Page 93 of Outlaw

“She could also sing every word of every Fleetwood Mac song I could think of,” Luther said.

Her eyes darted to me, as if she feared my reaction to that. I’d made her wary of me. My plan to use her for sex and otherwise treat her as unimportant had created this. It wasn’t what was best for Stevie. Branwen had done something that I couldn’t forgive her for, but I could move past it. Friends with benefits would be a better fit than whatever I’d worked up in my head. That plan had too many flaws. The worst one was that hurting Branwen would hurt Stevie. That hadn’t occurred to me when I set out to get my revenge. But the more I was with them, the more I realized that being in my daughter’s life meant being in her mother’s life.

“I can take the credit for that,” I told him, walking over to pull out the stool beside her and sit down.

Jayda placed a glass of water with some powder she’d mixed in it and two pills in front of Branwen.

“Really?” Jayda asked, sounding surprised.

I nodded. “Yep. I was a big Fleetwood Mac fan in the ’90s, and since Branwen worshipped me, she liked whatever I liked. Except beer. She tried mine once and spit it all over me.”

Branwen’s gaze snapped up to me. “I did not worship you, and you should have never let me taste that beer. I was ten years old.”

“Yeah, you did,” Luther chimed in, and I smirked.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Stay out of this. I don’t even remember you. You couldn’t have been around much.”

I threw my head back and laughed.

“And I thought we were friends,” he said.

She shrugged, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with the morning sunshine filtering in through the windows as she looked at me.

Yeah, we could do this. Be friends. I could let it go. Learn to move on from it. I had Stevie now. I wouldn’t miss any more of her life.

“I let you taste the beer because you were very hard to tell no.”

“I was ten.”

“You were adorable, all puppy-dog-eyed and begging for one taste. I figured you’d either like it and become a teenage alcoholic, or hate it and you wouldn’t touch it again. I was so damn relieved when it spewed out of your mouth.”

I watched her face soften, and a smile spread across it as the tension faded. It was that easy with her. If only I had this gift with all females.

Jayda was silently watching us when I reached to pick up my cup. She smirked at me, getting the wrong idea.

“Waffles are ready, Stevie,” Jayda called out while looking at me.

Stevie left Maui behind and jumped up onto the stool to my left. “You know what we did?” she asked me.

“What?”

“We went to the museum, and the zoo, and the othah museum with the scuba divahs.” She listed them off as she held up a finger for each one.

“Sounds like you were busy.”

She nodded her head at me, then reached for her fork and stabbed a piece of waffle with it. “We was vewy busy,” she agreed, then shoved the waffle into her mouth. Her cheeks looked like a chipmunk as she caught me watching her and grinned at me.

Breakfast had never been something I looked forward to or thought much about. Rarely did Luther and I eat at the same time. But with these two here, the kitchen was an entirely different experience. The room even seemed brighter. Laughter, puppy growls, dimpled smiles, and ringlets had managed to turn it into one of my favorite parts of the day.

Forty-Two

Branwen

After breakfast, Linc told us he had a surprise, something to show us.

I was trying to process his treatment of me and gauge what he’d meant when he said it.

He had to repeat himself for me, saying, “for y’all,” not just Stevie.

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