”

“The person I am with Rio is the person I was always meant to be. She was in there just biding her time, but he helped bring her out and she’s here to stay.”

Dean nodded.

“Go home, Dean,” Beth murmured, standing and squeezing his shoulder. “Get some rest.”

He stood, offering her a small wave. “See you next week.”

Beth went back in the house, thankful of the warmth. She locked the door and set the alarm, knowing that Rio was going to check if she did. She found Rio standing at the French doors, the gun resting on his nightstand. He turned to look at her over his shoulder.

“You set-“

“Yes, I made sure the door is locked and the alarm is set.”

Rio smiled at her as she crawled into bed, snuggling in the blankets. “I think you’re gettin' to know me a little too well.” He mentioned. “What’d Dean want?”

Beth explained what had happened earlier as they settled in bed, Beth pressing her chilled skin to his warmth causing him to hiss.

“He’s agreed to be civil, for the kids at least.”

“Hmm.” Rio answered vaguely. “Seein’ is believin’ with good ol’ Dean.”

“How was the field trip?” Beth asked, realizing she hadn’t asked when he showed up. She felt Rio sigh heavily.

“I don’t even wanna look at another animal again unless it’s on my plate.”

Beth snorted loudly before falling into full blown laughter, rolling away from him in order to press her face into the pillow in an attempt to muffle the sound. The struggle became far more difficult when she felt him vibrating with laughter beside her.

Chapter Text

Rio stood in the doorway of his son’s room. Well, the room he slept in when he stayed at Elizabeth’s house. He was spending more and more time with the Boland children, and he was adapting well to the changes.

Just his room was so damn small.

It was meant to be an office, but Beth had worked hard to create a space just for Marcus. She worked hard to make sure that Marcus felt like he belonged, which meant more to Rio than just about anything. Marcus loved it, but the kid was into so much stuff that he needed more space. His soccer bag was thrown into the corner of the room. The solar system model he’d worked diligently on hung from the ceiling while a small desk sat in the corner littered with art supplies. He’d have to tell Marcus to start straightening up before things got too out of hand.

He huffed as he slipped away, heading downstairs and towards the kitchen where he could hear Beth asking Marcus about school. Kid was a nerd, thankfully, and Rio had never been happier that Maya pushed to keep’em on the straight and narrow. Rio himself was a nothing in school, too worried about chasin’ girls and smokin’ weed. It was what had gotten him started in the life.

It was small at first, selling weed to his classmates and makin’ bank, or so he thought. By the time he realized he was in too deep, it was too late. He was addicted to the lifestyle and the high it brought. He’d taken over the operation when his boss tried to cap him but Rio got to him first once he caught wind that he was next on the hit list. There was dissention, complaints, disrespect. Rio quelled it all in a few short weeks, keeping a small number of guys he grew up with – guys he trusted with his life.

They’d branched out, expanding quickly and soon Rio found himself running one of the largest enterprises in Detroit.

Maya had ended things long ago, when Rio had gone so dark he didn’t think he could find himself again. She thankfully still let him see Marcus – the only light in his life for quite a while. Things had been rough at the start after Marcus was born, but she gave him credit for pulling himself out of the gutter. While she didn’t approve of what he did, she did see the value in Rio stepping up for Marcus.

He’d taken off today, though Elizabeth had insisted that he didn’t have to and that everything was fine. Except it wasn’t – he could read the tension in her body since she’d called him the day before.

“Do you have something to tell me?” Elizabeth asked haughtily through the phone. He could hear a frission of anger in her voice.

“What’re you talkin’ about?” Rio grumbled, shifting through some paperwork on his desk.

“I’m talking about the car that has been following me all day.”

“You sure someone followin’ you?”

“I have four – now five – kids, Rio. I know when something is slightly off. There’s just something about him that screams that he’s up to no good.”

“You sterotypin’ again?” he teased.

“Rio, if there’s something going on and you’re withholding it, I swear to God – “

“Ma, I don’t have anyone followin’ you.”

There was a long pause. He heard her breathing, a shaky sound that had Rio’s hand freezing as he reached for his tea.

“Elizabeth.” And he knew it was serious, serious enough that she picked up the phone and called him, serious enough to let him know she was concerned instead of handling it on her own.

Short breaths puffed out into the phone. He sat up in his chair, feet flat on the floor. Demon stopped what he was doing, suddenly still from across the room.

“He was here this morning,” she said quietly. “He followed me when I dropped the kids off, I saw him at the store, and now he’s parked down the street.” Her voice tapered off.

Rio stood fast enough that the chair he’d been using nearly toppled. He snatched his keys off the edge of the desk, jerkin’ his chin at Demon – a silent demand to follow him which he did without a word.

“Where’re the kids?” Rio demanded.

“Annie took them to the movies…oh God, you don’t think-“

“Where?”

“The theatre near the play place where Marcus had is party last year.”

Rio shot off directions to Demon in rapid Spanish. He nodded and disappeared.

“You alone?” Rio asked, stepping out into the sun, heading directly to his car as Demon pulled out.

“Yes.”

“Car still there?”

He heard a light shuffling.

“Yes.”

“Lock the doors and windows, put the alarm on, and get your gun.”

“Okay.”

He could read her fear based on the fact that she didn’t ask questions.

“I’ll be right there.”

When Rio turned onto the street, he studied each car on the block, and found nothing that was out of place. When he stepped into the house and punched in the alarm code, Elizabeth stepped into the hallway, gun in hand, eyes wide and face pale.

“You good?” he asked, looking her up and down.

She nodded, her shoulders relaxing now that she felt safe. A year ago he’d never have thought Elizabeth Boland would feel safe with him and a year ago, that thought wouldn’t have made something unfurl in his gut.

“Where are the kids?” she asked.

“Demon’s gonna check on them.” Rio moved to the dining room, peeking through the curtains. “Where’s the car?”

“It pulled away a few minutes ago.” She answered, moving to stand beside him. “Should we go to the theatre?”

“Demon’ll check in. Tell your sister that he’ll be takin’ them home after the movie.”

He heard the soft snick of her phone unlocking her phone before she ferociously typed a message and sent it off. He studied the street, and found nothing. Turning, he found her holding a scrap of paper out to him.

“It’s the license plate number,” she explained, finally putting the gun down on the table. “I’m sure it’s a rental or something that won’t be able to be traced, but I figured it’s better than nothing.”

Rio was struck again by how she managed to get the job done in her own way. She was always far more subtle than he, in most aspects. He’d have gone out there with his gun wavin’ in the air. He slid his phone from his pocket and made a few calls, sending out some feelers.

Elizabeth had poured herself a hefty bourbon. She was too strained to put up with his day drinkin’ jokes, so he took the glass from her instead, stealing a sip.

“This ain’t workin’.” He handed the glass back to her.

“Hmm?”

