Page 128 of Steel

They glance at each other, holding a silent conversation, before Margot turns back to me with a tired smile. “That’d be nice. We’re not as young as we used to be, and I get tired more often than not.”

I reach out for her hand, gripping it in mine and giving a small twitch of my fingers. “Are you okay? Would you rather stay in the guest room here? We all know your son won’t mind.”

They both crinkle their noses at the thought of being in the same house as their son and his . . .

What the hell am I to him?

We’ve never labeled it, as far as I know. He says he’s going to claim me as Old Lady and that I’m his, but we’ve never really set boundaries on what exactly that means.

“We’re good, sweetheart. I’d rather sleep in our bed,” Margot replies, thankfully pulling me from thoughts I’d rather not be having right now.

I nod. “If you’re sure.”

Margot pulls out of Burke’s embrace after giving him a sweet kiss and crosses to where I’m standing. She places her palms against my cheeks and stares into my eyes.

Even though it makes me super uncomfortable, I hold still and let her find whatever she’s searching for.

A few seconds later, she nods infinitesimally and then leans forward to place a kiss on my forehead, just as I did Lyric a bit ago.

“Thank you,” she whispers when she pulls away. “Thank you for loving them.”

My vision blurs until I blink rapidly to clear it and shrug. “It’s not a hardship.” Then I think about all the shit I went through with Steel and grimace. “Well, mostly, it’s not.”

She and Burke laugh. “Of that, we have no doubt,” Burke says. “Looks like you’re handling it pretty well, though.”

They both head up to say goodbye to Lyric then stop to give me hugs before heading out.

It’s not long after that Steel calls to check in. He goes over things with me because he doesn’t know how long he’s going to be, showing me how to make sure the alarm is set and has me grabbing the gun from his safe. We hit a snag when he had me type in the code because it was the date of Emmy Lou’s wedding. He’s quick to notice I get lost in my head about it, though, because he makes sure I know that it’s not because of her that he has that code. It was also our first night together.

I want to believe him so much, and I think I do, but it’s truly hard to squelch that small seed of doubt that pops up when it comes to their friendship. Mostly because I know that if she’d never gotten back with Atlas, she and Steel would probably be together. Or maybe they wouldn’t. I’ve never noticed a single bit of attraction between them, but I’ve been blind to so many things when it comes to Steel because of my feelings for him. What if that’s just another thing I was oblivious to?

He informs me that he’s going to have Em come sit with us for some added protection, and it has me grinding my jaw. I don’t want that, but it’s more protection for Lyric, and I know that my issue with this is on me, not any of them. It’s the care in his voice when he tells me that he needs me and Lyric protected that has me closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to banish the intrusive thoughts.

Steel has me take the phone to Lyric so he can say goodnight and then he says the same to me, letting me know he’ll be home as quickly as he can.

Once I’m off the phone, I get Lyric out of the tub and dressed. Then I sit her in front of me on the floor while I braid her hair as we watch an episode ofRugrats.

To say I was absolutely thrilled when I found out that not only is she obsessed with horror movies, but she loves watching most of the shows I watched when I was younger, is an understatement. Anytime I stay over now and she’s with her dad, I make sure we watch a few episodes before she goes to bed.

I finish her hair long before the episode is over, so I just continue to play with the braids, knowing how much she enjoys her hair being played with. By the time the credits roll, her head is leaning against my leg, showing off how drowsy she is.

Gently, I tug on one of her braids. “Come on, little bit. Let’s get you to bed.”

“Dad will be here when I wake up?”

“Yeah, baby. He’ll be home before long. But I don’t think you’ll make it trying to wait for him.”

Holding her blanket up, I watch as she climbs sleepily into bed, and then I wrap her up like a burrito, making sure she’s nice and snug.

“Love you, Bee.”

“Love you too, my heart song,” I whisper, brushing my finger along her nose before reaching over and flipping on her nightlight.

Tranquil nature sounds alternate with soothing sounds of thunderstorms and the sharp growls of motorcycles as it filters through the room from her speaker. My tough girl doesn’t sleep with most of the original nighttime lullabies. Nope. She’s settling on what’s familiar to her in her waking hours.

Lyric hasn’t been asleep long when Emmy Lou shows up at the house.

“Hey,” she says quietly, stepping inside.

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