“I was fine with it when we first started this, but enough is enough. Clearly we work and we ain’t gonna drop this thing any time soon.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, brow furrowed.

“This place ain’t cuttin’ it, mami. We crammin’ too many people in here to start with, those punks your ex tried to hire still know you livin’ here and who knows how many people they bragged to about where they got that huge cash haul. You think it ain’t gonna bring more of that to your door? Not to mention your security is shit.”

“Well, what are you suggesting?”

Rio stared at her with a raised brow, watchin’ the wheels turn in that pretty little head. Her doe-eyes widened as she carefully placed her glass down.

“You…you want to get a house?”

And Rio laughed. “Jesus, ma, we been practically livin’ together for months now. Why does that ruffle your feathers?”

“That’s…you weren’t exactly living here,” Elizabeth deflected. “You still go to your loft.”

“Yeah, when you make me wanna tear my hair out.” Rio volleyed back. “You made a room up for my kid that stays the way he leaves it, and you cleared space out in your bedroom for some’o my shit. You keep food in the house that only Marcus and I like – wanna go on?”

“Fine,” she groused. “I suppose you can say we’ve been living together.”

“Marcus spends more time in his bedroom here than at my place.”

Elizabeth huffed as Buddy came lumbering into the room.

“Not to mention you got the worst guard dog I’ve ever seen.”

“He’s a gentle giant.” Elizabeth murmured, bending down and scratching the dog behind his ear.

“First time I was in your kitchen he sat at my feet like I was an old friend.” Rio smiled as Elizabeth smirked at him.

She straightened, hands on her hips.

“So we’re doing this.” She prompted, meeting his gaze, a mixture of excitement and apprehensiveness.

It was somethin’ he noticed early on – when she wanted to a straight answer to a serious question, she made sure to look him in the eye. Rio was careful with his expressions, but he knew she’d started pickin’ up on the subtleties that he couldn’t hide.

“Yeah, mama, we doin’ this.”

So he’d taken the day off and woke up early to start looking at places. He locked himself in the downstairs office for hours, listen’ to the kids running around upstairs. Last time he was in a house this full was when he was still in grade school. It took some gettin’ used to – it was a big change for him and Marcus, havin’ an additional five people added to the mix, but Marcus was happy havin’ people to play with that were his own age.

“Rio!” Emma knocked on the door, nearly begging. “Can you color with me?”

He scrubbed his face with his hand, noting the time. He’d worked straight through lunch. Closing the laptop, he opened the door, smiling down at the smallest Boland.

“What’s up, little mama?”

“Can you come outside and color with me?” she asked with those doe eyes that were so alike to her mother’s, eyes that were sure to have more than one guy wrapped around her little finger by the time she was sixteen.

“Sure, go get your stuff while I get somethin’ to eat.”

She made a small sound of excitement as she bounded down the hall, Rio following at a more sedate pace and heading to the kitchen. Elizabeth was stress baking and looked frazzled – no wonder she was shoving the kids into the backyard. He caught her around the waist, kissing her until she liquefied in his arms.

“You’ve been busy.” She murmured against his lips, eyes glistening.

“Lookin’ for places.”

“Isn’t that what a realtor is supposed to do?”

“Wanna see what’s out there first.”

He kissed her again, pressing her back against the counter. If they weren’t so on edge, he’d drag her into the bedroom while the kids played in the backyard, but he knew she wouldn’t leave those babies unsupervised now – hell, neither would he.

Giggling from the doorway caught their attention. Rio pulled away and peeked over Elizabeth’s shoulder to find Emma with an arm full of coloring books and crayons, watching them.

“You got somethin’ to say, squirt?” Rio raised a brow at her.

“No!” she giggled again, hobbling to the door with her things.

“I got it.” Rio leaned over, swinging the door open for Emma, who promptly announced to the entire crew exactly what she had seen.

“That’s ‘cause Rio loves mommy!” Jane announced over the chorus of responses.

“Do you love mommy?” Emma asked, wide-eyed at his feet.

“Your mama is definitely somethin’ else.” Rio responded, ushering her down the stairs.

Rio didn’t know what love was. He had love for his son, certainly, but he didn’t know if he’d ever felt love in the romantic sense. He’d had feelings for Maya during the brief time they were together. He cared for her, took care of her when she needed it, but looking back, if Marcus hadn’t come along, they wouldn’t know each other now. Things would have ended long ago, and they’d both be distant memories to one another. It was a young fling – one where they were foolish enough to think that they’d last forever yet knowing somewhere deep inside they wouldn’t.

Elizabeth. Well, that was a whole other story. Here was a woman who stood up to him, made him rearrange his world for him without him even realizin’ it. She’s the first woman who was a part of his world, understood it, and got the same thrill from it that he did. Sometimes she was a little headstrong, thinkin’ she knew about shit that she didn’t, but she was gettin’ better at leavin’ him to work when she knew she was out of her depth.

Did he love her? He didn’t know. But here was a woman who’d wormed her way into his life, worked herself beneath his skin like no one else. While there was that out of control lust between them, they were built on a sturdier foundation than he and Maya ever were. They understood the sacrifices that have to be made for family, sacrifices so hard that sometimes you feel like you’ve lost yourself beneath them.

Love wasn’t a term he was willin’ to use – never had – but Rio knew one thing: he’d take a bullet for her, for her and those kids out there, screeching in the backyard.

“What’s with that look?” Elizabeth prompted.

“What look?” Rio answered, schooling his features.

“You looked like you were getting ready for battle.”

“Just thinkin’ about things. Us. The kids.”

“Good things?”

It had bothered him at first, her constant need to label and clarify them, needin’ to know where they stood, needin’ to know if he had doubts. But she’d told him bits about her childhood, more about her relationship with car man, and he’d understood. She’d had the rug yanked out from under her, and three years down the road, she still felt like she was findin’ her footin’. Elizabeth had explained that she was confident in them, trusted him, but there would always be a part of her waitin’ for the other shoe to drop because she’d given her all to car man and it hadn’t been enough. And so instead of gettin’ frustrated with her constant doubt, he worked with it. When she asked vague questions with that hyper aware look in her eye while scourin’ his face for any signs of deception, Rio looked her dead in the eye and gave her reassurance.

“Always good things.” He answered, swiping a chocolate chip cookie from the tray.

“There’s a sandwich for you in the fridge. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“You coulda interrupted me,” Rio eyed her up and down, slowly and salaciously, grinning when she blushed. “Coulda gone for a little break.”

Elizabeth was grinning when she yanked him down to kiss him – hard and hot – before returning to her baking. Rio was chuckling as he stepped outside into the sunlight, seeing Emma happily waving to him.

“What took you so long?” she asked while sliding her coloring book between them so they could work together.

“I was talking to your mom.”

“You missed breakfast and lunch, and when we played Chutes and Ladders.”

“I was workin’ on some important stuff. Wanna know what?”

“Daddy says that I don’t need to know about work. I asked if I could go to his work for take your daughter to work day, but he said I didn’t have to know about what he did.”

Rio scrubbed his face. That man was a walkin’ poison, and Rio would be damned if Jane or Emma ended up like their mother – married to a man who held all the power, stuck in a marriage they couldn’t ever leave because they couldn’t. He knew Elizabeth thought the same way, so they’d been tryin’ to find things to encourage the girls to think and do for themselves. If they built up their confidence now, hopefully it would stick around for their entire lives.

“Well, little mama, you ever wanna know what I’m doin’, you just ask.” Of course he’d give her the absolute most watered down version and only talk about his legitimate work, but he’d let her know and encourage her to ask.

“What were you doing all morning?” she immediately asked now that she felt she’d been given permission.

Rio leaned in close.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Secrets? I love secrets!” she whispered, just about crawling into his lap.

“Your ma and I were thinkin’ about getting’ a new house – a bigger house.”

“Just you and mommy? Does that mean we have to live with Daddy?” Emma asked, and he could see the tears startin’ already.

“No,” Rio amended quickly. “We’d all live together, you, your siblings, Marcus and I. You know how sometimes Marcus and I aren’t here?”

She nodded.

“Well, when we get the new house, we’ll all be together for good. You’ll visit your dad and Marcus would visit his ma, but when you guys came back, we’d be in the same house.”

“Do we have to leave our stuff?” she asked.

“We takin’ all our stuff with us.” Though he hoped to ‘lose’ some of Elizabeth’s furniture and knick-knacks in the move – that could be dealt with later. “But you’d have your own room, and Marcus won’t have to be in that small office anymore.”

“Is there going to be a yard?” she asked brightly.

“Yeah, a big’ol yard that you can run around in with that lazy dog of yours.”

Emma erupted into giggles, endlessly amused at Rio’s comments about Buddy. Realistically, Rio would like a dog that would protect the kids if somethin’ were to happen, but they loved that lump currently running frantically in the yard as the boys played.

“Does this mean we’re going to be a family?” Emma asked.

Ah.

“My friend at school has two families. Her dad married someone else and her mom married someone else, so now she has two mommies and daddies.”

And Rio gazed down at her, innocence incarnate.

“You want us to be a family?” he asked, brushing her hair from her face as she nodded vigorously.

“I like when we’re all together. It’s fun. I like playing with Marcus because he’s nicer than Kenny and he does things that we both like. And Mommy doesn’t cry anymore.”

And that made him feel a lot.

“She cry a lot?”

“Sometimes,” Emma answered offhandedly, coloring the dog on the page green. “She used to when she and daddy yelled. They fight a lot – why don’t you and mommy fight?” she lifted her gaze to his.

“We talk about what we don’t like,” he responded, picking up a crayon. “Sometimes people don’t listen, and it makes other people angry.”

“Do you listen to mommy?”

“Yeah,” he started coloring. “When I do somethin’ your mama doesn’t like, she lets me know, and we talk about it. Fightin’ doesn’t get you anywhere. And if I don’t like somethin’ she does, I do the same.”

“Like if you don’t like that she puts walnuts in the cookies?”

Rio laughed because how could he not? He leaned down to press a kiss to her head. “Yeah, kinda like that.” He responded.

“Talking is nice,” she agreed. “Mommy doesn’t cry when she talks to you. She smiles a lot and plays with me more.”

And that made him hate Dean just a little more. You couldn’t ask for a better mother than the woman frantically baking inside at that moment, no doubt stessin’ about buying a house with him. He knew the only reason Elizabeth had enough left in her after a full day at work was because Rio stepped in to help – even if it was somethin’ as small as folding the laundry.

He found himself watchin’ her that night, more so than usual. The way she talked to the kids, the way she watched them playing a board game on the floor – like she was sharing some sort of inside joke with herself, like right there was the best thing she’d ever done, the best part of her.

When the kids were all in bed, she curled up against him on the couch, tugging a blanket over them.

“Thank you.” She murmured softly.

“For?” he prompted.

“You believed me when I told you that something didn’t feel right.” Rio knew from her careful tone that she was referencing something in her past. “You didn’t think I was being dramatic.”

“You wouldn’t call if it was somethin’ small.”

“I know I was a pain about you staying home today,” she shifted against him to get more comfortable. “But I’m glad you did.”

Rio nuzzled his nose into her hair. “You allowed to ask me to stay home if you want me to.”

“I know.” She didn’t believe him, he knew.

“You know what we do,” he murmured, knowing she understood the dangers. “You feel like somethin’ weird is goin’ on, you tell me, even if you think it’s somethin’ small. It was enough to get your attention, and that’s enough for me.”

“Alright.” She agreed, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

They watched the last ten minutes of some cooking show before Rio ushered her off to bed, lingering behind to make sure the house was locked up tight. He’d intended on keepin’ her up for another few hours (he’d been thinkin’ about stripping her out of those clothes since kissin’ her in the kitchen), but she looked so soft when he walked in the room that he simply changed for bed and curled his body around hers before drifting to sleep.

Chapter Text

“Yes, I admit it, you were right.” Beth grumbled as she cleaned up dinner with Rio as the kids were setting up their Friday night movie.

It had been weeks since she’d agreed to look for houses with Rio, and so far, she’d done little to make any headway. In fact, she’d made a point of dragging her feet. The main hold up was the fact that she knew the kids weren’t going to take well to leaving their home – the only home they’d ever known. She’d have to tell Annie, Ruby, Dean, pack up the entire house, most likely change schools. It was stressful to say the least.

“You makin’ excuses,” Rio accused her one evening when the kids were at their respective parents for the week and he was fixing the back door handle that was progressively getting looser. “If you don’t wanna get a house, just tell me.”

Beth crossed her arms over her chest, staring at him, though he was focused on his work.

“I’m worried about the kids and how they’ll take it.”

“What’re you worried about?” he asked, testing the handle and swinging the door shut with a satisfied look. “They might have trouble to start, but they’ll adjust, just like they did when we first started. Gotta have faith, mama.”

“Fine.” She huffed. “We’ll tell them when they get home.”

And so they sat down with a meal that Beth had spent hours preparing just so she could keep herself busy. She wasn’t sure how they’d react. The girls would be okay, it was Kenny she was most concerned about. He took the divorce harder than the others, being able to understand what was going in more so than his siblings.

Danny was the first who wanted to be excused from the table, and Beth knew that the moment had come. When she told him to wait, all eyes turned towards her. As easily as she could, Beth explained what they were planning. For the most part, it went over relatively well. Kenny was a little quiet, eyes darting from her to Rio and back.

“Do we still get to see dad?” he asked.

“Of course,” Beth assured him. “We’re just getting a bigger house so that we can all fit comfortably. You’ll still spend a week with your dad.” She smiled at him.

“Do we have to change schools?” Danny asked, drawing her attention away.

Beth’s eyes flickered to Rio before turning back to her son’s.

“It depends – we’ll have to see what house we pick.”

And that was that. It was easy, just like Rio said. He didn’t respond, but she could see the gloating all over his face.

“You don’t have to rub it in.” she murmured, handing him a plate so he could start loading the dishwasher.

“I didn’t say anythin’.”

“You don’t have to.”

He flashed her one of those quick, brilliant smiles that were so genuine that sometimes she stopped for a moment to commit it to memory.

It was only after they finally told the kids that Beth felt more relaxed about looking for houses. She’d sit with Rio at the dining room table and go over what they needed. The major sticking point was the bedrooms.

“We need – what – six bedrooms?” Beth rubbed her eyes, burning from staring at a screen for hours. “We can’t afford it.”

“Ma,” he bit out. “We can afford what we want.”

They’d circled around this for days.

“I’m not having this conversation again.” Beth stood from the table, grabbing their mugs so she could wash them. “Even with our combined legitimate income, we can’t afford that.”

“I already told you,” She could feel Rio glaring at the back of her head. “I can wash whatever amount we need.”

“And I’ve already said no.” She shot back over her shoulder.

“We don’t put money into this, we ain’t gettin’ what we want.” Rio shut the laptop, leaning back in his chair with crossed arms. Beth knew when he was gearing up for a fight.

Beth sighed heavily. “Rio.”

“You wanna keep this above ground, fine. But you gotta make compromises, mama. That’s all there is too it.” He stood, heading towards the bedroom, effectively ending the conversation.

She remained in the kitchen for another hour, not ready to argue with Rio before bed, though when she walked in the bedroom, she could tell he was awake even though all the lights were out. Beth dressed in the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and spent a long moment studying herself in the mirror.

It had been weeks of this back and forth, always the same, and they were getting nowhere. The arguments were getting hotter, their silences longer, the dread of sitting at the table each night growing. Beth didn’t know how to fix this between them. So she curled up on her side, trying to ignore the radiating frustration that was bordering on anger pouring off him.

Beth heard a noise in her bedroom. She paused for a moment, listening. The kids were at school and Rio was out working. The sunlight was bright in the kitchen, almost unnaturally so.

Carefully she crept down the hall, worried that her gun was tucked safely in her nightstand. The door was ajar, so she quietly pushed it open.

Rio was standing beside the bed in silhouette, shoving clothes into a bag, the room mostly in shadows.

“Hey, I thought you left?”

“Yeah, I’m leavin’.” He didn’t look at her.

She peered around the room, seeing the drawers that she’d cleared out for him hanging open and the closet already devoid of his things. Beth felt the bottom of her stomach drop.

“What…what’s going on?”

“What’s it look like?”

“I don’t-“

“I already have Marcus’s stuff in the car. I’ll be back at the end of the week in case we forgot anythin’. Send your girls to do the drops starting this week.”

“Rio,” she began, a knot in her throat.

He turned to her, the emptiness in his eyes freezing her on the spot. And for that split second before he spoke, she somehow knew what was going to come out of his mouth, that there would be the time before this moment, and then the time after it, but everything would be altered. Her mouth felt glued shut as she tried to cut him off and stop the words before they were vocalized – but what would she have said anyway?

Rio grabbed the bag off the bed, heading towards the door and stopping when he reached her.

“We could’ve had a chance,” the blame was heavy on her shoulders and her knees felt weak. “We coulda been somethin’, but you couldn’t be happy. No matter what happens, you never happy.”

“That’s not true.” She protested, her tongue thick in her mouth.

“Don’t matter. There ain’t nothin’ left for us.”

Rio left the room, Beth following but not being able to move fast enough to grab hold of him. She stumbled into the hallway, just as the door slammed shut with a boom that shook the entire house and almost sent her to the floor.

Beth jolted awake with a gasp, the thunderclap tapering off as it rolled across the sky. She was sweating and breathing heavily while trying to orient herself. Rio shifted beside her with a soft sound, a hand creeping over to settle on her hip beneath the covers.

“You okay?” his voice was thick with sleep, just barely conscious.

“Just a dream,” she answered, trying to convince herself that it was in fact just a dream while brushing her fingers quickly over his knuckles. “Go back to sleep.”

“Mm.”

Beth waited until his hand dropped back to the bed and his breathing had evened out before she slid from beneath the covers. Finding her heaviest robe, Beth tied the sash and left the room, closing the door over softly behind her. She quietly strolled to the liquor cabinet, pouring herself a heavy splash of bourbon to help settle her nerves. Her heart stopped for a moment as another roll of thunder rattled the windows in their frames. Not until the thunder died did she head to the alarm panel to disengage it before quietly moving to the patio doors.

It was pouring outside, lightning flashing and the wind just barely blowing but enough to hit her with a fine spray as she stepped from the house and onto the cold stone of the back patio with her bare feet. Beth sank onto the top step, just under the overhang to keep herself mostly out of the rain. She closed her eyes, letting the mist cling to her eyelashes and hair. She wanted the shower to wash away the bad taste of that dream that was soaking into her marrow. The dream had dredged up all the fears she’d managed to keep inside and bury, made her doubt what she knew was true.

A blanket was draped over her shoulders a few minutes later.  Beth jumped, blinking up at him.

“You wanna tell me what you’re doin’ out here at nearly three in the morning?” Rio asked, dropping down beside her.

He’d pulled on a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, though his feet were still bare.

“Sorry,” she wrapped her arms around her knees. “I couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to wake you.”

Rio sighed, running a hand down his face.

“You could talk about it, you know?” he huffed. “That’s what we’re supposed to do, you and I. That’s what this thing is all about.”

He was right. And so Beth walked him through her dream, not sparing any details. She was just tired enough, just tipsy enough, just vulnerable enough to tell him it all even though she felt some shame attached to it. He listened silently, staring out across the saturated lawn. At some point he’d pressed his leg against hers. Quiet and supportive.

“It’s stupid.” She ended with a halfhearted laugh. “Just a dream.” Beth stood, brushing invisible debris from her robe. “Let’s go back to bed, I’m cold.”

He caught her hallway to the house, pulling her to a stop. Except she felt exposed now, ready to slip back beneath the covers in the dark so she could hide. Beth went to move away, but one of his long fingers caught in the sash of her robe, stopping her again, stepping into her personal space.

“You can’t give more than yourself,” Rio murmured, bumping his nose to hers. “And I’m not askin’ for anythin’ more. I’m not gonna wake up one mornin’ and change my mind, yeah?”

Beth nodded, feeling a lump in her throat.

“I’m with you, you know that?” he pressed. “For better or worse. We don’t just give in when things get hard. This house huntin’ thing is annoyin’, we arguin’ about it, but in the end we gonna pull through.”

“Just like we always do.” Beth murmured, eyes flickering up to his so he could easily read the gravity of the situation.

“Yeah,” he gave her a crooked smile. “Just like we always do.” He echoed.

She pressed up on her toes to kiss him, his warmth obliterating the doubts that had grown in the dark. Beth let the safety she always felt with him wash over her like a gentle wave until she felt like nothing in this world could touch them.

Chapter Text

Beth sat outside early one morning drinking her tea watching Rio pace through the grass while he talked on the phone. He was frustrated, bordering on anger and with each passing moment, Beth could hear him ratcheting up.

“You told me two more months,” Rio nearly growled pivoting and heading back towards the fence. “Now you tellin’ me it’s gonna be more? What the hell am I payin’ you for if you takin’ your sweet ass time? My abuela can work faster than you.”

Beth smiled into her mug, knowing that when Rio’s grandmother cropped up as an insult, things would only get worse. Rio signed off quickly after that, dropping his phone heavily onto the picnic table, muttering what she assumed were some variety of curses in Spanish.

“I take it that things aren’t going well?” she asked.

“Builders keep bumpin’ the end date and I’m gettin’ tired of it.” Rio dragged his mug across the table towards himself.

“Patience is a virtue.” Beth responded, digging her toes into the cool grass.

“Patience…is not something I’m known for.” He nearly growled, his leg bouncing ferociously under the table.

“I know.” Beth smiled.

They’d looked at houses for months. Beth had lost track of how many bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, living rooms, and various yards she’d been paraded through. It had gotten to the point that she had various spreadsheets created for each house, listing all the relevant information.

“This is insane.” Rio had huffed one night as she spread her information across their bed to start comparing notes.

“I’m sorry, but can you remember all the houses we’ve seen?” she began perusing the information. “This one is too small,” Beth handed him the sheet to let him look and decide (she’d even gone as far as attaching images of the houses to the sheets). “And the kitchen was too small in this one.” She handed him another sheet.

Rio grumbled, leaning against the headboard. Beth knocked each and every house off the list, except for a choice few that she still wasn’t crazy about.

“We’ve looked at all the houses on the market in the area we want to be in.” She grumbled, tossing the sheets onto her nightstand and flicking off the light.

She thought that it would be great to be able to take bits and pieces that she liked from each house and splice them all together. And idea floated across her mind, and the next day she set out to gather information so she could present her case to Rio.

“Yo.” He greeted her the next night, sprawling on the couch after work. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked, eyeing her closely, noticing the near franticness about her.

Beth dug through her bag and dropped the brochures on the coffee table in front of Rio who sat up to see. For a long moment he studied the covers of each.

“You wanna do this?” he asked with a raised brow. Beth sat in front of him on the coffee table.

“We’ve been looking for months, Rio, this is the only solution. I can’t see any other way, unless we go far outside of where we wanted to live. There are lots we can look at, and this is cheaper.”

“So we buildin’ our own house. You know that’s gonna take months, yeah? More likely a year.” He stated with a raised eyebrow.

“I get that, but I’m willing to wait if that means we get what we’re looking for. This…entire thing is a big deal,” she met his gaze evenly. “I want to make sure we do it right.”

“Alright, mama.” Rio stood, cupping her chin and bending down to kiss her quickly.

While building their own house would cost less in the end and keep them in their realistic budget (she had to talk Rio out of washing a frankly insane amount of money), Beth had no idea that she’d have to make so many decisions. The kids would have their own rooms, the kitchen was large enough for her to move freely in, the dining room big enough for all of them to fit in comfortably, and a yard that was far bigger than their current one was, allowing her to have the garden she’d always dreamed of without detracting from where the kids would play.

Beth and Rio poured over blueprints, molding, flooring, window placement, fixtures, and paint. If she had to make one more decision, she was going to scream.

“Rio, we don’t need heated floors.” Beth argued one morning as she readied the kids for school, tossing small chocolates into five lunch bags, making sure that Marcus had carrot sticks instead of celery in his.

“We got tile in every bathroom,” he shot back, prepping her travel mug because she was too busy to do it herself, though she’d planned to go without coffee this morning. “You wanna stand on that in the middle of our cold ass winters?”

“It’s a ridiculous expense,” Beth scribbled names on each bag being that the five of them tended to accidently grab the wrong ones constantly. “Plus, if the floor is cold I can just climb back into bed.” She gave him a cheeky smile. “You keep me warm.”

Rio’s eyes flashed as he tangled his hand in her hair and tugged her forward for a hard kiss.

“That’s cheatin’.” He breathed against her lips.

“Fair’s fair,” she answered with a smile. “You do the same to me all the time.”

“What’re you talkin’ about?” he asked with faux innocence. “I’m perfectly respectable.” He smirked as he dropped a hand down to the button of her jeans. “But you know,” and Beth knew that whatever came out of his mouth next was going to be something lewd. “I already had breakfast, but I could really eat somethin’ right about now.”

“Enough! I heard enough!” she hissed as the kids started running down the stairs chattering loudly.

Quickly she swatted his hand away where it had started to creep past the waistband of her jeans causing him to huff warmly as he turned to grab the newspaper, digging through until he found the puzzle page. Rio liked to do the puzzles in the back, using pen which Beth felt was kind of bold, but that was coming from someone who constantly needed to erase to the point that sometimes the paper tore.

“I’ll take’em today,” Rio stated, grabbing up the keys to her van. It wasn’t the old gold one that she’d had for far too many years – Rio had that one destroyed on account of the bullet holes littering the back – but it was a sleek grey one with all the bells and whistles. He said he could just about stomach driving a mama van if it was at most two years old. It was one of the most expensive things she’d let him purchase for her without complaint.

“Are you sure?”

“Yo, I got this.”

“Dinner at six.”

“You cookin’?”

“Spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread.”

“I’ll pick up some wine on the way home.”

“Deal.”

They ended their rapid fire conversation with a quick kiss as the first of the kids came in for breakfast. Breakfast was fast, and Rio checked to make sure all the school work had been packed away into the correct school bags while Beth divvied out the lunches. They all left the house together, the kids piling into the car waiting for Beth and Rio to strap them in.

“Do you have Marcus’s soccer stuff?” Beth asked, knowing that he had a game that night.

“Yeah, already in the back.”

“You all behave yourselves, okay?” Beth warned. “No throwing animal crackers at each other.”

“Listen to your mama, or Imma pull over this car and have you all pick up every last crumb.” Rio ordered.

Rio closed the van door. “See you tonight?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Beth kissed Rio before heading towards her own car.

A month later the kids were at their parents’ house and Rio asked if she wanted to see how the house was getting on. She agreed, though she was exhausted from trying to plan the kid’s rooms and coordinate the move, while simultaneously keeping her house spotless for showings.

They pulled up out front, and Beth felt her heart clench. It was beautiful and just what she imagined them living in. She could already see Rio out back playing with the kids, hearing him complain as she tried to string up holiday lights but knowing he’d help her anyway, the kids screeching as they ran through the snow out front.

The house was large and covered with windows, though Rio had grumbled about it not being safe. She knew he’d been arranging some sort of security measures behind her back, but she’d been so wrapped up in what she was doing that Beth hadn’t had time to call him out on it. Though in the end, she knew that she’d be grateful if not for herself, than for the kids. Beth led a dangerous life, and Rio led an even more dangerous one – they needed all the help they could get. Beth knew she doubted a lot in her life, but one thing she never doubted was Rio’s commitment to keeping the kids safe.

They stepped through the front door and onto dark hardwood that contrasted with the neutral paint color that had been slapped on the walls. They moved upstairs first, he walked her through the kids rooms, the upstairs laundry room (so she wouldn’t have to keep going up and down the stairs), and a play room where all the kids toys were stored so their rooms wouldn’t be a complete mess. There was also a TV in the room where they could watch movies and play video games. Beth had insisted on separate places, one for play, and one for sleep.

They moved downstairs, seeing the large living room with a fireplace, and the open concept dining room leading into the kitchen. The kitchen was where he’d splurged – she knew – based on the high end appliances.

“I really didn’t need an oven this large, Rio.” She halfheartedly protested, though she absolutely loved it.

“Ma, you bake enough to give this entire town an all-day sugar high.” He took her hand and pulled her towards what she knew was their bedroom. “Should have the tools to do it right.”

It was one of his major stipulations – that their bedroom be on the first floor. He said it was mainly for security purpose. If someone was to break in, it would most likely be on the first floor and they could intervene before the intruders made it to the stairs. However, when he also casually added that he wanted privacy from their collective brood, he gave her a heated stare, and Beth knew he didn’t want them to be overheard. She knew it was mainly because he knew that her fear of being walked in on by one of the kids would never allow her to relax when they were together. Being overheard (if they’d had their bedroom on the same floor) would mortify her for life.

The room was beautiful, full of windows, and itching for some TLC from her. Her mind was already spinning with ideas, knowing that she’d have to fight with Rio on at least three quarters of them. She’d just started packing up some things from the house and they’d constantly argued about what was going into the new house and what was being tossed.

“I ain’t takin’ that bed,” he snapped as he yanked a dark blue button-up shirt from the closest. “And that’s final.”

“I love my bed!” Beth protested as she finished pulling the comforter on. She remembered the endless struggle to find one that she could actually stand for more than fifteen minutes.

“New house, new shit.”

“We can save money.”

“Ma, you know we coulda had three times the size of that house if you’d stop being so stubborn – we don’t need to save money.”

“There’s no way we could reasonably explain how we were living in an actual mansion.” Beth moved to her mirror, snatching up some earrings she’d laid out the night before. “I told you I don’t want the kids to suddenly think that we’re rich. I want them to see they have to work for what they want.”

“All I’m sayin’,” he murmured, pressing up against her back. “Is I want our bed – a bed that we pick. I ain’t takin’ that shit with us.”

“That is our bed.”

“The novelty of makin’ your toes curl in your husband’s bed has worn off. I ain’t movin’ that in when we startin’ fresh.”

“First, ex-husband,” she corrected. “Second…” and she had nothing, because he was right. She stared at him in the mirror, her eyes momentarily looking at the bed before meeting his dark eyes in the reflection. She chewed on her lip for a moment.

“Okay.”

“That’s it?” he asked with a raised brow, mouthing at her neck briefly. “Okay? Thought I was gonna have to fight for a week about this.”

“You’re right. We’re starting fresh; we shouldn’t bring any of that old history in with us.”

“Cool.” He warmly murmured.

“This also means that we’re not taking your bed either,” she volleyed back. “And we’re not taking that couch in your loft.”

“What the hell is wrong with that couch?”

“Besides the fact that I probably don’t have enough fingers to count how many women have been on it?”

He sighed and leaned back so he was no longer touching her.

“Fine. But the art is comin’.”

“Okay,” Beth agreed, thinking they could hang it in the office. “But I’m bringing my vases.”

“No,” he turned away to slip on his sneakers. “Those are some old lady tchotchkes.”

“They’re cute!”

“Don’t care. Half your shit looks like it came outta my mama’s house.”

“I don’t know if you’re insulting me or your mother.”

“If I wanted my house to look like my ma’s, I’d just move back in.”

And it had gone from there.

Now Rio was pushing open the bathroom door, giving her a cocky smile.

“What?” she asked, heading towards him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He didn’t respond as she stepped into the room. There, against the far wall, was a large soaking tub. Beth couldn’t help the sigh that slipped from her. She’d often complained about her tub. It was okay, but she didn’t want to feel like she had to fight to keep her body under the warm water on account of the tub being just this small, and if Rio was there, forget it. They couldn’t both fit. But this tub right here – she was sure they could fit four people into it. Beth sat on the ledge, running her fingers along the edge and up to the chrome fixtures.

“Would it be insane for me to take a bath right now?” she asked, hearing the longing in her voice.

Rio laughed from the doorway. “The water ain’t on yet, though maybe I shoulda told you that after your clothes were off.”

She shot him an amused look before standing and heading back towards him.

“It’s perfect.”

“House is almost done,” he began, pushing her bangs from her eyes. “Thought we could send the kids off to their parents and spend a week here, breakin’ in the house before they moved in.”

“I’d like that.” Beth smiled, feeding into the undercurrent of lust he’d injected into his statement.

Rio kissed her gently before leading her from the room. Beth froze in the bedroom, forcing him to stop. She stared around at the walls and the windows, thinking of waking up every morning with the sunlight pouring in, with Rio beside her.

“What’s goin’ on?” Rio asked.

“It’s just…” Beth searched for the words. “We’ve been together for over a year, and for a lot of that you’ve been more or less living with me. It was always my space you were in. My room, my bed, my house. But this,” she gestured to the room. “It’s ours. I think it’s just starting to hit me that it’s our everything now. I mean, it has been for a while, but this feels kind of defining, in a way.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Rio gave her a warm smile. “Kinda weird for me too. I knew you’d be freakin’ about it.”

“I’m not freaking.” Beth protested.

“Okay, you ain’t freakin’, but you ain’t cool either, so I made sure you had somethin’ that was just yours.”

Beth turned to him with a furrowed brow, not understanding. Rio held out his hand to her, with that knowing smirk he wore when he knew something that she didn’t. She took his hand and let him take her back to the kitchen. Next to the oven was a door that she’d assumed was some sort of pantry. However, when Rio swung the door open, she found it was another room.

“I…this wasn’t on the blueprints.”

“Nah,” Rio agreed, pulling her into the room and switching on the light. “Thought it could be a surprise.”

The room was a good size, and along one wall ran custom built floor to ceiling storage. In the middle of the room was a large square island that she could probably stretch out on top of and still have room to spare. There was a counter and a sink with a window above it.

“What-“

“It’s yours,” Rio cut her off, running his hand over the corner of the wooden-topped island. “You got your craftin’ all over the house right now and I know you coulda turned the upstairs office into a room for yourself, but you gave it to Marcus, so this here is yours. You can work on shit and keep an eye on whatever you have goin’ on in the kitchen without havin’ to run all over the place.”

Beth felt her eyes burning as she swallowed thickly.

“That entire house is for your kids,” Rio continued. “There ain’t a spot in it that’s yours, aside from your bedroom – sometimes. That house was yours, but you gave it to them. This ain’t gonna be a cake walk, movin’ here. You gonna feel like it’s outta your control, and I know you don’t like that after that ex of yours. You don’t like feelin’ like you followin’ the leader. This here,” he rapped a knuckle on the wooden island. “This spot is just yours. No me, no kids. So when you thinkin’ about cappin’ my ass when I get on your nerves, you can have a space to hide out.”

Beth laughed, and he smiled, pleased that he’d gotten the reaction he wanted out of her. She moved around the island in order to wrap her arms around his waist.

“You built me a craft room.” She murmured into his chest.

“You think I don’t see you lookin’ at craft rooms online?” Rio pressed his lips to her temple. “Ma, you coulda asked for me to put an indoor pool in this place and I woulda.”

“I would never ask for a pool,” she answered. “You know I don’t like to swim.”

Rio laughed into her hair. “Fine – you coulda asked for a bowling alley in the basement, and I’d have done it.”

“That’s marginally better.” Beth pulled back to look at him. “You’re always doing these grand gestures for me; I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“This ain’t a ‘I scratch your back you scratch mine thing’. I don’t expect you to turn around and reciprocate. I don’t do these things with that in mind.”

“But you’re always giving, and I feel like sometimes all I do is take.”

“You only feel like that because you spent how many years doin’ all the givin’? You entitled to take a little.”

Beth sighed, pulling away and hopping up onto the island. Rio moved between her legs, running his hands up her thighs. She toyed with the buttons on his shirt. 

“You think you still don’t give?” he prompted, bumping her nose with his. “You take care of my kid when I need a hand.”

“And you take care of four of mine.” Beth protested. “There’s really no contest there.”

“That ain’t the point,” he sighed heavily. “You take care of him like he your own, make sure he’s doin’ okay with the other four runnin’ around like lunatics.”

Beth gave a soft laugh at that. Marcus had quite the adjustment period when he’d more or less moved into the house. She knew it must have been difficult for him to go from having a house to himself to sharing with four others who were loud and rambunctious.

“You make sure he’s happy, and that’s what counts. You always lookin’ out for those you care about – can’t put a price on that.”

Beth sighed, running a finger over his throat tattoo.

“Want me to run through a list of shit you do for me? Cause I feel like you still don’t get it.”

“Rio-“

“You let me sleep in ‘cause you know how I get when I’m up too early, you get the newspaper and pull out the crossword, leavin’ it next to my plate with a pen all ready to go. You make that chicken dish even though it takes you a hell’ava long time to pull it together ‘cause you know I like it and you know my kid like it. You get my car detailed when I’m drivin’ the kids around in the mama van, even though you think I’m ridiculous keepin’ it so clean. You teachin’ yourself how to make tea, though you barely drink it.”

“What? Wait – how did you know that?” Beth asked, pulling back.

“I looked through your browser history.” He shrugged.

“Why?” Beth was on the verge of launching into a tirade about him invading her privacy.

“You were sighin’ at your computer every ten seconds and when I asked you what had you all dreamy, you deflected – that’s how I found out you droolin’ over craft rooms.”

Beth glared at him, though her heart wasn’t in it.

“So, did you figure it out?” he asked.

“Figure what out?”

“You figure out how to brew tea?”

“As a matter of fact,” Beth sat up straighter. “I did, and I was planning on surprising you this week with that. Marcus wanted to make you breakfast in bed for your birthday, and I told him I’d handle the tea.”

Rio had the good sense to look abashed.

“That’s what you get for snooping.” She tossed out.

“Fair enough,” he murmured. “I promise to be surprised.”

“You better. He’s been talking about this breakfast for almost two weeks now.”

“So what’d you get me for my birthday?” he asked, finger toying with the top button of her blouse until it popped open.

“Your mother must have wanted to pitch herself off the roof during Christmas when you were a kid. Did you follow her around asking what you were getting?”

He snorted, leaning forward so he could press his face into the crook of her neck.

“You know what else you do?”

“Hmm?” Beth felt her mind slipping when his tongue flicked out to taste her.

“You let me leave marks all over you,” he rested his teeth briefly on her neck before sucking lightly.

“I only let you because you don’t leave them in places where people can see.” Beth hated (but loved) that he could get her to this point so fast, breathless and keyed up.

“Mama, you can admit it,” he murmured against her skin. “You like me claimin’ you.”

Beth swallowed thickly.

“What time is it?”

“What?” he pulled back, almost appalled that she’d asked that just when things were getting hot and heavy.

“What time is it?” she asked again.

He yanked his phone out of his pocket, the light illuminating his features.

“Almost three.”

“We have an hour.” Beth leaned forward, kissing his neck. “What’d you say we start breaking in the house?”

Rio was shoving her back on the table, clamoring up on top of her which made Beth laugh loudly in the empty room as his hands struggled with her clothing. He was too busy muttering against her chest that she was always keeping him on his toes and that turned him on.

A few days later, Rio thanked her for the tea she’d provided with Marcus’s carefully made breakfast.

He was appropriately surprised, much to his son’s delight.

Chapter Text

It was moving day, officially. After weeks of spending hours upon hours a night packing and hauling to the new house, they were finally in the home stretch.

“Change is annoyingly difficult,” Annie had grumbled as she packed up the leftover kitchen things that had been used for the last time that morning. “You’re moving to Siberia!”

“Annie, it’s not that far.” Beth sighed, having had the same conversation with her since she’d told Annie and Ruby where they were building.

“You’re more than half the distance you are now.”

“Twenty minutes is not far!” Beth shot over her shoulder as she headed to the bedroom.

The moment was bittersweet. This was the house that her kids had been growing up in. Everything bore their mark. She could still find the chunk of wood missing from the molding when Kenny had thrown a toy while playing with Danny. There was new paint on Emma’s wall from when she decided that she wanted to color Beth a pretty picture – they’d scrubbed the crayon so hard that the paint had come off as well. Jane’s curtains were cut – she wanted to test her new scissors and hadn’t had any paper to do so. In the boy’s room, beneath the area rug was slightly discolored from where Danny had been working on his volcano project, and let the thing erupt all over the rug. Every bit of this house held a memory, memories that she cherished because they were of her kids. Beth was glad to be moving on and starting a life with Rio, but a part of her would miss this house. It was their safe space for so many years.

“Come on,” Rio grunted, fighting with Buddy’s leash as he tried to lead him from the bedroom. “I’m doin’ this for you.”

Buddy was never good in the car, and so they’d planned on keeping him on a leash so they could hold him still and perhaps prevent him from scrambling in the tight spaces where valuables and people were crammed in like sardines. Of course, he wasn’t very pleased with the leash, which he demonstrated by turning into an immobile lump on the floor. Beth snorted as Rio groaned.

“I swear, he’s worse than the kids when you tryin’ to bathe them.”

“He hasn’t ever really been on a leash,” Beth shrugged a shoulder. “He knows to stick close by.”

Rio rolled his eyes, squatting down and scooping the dog up with a grunt.

“And you say I’m dramatic.” Rio grumbled as he carried Buddy from the bedroom, his legs dangling down uselessly.

Beth made the rounds again, moving slowly through each room, trying to hold onto the memories that filled these spaces she’d become so accustomed to after twenty years. She moved from the top floor to the main, running her fingers along the wall. Beth paused, gazing at the island, remembering the first time she’d seen Rio.

A frankly insane amount of things had happened since that moment he jumped down with feline grace from her island, sauntering towards her with that self-satisfied smirk on his face because she’d screeched at his presence. A lot of it was rough, painful, and downright terrifying. But so much of it was good, in fact, the last almost two years had been amazing. Once her and Rio started communicating with one another more, it was like a whole new world had opened up, a world she never imagined existing.

She had been young when she’d started dating Dean, far too young, she now knew. If any of her daughters started dating someone that seriously and that young, Beth would most likely sit them down and make them think about what they were doing. Dean had been what she needed in her mid-teen years, and even her early twenties. That had changed, though, but by the time Beth realized how wrong they were, there were kids involved. She buried those thoughts deep in her mind and refused to acknowledge that she’d made a mistake in an effort to salvage a life for her children. In doing so, she subconsciously closed herself off from Dean, and the postpartum depression helped drive it home.

Rio was like the sun, and not just because when he wrapped himself around her at night she inevitably woke up sweaty due to his exorbitant body heat. He lit up her world, showed her the path she needed to find herself, and gave her courage to face things she hadn’t ever been able to. Even if she and Rio didn’t work out in the end, that confidence and belief in herself would remain.

Not to mention that he demonstrated what having a supportive partner really was, and she was immensely grateful for that because it allowed her to reconstruct her own ideas of what the roles of the house should be – roles that Dean had ingrained in her since she was fifteen and roles that she now knew didn’t have to be set in stone. It wasn’t just bringing home a paycheck. It was that even after a long day, they both were still willing to come home and contribute to dinner, the kid’s homework, and simply discussing what had happened in one another’s days while being attentive and listening to the answers instead of pretending to. Rio’s focus on her when she discussed things on the dealership sometimes made her squirm. She’d never had someone look at her like every word out of her mouth was painted gold. To be fair, she stared at Rio when he spoke as well – both to listen and because everything he did was somehow perfectly coordinated and graceful. He was mesmerizing to her, even after years of knowing him.

“You ready?”

Beth turned in the kitchen, finding Rio with his hands tucked behind his back. She gave him a soft smile, seeing him standing there, warmly looking at her.  Beth inhaled deeply, her exhale sounding loud in the empty room.

“Yes.” And deep down in her core, she felt it, the rightness of this moment and the rightness of the future they were planning. For a moment she allowed herself to think about the uncertainty she’d felt when discussing with Dean about their future, especially when they’d gotten engaged. There was never a solid certainty there, but she felt it now, as solid at the ground beneath her feet.

Rio held out his hand, wiggling his fingers. She snorted, stepping forward to lace her fingers with his. Together they headed towards the front door for the last time. Dean carried her over the threshold for the first time all those years ago – the sort of cheesiness that she loved – but now, she’d be walking back over it hand in hand with Rio because they were equals in every sense of the word and he always made sure she knew it.

Jane burst back into the house, pulling Beth from her thoughts with panic in her eyes.

“Can you wait for me!?” she cried as she ran up the stairs loudly.

“Jane?” Beth called.

“I forgot Mr. Froggy!”

She’d won a stuffed frog at the carnival a few weeks back with Rio’s help, and had been attached to the thing ever since. Beth could hear her franticly running in and out of rooms upstairs. She went to go after her, but Rio stopped her.

“I’ve got it.” he answered, bounding up the stairs two at a time while calling out for Jane.

Beth quickly looked downstairs at the barren rooms and saw no sign of the purple and orange frog. Most likely someone had grabbed and stuffed it into one of the boxes that still had room. Their packing had been very organized until the end, where a dozen mixed boxes were carted from the house because no one had the patience to sort it – not even her.

Rio returned, carrying a crying Jane in his arms. She was almost too big to be carried like that, but Rio didn’t seem to be having any issues with supporting her.

“Come on, little mama,” he soothingly murmured while rubbing her back. “We’ll start unloadin’ all that stuff at the new house, and I’m sure he’s in one of those boxes.” He put her down on the ground and swiped the tears from her face. “And if he ain’t there, I’ll come back here and tear the place apart to look for him, yeah?”

Jane gave him a nod and a watery smile before she slowly stepped back outside, but not before she cast one last forlorn glance around the hall in hopes that Mr. Froggy was somewhere.

Beth stepped forward and took Rio’s hand, squeezing lightly as they treaded over the threshold one final time. He held out the key to her, and she kissed him for his thoughtfulness: he was letting her lock the front door for the last time, letting her end one chapter so they could start another. When the bolt slid home, Beth turned with a heavy exhale, dropping the key into Rio’s waiting hand.

“Scared?” she asked, feeling lighter already.

“Scared, me?” Rio responded, wrapping an arm around her waist as they started down the walkway towards the loaded cars and truck (Demon had agreed to drive the truck for them). “You and I have been through some shit, ever since you robbed me blind all those years ago. We’re unstoppable when we on the same team. So no, I ain’t scared. Nothin’ can touch you and me, mami.”

Beth turned to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders so she could kiss him. Rio melted against her with a soft sound as his hands traveled up and down her spine. Beth smiled against his mouth, feeling powerful in her ability to draw such a response from him.

“Let’s go home.” Beth murmured, eyes fluttering as he brushed her hair from her face before letting his fingers drag down the side of her throat, dipping down to brush against the hickey he’d left the night before.

The word made him smile widely, teeth bright.

“Yeah,” he agreed, his voice low and rough, wrapping around her comfortingly. “Home.”

Hand in hand they strolled down the walkway, towards their family and towards their future. It wouldn’t be easy, but together, they could make it through anything life threw at them.